Hoarding (castles)

Okay kiddo, imagine you have some toys that you really like to play with. Now imagine instead of putting your toys away when you're done playing with them, you decide to keep them all out all the time because you're afraid of losing them or because they make you feel happy.

Hoarding is kinda like that, except instead of toys, people hoard lots of things like clothes, books, or food. And sometimes people hoard things that don't seem important to others, like empty boxes or old newspapers.

Now imagine you live in a big house with lots of rooms. Castles were like big houses that rich people used to live in a long, long time ago. Some people who lived in castles were very wealthy and had lots of treasures like gold, silver, and jewels. They would keep these treasures locked up in a special place called a treasure room.

But sometimes, the people who lived in the castle would start hoarding things, just like you with your toys. They would keep everything, from old clothes to broken furniture, and fill up all the rooms in the castle. This was a big problem because it made it hard to move around and find things. It also made the castle filthy and smelly, which was not good for the people living there.

So, just like when you have too many toys and your parents make you clean up, someone would have to come get rid of all the things the castle owners were hoarding. This was a difficult task because some castle owners were very protective of their stuff and didn't want to give anything away.

So, hoarding is when someone keeps a lot of things they don't really need, and castles sometimes had hoarders too. Does that make sense, kiddo?