Not Just a Quirk
It’s way beyond clutter. Here’s how hoarding can be hazardous to your health.
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Do you have piles of stuff in your house? Are you arranging stacks of boxes, and odds and ends so you have room to walk? And even if you can’t remember what’s in all the chaos, are you sure that everything is valuable or might come in handy someday?
Hoarding is not a harmless or irritating quirk. Unsafe levels of clutter can:
“If you’re a clutterer and you’re downsizing, you take your lifetime collection of dolls and put them in your new bedroom, even if it’s a little crowded and you can’t get to your closet as well,” says Marilyn Nagel, who teaches classes on organizing and uncluttering. “A hoarder may know she has that doll collection somewhere but can’t find it, and she’s out looking for more.”
A hoarder may have real collectibles—under boxes of old clippings, bags of plastic forks bought on sale in 1992, and a box of desiccated rubber bands. Simple tasks like cooking, bathing and sleeping may be stymied because clutter occupies those spaces. And not only are hoarders unable to stop acquiring more, many don’t see it as a problem and resist treatment.
“You can’t always tell by how a home looks,” Nagel says. “The most important thing is how it affects the individual and whether they control their clutter or their clutter runs them.”
What can you do? If you recognize yourself in these descriptions, talk to your doctor about getting therapy. If you know someone who is a hoarder, don’t take it upon yourself to do a forced clean-out. Hoarding is a mental health disorder that needs professional treatment.
In Honolulu, an OCD Support Group meets at 11 a.m. on the second Saturday of every month at Star of the Sea Church. Call 261-6987 or 239-5150. You can find more information at the International OCD Foundation’s Compulsive Hoarding website.
Hoarding is not a harmless or irritating quirk. Unsafe levels of clutter can:
- Pose trip risks or fall risks. Those boxes, papers or canned goods on the floor could put you in the hospital, and many people, especially seniors, never recover from serious falls.
- Pose fire hazards. Not only in the kitchen—clutter can exacerbate the effects of a dropped cigarette or knocked-over candle.
- Pose other health hazards. Dust isn’t the only thing that clutter collects. Colonies of silverfish, cockroaches and other pests thrive in these environments.
- Isolate people. Hoarders are often so embarrassed about the state of their homes that not even family members are allowed inside.
- Cause family turmoil. Couples and families often have long-standing, unresolved feuds over one person’s extreme clutter, which affects everyone in the home.
“If you’re a clutterer and you’re downsizing, you take your lifetime collection of dolls and put them in your new bedroom, even if it’s a little crowded and you can’t get to your closet as well,” says Marilyn Nagel, who teaches classes on organizing and uncluttering. “A hoarder may know she has that doll collection somewhere but can’t find it, and she’s out looking for more.”
A hoarder may have real collectibles—under boxes of old clippings, bags of plastic forks bought on sale in 1992, and a box of desiccated rubber bands. Simple tasks like cooking, bathing and sleeping may be stymied because clutter occupies those spaces. And not only are hoarders unable to stop acquiring more, many don’t see it as a problem and resist treatment.
“You can’t always tell by how a home looks,” Nagel says. “The most important thing is how it affects the individual and whether they control their clutter or their clutter runs them.”
What can you do? If you recognize yourself in these descriptions, talk to your doctor about getting therapy. If you know someone who is a hoarder, don’t take it upon yourself to do a forced clean-out. Hoarding is a mental health disorder that needs professional treatment.
In Honolulu, an OCD Support Group meets at 11 a.m. on the second Saturday of every month at Star of the Sea Church. Call 261-6987 or 239-5150. You can find more information at the International OCD Foundation’s Compulsive Hoarding website.
