Stopping hoarding involves small, consistent steps like decluttering for short periods, setting rules (e.g., "one item out daily"), getting professional help (CBT is key), and challenging the urge to acquire more, often by reframing discarding items as a positive action or making it a game, while focusing on one small area at a time to build momentum and avoid overwhelm.
Compulsive Hoarding and 6 Tips to Help
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a common treatment for hoarding disorder. With the help of a licensed mental health professional, such as a psychologist, people learn to understand why they hoard and how to feel less anxiety when throwing away items. Specialists also teach organization and decision-making skills.
Many people who hoard have strongly held beliefs related to acquiring and discarding things, such as: "I may need this someday" or "If I buy this, it will make me happy". Others may be struggling to cope with a stressful life event, such as the death of a loved one.
Try to find a therapist or other mental health provider with expertise in treating hoarding disorder. As part of CBT , you may: Learn to identify and challenge thoughts and beliefs related to getting and saving items. Learn to resist the urge to get more items.
Some people develop hoarding disorder after experiencing a stressful life event that they had difficulty coping with, such as the death of a loved one, divorce or losing possessions in a fire.
The idea behind the 10-10 decluttering method is refreshingly simple—which ups the chances that you'll be able to stick to it! Over the course of 10 days, you'll declutter 10 items a day from 10 different areas or rooms of your home. Not hardcore enough? Try limiting each day's decluttering session to only 10 minutes.
People with hoarding disorder commonly live with other complex or psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Yes, hoarding can be treated. Unfortunately, it has not responded well to the usual treatments that work for OCD. Some strategies used to treat hoarding include: Challenging the hoarder's thoughts and beliefs about the need to keep items and about collecting new things.
The main talking therapy used to treat hoarding disorder is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This focuses on how your thoughts, beliefs and attitudes affect your feelings and behaviour. Evidence suggests that both individual and group CBT can help.
If the 5x5 method is as new to you as it was to me, allow me to explain. Coined by Steph of The Secret Slob, this technique requires nothing but a timer and twenty-five free minutes. Pick five rooms or zones and dedicate five minutes per area. In twenty-five minutes, Steph promises a cleaner, less cluttered home.
Assemble A Support Team
Cleaning a hoarder's house is not a one-person job. Assemble a team of friends, family members or professional cleanup services to help with the task. Having multiple people involved can make the process faster and less overwhelming.
Clutterers Anonymous℠ is a Fellowship of compulsive clutterers who practice a 12-Step and 12-Tradition program modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous® (A.A.®).
The 12-12-12 decluttering method, created by Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist, is a simple, manageable system where you find 12 items to throw away, 12 items to donate, and 12 items to return to their proper place in a room, totaling 36 items, which helps to quickly reduce clutter without overwhelm and build momentum. It's a quick, repeatable process for any area, focusing on immediate results by tackling trash, donations, and misplaced items in small, achievable steps.
Excessive Collection and Storage of Items
Perhaps the most obvious sign of hoarding is the excessive accumulation of items in various areas of the home. Hoarding can extend beyond the living room or bedroom to the yard, garage, or even the person's automobile.
If you have a mind full of swirling emotions, journaling a stream of consciousness is a great way to declutter your mind. Grab a notebook or journal and a favourite pen and begin to write. Just write whatever comes into your mind. Write about how you're feeling and why.
But try to remember that the items they hoard feel important to them – even if they don't seem valuable to you. Don't take over their space. It's understandable to want to help them improve things. But if you try to take charge, they might not want to accept any help at all.
The emotional impact can be profound. Stress, shame, and anxiety are common experiences, and hoarding disorder often co-occurs with other mental health conditions. The accumulation of items can interfere with daily routines. It can also create serious safety and health risks, making everyday life more difficult.
The Bible warns against placing too much importance on material wealth, and this principle goes hand in hand with hoarding. In Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
In fact, if it's done without their consent, discarding the hoarder's possessions usually does more harm than good. The hoarder will likely be angry and resentful—damaging the relationship between you—and their process of accumulation will simply begin all over again.
Yet some people take their keepsakes to the extreme, holding onto decades' worth of receipts, newspapers, and other seemingly useless items. They have hoarding disorder—a mental health condition characterized by a compulsive need to acquire and keep possessions, even when they're not needed.
The 5 stages of hoarding describe a progressive scale from minor clutter (Level 1) to uninhabitable conditions (Level 5), where homes become unusable, safety is compromised (hazards, pests, biohazards), personal hygiene declines, and severe social isolation occurs, reflecting increasing difficulty discarding items and significant disruption to daily life.
What is the Sunday Butterfly method? Simply put, instead of following an order of events, you move through your home and put away, declutter, organize or clean the items you notice.
"The fork decluttering method is a streamlined approach that categorises items into four distinct groups: Functional, Optional, Replaceable, and Keep- worthy," says Caroline Caron Dhaouadi, founder of Homefulness.