If your health is endangered by your current home, I think your first priority is your physical well-being, so move out, yes. That's simply intelligent because if you catch pneumonia or burn the house down or whatever, a bad situation could turn horrible or even lethal.

Immediately, however, you do both need to meet and meet regularly with someone highly experienced with hoarding and hoarder mentality, to help you draw up the Rules (as in, General's Orders) to be obeyed in your new home. The eye cannot see itself; others can often appraise our patterns better than we can! And definitely know better how to stop them!

I take it as a given you are both already in therapy with a counselor or therapist. Find one free through your county social services if you must. Unless you dig up the entire root of your inner compulsion to hoard, by examining it all in therapy, hoarding is a highly pernicious weed that will pop right up to clutter your new home. Hoarding is a *compulsion* - and since you've done it for years, it is now also an *ingrained habit* so don't kid yourself that you can just decide to change and voila, change yourself. If you had a magic wand, you would have used it years ago, no?

So be sure to get all the right help in place. Part of that will include a social network as well, which your therapist can explain about (how important it really is! and how to create one).

You might also call Volunteers of America or 211, your local info line, Catholic Services, churches, or your county to locate people who can help - hauling all that stuff out can feel overwhelming and some young blooded enthusiasm helps a lot!

Best of luck,
I'm very proud of you both! I don't mean that in a patronizing way, I just think none of us gets told that often enough in this society. I respect highly your determination to change your lives for the better.

Wishing you all the best.
Please keep in touch here and let us know how you are doing.

Sincerely, Tillie :)

I understand the issues you list. But I think we are going to give this a try. Setting rules for what must get done immediately at the new place (to keep it from being a hosrder home) as well as setting weekly tasks at our hoarder home. It will take due dillagence, but there are many issues in our current home making it unsafe to live. So we want to have ge into a safer living environment and get have a "safe haven" to go to, so that we can relax more at night in order to be more productive. Though I know you've heard all this before.

Hi Adam :)

Your plan could work if you really stick to a time schedule.
Working on the house every day. Treating it like a 9 to 5 job every day.

Unfortunately, others who have tried to work it this way just end up with another cluttered/hoarded home.

There are a lot of people who have three or more homes they are "working" on.

I feel that the money could be better spent by hiring help to get the home you live in now fixed.
Get it done quicker without danger of falling behind. Lots of things could come up that would take you away from working on the house and motivation could also be an issue.

Good luck and please let me know what you decide.

My wife and I feel completely stuck in our situation. We want to clean up our home, but don't know where to begin. We are considering renting an apartment and moving out of our home. Then to come to the house on days off in order to start cleaning out our house. We really can't stay here and we can afford to rent another place for a little while. We feel like there is a deep depression and we feel coming home to a clean place would help with this. Any input would be appreciated.