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▶ Appraisers or Auctioneers

Jackson was unusual in that his Blondie collection and designer clothes actually had some value. He had autographed Blondie memorabilia and rare collectibles. Jackson and Mike didn’t bring in an appraiser because a quick scan of eBay showed them that the collectibles were fetching pretty good prices and a call to a consignment shop determined the value of the clothing. But under other circumstances, a visit from an appraiser or auctioneer might be a good idea.

What I see is that 99 percent of the time the collection has little or no value. But hoarders are convinced that they are sitting on a gold mine. Bringing in an impartial third party can clear this up, because it’s harder to argue with an expert. But the house has to be fairly clean before the appraiser is brought in or the appraiser may dismiss everything as “messy junk” without making the effort to really see what’s what. Since most appraisers charge by the hour, it’s cost-effective to have the “valuables” already pulled out and boxed up before the visit.

Because most collections are relatively worthless, be prepared for this additional emotional blow to the hoarder. It’s best if an appraiser comes to visit the hoarder and maybe one other sympathetic family member. Families can be tempted to say “I told you so!” to a hoarder when the hoarder learns that that extensive angel figurine collection isn’t worth any money. That can be a really hard moment for a hoarder who has a lot of money and emotion invested in the collection, and the hoarder needs someone who will understand and be kind and positive.

The auctioneer, on the other hand, may take a wide range of stuff—both valuable and not—and make arrangements to dispose of it in the most profitable way possible. The auctioneer will, more often than not, take a large batch—except real trash—and sell it off in job lots or individual pieces. It is worthwhile for auctioneers to get the most they can for everything since they are usually taking a percentage as their compensation.

6

THE CLEANUP

Aimee lived in a two-bedroom condo in New England. She had worked as a high-end fashion model when she was younger, but by age forty-eight it was impossible to see her fine bone structure or once-toned figure. Aimee looked like a stereotypical hoarder: overweight, with pasty skin and curly black hair streaked with gray. She spent her days in bed, drinking cans of nutrition shakes, giving herself insulin shots, and sliding to the edge of the mattress to go to the bathroom.

Until she started confining herself to the bed, Aimee had been a clothes hoarder whose obsession had gotten out of hand about eight years earlier. Aimee had kept the clothing from some of her modeling jobs, samples that the studios had given her as well as clothes that she had bought. She had about four hundred pairs of shoes and more than a thousand purses. Her collection was stacked in piles around narrow walkways through the house. On top of that was another foot of trash, from the point about two years earlier when Aimee gave up the hope of de-cluttering and just started tossing everything onto her piles.

The stink from the urine and feces had gotten so strong that neighbors had called the city to complain. Building inspectors visited and condemned the house, but they told Aimee she could keep it if she cleaned up and it passed reinspection within ninety days. The city hired us to work with Aimee.

No matter what the stage of hoarding, what the hoarder hoards, or what other mental disorders might be involved, hoarder cleanups all start with the plan. Cleanup day is when the rubber finally meets the road. The team meets outside the house to assign jobs, grab trash bags, and dig in. Each stage of hoarder has different issues, and any plan should be flexible enough to take that into account.

From my point of view, the actual cleaning may be the easiest part of this process. For a team that has done its research and put together a good group with a workable plan, cleaning will go surprisingly