The Secret Lives of Hoarders_ True Stories of Tackling Extreme Clutter - Matt Paxton [52]
Therapy would have been helpful for Rick, as a Stage 3 hoarder, but it was still optional because he would be moving in with his sister, who would help him stay clutter-free. Although Rick hadn’t been diagnosed with dementia, his sister said that the signs had worsened recently and that she would continue to monitor him when they were living together. At the same time, she could really help him control his hoarding with daily reminders and incentives.
STAGE 4: AIMEE
Aimee, whose story opened this chapter, was only the second case that I’d ever worked on. We knew that her condo contained human waste and used insulin needles—two toxic substances that needed special handling—but we didn’t know what else we might find. The place also had some structural damage. Late-stage hoarder houses have more potential for accidents and noxious hazards, which can put a cleanup crew at high risk for injury and sickness. With these dangers, and the legal issues about disposing of hazardous waste, a professional crew is pretty much required at this stage.
Shoes, purses, clothes, and unopened packages hid the feces and food that spilled out into the hallway from the adjacent rooms in Aimee’s Stage 4 house.
After Aimee’s cleanup, there were just a few cartons of things to be taken away.
For advanced hoarders, trust is hugely important. On the first day, cleanup helpers asked Aimee for permission every time they started to work on a pile of stuff and whenever they wanted to enter a room. They asked her to look at and approve every item they threw away. It was slow going at first.
Aimee was well enough to work with us for about an hour at a time before she needed to go lie down on her bed for a rest. At first she wanted all of the workers in the same room, so that she could keep an eye on them, and she asked that the cleaning stop when she took a break. After a few days, she trusted the crew enough to allow a team to work independently in the bedroom while she stayed with the main crew in the kitchen. Everyone kept working during her breaks.
She realized that the cleaning crew wasn’t going to do anything behind her back, and she knew that they were searching for important items, which included tax documents, checks, and her mother’s pearl necklace. Aimee knew exactly where the necklace was. She pointed to a pile in the bathroom—clothing, towels, and newspaper, all soaking wet and moldy from the leaky sink. The next day the crew found it within two inches of where Aimee said it was, still in its original box, in perfect condition.
Aimee wanted to keep all of her purses and shoes, and most of her clothing. I reminded her of her goal—to stay in her house—and that she could either keep all her clothing or keep her house. So together we chose a closet just for her shoes and purses, and that space would set the limit of her hoarding. She was allowed to keep as many clothing and accessory items as she could fit into that closet, and no more. Because Aimee was learning to set her own limits, she was more agreeable when it came to making choices.
Because of the stress, a late-stage hoarder is usually unable to clean for more than a day or two. With Aimee, we scheduled two days of cleaning followed by an off day. We took her trash to the dump each day so that she wouldn’t go back and pull items out of the Dumpster at night (a common hoarder problem). But Aimee’s main issue was that during her non-cleaning days, she would go through her “maybe” pile and move a lot to her “keep” section. Every time the crew returned, they had to spend half a day redoing that work.
The later the hoarding stage, the more team members are usually involved to cope with the physical and emotional issues. Aimee’s team included a social worker, a building inspector, and six cleanup helpers. Her cleanup took three months, with lots of days