The Secret Lives of Hoarders_ True Stories of Tackling Extreme Clutter - Matt Paxton [50]
As the new start date approached, the team behind Jackson began to assemble the supplies and services that would be needed—and had other supporters on call, such as repair and renovation people, just in case. Most important, Jackson’s partner, Mike, was preparing for Jackson’s increasing level of anxiety by being patient and reassuring.
Because of the sheer volume of clutter in Jackson’s house, and because he had been hoarding longer, he needed more workers and supplies than Brad and Ellen did. With his cleanup crew of three hired workers, Jackson had extra muscle for hauling away his bags of clothing and memorabilia. He also got one-on-one time with a professional cleaner to help direct him. Jackson was willing and able to learn new habits for decision-making and sorting, but he needed reminders and redirection during the cleaning. Basically, he needed a little coaching.
Jackson’s house wasn’t dirty, just cluttered. We started in the living room—the biggest room, and the easiest since it was filled with lots of empty cardboard boxes. In any cleanup, the house gets messier before it gets tidy, and the growing mess can be alarming to the hoarder. Finishing the first day with a large, clean room is very rewarding and motivates everyone to keep going.
Recycling the empty boxes opened up a large part of Jackson’s living room and made space for staging items that needed to be sorted through. Then we moved on to making some easy decisions on donating items.
First, we worked on sorting everything in the house into piles of like items—clothing, collectibles, toiletries, bedding, kitchen equipment, and so forth. Jackson’s plan was to then sort through each of those piles to make “trash,” “keep,” “donate,” “sell,” and “maybe” piles. Although the “maybe” pile grew, we knew he wouldn’t keep all of those items. Jackson was beginning to understand what was important and what wasn’t, and when he went back to the “maybe” pile, we were sure he would realize that some of these things weren’t worth keeping.
The first morning, we discovered a box of Cher’s doorknobs. Yes, Cher’s doorknobs. Jackson had bought them online, when Cher was renovating her house. They were strange and beautiful—a dragon’s paw, a crystal ball, and other assorted shapes and styles. Jackson agonized over whether or not to keep that box, and then started to panic about his entire house, realizing that he had seven rooms filled with similar items he had to make decisions about.
The doorknobs went into his “maybe” pile, along with several other things, and finally Jackson began to see that the cleaning process was manageable and that he was able to overcome his fears. When Mike showed up with lunch on the first day, Jackson realized that he had the support he needed, and that Mike wasn’t going away. Jackson’s anxiety went down to almost nothing, and he rolled on through the house.
During the sorting, we made a rule for Jackson that anything he decided to move out of the house had to leave that day. If he wanted to give a leather coat to a neighbor who had admired it, that was fine, but he had to contact the neighbor and get it to him right away. Otherwise, it went to the donation site at the end of the day. The “donate” and “trash” piles got hauled away daily so that Jackson wouldn’t be tempted to pull items back out later that night. Mike listed the “sell” items on eBay within a day or two. Jackson saved the “maybe” items to sort at the end of the cleaning.
To keep on track, Jackson reminded himself repeatedly of the goal to sell his house and move in with Mike. Whenever he debated about an item, he asked himself if it fit his goal. The impressive Cher doorknobs were ultimately kept because Mike and Jackson agreed that they could go in their new place—and besides, they were real conversation pieces. But most of Jackson’s clothing and other collectibles did not fit his goal—he had already moved enough clothes to Mike