Steps to Take if Your Loved One Begins Hoarding
Discovering that a loved one is engaging in hoarding behaviors can be scary. You may feel frustrated and concerned about his or her safety, as well as the safety of other people living in the home. Although you may want to get cleaners in right away, it is important to approach your loved one with compassion and patience, so when he or she does get hoarding help in Orlando, the outcome is successful and permanent. If your loved one begins hoarding, take these steps to have the best possible results.
Get Educated
For people who don’t feel the urge to hoard, understanding the compulsion can be difficult. Learning about what causes someone to hoard belongings will help you understand how best to support your loved one. Talk to your doctor or seek out some of the many books and online resources on the subject. As your knowledge about hoarding grows, you may also find it helpful to sit down with a mental health expert to discuss your loved one’s behavior and to make a plan for helping him or her address the issue.
Adjust Your Expectations
From the outside, it may seem like an easy solution would be to hire a hoarding cleanup team to come over and clean out your loved one’s home one weekend. What seems simple to you, however, may cause extreme distress for your loved one. Overcoming hoarding is a lengthy and difficult process that cannot be handled in one cleaning session. Praise your loved one for the small steps he or she takes and handle setbacks in stride. When your loved one feels supported instead of judged, he or she will be more likely to accept your help.
Hire Professional Cleaners
When your loved one is ready to do a major cleanup of his or her home, hire professional hoarding cleanup services to handle the job. There may be biohazards in the home that should be removed by someone with proper training. In addition, having an outside team come in and help can remove some of the potentials for personal disagreements that can arise when family and friends do the cleaning together.