woman sorting through her clothes in the living room

Decluttering Tips For Hoarders

Hoarding is an overwhelming mental disorder, and it can be challenging to make changes to your everyday life. Hoarding involves collecting excessive amounts of items and being unwilling to let them go, no matter how filled their home is. As a hoarder, your home becomes unsafe and can be dirty if it cannot be cleaned due to the amount of things in the way. This makes it challenging for hoarders to declutter their home and their life. Discover below how hoarders can easily declutter their homes so they can live a healthy and positive life.

Know Your Hoarding Style

As a hoarder, you know your hoarding style. You know your hoarding tendencies and the items you gather in your home. In order to break those habits and declutter your home, you have to change your style. Avoid buying new items and sort through your current items in your home. Are you really attached to all of these items? Do they all make you happy, or are they just being stored as useless items? Decluttering your home begins with you as the hoarder, and you must take an active role.

Start Small

Starting your hoarding declutter small will help prevent you from getting overwhelmed. Sort through one area of your home at a time and set a timer for about 10 minutes each day. Slowly work your way up to more time each day when you’re mentally ready. The process does not have to be fast. Take all the time you need to process this cleanout and heal along the way. Try starting in the kitchen and eliminating old or expired items first. This is a good start to slowly remove items that could be better without being too attached to your other personal items. 

Donate Items

As a hoarder, it can be hard to let go of things that have been with you for a while. It is sometimes easier to let go of something, knowing that it will not be put in the trash and will get donated or used in another home. If you have excess amounts of clothing or shoes, it can be easier to declutter your house, knowing that someone in need can have it. Start by going through your laundry and separating it into two piles: one that you absolutely need and others where the clothing may be faded, worn, or donated to a charity. Sort through and determine if you can see yourself wearing it or not soon to help you declutter your closet and do something good for others. 

Ask For Help

Declutter your home with your loved ones by your side; it’ll make the process easier. Having the help of others will take some stress off your shoulders and allow you to stay focused on the end goal. Close family and friends are able to provide comfort and a lending hand throughout your decluttering process. Allow them to help you without giving them too much power on what to keep and toss. At the end of the day, it is your responsibility, and your personal items are on the line and the final decisions are up to you.

Request A Quote For Hoarding Help on MA’s North Shore

Hoarding can be a serious and overwhelming disorder, but it is nothing to be embarrassed of. Helping yourself is the best thing you can do; realizing you need to declutter is the first step. Don’t feel like decluttering involves getting rid of every item and everything that has meaning to you. Flannery’s Handymen can help with hoarding cleanouts across the North Shore. Our team provides gentle yet effective home cleanout and moving services so that you can feel confident every step of the way. Hoarding cleanup can be scary, but with Flannery’s Handymen, we give you the time you need to sort and go through all the items on your own time! Learn more and request a free quote today.