If an item won't fetch more than a certain amount of dollars, then it's better to just give it away for free.

What's your dollar value threshold for this? $5? $10? $20? $50?

Hi there. I (26F) currently live with my parents as they so kindly allow me to while I pay off my student debts. The problem is that my mom (55) is very much a hoarder, I'd say around a 6 or 7 with no insect risk but definitely safety and health risk. Having grown up with these tendencies around me I too picked up on the hoarding tendencies. Once I saw how bad it can actually get and my frugal tendencies, I have trained myself to be better about not buying things unless I need it or have an immediate use for it like a project. My mom on the other hand will buy things because "it's on sale" or "Where else are you gonna find this deal" only for it to sit in the same place for 8+ years collecting dust. It has made it to where our house with 10 total rooms (including kitchen, living room, etc. all the rooms) only has 1 room that's clean and you're able to walk through it without having to path weird. That room being my room. Now before I had so many things that you could barely walk in my room, but I have since cleaned it up though it took me a few years to get my bearings and not be overwhelmed by it to actually take care of it.

Here's where the complication comes in. My mom sees the messes as something we can all tackle together and get done in a day, however her idea of cleaning is just moving the mess to another location and then that room is "clean" to her hence why we could do 1 room a day. But then that just leaves double the work for the next room that doesn't get touched for months or years after stuff is moved. I also just feel very invalidated when I tell her that I can't do something. I feel that she is expecting too much of me and everyone else in the family really. My parents won't let my younger sister do anything because she's disabled, when she could help with really small things I just feel they coddled her so much that she feels like she can't do anything anymore on her own at all.

I currently work 3 part-time jobs because my main job went into slow season so I wasn't scheduled for a whole month and I ended up using all my savings just to stay afloat on my debt payments and bills so I'm exhausted most of week. I also have a lot of extracurriculars because I have many hobbies and have to keep my brain active or I'll go crazy. When I try to explain to her that I only have certain bits of energy a day, I'm also autistic and have adhd, and when I get overwhelmed and overstimulated I really can't do much of anything she gets upset with me because I can't meet her expectations. So a lot of times my current situation rules me out from helping when she has the energy to do stuff because she tends to get her energy spurts when I'm exhausted and had a long day of working. That leaves my dad (65), who is entering senior status and he already does so much throughout the day like taking care of my mom and sister while working 50+ hours a week he's tired a lot too.

I recently came up with a plan with a few of my friends as my mom was talking about hiring a maid service back in December that one of my friends, who owns a non-profit, could bring a few of us together for a communal house cleaning for free. I thought this to be a great idea and when I pitched a free cleaning opportunity to my mom, it did not go as expected. Every time I asked I got a new what feels like an excuse. I don't want to coin it as an excuse because my mom says I use my disability as an excuse all the time so it feels dirty to say that to me but that's also what it feels like. But she would say things like "Oh we can't have people over with the house a mess like this" or "we can't have people going through our personal stuff" or what have you. I know that she's prideful about things but this is really a problem that just my dad and I mostly can't tackle on our own. I feel that she expects way too much out of my dad and I and I have 3 people on deck ready to help as soon as my mom gives the okay. I just don't understand how she was fine with the idea of hiring cleaners but not this?

How can I go about talking to my mom about this in a way that she won't take personally as she's the type to take everything personal? I know that hoarding is a disorder as well and she has others but she refuses to do therapy as well cause she had 1 bad experience in 2002 so I've exhausted those options. I just feel stuck because I've been trying to get somewhere with this for at least the house cleaning for a few months, but its been an ongoing battle for years. I'm also just so tired of being told that I don't know how to clean and that I'm leaving my stuff everywhere, when what she's doing is the main cause of the problem and she's just pushing the blame on me instead. I really just don't know where to go from here my dad and I get so overwhelmed just looking at the mess everywhere and we're both often just paralyzed.

Thank you if you've read this far, I know it's a lot of information so I'll leave a tl;dr as well!

TL;DR: my mom is a level 6-7 hoarder who is refusing any sort of help after suggesting we maybe get a maid service and wants my dad and I to do a room a day when my dad is working a full-time job at 65 while taking care of my mom and sister and I'm currently working 3 part-time jobs and spend most of my time at home exhausted, but she is refusing free cleaning help, how do I talk to her to compromise on this?

Child of two hoarders and sibling of one possible hoarder. Former hoarder [I think? I collected specific things but there was a lot].

I've had a few friends say they noticed I was the child of hoarders the second they stepped into my house and the way I talk about certain things. A few had never heard the term "marrying items" before. It genuinely makes me anxious to have too much stuff. I don't need extras. The extent of extra is food in the cupboards and freezer.

They want me to talk to a professional about OCD, but I already know it's not. I have boughts of mania at worst and have a diagnosis to back it up. I live in a small apartment, get rid of excess items regularly, and have a process of dealing with sentimental items of just "if I don't remember why I have it, I don't need it".

My friends and some former coworkers have found it weird that I do this. They say it's okay to have superfluous things if they make me happy, but that's the thing: they don't. I don't feel happy with a lot of things, a lot of extra space, a lot of ANYTHING. I don't call them weird for their extra stuff or having different tastes when it comes to their living spaces even though sometimes I get a little stressed. It's not my home, not my stuff, not my problem.

Lately I've been thinking about if they're right and maybe I'm just over compensating for my childhood experience. I don’t know if I should go back to trying therapy [none I've tried have worked and I've tried a LOT] or if it's just a kind of bizarre peer pressure. I haven't stopped doing what I do, but it gets to me that maybe I'm over reacting to it all.

I’m a Level 2-3 hoarder.

I grew up with level 3-4 hoarder parents and I’ve only went maybe a year or two of my life in a clean space. Up until this year, my space was only at a level 1-2 and I could have people over. I’m working 12+ hr days so I don’t have much time to clean.

I’ve tried to tell my therapist but I don’t think she gets it because I’m functioning well and present myself well everywhere outside of my home. It’s to the point where I think my fiancé is putting off moving in together because of my mess.

I have rodents, there’s dog feces and urine, and outside of my garage there is a noticeable odor from the mess. As it warms up, I want to get this under control before it’s too noticeable from outside.

Where do I even start? I’ve lived my whole life like this. Any advice welcome. If it helps, I am diagnosed with ADHD, PTSD, and low support needs autism.

hi im not sure if this is the right place for this but im not sure where else to ask. i need advice on how to approach this situation with my mom without triggering her and making her upset, which usually happens. this leads to no progress at all, and we both are upset and self loathing.

for context im 26 & am living with my mom & i always have besides college (some of the best years of my life bc i had my own space) unfortunately i cannot afford an apartment right now. my mom has been hoarding for at least 20 years. i know other cases are worse but this really affects me. we have 3 rooms in our house that we can't access at all, including her bedroom. she's shared a room with me and now sleeps in the living room. every room is lined with at least 1.5 feet of items all around basically and like 3 feet high in some places. i walk in small hallways. i can't eat at the kitchen table & i need to move things to use appliances/open cabinets.

i understand hoarding is a mental illness of sorts & my mom also suffers from other mental illness & has experienced a lot of trauma in her life. this is why i have such a hard time speaking about this with her. i am very empathetic & i understand why she does this. but this doesn't change how i'm affected by it & i really have always felt suffocated. it impacts my own mental health & not having an open space has led to me feeling overwhelmed every time i'm in my house. it really makes me feel unwell lol and i have a lot of issues surrounding this, as it's impacted my life more than ive thought. watching my childhood playroom slowly get taken over, never being able to have my own room, realizing that no one's house is like mine. that people live being able to move around and feel free.

the main point: every time i mention negative feelings about the house or the hoarding that is still happening (shopping addiction to thrift stores) she goes into guilt mode, rather intentional or not. she cries and tells me sorry she's such an awful mother. or she does the opposite and gets spiteful and says that i should be grateful i even have a roof over my head at all. which is a great point bc she's supporting me & always has & i really struggle financially & am kind of dependent so i end up feeling bad for saying anything at all.

whenever i bring up this topic or try to explain how something is affecting me, i end up having to feel guilty bc she gets so upset and i get scared she'll have a breakdown. how can we talk about this and make a plan of sorts? anyone know of any resources that can help me help her? no therapist has ever successfully helped us in individual therapy.

i have offered to help clean throughout the years, a lot of people have, but she doesn't like people telling her what to do or touching her things or placing them elsewhere. she also hates letting things go. i also struggle immensely with depression & and anxiety & the thought of tackling my house makes me freak before i even try. it is just so overwhelming. what's really sad is i feel like she passed this down to me bc my own room is not healthy. i have a lot of things too and i hate this. we bond over thrift shopping. she won't stop bringing more things in. small instant gratification by buying something makes me happy i'll admit it. recently i realized how im doing the same exact thing and have since basically stopped. and started giving things away. today she told me she looked through the bags and kept things. when i tried exposing how triggering that was for me she cried and hung up. i called back and said i was sorry for upsetting her, it just upsets me.

sorry this is a lot lol any advice is appreciated

First, I hope it's ok that I'm posting this under a different username. I'm still hesitant to talk openly about what's happening rn. If not, I apologize, and please feel free to remove.

Second, this subreddit is life-saving. I can't remember how I found it, but when I did and started reading the posts and the stuff linked to in New to hoarding?, my struggles finally began to make sense and I realized I need help.

Based on what I've learned, it seems like my hoarding went from level 1 to somewhere between 2 and 3 following a brain injury and then a layoff from my job of 8 years while I was on FMLA for it. I couldn't afford COBRA and lost access to the treatment I'd started. More important, no matter what I tell myself, I can't seem to overcome the impact of the injury/losing my job on my mental health. My self-confidence, sense of purpose, trust in/connection to others, financial stability, and hope are really close to non-existent at this point.

My situation is this: I live alone with two small elderly dogs in a city where my support system is limited to my mom and her partner, both of whom are over 80. The headaches, vertigo, and ataxia I have - along with the depression and loss of income - have made it really hard to take care of myself and my dogs, let alone my house. Before the layoff, I had a cleaner who came when she could and kept my space reasonably clean and safe, albeit cluttered. Since she last cleaned, the week of Thanksgiving, I haven't been able to make it down the flight of stairs to take out my trash/recycling, pick up the things I keep dropping/clean up my constant spills, return online purchases, donate stuff I don't need, empty my sink of dishes, etc. It's been really scary.

Last week, when my toilet broke and I couldn't fix it, I realized I couldn't call maintenance for help due to the conditions inside my apartment and on my porches, I decided I had to act. I made the (risky, also scary) decision to dip into my retirement savings to pay for help clearing the debris and cleaning what's left.

Thanks to the information folks here shared, I contacted Bio One. They're scheduled to come over to assess and, hopefully, give me an estimate tomorrow morning at 11. (It's 5pm here now.) I'm terrified and embarrassed but trying to remember this isn't their first rodeo and that the assistance is going to make things a lot better.

I could really use encouragement, though - and maybe help not freaking out that I haven't been pre-cleaning for them since yesterday when the appointment was made.

I'm also wondering if anyone would be willing to share their thoughts, experiences, and/or advice about one specific question I've got:

Because I just came to grips with the fact that I'm hoarding - and my main source of discomfort is mess/cleanliness right now - I don't feel super prepared to make decisions about clutter that isn't obviously trash/stuff to give away. If I had a steady source of income, I'd either err on the side of clearing as much as possible of it now, trusting that if I miss something, I'll be able to replace it OR pay for a first-stage cleanup and immediately set a date for them to come back. Since I'm unemployed, neither of these options feels doable. Has anyone been in a similar situation and/or have words of wisdom, ideas, etc. to share? I'd be very grateful.

Either way, thanks again for creating such a supportive space. :)

Well I have to say I’m so grateful to have found this community. This week me and my wife came to terms with the fact we are hoarders. We live in a basement and Wednesday morning we woke up to flooding in our space. We have had small puddles by the door before but this came all the way into our bedroom. It wasn’t a lot, just some here and there, but this was devastating. Now we had no choice but to go through everything and toss stuff. For the last 6 days we have been doing nothing but cleaning and throwing things away. We had to get a dumpster, and we filled it in 30 minutes. I finally feel like I can breathe. There have been a few moments of sobbing, but overall this has been such an amazing gift of a disaster. We already have so much more livable space (space has always been a huge problem since we moved in together unexpectedly during Covid). Coupled with hard life circumstances and depression that we were both dealing with, getting out of the mess was not attainable. We went and got some shelving to start having a place for everything. I can say that being forced to deal with our problem was a huge thing.

I knew at the beginning of last month that things were really bad. My neighbors and I had a super traumatic event (I adore my neighbors), and they had to enter our house. There were no other options, it had to happen. I was just sobbing my apologies because I was so disgusted that these people I love had to see my secrets. They were very kind and understanding and just appreciative to have somewhere to be during this event. But that was when I realized. Oh my god what have we become. We still have a ways to go, but the majority of our mess is gone. We still have to work to do. We have to do the laundry room, the living room and the kitchen. That all seems manageable compared to our room though.

Thank you all for the amazing resources that are here. I discovered this group last night and I think it will help to keep us accountable and focused. I can’t wait to live in our new space.

i'm extremely shameful of this admission so i made a throwaway, so hopefully this doesn't get automodded, but maybe typing this will help me anyway. as the title says, i tend to collect.. trash? i don't have any real attachment to any of the trash and i always feel great after it's gone, but i've been diagnosed borderline personality, adhd & depression. it's a fun combination that tends to feed on each other to the point of no longer caring about anything around me. i would never turn the lights on in my room to avoid having to face any of it. anyway, i feel as though i'm ready to have a liveable house but my mom lives with me and is more your stereotypical hoarder (ie; collects things from 50 years ago, walls high worth of papers, massive storage bins with nothing organized, etc etc). we got the fated fire inspection which honestly did not go very bad but that's only because the landlord doesn't care about the state of anything & decided to stay in the hallway and just let the maintenance man do his thing LOL. what WAS bad, though, was my anxiety in the days leading up to it.. but even worse, the anxiety knowing that as soon as they left, everything belonging to my mom that i stored away in closets to hide from them would return to the squeaky clean floors that i spent hours vacuuming, scrubbing & polishing because she refuses to organize, and screams at me if i come near it.

I have honestly been doing pretty great at upkeeping the place but i'm doing it almost entirely on my own. my mom is not only a hoarder, but is generally filthy. if i'm being honest, i have the ability to be as well, and my newfound cleanliness is out of desperation for change, and showing her how good life could be and feel. it's taking everything out of me to convince myself to do basic chores, BUT I'M DOING THEM. i spent around $800 last month just on things that normal people have in their houses that i thought might make things easier on me if i'm going to try and change for the better. simple things like a shower caddy, a dish rack, toiletries, dish sponges, all these things that i feel as though normal people have that were never really a concern in my household, just like cleaning never was unless it was inspection time.

it's been going amazingly but i'm still so fearful that history will repeat itself.

i don't have a useable closet, i have no useable storage areas, my bedroom is the only place that i have any sort of objects in outside of the cleaning supplies i bought last month. my mom has taken over my bedroom closet, a closet AND a wardrobe in her bedroom, the closet in the living room & the coat closet in the entryway.. and there is no reasoning with her when it comes to downsizing. it took me removing all the trash for me to realize that i have almost no belongings. a lot of this is due to growing up with a hoarder and being so fearful of ever becoming one. the house i rent, under my name, is not a home to me. i can't afford to live without a roommate and i don't think i'm at the point of my recovery (?) to consider living with a stranger.

to make matters worse, we've discovered roaches recently and i've been attempting pest control myself because my mom is too terrified of asking our landlord to do anything about it because she read the treatment prep requirements online (taking everything out of closets, away from walls, remove clutter, etc). doesn't help that where i live, the only pesticides available are the ones that roaches are entirely resistant to. i know how this all reads, and i know that i should move out but the housing crisis is insane in my city. i live in a $1300 a month house that we've been in since before rent hiked up to over $2800 for a 2 bedroom apartment?!

this was a lot longer than i planned on it being but if you've made it this far, i appreciate the hell out of you. i guess i just want someone to tell me that i can make it. and maybe someone out there would want an accountability buddy? i don't know. thanks for reading.

I'm currently staying at my late dad's house which held stuff from 1970s to 2010s; it's been abandoned for several years after my dad got sick until last month. I came back to clean this house again so I can live here properly. We used to move a lot so the stuff from the houses we rented before. A lot of things here are in piles of disorganized hoards so I'm taking my time sorting things out from the ones damaged from old age to molded stuffs. One of the old fridge is making some weird crackling sounds and my second sister told me to mark it for disposal, and unbeknownst to me, she informed this to my mother who balked at the idea of throwing it out (she always said something like things are still useful or that she cared and felt pity over a stack of water/mold damaged women's magazines). My sister bought me a bunch of water bottles so I don't have to walk back and forth for a mile carrying them with me. Then suddenly after days of not saying a word to me other than handing some cash and how long I'm staying, mom messaged me about whether there's any working fridge and if I contacted the authorities about our broken water supply issues and pressed me about that. I dont have a car and I left my foldie behind. In her ways, pressing me to contact the utility service and write a complaint somehow counts as concern for me (never ask if I need anything else or how I was unlike only one of my four sisters who do). So... I'm alone in a dusty hoard storage house with no way to clean any surface with water including for food preparation other than bottled drinking water or harvested treated water from a broken section in a ditch.

Honestly, I thought I handled the neglect over my well-being and I learn to be independent for myself. Never quite thought over how one of my parent seemed to have less concern for me and more anxiety towards material needs. In her ways, pressing me about a working old 2000s fridge and to contact the utility service and write a complaint somehow counts as caring/concern act for me. I try not to be upset since I still have one of my older sister who support me (with groceries and food deliveries that I didn't really ask for but she wanted to help out) but the difference of it felt upsetting. I'm also surrounded my traces of my late dad's presence (it's like a time capsule) so I realized I'm doing some death cleaning.

Tldr; How do you keep it together when more care placed on inanimate things than you? I try not to get upset about this but it does get hard not to notice these things.

I'm in the process of purging my apartment and I'm finding myself getting bogged down in sentimentality with certain objects. If you've gone through a cleanout process, how did you handle these kinds of objects? My inclination is to want to set them aside for sorting later but I also know that that's a behavior that I don't want to reinforce. Any suggestions?

The thing that sucks the most is I had made so much progress before maintenance came in last week. After ending an abusive relationship, I have been back on my meds and going to therapy weekly. I've been steadily working on my apartment and the difference has been astounding to me. I went from having NO clear space to walk in my living room to having the floors be empty.

Apparently it wasn't enough because maintenance must have reported me - I have until the 21st to get the apartment in shape or they'll start eviction proceedings. I feel grateful that it's a week and a half of time rather than a couple of days, but I am still so anxious.

I am out of shape / weak with some physical disabilities and pain that will make it hard for me to do this by myself. I need to hire people to remove the trash bags for me. I don't know if they'll look in the fridge for the inspection but I haven't opened that thing in months - so I will need to get someone to come and clean it out.

Luckily I should have the funds for it all. It's just a lot and scary and overwhelming.

Looking on the bright side, though - I deserve to have a clean and functional place to live.

I think I need help desperately. I have depression, have for longer than I've known my partner. I think his behaviours are making it so much harder, and my problems are making it harder to correct this. I've also never truly seeked any advice for this until now, kinda let the problem snowball. I convinced myself it wasn that bad and some people were just messy. It wasn't until I got the non renewal of lease that I realized it wasn't a normal level of messiness and I'm actually justified in feeling how I do on a daily basis.

My partner is obsessed with star wars and comic books. I fucking hate his things now that they've taken over my entire life. He has at least 150 Funko pops, 50+ Lego sets scattered onto every fucking flat surface. Every single one. He has various other assortments of things hidden in drawers and closets.

He's also just disgustingly messy which makes the problem worse. He strips off his dirty clothes as soon as he gets home, and will put them ANYWHERE but the laundry basket. Because god forbid he put away his fucking clothes. Towels are all over the floors and he has so many clothes he doesn't even wear so those take up way too much precious space. He seems to be allergic to washing dishes. He rinses them in a super half assed way that doesn't really make much difference to not doing it at all and creates smelly dishes. He refuses to do his ONE and SINGLE chore of taking out the motherfucking garbage. He also never throws his garbage in the garbage can, I'm constantly fucking picking it up and throwing that out too.

In the beginning of our relationship I was able to keep things in order, but I barely worked. I spent 3-4 hours a day cleaning. It progressed to a point that I couldn't achieve a clean house after 8 hours of effort, and I was working full time + some. My depression became especially bad in the last couple of years and I had no energy to clean. So things have gotten so bad now I don't even know where to start. I want to scream.

This is a list of things in my apartment that are unusable due to clutter; kitchen table, a large kitchen counter so I have one tiny spot I can keep clean enough to prepare food on cutting boards, coffee table, center of couch, and a whole spare bedroom. There's also clutter piled high on top of the fridge, random things all over the floors in every room, random stuff and furniture we don't need piled with even more clutter on top, I'm probably forgetting some.

Every time this apartment has ever been cleaned has been done by me and I'm so, so exhausted. It's a large place. I'm heartbroken that I'll have to leave him since he doesn't want to change it seems. I'm giving him the opportunity to change himself before the cleanup deadline but he's not taking it.

I'm honestly tempted to just throw all of his things except for the most valued into a trash bag out to the dumpster. I can barely find my own things to pack (which are far and few between) and cleaning up just my own stuff will not make this place look remotely normal. I own pretty much nothing and I feel suffocated by all this stuff. I've gotten rid of almost everything I have in an attempt to make this place less suffocating but it doesn't work.

Every time I cook a meal I have to clean some dishes and a counter at minimum. So I barely eat anymore even though I'm a bit too thin because I can't afford delivery every night. My bathroom is oretty much always dirty and I just clean it when it gets too gross for me to use because I'm too exhausted to do much else. I worry for my cats safety and health in these conditions. I'm also the only person who cleans her litter box or buys any of her supplies. I can't have anyone over because I don't want them to know how I live I am so ashamed of this place. So I don't really have many friends either.

I don't know what to do in general as I'm completely overwhelmed. Guide me in any direction. I'm based in Alberta, Canada.

I'm also so so scared that this is going to ruin my chance at getting another place. I just don't know, this was my first apartment and I'm just terrified about everything right now.

Progress was made, but I'm not finished. Two paper bags from my closet are leaving the house tomorrow.

As I was putting away laundry, I realized that there's room above my closet hanging rod for a shallow shelf. I don't know why I hadn't considered it before; maybe I did and forgot. Either way, it's an issue resolved. The shelf will provide just enough space to store items which are currently in hanging organizers. Moving them from the organizers to a shelf eliminates the need for the organizers, which frees up almost 2' of prime real estate on the hanging rod. That's all on deck for next weekend.

Several pairs of really cheap but cute sandals that I wasn't able to let go of when I purged my footwear a year ago are in line to go next weekend.

I moved my husband's clothes to sturdier hangers that are all the same color, so now everything in his closet is hanging properly on a hanger *and* the hangers are all the same color... which helps me feel a tiny bit better about our room. The mis-matched hangers are now headed to donation.

While I was upgrading his hangers, he asked me to get rid of several pairs of his work pants that he can't use anymore. More stuff leaving the house tomorrow!

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When a person has been this way their entire life and it only is getting worse when do you just give up and let them do their thing because it makes them happy and does not bother them ?

Neighbors family members everyone has made comments or suggestions or offered to help clean up my dad’s place to no avail. I think he actually enjoys bringing junk home it helps him feel like he saved money or is going to make money on fixing the trash he picks up.

Classic stepping over dollars to pick up pennies.

If he is okay with it why should I let it bother me ? Besides the extreme stress it brings me by being over there and the fact I can’t bring my kids over, it’s his life if he wants to live in a complete shit hole I guess I will let him.

I just want to smack some common sense into him like why do you bring home building materials that you will never use only to let them sit around and rot for me to clean up ten years from now ?

Are you stupid ? Are you just a slob ? Are you lazy ? Why can you not see it’s junk like literally if people are giving it away to you it’s junk. How can hauling home literal shit make you happy ? What’s wrong with you? Don’t you want your house to look nice ? It is nice it’s an amazing setup so many people would be jealous of.

Sell all your fucking trash. Buy a new skid loader buy a new backhoe buy a new truck buy a new dump trailer ( new to him ) and BE DONE FUCKING AROUND FOR YOUR ENTIRE LIFE YOU WILL NEVER HAVE TO FIX JUNK.

I DONT get your logic and honestly I think it’s just stupidity mixed with greed. That’s all it is. I will gladly sell all your prized possessions for pennys on the dollar. All that shit you brought home instead of buying one nice thing. I will sell it all for nothing. It’s sat outside for decades what did you expect ? How can you do that why are you so greedy can’t you finish anything? I hate you for this for doing this to everyone around you.

It won’t allow me to include images, but I’d say I’m a stage 3-4 hoarder. I’ve been hoarding my entire life, and have moved several times which always started my hoarding again. Each house I went through bad depressive episodes, leading me to hoard again and again. My hoarding has gotten so bad, it affecting my mental health and freedom. Does anybody have any advice on where to start? Any guide or tips on how to set goals, and work through this would be deeply appreciated.

Here are my biggest issues currently:

• space
• organization / cleanliness
• motivation / how to begin

Does anybody also have any products they recommend for cleaning? Specifically my bathroom and carpets. I have a few stains I’ve let build up and I’m tired of living this way. I usually use bleach or vinegar to clean with, but any other products would be greatly appreciated.

Prior to my current apartment, I lived in a large house. I was dealing with financial as well as other issues, and ended up moving into a very small apartment. I don’t want to get rid of my stuff, but I’m also struggling to figure out how to organize my stuff. I’m aware I do need to donate some things, but how should I approach this? Cleaning isn’t even the hardest part, but starting. How do you deal with these feelings as if you’re abandoning objects that don’t necessarily have “value” but you’ve built that attachment to?

I would also like to add I’ve been dealing with some health issues lately as well, which has been effecting my ability to organize.

I also struggle with impulsive purchases, and don’t know how to get out of that mindset.

If anyone has a plan for how to tackle this, and where to start please let me know!

I am in desperate need of help for my father a 62 year old. Extremely hard worker and has been his entire life. His farm is in a un-workable un-livable condition. We have constantly cleaned my entire life but the shop / any available space in the yard is constantly filled up.

He constantly brings home junk or projects and never fixes any of them. So he is constantly loosing money even though he thinks he is saving money.

His solution is just to build more buildings to store more shit. He doesn’t understand basic concepts such as 7 or 8 broken air compressors is not worth one working one. He is very tight and greedy and refuses to haul in scrap metal because the “ price is to low”

I am not being dramatic you can’t walk into any of his buildings you can bearly sit down in the house. I cannot bring my kids over due to safety issues ( I am not picky either it’s just that bad. )

He can’t say no to helping anyone or taking on more projects but can’t finish anything.

The only solutions is

1. burn scrap and sell
2. quit bringing home junk
3. organize stuff when done with it
4. finish one project at a time

Sorry for the rambling I am a 30 year old male and it causes me such anxiety and depression every time I set foot on the property. He thinks he has time to do everything but he has projects for 50 years lined up. I just want to cry when i get here.

The best solution I have come up with is ( he owns over 20 acres. ) is to line up all the junk in rows like a auction in the one cow pasture because he won’t let go of those things but at least they will be out of the way so you can park in the driveway and back up trailers.

I want to help with the sickness but there are no more options now that he is retired (2 m plus in 401k and no debt ) the yard just gets more and more full of stuff.

I want him to go on vacation for all summer and have a big auction and give him a check for 100k

I’m just out of options I am so sad for him and my mom he has so many skills and I want my kids to be able to play in the yard and work in the shop with him .

Me and my sibling live together in a 2 bedroom apartment. When my other roommate bailed and I needed to find a new one, they were the first person I asked. I knew that they were a little messy, but I have recently noticed a smell coming from their room when the door is opened. I have also started to smell that smell on their clothes when I near them. My gut was telling me that there was a bigger issue at hand, so I just looked in their room while they were away. It's bad. Their room is filled with trash. It is up to my stomach and encroaching on their bed. It's literal garbage (old water bottles, wrappers, lots of Uber eats containers). This might not necessarily be a hoarding issue, maybe a depression issue, maybe a clutter issue that got out of hand and now they normalized the trash.They've always been a little lazy, but this is extreme, I'm afraid there's something wrong. I want to come at this with a sense of understanding. Would it be okay if I lied and said the landlord was talking about a possible inspection in the next week, to help encourage cleaning. Maybe once the room is clean, they'll feel more incentivized to prevent that from happening again. Im afraid to tell them I snooped but I also want to make sure their okay.

A very special person of mine bought me a bag of favorite-flavored candy. I ate every single piece except the last one at the bottom of the bag. Who knows when I'm going to see that person again - in a few months, or maybe a year or 2? Maybe never? I'm not sure because my mental and physical health are both awful, and that person lives very far from here and comes to visit me rarely. I don't know what to do. I want to eat the last piece of candy because I feel bad not eating it, wasting food and wasting something that that person bought for me. I also don't want to eat it and instead want to keep it forever somewhere buried with the other 'trash' that's 'organized' in several bags. I'll probably forget I even have that piece or candy in a few weeks, but I feel so guilty. I'm anxious because I don't know what to do.

My grandparents live in a 2500 squate foot house by themselves. They're in their late 70s. They also have a 1000+- sqf barn. So much space has been dedicated to storing their late daughters everything. She died 3ish years ago and they havent tried to get rid of anything but her car. The garage, barn, attic, 1 of the guest bedrooms are all stuffed with her things. My grandmother says she'll work on getting it "organized" but she's physically and emotionally unable. We have multiple bedframes, a dining set, just so much furniture in general. The garage is completely unusable.

From there we move onto the kitchen where we have so much kitchen equipment it's overflowing. Several dozen pots and pans. Only a small handful are usable because most of them are 70+ years old and were used by my great grandparents. We don't throw out ziplock containers or any plastic lid container as it can be used again. We have spices that expired in the early 90s when my great grandmother died. She won't throw away anything in the kitchen because "it's wasteful". We have knives that are just rusted and without a handle and it just never gets used.

I've been living in one of their guest bedrooms for 3 months as I'm transitioning from living overseas to a new job in the US. I've had to sell most of my larger items as there was no room for them in the house. I don't even try to cook anymore because I never really know what we have in the fridge. For example I'll be told we already have an ingredient only to look and see that it expired in 2010. It's just all really frustrating to see but also to live in. Ill be moving out at the end of May. Just wanted to rant as it's a daily issue trying to find anything or traverse the house as an outsider trying to make it my home for the past few months.

This format is a little confusing, so I hope I am doing this correctly. I began sorting my clothes, (the topic of this post, other posts and issues to come) which are in every room of my house, about a year ago. The closets are sorted, except for the bottoms of the closets which are full of who knows what. Mostly holiday decorations, which I use upon occasion but not like when my kids were here. My closets are smaller than most. The front coat closet has all sweaters. I have 3 bedrooms. The middle bedroom closet has coats and jackets and blazers. The back bedroom has dresses and skirts. The side bedroom has dress tops, with several purses on the shelves above. My jewelry is neatly hanging on the wall or in containers in my top dresser drawer .Pajamas, shorts, sheets, undies ,belts are in a dresser. I use only one bedroom to sleep in. All the bedrooms are filled with collector hoarder items. Shoes are in plastic holders on 2 of the bedroom doors and in containers under the bed. These items are neat. But--I have a rack of t-shirts in my living room. These are sorted, but look bad in the living room. I cannot think straight about all these clothes. My memory is getting worse as I am getting older. I only need 4 purses. I have a whole shelf full. I only wear a few pieces of jewelry, as I do not dress up very often. In other words, I don't need so much stuff. I gave away all my high heels. I have about 30 pairs of dress, boots, and walking shoes. I have about 20 sleeveless polyester very pretty SLEEVELESS tops. I am older, and I now dislike a lot of sleeveless clothes. I don't attend Church any more, so I rarely wear a dress or skirts. So even though my things are sorted, I can't bring myself to get rid of Anything More. The generation above me always warned of a GREAT DEPRESSION, because they went through it and were poor in their early years. In high school and college, I made most of my clothes and only had a couple of pairs of shoes, but I looked nice. I have been afraid lately of a cyber attack and that we will have even worse than a Great Depression. I have thrown away probably 20 bags of pure trash, and gave away probably 20 bags of clothing that didn't fit, to charity. I had sizes clothes from size 8 to size 16. I am now a size 14 and intend to stay this size. I have had some of my clothes for 30 years. I just found some jeans I forgot I had. I hemmed 5 pairs yesterday. Then I found more to hem today. I must have 20 pairs of jeans, more or less, I didn't realize I had. I don't remember buying half of them. I have way too many clothes and I am sick of sorting them and just feel like giving up. I need the money and want to sell them, but it is too hard of a job. And this is just my Clothes. I rarely buy brand new clothes and am "addicted to thrift stores". I really need advice and help! I don't want my kids and grandkids dealing with this stuff, when I die. (Sorry to write a book).

Today I put together the clothing rack I purchased in October, pulled a bunch more clothes out of my closet, and tried on many of the ones I haven't worn in a while.

Once I had my clothes out of the closet and on the clothing rack, I un-paired most of my layering pieces to see how many flesh-pink tanks I own. Despite all the un-pairing, I now have 16 empty hangers and a paper grocery sack full of clothes ready to go to donation. (No comment on the total quantity of flesh-pink layering tanks, but I take consolation in knowing that none of them are identical. OK, there are four and even though they're the same color, they're different.)

I also pulled enough items from the upstairs closet to fill another paper sack, which opens up enough space for me to move my out of season pieces upstairs and frees up enough hangers to put all my husband's clothes on hangers that are the same color. (I've been trying really hard to stay out of his closet, but it's awful and it doesn't have doors that I can close and ignore it, and putting his clothes on the same type of hanger is one thing I can do to improve it.)

I don't know how I'm going to organize my clothes when I put them away. I'm kind of leaning toward sections--dress clothes, work clothes, casual clothes. I found this guide really helpful in getting my mind focused and thinking about what I might like.

​

I removed 12 items of clothing from my closet today. Some of them were easy choices, others weren't. I stood in front of my full-length mirror and tried on the ones that weren't easy decisions. I asked myself what the specific reason was that I didn't like that garment. I procrastinated for several hours, putzing with this and that, while I worked up the steam to do it. It took maybe two hours, and it kicked my ass.

I have hoarding tendencies and I've been decluttering for a little more than a year now. I've sold things, I've donated things, I've put things in recycling, and I've thrown a few things away. I've given things to coworkers (which was productive) and listed things for free on Marketplace and in my local "buy nothing group" (both of which were an absolute waste of my time). I've returned purchases and purged documents and filed current and prior years' state and federal income tax returns. I'd hoped to be done with the whole-house decluttering by now, but it seems like I'm just getting started.

I am so tired of the clutter. I want to enjoy what I have instead of being overwhelmed by it. I don't want to do to my kids what my parents are poised to do to my sibling and me. A person might think I'd be able to just open the door and start chucking, but it isn't that easy.

I had originally set myself the task of decluttering each time I had a three-day weekend, but I'm finding that getting to the bottom of how and why I accumulated so much stuff is quite possibly the most difficult part of this process. I'm peeling back layers upon layers of painful memories, undoing actual damage done to me by others throughout the course of my life, and breaking bad habits that were passed on to me by others. I'm feeling a sense of agency instead of going through the motions and responding to whatever situation confronts me. I intentionally took the last two "long" weekends off from decluttering. This past weekend, I prioritized myself, my husband, and the needs of our household when, for the first time I can remember, I told my dad "no" when he called and hinted (because he never directly asks) that he needed me to drop what I was doing to go help him and Mom with a "crisis" which was wasn't a crisis and entirely preventable.

I'm discovering that despite being cluttered, I take fairly good care of my things. I'm learning that I don't need to buy a back up for when this one wears out because by then they won't make it any more and I will have to "waste" time finding a suitable replacement, because items that supposedly need to be replaced every year or two last me for several years.

I'm getting to know myself and my actual preferences. Not what I've had to smile and be grateful for, because it was a gift. Not what I have to make the best of, because that's what there is. My actual personal preferences.

I am learning all this by asking myself as I go through my stuff, "Why do I have this/why am I keeping this?" and listening to the answers. I was surprised to notice a pattern.

• It was given to me. <-- This is a HUGE one. I think there was more than a little proxy hoarding and narcissistic gift giving going on.
• I bought it because it's what I could afford at the time, and I upgraded when I could afford better. (OK, but why is this one still here?)
• I bought it because it's what was available at the time, and the one with the features I really wanted wasn't in stock/in season/on the market then. I've since upgraded. (Again--OK, but why is this one still here? Also, thank god for Amazon.)
• I kept it because when I was a renter, "even though it didn't work at this apartment, it might work at the next one" was very much a thing. (OK, but now I'm in my forever home; if I'm not using it and don't have a plan to use it, why haven't I rotated it out?)
• I can't break up a set. I like this thing that's one part of a set, and this other thing goes with it. (Yes, Snoo, you can break up a set. No one but you knows or will care that it was "a set.")
• It isn't worn out yet. It shows too much wear to donate or sell and I don't know anyone to give it to, but I "can't" throw it away because it's still perfectly useful. (Please don't suggest curb alerts or "buy nothing" groups--I've tried them and all I've got from it is a bunch of tire kickers and no follow through.)
• It has something minor wrong with it and the repair is within the scope of my abilities. (OK, so why haven't I done it? What are the barriers preventing me from doing it?)
• Because it's still in good shape and I still like it. I don't wear it any more because reasons (I changed jobs and worked in several different fields before finding a career; each job change resulted in a need for a different work wardrobe)

It was given to me. Boy howdy. There's so much to unpack with this, but here's a little something about how objects can trigger memories and the difference between trauma memories and other memories. I have clinically diagnosed CPTSD. Many of the items of clothing that I'm struggling to get out of the house were Christmas gifts; Christmas has as many traumatic associations as warm ones for me. I know I've been avoiding dealing with certain parts of the clothing stash and that I find making decisions about these particular items more difficult than it really should be. I think I've been avoiding dealing with them as a means of avoiding re-exposure to the trauma.

OK, but why is it still here? I've begun asking myself this. Am I tired? Am I over committed? Am I keeping "projects" because I want to do them or because I feel like I should? Do I need help getting it out of the house? Am I prioritizing other people over my own needs? Given that I don't want it and would rather have it out of the house, Why is it still here?

All that for just 12 shirts. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little more productive.

I just wanted to share some progress. A few days ago I designated a spot in the house for my plants and artistically arranged them (yes, I moved some hoard to do this....baby steps!). Some of them didn't fit without ruining the aesthetic, so I, in typical hoarder fashion, simply "stashed them elsewhere until I could figure out what to do with them" which usually results in items that are forever wandering around my home in search of theirs.

This time I noticed the pattern and took a few days to really sit with my feelings on what is actually important to me about my plants. I realized that even though I feel good about sheer volume of plants, I feel even better about having an aesthetically pleasing display with good variety. So as hard as it is to get rid of one of my duplicate plants that has nothing wrong with it and that I enjoy, I made the decision to give it away so that I'll have a spot for one of the "wandering" plants.

And I posted about it in a local group right away so I won't change my mind or "forget".

I am training myself to trust my self assessment and that giving away a perfectly healthy mature plant is not something I'll regret because it's one of many small decisions towards having something I want even more - an uncluttered home, an uncluttered life, and just the right amount of stuff that I can enjoy my things without my things dictating my life for me, which is what I actually have when "stuff" is always in the way, even stuff I like.

Here's to many more such decisions.

Hello! Posting from my alt.

I’m not exactly proud of myself for the mess, but I am proud that I asked for help! Long story short, housekeeping was always difficult for me especially with my hoarding tendencies. Life events and work schedules made it so the piles kept piling, and even when I started to clean - I can’t seem to get past a certain point to where I finish the job.

I’ve never hired someone and I’ve been too ashamed to have friends over for well over a year. I found this woman’s business card for her private cleaning crew, while I was attempting to sort though my paperwork, and I decided it was a sign to call her.

We ended up FaceTiming and she did a virtual walkthrough. Based off of what she saw, she recommended 2 people which I agreed with. Plus it was only 6 hours that way, and I just wanted to get it over with.

I am so impressed with what she got done today! I wish I had a good before photo, but just know there was no floor before and I was basically leaping from the door into bed every night. It was a disaster.

I must have gotten incredibly lucky, because this woman was more like someone you’d see as a Hoarder’s therapist than a cleaning woman. She completely sorted through everything, asked for permission before throwing things away, and was regularly bring me boxes to sort though.

There’s still more work to be done, and while she didn’t tackle the kitchen first like I thought she would, I am so grateful that she helped me above and beyond what she needed to.

I am happy that I have a chance at a fresh start finally.

Hoarding Mother & Submissive Father

Ok just as a little backstory, all thru my childhood I can remember the hoard, the embarrassment, having a pathway to my bed in my room as a kid, never having friends over, etc. I would ask my parents for a clean house for christmas, birthdays, etc.; when we went on vacation, I would pray that there was some kind of magic to clean up the mess before we returned. I can tell my dad feels guilty about it but is also just as if not more afraid of my mother’s fits or silent treatment.

When I was 15/16 I sought therapy, where my amazing counselor explained to me her hypothesis that my mother is a narcissist, without even having met her. It took me a few years with her to be comfortable enough to tell anyone about my home situation because I have been so ashamed of my parent’s issues, but it made sense to her when I came clean.

Since then, it has been so difficult to come to terms with it. There have been endless fights (mostly with my mother) about how they need to seek help, or clean or figure something out. I’ve tried cleaning out the closet in my bedroom hallway so I could have some extra space & I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so angry. She refuses to take responsibility for the neglect. I have to pick up after everyone, clean, take out overflowing trash, including the shared bathroom for me and my sister. I feel like the maid (which is a pretty common experience for older siblings in general tbh) because no one else cares enough to have a clean space (or even counter space for that matter). Becoming a healthy, functional young adult has turned me into the bad guy in my family.

Looking for advice, support, whatever you are able to offer please, I am just incredibly lost at the moment.

I won't go into great detail about my previous situation. I will just say that neither of the three of us (that lived together) see ourselves as hoarders, which is funny because together we hoarded a lot. I'm not really sure who or what started it, but I think after the home reached a certain point, we just all gave up. The place became absolutely dirty and unlivable. None of us wanted it. We just didn't know how to get out of it. It was too big of a job for us (especially considering none of us are in very good health).

Eventually, and I do mean just within the last year, we all just essentially "abandoned" the home. We're still trying to figure out what to do with it in the long-run. We want to sell it, but we're wondering if it's not just a tear down situation, sadly.

Anyway, we've all moved out and moved on-ish. I do still live with and help take care of one of the persons mentioned. We bought a new construction home last year, and we love it! We knew going into it, and still know, that we'll take care of it as long as we live here.

Unfortunately, especially with it being a new construction, I tend to obsess over every tiny thing I find "wrong" with it. Small, cosmetic things that I know came with the home, I have learned to kind of overlook. But when I get up close and personal with things like the baseboards, for example, I start to have a LOT of anxiety. Mini panic attacks, almost. A feeling of almost wanting to cry. And I just don't feel mentally or physically capable of taking on the task of cleaning them. Aside from that, the imperfections I find when looking so closely at the baseboards drive me absolutely bonkers.

When I know company will be coming, I truly freak out and switch it into overdrive. My regular cleaning routine becomes something much bigger, and it's hard on me both mentally and physically. If I try to finish everything in a single day or two, I pay for it in the form of a lot of pain and fatigue. Luckily, I've learned how to better plan ahead and spread out the work over a matter of days. It helps!

My biggest issue is the obsessing and feeling as though things aren't perfect. There's an added layer of worry, I think stemming from my past living situation, that someone will come into my home and perceive it/me/us as gross and dirty if it isn't "perfect". Right now I'm extremely upset over the baseboard situation, lol, and the fact that we have guys coming to do repairs soon. I also have pets that sometimes have pee-pee accidents, and while I try to prevent that as much as possible, it still happens on occasion, and I fear that my enzyme cleaner and disinfectant will fail me and someone will SMELL anything left behind.

So, yeah. I don't know. I just felt the need to vent about these frustrations and worries. I don't know if anyone else can relate to this specific situation, but if so, I'd love to hear from you. If you've managed to get the anxiety under control, how did you do it?

Thanks!

Advice, empathy, anything is helpful. I don't have a specific trajectory for this post. I just need to put these feelings somewhere that isn't with my spouse. I can tell that every time I bring this up, it stresses her out more. I wish that it wasn't eating at both of us, but the powerless feeling is just increasing.

In-laws have been hoarders for decades at this point. I've been in the family for five years and am now embittered to the 'it's getting better!' cycle of improvement and decline, improvement and decline. But now it's really getting worse to the point where when my wife goes over to their house to drop off groceries or water plants, she needs like, a week of recovery time and we end up arguing more about the state of our own house -- which gets pushed to the wayside by us both as a result of our sapped energy.

Problems around this I could use feedback on:

- I made the mistake recently of exploring the hoard when we were alone, and found several items pertaining to my own Neurodivergent Special Interest (patent pending) and got enthusiastic about bringing them home -- this spiraled into a huge argument. My wife wants nothing from their house and feels like it is all potentially contaminated due to it being a hoard. I don't give a damn about the items; I have no control over what happens, and I am fully behind her decisions -- but I sense the initial enthusiasm really hurt her feelings. Was there any way I could have prevented it?

- When we were moving, we agreed to 'hold' several large items for MIL's 'guest room' that she said would be useful. At the time, they were in a 'better' cycle and I genuinely thought there would be room and a purpose for them. There very clearly is not, and will not be, and now these large items are taking up space in my home and garage. I want to get rid of them and have asked my wife for an approximate deadline -- this also causes us to argue. I also experience guilt about going back on my 'promise' to my MIL, even though I know that her reaction would be due to her mental illness and not my inability to hold up my end of the bargain.

- Finally, I am struggling with the sunk cost fallacy of all of this. I am angry with them in my own private way that is 100% due to my own experience with my own parents. My parents wasted a tremendous amount of money litigating each other in a nasty divorce. My in-laws spend a lot of time extolling the virtues of not wasting, but I am filled with dread every time I go to their house knowing that it will only get worse, that there will be tremendous effort to be expended when the responsibility of this eventually transfers to us, and that their ethos about not wasting is in actuality the most wasteful, useless, awful thing two people could do to their kids. I respect my spouse's strategy in how we handle this in our relationship, but I wish I could confront this directly and express my anger on our behalf. I know this isn't productive or helpful to them or my spouse, but it's where I'm at.

- I'm sad. I'm just sad. I'm sad that this has had such a tremendous psychological impact on my spouse. I'm sad that this will impact how we raise children around them. I'm sad that they experience this. I'm sad that my spouse has virtually nothing from childhood -- it's all buried and decaying and everyone just glosses over that hurt. I'm sad that the US treats this as a matter of personal autonomy until someone gets injured or worse. I'm sad that I don't have regular in-laws. I'm sad that they refuse help.

- I don't know where to go discussion-wise with my spouse. As you can see from the above, I have SO MANY thoughts on this, but I know virtually none of them are productive when someone is in a space of private crisis and upheaval from having trauma re-experienced. But everything from anxious to productive is unwanted, and these feelings then exist in a bubble. I'm a nervous do-er, and nobody wants my help -- I have told her that if needed, I will take FMLA to gut and clean the house, hold an estate sale or work with a company, and help sell the house when that time comes, and she hates that. I feel like she is stuck in a state of paralysis where I desperately want a game plan that isn't just 'spend time with them outside their house and pretend it isn't there because it's not in our control.'

- Finally, I am anxious about something I offered that will not likely occur for years, but that scares me all the same. We tossed around the idea of a small ADU on our property for my MIL (my FIL's health is bad enough that I believe he will predecease her). But all of the reading I've done about hoarding suggests that if I allow her to live with me, it will happen again in a smaller space, and if I deal with it once, I'm not dealing with it again. What is the best thing to do for people like this when they reach a point where they need to be in an assisted living arrangement, either at home or in a facility?

We're in couples' therapy, but our therapist -- perhaps rightfully so, I'm not sure -- prioritizes my spouse's feelings and desired actions over mine, as they aren't my parents. And I'm hurting. I'm just hurting badly and I want this off my mind so I can focus more on my own house and my own life.

I just made some chocolate spread (4 part peanut butter, 2 part honey, 1 part cacao powder, if you're wondering). All three ingredients were getting older and needed to be used.

I used one of my hoarding parents' Panda Express chopsticks to stir it, instead of wasting water and time with spoons and cleaning, etc, you know.

I offered some to my hoarding parent on one of the chopsticks.

After sampling it, barely noticing the chocolate over the chopstick, my hoarding parent got up, walked the chopstick to the kitchen... and placed it in the sink... to wash it...

When I raised an eyebrow 🤨, they said they might need it someday to stir something else. I grabbed it out of the sink, broke it, and threw it away, and jokingly said I'd disown them if they washed it.

I am moving out of my 2-bedroom apartment after living here for 4 years. I was dealing with depression, a divorce, and somewhat laziness and I let the amount of clutter/junk I had get out of control.

I'm moving out now and I am only needing/wanting to take a small amount of my belongings with me. I called one of those junk removal businesses (I believe it was 1-800-Got-Junk), and their services seem to be exactly what I'm needing. However, my problem is when it comes to household junk/clutter I have, a lot of it has been shoved into a spare closet and my spare bedroom. I am trying to put it in bags before the junk removal people come by and take things, but I am really suffering from feeling overwhelmed at the sheer amount of stuff and where to even begin. Do I need to have everything put away in bags/boxes for the junk removal people to come in and do their job?

I've been working on my hoard slowly but surely. Every day, I've been chipping away at it. It's exhausting and emotional, but I'm really proud of the work that I've done.

One of my big motivators is friendship. I love helping my friends. I have a goal to get my house clean so I can have friends over.

This weekend, I hit another one of my goal. I gave a friend a ride home. Normally, my car is packed to the brim with junk. A couple of days ago, I did a quick cleanout. I took all of the trash out. My car is not clean.

I was at a get together and a friend needed a ride home. I had a clean seat. I didn’t need to move shit out of the way. And she was able to put her feet on the actual floor.

I'm really proud of how hard I'm working. Daily 15-30min cleaning bits help a lot and add up to victories!