Hoarding, It’s More Than Just Clutter

What Is Hoarding?

Hoarding, is more than just clutter that has built up over time. It’s an actual disease that requires treatment, coaching and support from people surrounding the individual.

When Mayken™ is contacted to help clear a hoarding situation, it’s usually family or friends reaching out. This happens for several reasons.

Most common is sheer overwhelm.

Hoarding brings overwhelming challenges, along with potential health and safety risks. These issues often prompt others to get involved.

Many individuals caught in the cycle of hoarding often find themselves in poor health and the very hoarding lifestyle. Hoarding causes health issues that also create safety concerns. This puts EMS staff at risk when they need to enter the property. In many cases this also extends to the safety of police and fire personnel. Because access within the property is restricted, items are unstable and overstuffed. This can often make it impossible to gain access to certain areas of the property. As a result, the property and individuals are at greater risk of fires and other health hazards.

When Mayken™ is brought in to help these situations we work with the owner/occupant to clear out the clutter. We start by removing the obvious garbage and recyclable materials. As we work, we carefully look for personal items, family heirlooms, and anything valuable that can be salvaged. Unfortunately, some items are beyond salvage. Years of debris and constant pressure from being piled on can render them broken, damaged, or even dangerous.

Worse than the overwhelming amount of items found in the home of a hoarder are the additional issues that occur. Hoarding also brings other hazards, such as mold, vermin, and rot, depending on how long the issue has persisted. Compounding problems like spills, household leaks, or food lost in piles can make these risks even worse.

Protection From Potential Health Hazards

Team Mayken™ has encountered properties that were totally overwhelmed with mice, at every turn as items were moved, more and more mice, nests and babies were found. Along with the mice, their urine and droppings contaminate everything, causing air quality issues. As a result, most items must be disposed of, regardless of their value or personal attachment.

Due to the unknown issues buried within the piles, Mayken™ requires all staff working inside a hoarding situation to wear appropriate safety equipment. This is essential to protect against the potential risks. This includes “Tyvek” type full body suits with hoods, N-95 masks, nitrile gloves, leather gloves and safety footwear.

This is sometimes a little overwhelming to the home’s occupant as they do not see the need and feel it is safe in the home. But, it is very apparent in a very short time the hazards our staff are being protected from.

The N-95 masks are a heavy duty version of a dust mask and turn very dark and black over a short period of time working in the hoarding house. This shows what we would be breathing in if we were not protected. It could be mold, potentially years or months of dust and dirt buildup, disease distributed via vermin droppings and much more. This protective equipment doesn’t just protect our staff on site, it also prevents the staff from being exposed to and then transferring it to their cars, homes and families.

Other issues that we see

As a result of hoarding are human feces as over time, most hoarding renders the bathrooms and plumbing inaccessible or inoperable. This usually leads to the occupant using an alternate method and location in the home. The expanded biohazardous cleanup required makes proper care and safety precautions even more important.

Mayken™ has also encountered situations where the occupant has diabetes or other health issues which use needles to treat it or manage their disease or “habits”. This becomes a major concern for our team and changes once again the hazardous cleaning situation we have in dealing with the property. At that point, we can no longer “dig” through the possessions as a sharps hazard is now very real and the safety of our team is paramount.

In extreme cases, hoarding can even lead to interiors of properties requiring a nearly complete gutting. Proper disinfecting and mold removal needs to happen in order to return them as safe environments.

The multitude of both visible and hidden dangers that accompany houses that hoarders occupy is why we recommend you hire professionals such as Mayken™ to help protect you and to deal with the contents of the property in as safe and an efficient manner as possible.

People caught in the overwhelm of a hoarding situation often have concerns about what happens to their stuff. If you have a friend, a relative or someone you’re just helping out who has turned their property into a potentially dangerous environment, contact us today to see how we can help or guide you.