Hoarder Help: Forced Clean-Up

Many hoarders go through this process, and unfortunately with city clean-ups, they are not given enough time to do everything that needs to be done. Add to that the fact that city officials who order the clean-up do not understand the facts of hoarding much of the time. Though there are council members who are learning about hoarding, I feel not enough of them are considerate of the hoarder.

If you find yourself in the middle of a forced clean-up, you need to get a good team to help you. If you have a psychologist already, enlist their help. If not, try to find one near you who specialize in hoarding and behavior therapy.

Although you may feel the council members who are forcing you to clean up are evil at the time of the order being issued, you will want to work with them nevertheless. Working with the council members will hopefully help them understand the issue of hoarders better.

Almost every clean-up will have a fire marshall who comes to check out the place. Work with them to see if you can get an extension of time to do what you need to do. Many are considerate enough to work with you and set goals. If you complete these goals, you may have days added onto the time limit.

The local sheriff may also become involved if there are numerous complaints from the neighbors. They will be another person to have on your team, because they can explain to you what needs to be done and why. They will also come by to check up on whether there is sufficient progress and hold you accountable if progress is not made.

Another good resource to have on hand is waste management. They will be there to help you throw items away and out of site. At the end of the day they will go and deal with the items that have been thrown out.

Friends and family members are probably the backbone of your team. The most important things to consider is whether you trust them with your items. The last thing you need is somebody who constantly throws things awy behind your back, because that will only slow down progress, if not make the project come to a standstill altogether.

A building inspecter may be on hand to make sure the structure of your house is solid, to make sure the plumbing and wiring is working properly, and to make recommendations if they're not.

If you are renting the place and are in danger of being evicted, have your property owner on hand and make goals with them as well to extend the time limit before you are evicted.

I hope these suggestions will help you if you are ever in this situation, because teamwork is what makes or breaks a forced clean-up.