I have clients tell me all the time that they watch the Hoarders show for inspiration to organize their own home. Or they use it for comparison to feel like their house isn’t as bad as they thought it was. I have people ask me if I watch the Hoarders show. The answer to that question is: I have watched it but not very often and I haven’t watched it in a long time.
I think people really tend to throw around the word hoarder loosely. People will say things like, “My house looks like I’m a hoarder.” Piles of clutter, stacks of clutter, rooms full of clutter does not necessarily equal hoarding. In my 14 years as a professional organizer, I have only walked into one home where I could tell I couldn’t help the client as it was a hoarding situation. I’m not trained to work in hoarding situations but there are plenty of professional organizers who are. So, the best thing I was able to do was connect her to the correct person in my area who could help her.
There is an ICD medical code for hoarding disorder. It’s not just some piles of stuff and automatically called hoarding. Clients who have a hoarding disorder have often had a serious event take place in their life that triggered their issues. They most likely should be working with a therapist and a professional organizer who is trained to be an integral part of the support team.
I pretty much find the show to be sad. I know when my own clients work with me there is a great deal of trust and vulnerability that goes into letting someone into their home to look at and touch their stuff. There has to be trust that this person coming into their home isn’t going to just ‘get rid of their stuff.’ Without knowing all of the behind the scenes stuff on the show, I feel like the homeowner is typically under dire circumstances to get the home cleaned out and there hasn’t been sufficient time to really work with a therapist in advance. And then all of these people and trucks roll in to help without a lot of time to build trust. And when everything you own is a critical item to you, seeing people grab and toss your stuff must be extremely difficult and challenging.
So, if you are feeling overwhelmed by your stuff, you don’t know where to begin and you have stacks and piles, you still are most likely not a hoarder. For most people, once they have an organizer by their side for guidance and accountability, they are able to quickly make decisions and progress. That’s been my experience for the last 14 years.
If you need a resource for a professional organizer in your area who is trained to help with a hoarding situation, this is a great resource: The National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals.
