Hoarding is a serious condition that involves the obsessive collection of personal items or trash because there is a perceived need to keep them. Emotional, physical, financial and legal consequences can result from this irrational compulsion to save and store things of no real value. These consequences not only affect the hoarder but have rippling consequences for all the people in the hoarder’s life.
The National Study on Compulsive Disorganization developed a scale to define the levels of hoarding to help professionals and family members understand the hoarding situations with which they are confronted.
There are 5 stages of hoarding with progressive stages being more severe than the previous. The 5 stages of hoarding are:
This is the least severe level of hoarding, but it goes beyond simple collecting because objects and belongings are not organized and displayed. There are few indicators that this level of hoarding is occurring because the condition may be hidden due to a lack of visible clutter, although most appropriate storage areas in the house are jam packed with items. Cabinets, closets, storage sheds and bookshelves are filled to the max. The individual that is a level 1 hoarder finds throwing items away difficult and does an unreasonable amount of shopping for items that are not needed. A level 1 situation may appear as follows:
When a hoarder has reached level 2, they begin avoiding visitors due to embarrassment, stress or anxiety regarding their hoarded items. This level is when typical hoarding characteristics start to become noticeable. Signs that a hoarder has reached level 2 include:
At this level, hoarders typically have very poor personal hygiene and are suffering from emotional distress. These two situations often contribute to weight control issues. A level 3 hoarder will become extremely defensive of their living situation when confronted and often rationalizes their living situation because they cannot see the dangers present within their home. Level 3 hoarding can include the following:
Individuals that have reached this level of hoarding often go weeks without bathing. They usually are suffering from a mental health crisis and cannot see that their situation is dangerous or unsanitary. Signs that level 4 hoarding is occurring are:
This is the most severe type of hoarding, and individuals at this level may not be able to live in their own home, nor can their home be salvaged for future habitation. Human and animal waste is often collected in containers that cannot be disposed of down the toilet yet remain in and around the home. Level 5 hoarding situations often meet the following criteria:
The effects of hoarding go beyond the mess that has arisen. As a hoarder progresses through the levels of hoarding, there are serious safety concerns regarding sanitation and safety. Not only are the hoarders themselves a victim in these situations, the loved ones and neighbors of the hoarder are as well. While hoarding can impact all ages and demographics, it is often seen in older individuals.
In severe cases, individuals become reclusive and isolate themselves from friends and family. Unintended death can result from the unsafe conditions created by a hoarding situation. While the hoarding levels presented help to identify different levels of severity inherent in the condition, each person’s specific situation will be different. Hoarding is serious, and it must be handled in the right way.
At Spaulding Decon, our trained biohazard remediation professionals know how to clean up a hoarder’s home and we understand the emotional attachment that exists to the belongings.
Our teams can create custom cleanup plans while working with mental health professionals to ensure that your loved ones get the help and support they need during the difficult cleanup process.
While it’s believed that one in 50 people suffer from compulsive hoarding, one in every 20 might be impacted by it.If not addressed, a hoarding disorder can have adverse effects on multiple areas of their lives. Even if you aren’t personally affected by the hoarding disorder, you may live near someone who is. Hoarder houses can be a blight on the neighborhood, but, more importantly, they pose a danger to the individual living in the home and the entire neighborhood.
Hoarding is basically a phenomenon to collect the goods regardless useful or useless due to some psychological conditions among the people. Most of the aged people start hoarding goods from different sources just by making others strongly believed that they would need such things in near future. Sometimes, the people also start hoarding from their aggressive hobbies like collecting coins, newspapers and books. Hoarders always love to their collection and no one is generally allowed to touch their precious goods. They are willing to protect and keep these hoarded goods with them till their death. That is why; the clean up companies need to develop some discreet and very tactful services that can accomplish the cleaning assignments easily.
Hoarding is something that most people approach with fascination, wondering how people could let their homes get so out of control. There are even reality TV shows that treat hoarding and hoarders as a source of entertainment, to be marveled at from the comfort of our clean, organized homes.Hoarding isn’t funny or even entertaining; it’s the result of a severe mental illness called hoarding disorder. While hoarders might recognize the problems, they find it impossible to get things under control. The reality is that hoarding cleanup is far more involved than simply grabbing some trash bags and getting to work.
