Hello! I am in a similar situation, with the added component of dirt. My brother has been living in his home prior to going to the hospital and his home is barely liveable. There is no one to brainstorm with and help devise a plan. It is frustrating and makes me angry!

I think our situation is unusual. My husband's brother has been a hoarder for years. I'll call him Joe. He was recently in a bad accident in his truck and is in hospital with damage to the C3 or C4 vertebrae. Currently being weaned off a ventilator but cannot talk yet. Will never walk again (less than 1% chance). Not sure if he will be able to use his arms and hands. He is in his 60s. My husband is in his 70s and still working part-time, and the 2 sisters are in their 80s. Joe has a girlfriend.

Joe keeps his possessions in sites in 3 states. Some of these involve him paying rent to store his stuff there. His siblings all live at least 1,000 miles from Joe and his properties. His girlfriend has been the one on-site at the hospital for weeks.

My husband and his sisters are overwhelmed with the amount of work that they now have because of the accident. They have worked tirelessly to get Joe health insurance and disability. Two of them spent 10 days in the state where he is, doing what they can there, and plan to go back.

A major issue is what to do with his possessions. So far they haven't talked to Joe much about this. Two of the siblings would just like to walk away from the properties where his stuff is, but more than walking away would be required to get rid of all of it.

One sibling wants to involve Joe in the decisions, decide what to keep, and auction off or sell stuff for Joe's benefit (assuming it's worth something). Making these decisions would involve endless work communicating (Joe cannot talk). I think Joe would never agree to getting rid of any of it, would probably want to tell everyone what to do with each item, making his siblings surrogate hoarders. He would be enraged at the thought of them getting rid of his things, which would not help his physical recovery.

They don't have the time or energy and especially not the money to take this on. And the longer they try to maintain the status quo of the possessions (pay rent, deal with an eviction notice, maintain property that Joe rents out), the more money, time, and energy it will cost them.

We need someone knowledgeable about hoarding to talk to about all this. Is there anybody out there?