Safety Risks of Hoarding

have worked with hoarders for over 10 years now and have come to understand some of the intricacies of hoarding behavior. I wanted to share some of the health & safety issues associated with the accumulation of extreme amounts of random items such as rotting food, trash, papers, household items, furniture, books, etc.

Hoarders are generally unaware of the fact that their lifestyle is a problem or causing a safety hazard to themselves, family and their animals (if applicable). Low self-awareness is one of the many psychological impairments a hoarder is challenged with. This lack of insight into their living conditions and lack of desire to change contributes to the health and safety concerns that arise from living in a filthy, possible insect & rodent infested environment.

The questions that have to be answered upon inspection of such an environment are:

Is there an immediate health & safety threat to the person/s that living in such an environment?

What kind of structural damage is there?

Are exits blocked creating fire & safety hazards for the occupants of the home & the accessibility by emergency services?

Is there adequate housekeeping?

Are the accumulated items posing a risk for slipping or falling injuries?

Are there rodents or is there insect infestation in the home?

Is there an odor problem due to urine or feces, live garbage & a lack of housekeeping?

Are these odors wafting over to the neighbors houses?

Are the adult/s in the home caring for themselves adequately?

If there are children and/or animals in the house, are they being cared for properly?

The hard road ahead is having the person living in these conditions realize the many health & safety risks this lifestyle poses for them and be willing to make a lifestyle change. Where does that motivation to make changes for their health & wellness come from? with limited insight, it can take a life threatening incident for the hoarder to reach out for help.

All to often the hoarder is living in isolation. Because of the many mental health issues the hoarder faces, without the proper intervention of mental health workers and related professionals, the hoarder faces a future of continued acquiring and larger health & safety risks.

Hoarding behavior is a mental health issue and a public health problem. Usually, the behavior has been occurring for a long time and requires patience and understanding. Frequently, it requires the help of other people and agencies. Neglect or abuse issues associated with elders, children, or animals may require emergency interventions. Code violations resulting from neglect or collection of materials may require emergency actions.

After meeting with a lot of caring families and friends that want to help, I always suggest to them that they do not touch the hoarders possessions without full consent of the hoarder. As a professional organizer, I'm one of the team players on the related professions collaborative team. I team up with mental health provides, local agencies, social workers and of course the family.

There are state & local agencies that can help hoarders in need. So states have hoarding task forces setup that are extremely useful resources. Here is a site that offers additional resources for hoarders & their families: http://www.ocfoundation.org

The Science of Happiness

There are many researchers that are studying the new science of happiness. This is part of the fascinating science of "Positive Psychology." I want to share two people that share their insights and research into happiness.

The first one is cognitive researcher Nancy Etcoff, who looks at happiness and the ways we try to achieve and increase it. "The way it's untethered to our real circumstances, and its surprising effect on our bodies."

Here is the link to her presentation on TED: http://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_etcoff_on_happiness_and_why_we_want_it.html

The second presentation on the science of happiness comes from Shawn Achor, who’s’ presentation is called "The Science of Happiness and Potential." Shawn Achor is the winner of over a dozen distinguished teaching awards at Harvard University, where he delivered lectures on positive psychology in the most popular class at Harvard.

Shawn's presentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8DngXKtvEQ

At the last NSGCD conference in Austin, September 2010, we had a presenter by the name of Dr. Wanda L. Bethea. She gave a presentation called "Positive Psychology and Client Success." This presentation helped me to gain an understanding and working knowledge of the Positive Psychology theory.

A number of important points I learned from Dr. Bethea's presentation were:

Positive Psychology is the scientific study of: • What makes life worth living • What is right about/with people/organizations • People at their best • People living an engaged, meaningful and pleasant life • Positive experiences/emotions, positive traits/strengths and positive institutions

Positive Psychology is NOT: • A self-help movement • A re-packaging of "the power of positive thinking • "happy-ology" • A passing fad*

*(Robert Biswas Diener)

Holiday Grand Plan

You've decided: this is the year you'll celebrate the holiday season from a home that is clean, organized and ready for Christmas. You dream of holiday parties, overnight house guests, Christmas cookies, a decorated home and a calm and stress-free holiday season.

There's only one problem: right now, you're living in domestic chaos. Looking around your home, you don't know where to begin.

Cluttered counters, crammed closets and out-of-place possessions pile up everywhere. Dust bunnies and ceiling cobwebs announce that deep-cleaning is long over-due, and the guest room? Forget about it! It's home to moving boxes, unfinished crafts and last winter's stained jackets and unmatched mittens.

To have the holiday of your dreams, you need more than just a gift list and good intentions: you need the Holiday Grand Plan, a tried and tested roadmap to Christmas in a clean and organized home.

Written by Katie Leckey with contributions from the Prodigy Homelife Get O group in 1992-1993, the Holiday Grand Plan is the Web's oldest Christmas organizing plan.

By breaking down all the tasks needed to clean and organize the house and prepare for the holidays, and dividing them into weekly assignments, the Holiday Grand Plan will help you reach the season calm, centered and ready to celebrate from a clean and organized home.

Holiday Grand Plan 2010 begins on Sunday, August 29, and continues throughout the holiday season. Based on Katie's companion Spring Cleaning Grand Plan, the Holiday Grand Plan combines holiday prep, home organizing and cleaning components.

Digging Out: Helping Your Loved One Manage Clutter, Hoarding and Compulsive Acquiring

Your parents or your child or your sister or your brother or your best friend has a home that is stuffed to the gills with stuff. The dining room table is covered in piles, the kitchen is full of dirty dishes and garbage, even the sofa is piled so high with junk that nobody can sit. Perhaps some of the exits are blocked, and if there are stairs, chances are that there are even little piles of junk there. Maybe the paths through these rooms are narrowed down to "goat trails." Perhaps the furnace is broken or the plumbing is leaking or the appliances need servicing because nobody can come do the necessary work because of the clutter.

You worry about what will happen if someone gets sick or injured in the hoard, or BECAUSE OF THE HOARD. How will the paramedics get in? What if there is a fire, how would people escape when

the junk goes up like a tinderbox? Maybe there are kids who are forced to live in the mess and you need to figure out how to help them.

You want to do something to help, but what do you do?

The sad fact of hoarding is that so many people who hoard are extremely resistant to help and change. We, the family and friends, are either shut out from helping entirely or we jump into the EXHAUSTING process of dehoarding a house, only to watch the situation return to the way it was and even get worse, in

what seems like the blink of an eye.

We feel impossibly torn – we hold ourselves responsible for our loved one's wellbeing and safety and yet it seems like we are powerless to change the problem.

To make matters worse, until recently, there wasn't a lot of guidance on how to help someone with a serious hoarding problem.

But now, there's a book that speaks directly to us, the family and friends of people with SERIOUS hoarding problems:

Digging Out: Helping Your Loved One Manage Clutter, Hoarding and Compulsive Acquiring, Book Link: http://amzn.to/gFA9PI

In the words of the publisher "Many people who hoard understand the extent of their problem and are open to help. This book is not for them. Digging Out is for the concerned and frustrated friends and family members of people who do not fully accept the magnitude of their hoarding problem and refuse help from others. If you have a friend or loved one with a hoarding problem and are seeking a way to guide him or her to a healthier, safer way of life, this book is for you."

Digging Out gives specific harm reduction strategies to help anyone with a hoarding problem to live safely and comfortably in their home or apartment. This is not a book that promises to magically make the hoarding go away. Instead, it offers direct, specific strategies to:

• Manage health and safety hazards

• Avoid eviction

• Manage child protection issues

• Motivate your friend or relative to make longer-term lifestyle

changes

Learn how to:

• Handle a spouse or roommate with a hoarding problem

• Work through special problems faced by frail and elderly hoarders

• Heal strained relationships between people who hoard and their friends and family

If I could recommend just one resource for people who are living with the anxiety, shame and frustration of their loved one's hoarding issue, it would be Digging Out.

You can purchase Digging Out from Amazon: http://amzn.to/gFA9PI

Discomfort With Silence

We as a human race are very uncomfortable with silence. Just check it out for yourself. 

Sit in a quiet room, with a clock or watch that has a second hand. Of course the clock must be clearly in view, with no distractions. 

Don’t say anything for thirty seconds. Just listen and be present with the silence permeating your presence. Notice how long that small duration of time feels when there is total silence.

How did it make you feel? What did you notice? Where did your mind and thoughts go?

What would happen if you extended it to one minute of silence? People who regularly meditate often do it for thirty minutes to one hour a day. They claim it clears the fog in their mind and creates renewed energy. After doing this exercise, I think it will be come increasingly clear to you that it takes discipline to sit still in silence. I think the benefits to people with ADHD can be significant but learning to sit still with a physically and/or cognitively hyperactive mind is quite challenging. You might want to start with learning to feel comfortable with silence.

Click here to watch this video. Afterwards, ask yourself the following question? How will I begin to integrate silence into my life?

(Written by David Giwerc, ADDCA)

It's New Calendar Time!

This is the time of year when those of us who rely on paper planners need to think about purchasing our new planners for the New Year.

Purchase your calendar based on your personal needs. Do you need a one day at a time format or week at a glance? Do you need a specific size, to fit into your backpack or purse? I personally like a loose-leaf format, so you can easily add accessories, such as address/phone book section, planner guide tabs and pages, etc.

A favorite of mine is Frank Covey: http://store.franklinplanner.com. There are so many different styles, formats and options to choose from, you're assured a planner for your specific needs. Another favorite of mine is Day Timer: http://www.daytimer.com. I used Day Timer as my time management system, before the invention of PDA's. Now my iPhone is my time management choice. Whichever calendaring system you use, be sure that you use it consistently. Otherwise, it is useless.

My blog & I

If you've come to my blog to get the latest information about the work I do, the clients I serve or the hottest topic of the day, week or month, well it might not be posted on here at this time.

The reason is that I'm very fortunate to have a very busy professional organizing business. And rather than hiring someone else to write my blog, which might never happen in my lifetime (never say never), I decided that I need a bit of a hiatus from this wonderful blog to continue to serve my clients needs to my fullest capacity & mine (to get a good night sleep).

If something inspires me to write, well write I will. Until then, if your checking my website out & seeing if I'm the kind of organizer that will suit your specific needs and you wind up at my blog, understand that there are only so many hours in a day & what kind of organizer would I be if I spent all my time blogging & not serving my clients needs???

You can now safely go back to my website, check out my contacts page & go from there. If you have a specific question about my services, I'll look forward to receiving an email from you.

Until then, happy blogging...