There isn’t just one reason why somebody may hoard. The intense and complex mental disorder known as hoarding can have devastating long-term impacts on the hoarder and their loved ones. If you get rid of a couple of things, they will do whatever to acquire new ones since the pain of parting with them is too great to bear. In extreme cases, a hoarder’s house may be too harmful to an untrained person to enter and clean.
Risks of DIY Hoarding Cleanup
There may be a lot of tasks involved in cleaning the area due to the effort required and the potential health risks caused by accumulating many objects in a tiny room. Therefore, you should speak with a professional company instead of trying a DIY hoarding cleanup. The dangers of handling hoarding cleanup on your own are listed here.
1. Pests and Rodents
Decomposing products and rotting foods might also attract pests and rodents to the house. Animal waste and rotting food attract rats, cockroaches, flies, and other pests. In this situation, a professional cleaning company must perform fumigation. These pests and rodents are biological agents that spread disease to the animals and humans that stay in these filthy places.
2. Physical Injury Exposure
Aside from being exposed to health risks, hoarding cleanup puts you at risk of physical injury. When trying to declutter and clean, you risk injury from falling items in your house’s unstable piles. Moving heavy things on your own is also unsafe, so you need to seek the assistance of property damage restoration specialists with hoarding cleanup experience.
3. Labor-Intensive Exercise
Hoarding cleanup is a difficult task that needs a tactical plan. Along with fixing the damaged home, this difficult task involves dealing with large stacks of trash, decluttering, and sanitizing the entire house. You must work with a reputable hoarding cleanup company if you want fast results. The task can take a long time, depending on the severity of the hoarding.
4. Dangerous Environment
A hoarder’s property has poor air quality. If you inhale this polluted air for a long time, you may develop respiratory issues, including allergies. You should hire a reliable cleaning service to deal with it. Furthermore, if you discover any biohazardous materials while cleaning your house, you have no legal authorization to handle and get rid of the materials, requiring the demand to work with professionals.
5. Biohazard Contamination
Hoarding cleanup can lead to major health issues. In this environment, dust and debris accumulate fast and in huge amounts, making it a perfect breeding place for toxic microorganisms. Hoarding cleanup includes numerous biohazards, like live and dead animals, feces, urine, and other body fluids. Exposure to these environments and the pathogens they may nurture, such as bacteria and fungi, can be deadly without proper protection.
6. Cleaning Tools and Suppliers
As previously stated, hoarding cleanup is time-consuming and difficult. You will need numerous specialized cleaning equipment and supplies to accomplish the task. Examples include cleaners/disinfectants, trash bags, empty boxes, step ladders, vacuums, sponges/cleaning cloths/wipes, gloves, containers, mops, and shovels. Professional cleaning companies might only provide some of this equipment and tools.
7. Mold Growth
Poor ventilation and airflow in your home produce the perfect setting for mold development. The buildup of things inside your home also prevents water damage detection. Extensive mold development is caused by water infiltration, which also threatens the protection of the home’s residents and its capability to remain standing. Mold removal is a task for the expert; this is another reason you should only participate in hoarding cleanup with others.
8. Strained Relationships
Trying to clean up a hoarding condition on your own can lead to strained relationships with the hoarder. Hoarders are at ease in an environment with piles of objects, and attempting to clean up the room may lead to misunderstandings between you and them.
Professional hoarding cleanup services team up with therapists to prepare the hoarder for the cleanup. If you plan to clean the hoarder’s area, you must seek the help of professional hoarding cleaning services and search for “hoarder cleanup near me” to find them.