Hi Ann :)

First let me point out that red box to the right here that says "ONLINE SUPPORT GROUP"
Tomorrow, Sunday at 5:00pm Pacific time is when the meeting will start.

We would love to see you there :D

Yes, professional help is expensive. If you do decide to go that way make sure they are a reputable company.
Click on the "national resources" link at the top of this page to see a list of companies in your area.

Doing it with your husband and his sister is very do-able.
Rent an on site dumpster and just toss anything in there you do not want.
When doing a big job it is much easier and faster if you do not bother with donating and recycling.
Plus many dump stations sort out all the collected trash and make side money doing the recycling themselves.

To do this job you will need to have and wear protection.
Face masks, gloves, coveralls, proper shoes.
Taking much needed breaks for food and water is important.
This will help keep you from burning out.
Have some bags or boxes ready to place the things in that you will be keeping.

That is basically how to do it.
I will be very happy to answer any questions you may have.

Good luck and best wishes, Tillie

**If this is a duplicate - my apologies**

My mother has lived in a low income home for over 30 years and is a hoarder and I'm now responsible for dealing with it under a deadline with Medicaid..here is my story (sorry it's so long).

My mom was an orphan in NYC in the 1930's and so when she moved to OK and into this house; it was emotionally disturbing to her when anything was ever thrown out. If we gave it away, that was acceptable - but even if it's broke, unusable (i.e. tongs that one side broke off or expired food) or actually trash (depends that she didn't wear all day) she gets so angry and depressed at the same time.

I had not been in her home for 10 years because of how bad things got - and was tired of fighting with her about the lies and manipulation she was using to keep me away (she told her friends an neighbors I moved away and she didn't even know how to get a hold of me.although we talked at least once a week).

Over 2012 she was hospitalized almost 10 times for falls (she had polio as a child and is losing the use of her legs). I found out about this the last time she fell because it took the EMT Firefighters almost an hour to get her out of the house (1300 sqft) on the gurney, so they reported her to adult protective services. A friend was looking through her purse and found my number, called me and that takes us to the rest of the story.

While in the hospital, after talking to me and the social worker assigned from DHS her personal physician had her evaluated by a geriatric psychiatrist and they wrote me a letter saying it was their recommendation I take over custody because she is unable to make good decisions for herself. Shortly after DHS sent the official report saying they did find her self-neglecting -and then I was told by a DHS worker that if my mother returned to the home, they would have to take custody of her, barring a miracle.

After talking to my mother for several weeks while she was in "skilled services" in a nursing home - she finally agreed to give me power of attorney.

We were finally able to Medicaid to approve her long-term stay benefits and now have mom in a very nice nursing facility (built for private care patients and has the feel of a hotel - they only have 10 long term care Medicaid beds but mom get's all the benefits of the outings and the facilities). But we are now under obligation from the state to get her home sold by November of this year.

Most day's mom is really unable to get around much but wants very much to be a part of the process to clean things out and go through all her stuff. I think she's embarrassed about it, but also doesn't want us to find some of the stuff she's hidden.

I'm not 100% sure where to start, what my options are and how to do this as inexpensively as possible. Since we've been in the house (we took the jewelry out that I knew of and had to find some papers) We've seen very large roaches and babies ones everywhere - and clothes moving on thier own [ugh]. She doesn't have any animals but I realized very quickly that almost everything in the cupboards and bathroom is the stuff from 25 years ago when I was still living there?!?!

Even as a child I remember that she would hide valuables (money, jewelry, etc.) in the most bizarre places and forget about it until we came across it again looking for something else - so going through everything instead of just "dumping" is important.

I've been googling how to clean up after hoarders and have only found people who also handle crime scene stuff (which I can understand) but I really don't think we have the money for anything like that. My husband and his sister think they can help get the stuff moved out of each area of the house for me to start going through it (because I'm really freaked out by the bugs) but I'm not how long this will take or how we get rid of everything. We don't have to worry about fixing the house up - because of the condition it's already in - it will just be purchased to flip.

Thanks for any advice, ideas or suggested resources, etc!