Hoarding Disorder Treatment Plan That Anyone Can Follow
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- A Practical Plan: Treatment For Hoarding Disorder
- Step 1: Get Help
- Step 2: Conduct an Assessment
- Step 3: Create a Personalized Plan
- Step 4: Declutter
- Step 5: Set Boundaries
- Step 6: Get Ongoing Support
- Step 7: Set Up a Maintenance Strategy
- Get Compassionate Help With Clutter Trucker’s Hoarding Cleanup Services
If you want to know how to stop hoarding and hoarding-related behaviors, either for yourself, friend or a loved one, start with a simple step-by-step plan that has worked for millions of people. While our junk removal services can help clear physical clutter and provide you with related consultation, they cannot replace professional psychological support. If you think you might benefit from such assistance, we encourage you to evaluate your situation and seek the help you need.
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A Practical Plan: Treatment For Hoarding Disorder
Do you want hoarding treatment that is uncomplicated and can begin today? The smartest and easiest way to get treatment for hoarding disorder is to try a simple self-help program.
Scientific fact: Excessive hoarding of personal belongings and other household items is a complicated disorder that can lead to large amounts of clutter that can make living spaces dangerous and can interfere with everyday living.
Many people who seek hoarding treatment find it very difficult to part with their belongings. However, the most effective way to deal with the problem is to follow a structured plan and enlist the help of a company that offers cleanup support and psychological reassurance.
Here are details about the steps.
Step 1: Get Help
One of the most important steps in addressing a hoarding-related issue is to locate a professional service that has experience in helping homeowners who feel overwhelmed by clutter. In some cases, affected individuals will also need to work with licensed therapists for long-term solutions.
However, in other cases, people can get a complete resolution by seeking help among their family and friends and teaming up with a clutter-removal service whose workers understand, respect, and support clients throughout the entire process of decluttering and minimizing hoarding behavior.
It’s always smart to get help as soon as possible, as procrastination only allows the situation to become worse.
Step 2: Conduct an Assessment
After finding a professional partner to help, the next step is to perform a detailed assessment of the situation. That usually involves a full-scale evaluation of the amount and type of clutter, identification of potential safety hazards, and understanding the client’s emotional connection with their possessions.
Experienced decluttering teams talk meaningfully with their customers in order to find out how best to advise them. Sometimes it can be productive for people to reflect on their personal relationship with all the items they own.
The goal is to discover the reasons behind the urge to accumulate things. For decluttering professionals this may be important, but for psychological counselors this step is indispensable.
Step 3: Create a Personalized Plan
After reviewing all the information from the assessment phase, it’s time to create a unique, personalized plan that deals with both the emotional aspects of the situation and the physical process of decluttering.
The plan should be specific and mention clear goals, like which areas of the home need immediate attention and what the timeline will be for the cleanup process.
If people have anxiety about hoarding services, they should include a few coping strategies in the plan, along with interventions that can minimize psychological stress. At this stage, individuals should work closely with the professionals they have enlisted to help them achieve their goals.
Step 4: Declutter
Here is where actual decluttering begins. It’s essential to set clear, realistic goals. In most cases, that means starting with a single room or one especially problematic area. Others prefer to focus on items, like clothing or piles of paper. This kind of focused approach is a good way to avoid feeling overwhelmed at the outset.
Professional cleaning and decluttering services can guide their clients during this sorting phase and encourage them to think in terms of which items should be kept or disposed of based on need, value, usefulness, and practicality.
Step 5: Set Boundaries
As people work through the challenging stages of the decluttering process, they need to set strict boundaries about which items should be kept and which ones need to be let go. Many find it immensely helpful to sort everything into four categories, namely “Keep,” “Donate,” “Sell,” and “Discard.”
Experts can help a lot at this stage by suggesting ways to assess the value of items and quickly assign them to one of the four categories. It’s also wise to set up an ongoing system for organizing items in the home. That way, people can minimize future accumulation and maintain a neat living space.
Step 6: Get Ongoing Support
Getting ongoing support is a necessary step for some individuals. Doing so entails exploring various kinds of professional psychological therapy that have proven effective for individuals who face challenges related to hoarding.
Therapy sessions offer an ideal environment in which to explore underlying personal issues and develop coping strategies. Support groups are a lower-cost, productive way to get ongoing support.
Step 7: Set Up a Maintenance Strategy
Once you make it to this step, it’s beneficial to create a few maintenance strategies in order to preserve all the gains you’ve made so far. That means setting regular cleaning routines and knowing how to organize household items.
It’s also about setting limits on what you buy or bring into the home. It can be helpful to check in with a professional counselor or support group from time to time. Doing so is an effective way to avoid setbacks and relapses.
Working through a hoarding disorder treatment plan can be challenging at times, but the rewards far outweigh the initial difficulties. It’s essential to get the right help and follow a structured system, like the 7-step hoarding treatment plan above. A written plan is like a roadmap for people who seek hoarding treatment.
Teaming up with a professional organization that does an initial assessment and follows through by doing the decluttering work is the wisest way to build a healthier lifestyle that is clutter-free, hygienic, and positive.
Get Compassionate Help With Clutter Trucker’s Hoarding Cleanup Services
At Clutter Trucker, a professional junk removal service, team members offer hoarding help in the form of hoarding cleanup, junk removal, and free advice for anyone who needs help. The Clutter Trucker crew understands that all those accumulated items are not just “junk.” Our junk removal services are here to help with clutter, but they are not a substitute for professional psychological support. If you feel you might need such assistance, we encourage you to assess your needs and seek help accordingly.
People’s belongings are actually a collection of personal experiences, cherished memories, and valuable keepsakes. Our team at Clutter Trucker understands that it can be tough to seek hoarding help, whether you have hoarding disorder treatment or not. That’s why each crew member supports you from beginning to end.
Clutter Trucker understands all the concerns that people have when they ask for hoarding-related services. Many have never let outsiders into their homes, and team members take that trust seriously and firmly believe that there should be zero embarrassment involved for individuals who seek hoarding disorder treatment.
When you team up with Clutter Trucker as a part of your hoarding treatment plan, we’ll begin by reassuring you about how we work. Team members will answer all your questions and schedule an initial assessment.
During the consultation, we’ll work with you to come up with a unique hoarding cleaning and clutter-removal plan. Then, a Clutter Trucker expert will walk you through the decluttering process, so you can begin to enjoy your home again.
Our team takes care of all the heavy lifting, literally! We perform all the hoarding junk removal, declutter the entire space, do necessary cleaning, and leave everything looking fresh, clean, and free of clutter.
When you enlist the help of Clutter Trucker, you’ll not have to face hoarding cleaning alone. We’ll do all the sorting, cleaning, decluttering, and loading. That way, you can move forward with a fully transformed living space and a fulfilling life.
About Jennifer Hanzlick
Clutter Trucker is a Denver-based hoarding clean-out company founded by Jennifer Hanzlick. Jennifer leveraged 15 years of corporate experience in to start the company in 2008. Her mission is to help and educate individuals and their loved ones who have hoarding disorder. A featured speaker at Ted X Boulder, Jennifer works directly with community and non-profit organizations to boost public awareness about the condition. To that end, she founded the Colorado Hoarding Task Force in 2015.