How Do You Clean A Hoarder’s House?

Dealing with a hoarding disorder is quite a challenging task in many levels. In addition, managing such a person is emotionally demanding, more so, especially if both of you don’t agree. Even more, they never realize that their houses are dirty and they keep piling heaps of trash in the house. Thus, knowing where to start when cleaning a home that is packed with clutter can be overwhelming too.

Discussed below are some of the steps one can follow to take control of the situation, sort through the items, clean, and sanitize a hoarder’s home to make it safe and live again.

1. Evaluate the area and have a decluttering strategy.

Those in a hoarding situation don’t know how to differentiate between valuable and worthless items and they tend to accumulate a lot of them since they are afraid of losing one item that is most useful.

The items quickly pile up harboring mold, dusts, and insects; hence, it’s good to approach the hoarder and work with them on the situation. Carrying out a cleanup without involving them won’t address the underlying situation. Don’t try to everything on your own; you can hire the a hoarding cleanup services to help you do the cleanup.

2. Protect Yourself

Since you’re not sure about what is in the piles, its recommended that you be ready for everything. You should have protective gears and equipment in readiness of the cleanup process.

Always wear disposable gloves, eye protection and dust masks to avoid any contact with the allergens. Plus, you need to have sturdy shoes and had hat.

3. Collect plenty cleanup supplies

Cleaning a hoarders’ house require a great deal of cleanup, therefore, you need to get enough supplies before you start off since you might not have the luxury of time to run for more supplies. Some of the notable supplies that you require include;

· Mops and buckets

· Dust/brooms

· Empty boxes

· Heavy duty trash bags

· Wipes/sponges and disinfectants

· A shovel

· Step ladder

· Vacuum cleaners and

· A set of hand tools

4. Start off with the small room

It is always a difficult task to know where to start, hence we recommend that you start with the small room. This will give you a sense of progress. In fact, a bathroom is the best place to start off from, once a room is cleaned and sanitized you will have some senses of accomplishment.

5. Empty Room using the top to bottom approach

It is essential to take up a methodical approach in cleaning situation such as this. Remove items from rooms, top to bottom. It is always easier to clean a room when there’re few items. Go through the closets, drawers and purse to ensure that all the valuable items are well kept.

6. Deep Clean and Repair Home

Once the house is clean and free from clutter, it can now be painstakingly cleaned and sanitized. Depending on the approach taken, hoarding can time a great deal of time, however, the end result is worth it.