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Summary: 

Hoarder cleaning and sanitizing, also called Squalor Cleanup or De-Cluttering, is a specialty area of the restoration industry. Hoarder homes often contain rotting food and rodent/insect infestations and so would be considered 'grossly unsanitary'. 

Persons involved in cleaning these homes should be technically able to deal with grossly unsanitary conditions. They also must be aware of the emotional aspects of occupants' hoarding that often cannot be solved quickly. Decision makers may include interested third parties, such as close relatives or social service agencies. Restoration techs need to be empathetic and non-judgmental in a stressful and often hazardous setting. By providing this educational post, FloodCo LLC hopes to increase general awareness for this problem.

Hoarding is by nature a hidden problem in most communities. Regardless of the local demographic or the quality of the local housing stock, this oft hidden mental illness occurs everywhere. Hoarding is a mental disorder that requires a sensitive, caring response. Hoarder situations need concerned individuals and local assistance programs to deal with a complex health problem. It is important to explain to family members what may be happening inside a hoarder house and how professionals can address the issue.

Fact: Hoarding behavior leads to extremely serious life and safety issues. Not only for the occupants of a structure but for emergency responders, such as fire fighters who must enter a residence packed with highly flammable stuff that burns very hot. Lack of basic hygiene and exposure to falls are continual hazards to occupants and also their service contractors including in-home health care providers.

Fact: Hoarding is not a conscious lifestyle choice. It is an illness that can seriously interfere with the life of a hoarder. Social isolation, depression, accidental death and suicide will result if untreated.

Of course, collecting or messy housekeeping is quite common in the general population. Serious hoarders on the otherhand find nearly everything they encounter to be essential to save and keep close by, resulting in a home full of odds and ends and more junk than anyone could possibly use or need. In severe cases hoarders are unable to even throw away food scraps! Hallways become narrow tunnels of stuff piled from floor to ceiling. Then the bugs and vermin move in.

Hoarder Houses Are Very Dangerous

Hoarding makes rooms in a home virtually unusable, hallways impassable. Imagine a firefighter needing to locate and rescue someone trapped in a hot, smoky fire through tunnels of accumulated junk and garbage.

Unable to organize a growing accumulation of stuff, piles grow and multiply in every available space in the home. Seeing their objects as artistic or memorabilia, they save anything and everything. Scraps of fabrics, magazines, pens and pencils picked up at the last 20 home shows. Things that may have a pleasant memory attached, even a Dairy Queen soft drink cup. Somehow, these collections and piles help a hoarder have a sense of security, while at the same time embarrassment about the nasty conditions inside the home steers them into reclusive antisocial behaviors.

Fact:Hoarding behavior often shows itself at a young age. For others it is triggered later by a traumatic event.

Adolescents or young children may tend to hold onto and accumulate broken toys or scraps of paper. Severity may increase with age and then become uncontrollable in senior years. Both men and women in retired populations have the serious problem and it may go mostly

Fact:Hoarding behavior often shows itself at a young age. For others it is triggered later by a traumatic event.

Adolescents or young children may tend to hold onto and accumulate broken toys or scraps of paper. Severity may increase with age and then become uncontrollable in senior years. Both men and women in retired populations have the serious problem and it may go mostly

embers to a parent's disorder.

Fact:Hoarding tendencies may be hard wired in the brain making the decision to throw away something nearly impossible. A person's upbringing or family history dramatically increases both the likelihood and severity of the disorder. Nearly half of all hoarders have a history of alcohol dependency. A similar proportion also have other issues such as ADHD -attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or OCD -obsessive compulsive disorder.

Hoarding behavior allows hoarders to feel safe and secure and provides them feelings of happiness. At the same time the hoarder spirals into clinical depression as guilt and shame accumulate along with overwhelming piles of stuff and trash. A true hoarder has a home thatis essentially unusable. Throwing anything away is just too stressful.

Fact: Treatment for hoarding syndrome requires ongoing Cognitive Behavior Therapy combined with medication. Learning techniques to relax and how to decide which items need to be tossed or kept. Hoarding is a very difficult problem to self manage. If someone you know is showing hoarding behaviors, please do what you can to get them the professional help they need.

We welcome your comments and questions on this topic. FloodCo's office number is 406 892-1717.

Source of info: Mayo Clinic

Video of aHoarder House


Posted By Lloy 3/30/2016

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