How To Help A Hoarder - Effective Hoarding Cleanup Solutions
Hoarding is a mental disorder that affects not only the hoarder but everyone around them, whether friends or family. People considered it as an unbearable behavior, but with the help of studies and the media, they came to know that it's a mental disorder with some underlying reasons that need immediate treatment. Family members and friends always try to urge the hoarder to fight hoarding disorder, and they can be successful if they understand the disorder and the reason behind it.
Hoarding Disorder
Hoarding is a mental health condition that is a clinically recognized disorder. According to the definition by the Mayo Clinic, hoarding disorder is the inability to make decisions regarding the elimination and discarding of possessions. Hoarding isn't about collecting valuable things; it's the useless accumulation of worthless stuff that is rightfully described as garbage. It's called a disorder because the affected person experiences debilitating stress and anxiety while thinking about discarding this garbage.
In most cases, the hoarded items slowly take over the liveable space and leave no room for the hoarder. Whether it's a bedroom or kitchen, garage or basement, no area remains free for anyone or any valuable thing.
This disorder not only affects the living space but also the physical and mental health of the hoarders and their family members. Helping a hoarder is essential; hoarders need physical and psychological treatment and assistance. Without professional help, giving a hoarder a normal life is impossible.
Tips on How to Help a Hoarder Declutter
Hoarding is a dangerous disorder, and it's difficult to watch loved ones suffering from this mental condition. The situation becomes more serious when you find yourself helpless and incapable of handling hoarders' illnesses. Helping hoarders is possible, but you need a proper and systematic approach. Let's see the helpful decluttering tips that make people capable of decluttering homes safely and giving their hoarders' family members a new life.
Don't Judge While Listening
Finding the underlying reason is necessary; for that, the best thing is a gentle and non-judgemental conversation. The basic purpose is to tell individuals that you care for them, that you are a trusted confidant who is all ears, and to express your support.
Refrain from talking about hoarding disorder in the first conversation; first, build proper trust. Then, ask a few general questions regarding their lives and then generally ask about the type of items they hoard and the total number of them without showing what you feel about their lives and hoarding behavior. Don't pass any type of judgment because this time, you need to listen, listen, and only listen with care and affection, and pass no judgment.
Assistance
Hoarders consider the accumulation of stuff important for life as the stuff is valuable. So, it isn't easy to make them understand that decluttering will make life easier. For that, after building trust, you should talk to them about their behavior. You have to give them proper practical assistance by hiring a hoarding removal and restoration service.
Planning
Make proper planning and hand over all the decision control to the hoarder. Declutter slowly and divide the stuff into three categories: worthy items, discardable things, and things to donate, with the help of hoarders. It's better to keep the stuff in a secure place, which gives the comfort of knowing hoarders that, in case of a change of mind, they can get anything back from the stuff or change its category.
Easy Decluttering
Decluttering a hoard requires patience and sensitivity. Unlike typical tidying, it's a slow, deliberate process that respects the hoarder's feelings and avoids overwhelming them. Remember, hoarding develops over time, and tackling it too fast can backfire. Focus on empathy and understanding, not swift removal.
Hoarders, the Ultimate Decision Maker
You must respect the hoarder's authority: their decluttering journey, their pace, their decisions. You can only intervene if mental or physical limitations render them incapable of understanding the process. This is crucial for successful decluttering with hoarders.
Professional Assistance
You don't need to be stressed, whether mental health or hoarding cleanup. Ask for professional help in both fields; thus, the process may become smoother and faster. First, search specifically for a therapist who specializes in OCD behaviors. Cognitive therapists are beneficial in cases of hoarding.
Future Cluttering Prevent Strategy
Hoarding often returns after cleanup. To prevent it, watch for warning signs like resisting downsizing after clutter move out. Listen to their reasons without judgment, as sentimental attachments might be the key to recognizing and addressing potential hoarding behaviors.
Educate Them
Education is important in the case of hoarding, both for the hoarder and those who are handling them. Hoarding is a form of OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and getting educated about it is necessary because coping with the mental condition requires proper attention and education.
Patience is Key
To get rid of the hoarding disorder, patience is the most important key that the hoarders' family members should keep during the treatment.
Hoarding is a behavior in addition to a mental condition, and change in behavior is difficult and needs a lot of time, which means patience. For a proper and complete change in behavior, the hoarders must develop disruptive behavior management skills.
Reward
Rewarding is an important thing in changing behavior and fighting a mental disorder. As the process takes time and practice, it becomes easier, but hoarders need a lot of praise from family members or attendees. The reward is a kind of praise that encourages the hoarder to put more effort into getting rid of thunderstorms. So, praise the hoarder during treatment and give rewards for every small successful step.
Avoid
People with good intentions fall easily into common traps. Yes, the decision about discarding possessions should be made by hoarders, but remember, you should not force your loved one to speed up the decluttering process. Don't forget their long-struggling journey, so allow them to set the pace of the treatment process; just be on their side as a trusted person.
Love
Whether your family member has a hoarding disorder or not, you love them. Hoarding doesn't make them worse; it's a disorder that needs treatment, not negligence from your side. The traits and qualities of your family members are good enough to encourage you to keep loving them irrespective of the disorder and respect them as they struggle to get rid of it. You just need to rebuild your relationship with them with the help of regular activities.
How Do You Help A Hoarder With Hoarding Cleanup?
People think that helping hoarders means just emotional aid, but they also need another type of help: hoarding cleanup and restoration service. As hoarding has nothing good in it, cleaning it is an important task to do, but not an easy one because of many physical and health hazards. Thus, the biggest help you give to a hoarder is finding the best professional and experienced cleaners, like 911 Bio & Trauma Cleaners, who clean the living area with safety measures and proper tools.
With our 15 years of hoarding, suicide, crime scene, and natural death cleanup service in more than 10 cities, we are available 24/7 to provide our professional assistance. It's highly not recommended to declutter homes yourself because clutter has harmful bio-hazardous stuff, decomposed material, animal and human waste, etc. These materials are not only harmful to human health but also cause damage to property or become the reason for fire.
Our professional team will clear up the whole area and remove the hoarder without causing any damage to your area or any important stuff.
Moreover, hoarding also causes debris accumulation, gasses formation, and foul odors, and all this stuff is easy to remove with our experts' help. Just give us the task and let us clean your living area to make it a livable place for you again.