“Our aunt had been hoarding her possessions for years. We could barely walk through the house. Casa Azul, the Richmond hoarding cleanup service, came in and removed all the junk and also cleaned beneath years of neglect. We’re so happy!”

 

richmond hoarding cleanupHoarding Cleanup

Casa Azul Janitorial and Cleaning Services has a cleanup service for hoarding recovery. Your loved ones will be taken care of in a respectful and courteous manner. We are:

  • Confidential
  • Patient
  • Professional
  • Sympathetic
  • Compassionate
  • Non-judgmental

We provide:

  • Inside and outside hoarding cleanup services
  • Hauling of unwanted furniture
  • Recycling of unwanted appliances
  • Assistance with sorting, packaging and organizing
  • Removal of trash deemed by the client
  • Deep cleaning to address unsanitary conditions

What is Hoarding?

Hoarding is the persistent difficulty in disposing of or parting with possessions regardless of their actual value.

For those who hoard, what sets them apart from others is the number of items they retain compared with others.

Commonly hoarded items are photographs, newspapers, magazines, food, clothes, cardboard boxes, household supplies, and plastic bags.

Hoarding can be related to a compulsion to acquire free items, a compulsion to buying anything at a bargain value, or a compulsion to obsessively search for perceived unique items.

In all such cases, the result is the same: The hoarder’s home is stuffed with piles of unwanted items everywhere to the point that it is a hazard for all those living there. This compulsive hoarding tends to have adverse emotional, physical, legal, and social effects for the hoarder and family members.

Symptoms of Hoarding

As with any illness, the sooner hoarding is caught, the better it can be treated. For this reason, it is essential to know the symptoms of hoarding.

Getting an excess of stuff and struggling to get rid of it and a gradual buildup of clutter in living spaces are some of the earlier signs.

Hoarding symptoms typically appear in the teenage to early adult years, getting exceedingly pronounced as the person gets older, becoming hard to treat by middle age.

The symptoms to look out for include the following:

  • Excessive acquisition of items accompanied by the inability to dispose of any possession
  • Severe anxiety when having to discard items
  • When the buildup of items renders rooms and living spaces unlivable, begin to cause relationship issues, threaten social isolation, or pose a health hazard
  • The buildup of food or trash to unsanitary levels
  • Tending towards indecision, perfection, procrastination, and avoidance
  • When organizing items becomes a struggle, it results in disorganized piles of articles

Reasons for Hoarding

There is no one clear cause of hoarding.

What is known of hoarding is that it typically appears between ages 11-15 and worsens with age.

Hoarding may present on its own or as a symptom of other disorders. Disorders often associated with hoarding are obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Additionally, risk factors for hoarding include the following:

  • Family history: Those who have a family member suffering from the hoarding disorder are at a greater risk of having the disorder
  • Personality: Temperamentally indecisive individuals are more vulnerable to the hoarding disorder
  • Stressful life event: Sometimes people who go through a stressful life event- the death of a loved one, divorce, illness in the family- and struggle to cope with it, will develop the hoarding disorder

The Difference between Collectors and Hoarders

People might sometimes wonder what the difference is between collectors and hoarders. There is a stark difference between the two.

Collectors are those who have a passion for collecting a specific item and it is a hobby they enjoy and pride themselves in.

Collectors are proud of their collection and proudly display their items for all to see. Collections create communities of individuals who share the same interest and passion.

Hoarders are so overwhelmed with the stack of items in their home that they lose any capacity to organize and sort through them. Their living spaces will be crammed with unwanted, useless items and unlike collectors, they are usually ashamed of their situation, live in isolation, and often suffer from anxiety or depression.

Richmond Hoarding Cleanup Service
While early intervention can help deal with hoarding, the immediate need when dealing with a hoarder is trying to make his living quarter livable again.

Usually, hoarders’ homes are not just filled with random stuff. Their homes can be filled with unsanitary levels of trash, rotting food, and a foul stench.

One of the best ways to clean such quarters is by hiring a professional Richmond hoarding cleanup service that is well-versed in the art of cleaning up hoarder homes. They will know exactly how to efficiently gather and discard the trash and then sanitize the home, rid it of its health hazards, and render it livable again.

This can be the perfect first step in helping a hoarder begin to manage his disorder and start afresh.

To schedule a free onsite estimate, call our Berkeley office at: 510-524-CASA.

You can be assured our Richmond hoarding cleanup services will be fair, sensitive and professional.