Specialist cleaners and a clinical psychologist have revealed some of the worst hoarding cases they have worked on and shared tips on how to get help.
Hoarding doesn’t just mean being ‘a little sloppy’; it is a psychological disorder that can cause patients to live ‘in total misery’ or be forced to move. It is often a sign or symptom of a serious underlying mental health condition, such as OCD or depression.
Davina Furbert, 32, from New York, runs a compassionate cleaning company and said she has “seen it all” through her work with more than 300 clients over the past five years.
In an exclusive talk to DailyMail.com, she, along with other experts, share some of their most surprising discoveries and tips on how to get help.
Davina Furbert runs a specialist cleaning company, Compassionate Cleaning, and has helped over 300 people declutter their homes
She shares before and after photos of the work to help people realize they are not alone
About 19 million Americans suffer from hoarding disorder, and many need professional help to overcome the behavior disorder.
Furbert said, “People think they’re just dirty, dirty and lazy.”
“But many of these people are depressed, anxious, or have gone through a traumatic experience, such as the loss of a parent, and are trying to fill a void.
‘Some people do it unconsciously, they don’t even know they’re doing it, they don’t have the ability to realize they’re doing it. They don’t even realize the mess is there, or they don’t realize how bad it is.”
Furbert regularly shares before and after photos on her Instagram account to show other people they are not alone and encourage them to seek help.
For her, the most serious case she ever saw was the first house she entered.
She said: ‘It was cockroaches, mice, maggots, everything you can think of.
“I went in because she had ACS cases, she was at risk of her children being taken away. So I said, let me help you.”
She added: ‘When people have children, everything you touch gets covered in cockroaches and mice come out.
‘People sometimes don’t understand the dangers of mice. It’s very dangerous. They carry germs and leave nasty things behind.”
Sharing the photos has helped reduce the shame and stigma for people in similar positions, Furbert says
That case got her business going. She said: ‘After I posted those pictures, so many people reached out saying I have the same thing going on.’
Now she helps three people a week and has a friend who takes care of the things she doesn’t have time for.
Meanwhile, Nicole Levine, who founded specialty cleaning company Hoarders911 in 1991, told DailyMail.com that there are different forms of hoarding.
Years ago in Brooklyn, her party was called to the home of a deceased person.
She said: ‘There was a body, a person who had died from hoarding, and they didn’t know where it was. It was somewhere in the house, under the piles of trash.
“Often people have tripped and fallen and cannot return home until it is in a livable condition. It will be dangerous and then we have to participate.’
She added: ‘We often get animal hoarders, people who have eight or more of the same type of animals – that’s different from a breeder.
“We had people collecting pigeons from outside, capturing them, bringing them in and letting them roam around the house.
According to her, one of the most interesting forms of hoarding is information hoarding.
‘These are people who have a lot of books, magazines from the forties and fifties. These are usually very smart people with very successful careers in law or politics. That’s a very common type,” she explained.
Meanwhile, clinical psychologist and hoarding expert Dr. David Tolin said that in some very serious, rare cases, people have been known to keep bodily fluids, nail clippings or even the bodies of dead pets.
Furbert said an early sign of hoarding is when people have multiple copies of the same unnecessary item that they never use
Some videos show Furbert clearing inches of dirt
Furbert’s The first and most important piece of advice for hoarders is ‘don’t look at the house as a whole’.
‘Start with one place, clear the couch, that’s all you have to do for the day. Do one little thing and then save it for the next day,” she said.
“If you look at it as a whole, you’re bound to burn out, become overwhelmed. One thing at a time. You only have to do one thing at a time.’
When deciding what to keep and what to throw away, she continued, “I categorize it. Sometimes they are things they may have received from deceased relatives. It’s okay to keep those things, you can put them in boxes.”
But she added: “Drawers, if you haven’t opened that drawer in a while, throw everything away – unless they’re important papers.”
Furbert also warned that it’s important to know when to get professional help.
“I would say seek professional help if it gets to the point where it’s affecting your mental health when you walk through your front door.”
She said a useful test to find out if you have a problem is, “Can you light a candle?” Is that a danger?’
Although some of the people she helps go ‘back to square one’, some are able to maintain hygiene levels.
She said: ‘It’s a personal change, you just know that someone, you have some support, you know there’s someone there to help.’
Nicole Levine started Hoarders911 in 1991, she has been working with hoarders for over 30 years and has created categories of different types of hoarding
Dr. David Tolin discussed some of the main causes of hoarding and some methods people can use to help themselves and seek professional help
Dr. Tolin said, “Hoarding disorder is more than just cluttering, it refers to the inability to throw away belongings.”
Some of the most serious cases he has seen are “when people have a house that is really non-functional and they live in absolute squalor and are unable to live in the house.”
He said the important first step is to recognize that you have a hoarding problem by asking yourself some questions.
‘Many of us have a lot of clutter, but with disorder we’re talking about a point where living spaces are no longer usable for the purposes they were intended for: can I cook reasonably, can I use my bathroom? Or have those parts of my living space become storage areas?’
“You must understand what happened in your past to point you on this path. We need to understand what perpetuates this problem and what makes it persist,” he added.
His research has shown that hoarding can be related to problems related to four key issues: executive functioning, emotional dysregulation, cognitive distortion, and low motivation and insight.
To tackle the problems, you have to ask yourself tough questions.
Often the customer keeps a few things and decides to throw everything else away
Furbert said some of her customers tell her to just clean it like it’s her stuff
He said: ‘If you’re someone with hoarding disorder, you potentially have four different targets. If you find that your problem is primarily related to executive functioning, then you need to practice effective decision-making by challenging yourself when making decisions.
“When it comes to emotional dysregulation, we need to practice tolerance for stress, practice being uncomfortable, and learn that discomfort doesn’t ruin your life.
‘If the problem is cognitive distortion, it can help to ask: Am I really thinking about this carefully? Is there an alternative way to look at this?
‘When it comes to motivation and insight, we encourage people to think about what is really important, what do you want to do with your life? Is my behavior leading me towards the life I want, or away from it?’
He added: ‘These are very difficult questions, hoarding is very difficult to tackle alone. If your first attempts at self-help don’t work, don’t get discouraged. It’s very difficult and you need to seek professional help.’
While people may feel embarrassed about seeking help, he said, “This is a bit like taking off your clothes at the doctor’s office, sometimes you just have to do it so the professionals can help you.”
