Hoarding is a bad, and often tragic, situation. However, it is also extremely common. If you are reading this, there is a high likelihood that you have discovered that a family member in or around Louisville is a hoarder. You want to help them. You just don’t know where to start. Don’t worry, you’ve come to the right place.

junk removal industry

Here at JUNKCO, we are the Louisville area’s hoarding clean out professionals.

  1. Don’t try a temporary fix. Hoarding is often unsafe and unhealthy, so naturally one’s first instinct is to get that stuff cleaned up! If you hire us to come in there and clean up the property without addressing the root of the problem, we can almost guarantee you are going to be calling us again down the road. Hiring us to do a hoarding clean out before you get help for the hoarder is like taking an advil when you have a brain tumor. Seek professional help for your friend or relative, then give us a call.
  2. Don’t force your way onto the hoarder. The last thing you want to do is go into someone else’s home and complete a junk removal job without their permission. The hoarder will feel violated and will no longer trust you – and rightly so! Going into someone else’s home and getting rid of their property amounts to theft. Though you perceive the stuff in the house as junk or trash, the hoarder does not see it that way. To the hoarder, that junk is like the new clothes you just bought, a new flat screen TV, or even jewelry. To the hoarder, everything they own is a prized possession.  
  3. Be prepared for the process to go very slowly. The hoarder needs to be there. There is a good chance they will want to look through everything that’s being removed. You should allow them to look and assist them with sorting through the junk. However, if they want to keep some stuff that is truly trash, ask them why. Try to make it clear to them that this kind of stuff has no monetary value. It is wise to have a psychiatrist or therapist on hand to assist with sorting through the stuff. Be aware that hoarding junk hauling is a SLOW process.
  4. Don’t try to do too much at once. Here at JUNKCO Louisville, we love to move fast. However, we make an exception and slow down for hoarding jobs. Plan on working at most 6 hours in a day. Any more than that can be overwhelming for the hoarder, and you don’t want to add stress to an already difficult situation by pushing the hoarder past their limits. On a lot of a hoarding junk removal jobs, we can only work for four or five hours before the hoarder is worn out and work must stop. Again, this is a slow process.

Basement Junk Removals

You are a great friend for helping the hoarder with this situation. Hoarding can lead to bad smells, blocked walkways and rooms in the home, and infestations of insects and pests. It can even lead to disease. Many times, things in the house will break – such as a toilet – and won’t be repaired because the hoarder is embarrassed and doesn’t want a service worker to see how they live. Hoarding is a bad situation that needs to be dealt with, but dealing with it incorrectly can make things worse instead of better.

If you have any questions about hoarding or need a hoarding house clean out completed, give JUNKCO a call at 502-738-6009.