Are You in Danger of Becoming a Hoarder ?

When people find out what I do, they often tell me about their cluttered homes and ask me if I think they are hoarders.  Without visiting their home, the Simple answer is ‘Probably not’, as hoarding only affects on average 4% of the country.  But, as you have found your self reading this blog, there is a greater chance that you are on your way to being in this group. 

TV and Social Media, have made hoarding a bit of a hot topic of late.  It’s good to be aware of the signs, but remember Hoarding is a mental health issue and actually quite rare.  Most people who worry about hoarding, simply own more than their homes can accommodate and then fail to organise the space properly.   

A Clutter Free & Organised Home is a Life skill you can Learn

The easiest way to identify if you have a problem with hoarding is to think about how you feel when you are asked to let go of possessions with no emotional or economic value. 

We all have things that we treasure and won’t part with and having a lot of stuff is very common these days.  But this becomes a hording crisis when the quantity of things we cling to becomes larger than our home can accommodate.  If our closets are filled with clothes we have not worn in years, and new clothes are in boxes or on the floor it may indicate a more serious problem than just over shopping.      

Persistently holding on to things becomes a hoarding disorder when it has a significant and clinical impact on the daily life and the social & occupational functioning of the hoarder or the people they live with.  Hoarders can hold of things that should be discarded for health and safety reasons (For Example, keeping used take away food containers or bags of garbage.  The affect this has on the immediate family can be extremely distressing and disruptive to family life.    

The Clutter Image Scale is an easy to use tool that can quickly show you if you need to make changes to your lifestyle. Select a picture that matches how your home looks, if you score more than a 4 on any picture then it’s time to consider making some changes. Give me a call.

*9780199334940.pdf (philadelphiahoarding.org)