How is Hoarding a Mental Illness?

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Hoarding is the persistent reluctance in discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their value. This behavior usually has harmful effects - emotional, physical, social, financial, and several times even legal - for a hoarder and family members. Commonly hoarded items can be newspapers, furniture, clothes, household supplies and even food items. There are cases when a house is filled with so many pets that they’re often left uncleaned and uncared for and subsequently, they fall ill.

Hoarding is considered to be a derivative of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). It is reckoned that about one in four people with OCD are also compulsive hoarders. In future, hoarding might be in a league of its own. In the meantime, it is a serious issue and people are opening up about the difficulty and problems hoarding causes them in their lives. It can be difficult to determine if someone is a hoarder or if they just like to hang on to things. One of the main determining factors to identify if it becomes a disorder is to know, whether or not, and to what extent, 
the behavior has started negatively affecting daily functioning.

Here are some of the recognized symptoms of hoarding:

• Cluttered living spaces
• Unable to discard items, regardless of their value
• Keeping stacks of newspapers, magazines, boxes or junk mail
• Shifting items from one pile to another without essentially discarding anything, even the things that need to be thrown out
• Acquiring unnecessary or useless items, including trash
• Difficulty in doing the daily activities, procrastinating and having a hard time making decisions
• Difficulty organizing items
• Perfectionism - Expecting everything to be flawless
• Over-attachment to possessions and experiencing discomfort when someone else touches or borrows belongings
• Limited or no social interactions

Reasons for hoarding:

People tend to hoard because they believe that the item will come in use in the future and hold it dear to themselves with a unique sentimental value to them. Sometimes they also consider the item as a memory of a person or an event, thinking that they will not remember the event without the item. Hoarding often causes anger, resentment, and depression among family members, and it can have a great effect on the social development of children. Unliveable conditions may lead to separation between couples or divorce, eviction from the property, even loss of child custody, and can give rise to some serious financial problems.

If you are in need of a hoarding clean-up, Bio Cleanse services is who you should contact. Our years of experience, coupled with the high-tech equipment used, will most definitely give you the best customer satisfaction. Head over to our website or call us on 0427411789.

How to stop hoarding – Simple Tips

Hoarding is dangerous. It has ruined many lives. People who hoard objects are not aware of their condition. They believe every object they collect could be useful to them in the future. Therefore they keep collecting objects and are unable to get rid of them.

If you are a hoarder and wish to stop hoarding here are some tips which will help you.

Start Small – Take out the trash at home, by starting small you can avoid the anxiety of throwing away all unwanted objects at once.  The advantage of taking a starting small is that you will not have any regrets.

Work your way through the kitchen sink – If you have dishes unwashed for a long period of time start by cleaning them. This would help you get rid the harmful bacteria.

Decide, Decide! - Do you really need it?  Make a decision on what to keep. This you help you get organized and reduce the clutter.

Clean you’re the cupboards – Organize the items in your cupboard and remove the unwanted items. Prioritising your items will help you decide want is most needed.

Finish want you started: If you are cleaning one part of your room like your cupboard or drawer finish that completely and only then move to the next. Keep a box ready to move all the unwanted items.

Ask yourself questions – What does this mean to me? Am I holding onto it because someone gave it to me? How long have I had it for? Is this of any use or is it there because I can’t get rid of it? These are questions that will help you decide what exactly needs to be thrown out.

Contact Bio Cleanse Services - Bio-Cleanse offers one-on-one personal assistance to organise and sift through the hoarded matter. If you’re a victim of animal hoarding or hoarding of paperwork we can provide you with assistance to help you live in a clean healthy home.

Call Bio Cleanse Services for hoarding Clean-up estimate at  0412 547 547 and make your home a clean place to live in. 

Your Breakup, You and Hoarding?

You’ve just been through a breakup, you’ve skipped work for almost a month. You’ve been irregular with food and have not visited your kitchen for weeks at a stretch. You haven't cleaned up your home. You have been crying incessantly day and night. 

Your friends and family learn about your situation and are planning to visit you to get you to feel better. They want to be with you and help you through this rough patch of your life. You get a phone call that they are visiting you the next day. 

You are still in depression. You keep thinking and re-thinking about your breakup. Your house is a complete mess. You have zero energy to do all the cleaning. What would you do?

We, at Bio-Cleanse Pty Ltd, will be glad to come to your rescue. We understand your situation and know exactly how you feel about life at this point in time. Helping you get over your breakup is not our thing, but we can promise to help a bit to make the entire thing seem less gloomy. 

We will clean up your place for you. Our team can also help you put away things that remind you of your ex. Our experienced team will do this for you, in a short time and at a very affordable prices.

Visit our website http://www.bio-cleanse.com.au/ now and know more about our Hoarding /Clean-up Services!

20 Common Thoughts Inside a Hoarder’s Mind

Hoarding is not a mere accumulation of useless junk. 

It involves many thought processes with the decision to discard. These thought processes impinge on the hoarder’s decision-making process which ultimately results in the item not being discarded. 

Following are some common thoughts what a hoarder is likely to think.

1. “I’ll throw this away later…”
2. “I might need this at a future time…”
3. “I do not know where to store this. It doesn’t belong anywhere.”
4. “I have a feeling that I will clean up soon and that is when I will need some items I have collected.”
5. “This item might be valuable in the future and if I discard it, I will be at a loss.”
6. “I need to prepare myself for the next Great Depression!”
7. “These things offer me a sense of comfort. I am inaccessible to anyone. No one would dare come close to the pile, leave alone me. Hence I am protected.”
8. “These items are actually gifts from someone close. How can I even think of discarding them?”
9. “This reminds me of my lost loved one…it is perhaps the last piece of interaction I have between us two”
10. “My loved one, whom I lost years ago, liked these items. I believe s/he will come someday to collect it.”
11. “I collect these things so that I can possibly gift them to someone later.”
12. “I might be financially deprived to afford these items. Hence, I need to save them, even if they are small things like wrapping paper or ribbons.”
13. “I need to keep this item so that I remember something which I am likely to forget at a future date.”
14. “I feel relieved when I discard my stuff. However, once it’s done, I feel suddenly exposed. They are my safety pile.”
15. “Survival is about being prepared. Hence, I need to collect these items. I need to rely on myself and not on anybody”
16. “People can walk out of your lives. Things don’t.”
17. “Discarding these items makes me feel guilty about discarding it. Like it’s a criminal thing to do.”
18. “Right now, I do not have the time at my disposal to sort through these things. I will keep them here, so I can go through them, another day.”
19. “It gives me an excuse to get out of social obligation. I can always say I can’t go to a party because I have so much cleaning to do.”
20. “I believe in recycle and reuse.”

Contact Bio-Cleanse for Hoarding Cleanup and Management Services. 

Visit www.biocleanse.com.au for more information.

OHIO Rule for Compulsive Hoarding

Of recent, hoarding behavior has come into public purview and is almost being reconsidered as a psychological condition on its own, rather than being grouped with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Hoarding is a condition when the patient is unable to discard items such as belongings, newspapers, journals and even trash leading to clutter. This leads to acquiring of seemingly useless items which are difficult to sort and organise. There are probabilities that a hoarder has undergone some trauma in his/her life or is suffering from social isolation. 

A lot of psychological and organisational programs are being targeted at hoarders relinquishing by their unusual behaviour. One approach which is usually considered is the OHIO approach: an abbreviation for “Only Handle It Once.” It goes by the philosophy that if one picks something; one must make the decision then and there, to either retain it or discard it, thus avoid piling it. This can rather be an influential approach as it influences the decision making process of a hoarder and eggs him/her to avoid piling up. 

However, the OHIO rule might not be feasible in all cases. In some cases, it might even have a backfiring effect: the hoarder might come to a halt in their decluttering efforts, deciding whether to really discard an item or not. Some items just cannot be discarded by a hoarder due to a psychological connection with it, such as an heirloom or gift.

In the above scenario, there are some alternatives which can be considered, rather than going OHIO. Compartmentalise the items which one is unsure of discarding in order to think of it at a later point of time. Create another section where one will be chucking the items but will be reconsidering them one last time before chucking. The third compartment should be stuff that you are sure of chucking (discard them, there and there). If you keep mobilising these items by compartmentalising them, one is likely to move along the discarding process rather than remain stagnant and cluttering all over again. Hence, mobilisation is the key.

- Bio Cleanse Pty Ltd.

5 quick tips for a compulsive hoarder

                                     

A very basic description of a compulsive hoarder is someone unable to dispose of excess or unused things to the point where their belongings are clogging their living space.

Making a cup of tea, working in an office or sleeping in their own bed becomes impossible because the spaces designed for living in have become storehouses.

Here are some basic tips for a compulsive hoarder:

• If you have a gift for someone, give it to them in a timely manner.
• Don't buy stuff to make up for your feelings. The disorder never goes away, so when you make a purchase, think about it you really need it or will use it.
•  You are not the only one that this disorder affects. This disorder affects millions of people. You are not alone. It is best to ask for help, as this is a very difficult and stressful thing to do. It will take time, so do not give up if you can’t do a lot in one day.
• Make sure you are not stressed when you tackle the clutter. Stay relaxed. Starting early in the morning is the best time to start a project like clutter control, after you wake up refreshed.
• This is very emotional, stressful, and difficult to deal with. Challenge yourself to do more than you think you can, but do not work yourself to the point that you are unwilling to work with your disorder and other people who are trying to help you.

Hope these few points will help you to have a better and organized life in the future!

Contact us at Bio Cleanse to deal with hoarding management: Visit our site http://www.bio-cleanse.com.au/services/hoarding-management/ for more info or just call us on 042 741 1789 for a free quote.

Why choose Bio Cleanse Pty. Ltd.?

Bio Cleanse Pty. Ltd. is a professional Bio-hazard cleaning service. Bio Cleanse has a dedicated team of highly trained professionals who are ready at all times to respond to and restore any situation that may arise from a crime scene, homicide, suicide, etc. 

The trained professionals and specialists at Bio Cleanse will thoroughly clean, re-mediate and restore any areas affected by a tragic event. We help in reducing your stress and perform the monumental task of cleaning up, affording you the peace of mind you deserve during any difficult, traumatic and emotional time.

We have advanced technologies to clean and deal with any kind of cleaning problems whatsoever. Our employees are well experienced and skilled in their areas and have special knowledge on the work they carry out. As you are aware, patience and skill are required for such delicate type of jobs. 

We deal with various kind of services in our field, some of them are:

· Crime Scene Cleaning

· Hoarding Management

· Meth Lab Cleaning 

· Trauma Cleaning

· Sharps and Needle Clean-up

· Urine and Faeces Clean-up

· Suicide Clean-up

· Sewage Clean-up

· Murder Clean-up

· Odour Control

· Fire Damage Restoration

· Water Damage Restoration

· Mould Remediation

· Dry Ice Blasting and so on…

We believe in quality, timeliness, and dedicated services for our customers, giving them 100% work satisfaction and no reasons to complain. 

Call us on 042 741 1789 or visit us on our website at http://www.bio-cleanse.com.au/ for a free quote or extra knowledge on each service provided by us.