Hoarding and Squalor: Understanding and Overcoming Clutter Challenges
Hoarding & Squalor
As the field of organising is developing, you might hear some terms like hoarding and squalor being used more. In recent years, the American Psychiatric Association has recognised hoarding as a mental illness by itself. Hoarding is like most things, with a psychological basis, something that is often pinpointed on a scale that is ranging in level of severity.
Professional organisers tend to not deal with hoarding and squalor
Professional organisers deal with people that tend to function reasonably well in their homes, but they might lack the skills, motivation and expert knowledge on how to get their places under control. I quite often frequent places where there are several problem areas, but not everything is consumed by stuff.
Hoarding and squalor – Hoarding Disorder can be real
If you recognise yourself in any of the above description you might not necessarily be a hoarder, after all most of us have to a degree some hoarding tendencies. If you start having a room full of items, have a collection that has grown out of control and generally stuff is beginning to control your life, you might start reaching the threshold into hoarding and possibly Hoarding Disorder (HD). At mild levels, you can start to work your way through it with some expert advice, help from friends and possibly a professional organiser or even a counsellor.
Get long-term help from a network of professionals when faced with hoarding and squalor
Once hoarding becomes compulsive and loses an element of logic, like; collecting over date cans of food, or having several cars in a yard that do not get repaired etc. Things will start to get a bit more serious and the help of a GP, a psychologist, possibly a psychiatrist and more experts might be required. Quick fixes like the TV shows are in general not recommended. Even the need for help is in most cases a fine line to draw.
Before going in to help, we need to answer questions like;
When does a person need assistance?
Do they want it?
What are the reasons for their hoarding?
If you have a family member or a friend that needs support, the best thing you can do is mediate. The main idea is to go slow and reach out for help.
Start with the basics
My book “Organising Unpacked” will help you do this.
