NOT JUST A QUIRK

It’s way beyond clutter. Here’s how hoarding can be hazardous to your health.

Do you have piles of stuff in your house? Are you arranging stacks of boxes and odds and ends so you have room to walk? And even if you can’t remember what’s in all the chaos, are you sure that everything is valuable or might come in handy some day? Do you control your clutter or does the clutter control you? Hoarding is not a harmless or irritating quirk. Unsafe levels of clutter can:

• Pose trip risks or fall risks. Those boxes, papers or canned goods on the floor could put you in the hospital. Many people, especially seniors, never recover from serious falls.

• Pose fire hazards. Not only in the kitchen – clutter can exacerbate the effects of a dropped cigarette or knocked over candle.

• Pose other health habits. Dust isn’t the only thing clutter collects. Colonies of silverfish, cockroaches, and other pests thrive in this environment.

• Isolate people. Hoarders are often so embarrassed about the state of their homes that not even family members are allowed inside.

• Cause family turmoil. Couples and families often have long-standing, unresolved disputes over one person’s extreme clutter, which affects everyone in the home.

A hoarder may have real collectibles---under boxes of old recipes, bags of plastic spoons bought in 1978, piles of magazines and a heap of clean laundry. Simple tasks like cooking and sleeping may be stymied because clutter occupies those spaces. Not only are they unable to stop acquiring more, many don’t see it as a problem and resist treatment.

What can you do? If you recognize yourself in these descriptions, talk to a doctor about getting therapy. If you know someone who is a hoarder, don’t take it upon yourself to do a forced clean-out. Hoarding is a mental -health disorder that needs professional treatment. For more information see The International OCD Foundation’s compulsive hoarding website - www.ocfoundation.org/hoarding/.