Options for Helping Hoarders Clean Up

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As you may know there are a few options to consider when deciding how to help a hoarder clean. Just remember that there are options and that there is help available to accomplish your cleaning project.

When looking for a cleaning solution for a hoarding situation, take the following options into consideration before starting the project.

Options for Helping Hoarders Clean:

1. Professional Organizer:

Professional organizers are trained to organize and to train people how to organize. There are two challenging issues with professional organizers when it comes to assisting hoarders with cleaning and organizing:

  • Professional organizers are usually one person operations without a staff to handle a huge cleaning project, a cleaning team is usually required to clean a hoarder’s home. In hoarding cleanup projects, the ability to remove many items (and large items (sofas, chairs, tables, etc.)) is needed to accomplish the project
  • Professional organizers are usually not trained to help hoarders clean and organize with sensitivity to their emotional connection to their items. Specific training in helping hoarders clean and organize is needed to ensure the project is not slowed down by pushing the hoarder to far emotionally, leading them to stop the project

The size and training of hoarding cleanup teams used by hoarding cleanup companies helps the cleaning process go faster and helps the hoarder by putting them on the path to recovery.

2. Junk Removal Companies:

Another option is junk removal companies or junk haulers, some advertise that they are now hoarding cleanup companies as well. Junk haulers are good at addressing large cleanup projects that are not hoarding situations. These large cleanup projects require that all items be removed (except savable items) from the home. Junk removal company employees are not trained in dealing with hoarders with sensitivity toward their emotions while cleaning, teaching hoarders how to clean and organize, or how to work with the hoarder and their mental health professional to help put them on the path to recovery after the hoarding cleanup. Due to their lack of training, junk removal company employees may talk loudly about the nature of the project or tell people about the nature of the project they are working on, dress in clothes or drive vehicles that may give away that they are a junk removal or hoarding cleanup company.

3. Cleaning Without Professional Help:

When family and or friends come together to start addressing their loved ones hoarding situation, they sometimes try to handle the hoarding cleanup themselves because they believe professionals are not needed or they do not know that help for this situation is available. After the project is started usually the hoarder starts to slow down progress and eventually stops the cleaning project entirely because they will not let items that they should probably let go of out of their possession due to their hoarding disorder. What is usually discovered is that the hoarder will not allow most things to be thrown away or given away. The family and or friends also realize that even if they could remove all the “stuff”, the task is too overwhelming. Adding to the overwhelm, is trying to find an answer to the question, where and how will we throw away all this stuff once we are finished? Luckily, there are professional options to consider that will simplify this process, read more below!  

4. Hoarding Cleanup Companies:

A great solution to the down sides of professional organizers, junk removal companies, and cleaning without professional help is to hire a company that specializes in and has certifications in hoarding cleanup. Reputable hoarding cleanup companies will be trained or have had training with known industry experts in the field of hoarding. The company will be able to bring the hoarders home back to a livable condition through cleaning and organizing, while balancing the emotional needs of the hoarder at the same time. Also, the company will be able to teach the hoarder how to clean and organize themselves, helping them stay on the road to recovery after the cleanup. Hoarders usually avoid cleanup because they become accustomed to their situation or are too embarrassed to tell anyone, including family members and or friends, about their situation, allowing the situation to grow worse with time. Making matters worse, once family and or friends step in to help, with the best intentions, they assume that the promise made by the hoarder themselves to cleanup and organize will be followed through upon. Hoarders often make promises to themselves and to their loved ones that they will clean and organize, but they end up not being able to follow through because of their condition. What needs to be understood is that if the hoarder was able to clean and organize by themselves, they most likely would have already. Hoarders hoard for psychological reasons that result in using their hoarding behaviors as emotional pain relief, stopping them from being able to clean and organize by themselves. To stop the emotional pain, stuff that the hoarder is emotionally attached too are kept, keeping the hoarder from the emotional pain that would occur if they let the item go. Reputable hoarding cleanup companies have the training necessary to help the hoarder complete the cleaning process along with their hoarding cleanup team. The hoarding cleanup company will be able to do this while respecting the emotional pain being experienced by the hoarder and working with their mental health professional throughout the cleaning process to put the hoarder on the path to recovery after the cleanup.

Please consider our company Address Our Mess for hoarding cleanup service. Call 410-589-2747, email info@addressourmess.com, or use our contact us page for more information. We are here to help!

Tue, 05/15/2012 - 16:44 by Kenneth Donnelly