A hoarder home is a dwelling where a hoarder accumulates too many hoarded items. However, it is not as simple as that. You should read on to understand exactly what is a hoarder home like, in the full sense of the words.
Sociologists and care workers rely on the term ‘hoarder home’ to refer to a disorganised residence full of clutter. In fact, that clutter may be so widespread that it is difficult to walk through the rooms.
To complicate matters further, the clutter usually comprises a large number of personal possessions, that seldom have objective value in the minds of other people. Although we do occasionally find real value tucked away somewhere.
Is It Safe Living in a Hoarded Home?
A hoarder home may become dangerous, if the hoarder or their friends do nothing about it. That’s because most hoarders put their stuff down anywhere they can find a space, or a clear surface.
The clutter accumulates on worktops and tables, in cupboards, and everywhere else on the floor. This means there’s a fair chance of stuff falling on people, or hoarders and their friends tripping over something unawares.
A situation like that can become a fire hazard or worse. Even more seriously, the clutter can block escape routes, including staircases and doors to outside. We clear hoarded houses regularly. Trust us, this is no exaggeration.
Hoarded Clutter As Encountered by Avery Associates
Is a Hoarder Home a Health Risk Too?
Living in a home full of clutter everywhere, makes it impossible to keep it properly clean. Mice, flies and cockroaches soon move in, and feast on forgotten scraps of food. Basic hygiene becomes a thing of the past, with mold and mildew in damp corners.
The insects and vermin can spread to the neighbours too, especially if the hoarder lives in shared accommodation, or an apartment. This is what a hoarder home is like, and it’s not always a pretty sight. There’s a multiplier affect, if the hoarder accumulates pets too.
Services like water, electricity, and sewage often take a knock, if the clutter obstructs maintenance in the kitchen and bathroom. The toilet can become blocked, as well as the kitchen sink. Unsavoury odours can spread throughout the home and beyond, and cause breathing difficulties and chest disorders too.
How Does a Family Residence Get That Way?
Having explained what a hoarder home is like, we move on to understand how people become that way. The first point we would like to make, is that a hoarder does not decide to fill their home with clutter. In fact, the situation may well be beyond their conscious control:
- Their behaviour may be due to them inheriting certain genes, or growing up in a hoarded home where these things were ‘normal’.
- However, hoarding can also be a subconscious compensatory response to a traumatic life experience, that affects the hoarder deeply.
- Indecisiveness and inability to make decisions can prevent a hoarder from clearing their clutter, as an expression of their temperament.
Finally, and perhaps most significantly, a hoarder home can be the outward sign of a mental disorder, perhaps one of the following:
OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER, which causes repetitive behaviour interfering with daily living.
OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE PERSONALITY DISORDER, leading to perfectionism, organization and control.
ATTENTION-DEFICIT / HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER, resulting in persistent inattention, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity.
DEPRESSION, which is a state of depressed mood, or loss of pleasure or interest for long periods at a time.
We Help Clear Hoarded Homes
Hoarders have difficulty getting rid of clutter. They need to hang on to their things, because they enjoy acquiring and having them. Therefore they experience difficulty discarding them too, because this makes them anxious.
Solutions for Hoarded Homes
Hoarding at the end of the day is a mental condition, governed by thoughts that run counter to social norms. Psychologists regularly recommend cognitive behavioural therapy as a potential solution, whereby:
- They help the hoarder identify their mistaken thoughts that lead them to accumulate clutter.
- If successful, the therapy moves on to sharing strategies to resist urges to continue the practice.
- The third stage involves applying this new knowledge, and discarding clutter they no longer need.
Avery Associates Is At Your Service
Avery Associates provides a one-stop solution, following a decision to clear a hoarded home. We deliver this service regularly throughout Greater London, where we enjoy an enviable reputation.
Reach out to us if you are ready to clear the clutter from a home. We have deep experience. We understand the emotional conflicts, because we know what a hoarder home is like first hand.
More Information
Study of the Lived Experiences of Hoarders
Symptoms and Causes of Hoarding Disorder
Massive thank you Jeff, to you and your team for the amazing work in organising a house clearance for me. Such professionalism and respect to the property. I couldn’t have asked for better. Thank you – in a time of panic and madness you made everything calm. Louise Alessander
