How do you go about helping a severe hoader?

My MIL has an extreme problem with hoarding. I finally stepped into her apartment after avoiding it for a long time and I was totally disgusted with what I saw. There is over 20yrs of garbage piled up in her tiny 1 bedroom apartment you can't even walk through it anymore. She had been a convincing liar that she has been cleaning it up for months but it has only gotten worse since the last time I saw it. The problem is she doesn't seem to think it's that big of a deal not to mention that she lives in an apartment in a house above her landlord. Clearly her landlord does not step foot into her apartment because she would have long been evicted.

Re: How do you go about helping a severe hoader?

This is such a hard addiction. I had a friend like this. Her hallways had a path between years of old newspapers just big enough to squeeze through. She had a single spot ion her bed to lay, and one clear spot on her couch to sit. Her Kitchen was beyond anything liveable. i tried to help her clean up, but as soon as she would get rid of something, she would get something else. It was awful.

Maybe you can agree to weekly visits, to help your mom sort and recycle what she has....It's so hard. GL!

Re: How do you go about helping a severe hoader?

Oprah.com has some good articles, you might want to read through them. If you search her site, you'll find a bunch of them.

Links to a couple:

When a Loved One Hoards

Inside teh Lives of Hoarders with Peter Walsh, Parts 1 and 2

Re: How do you go about helping a severe hoader?

I know what your going through I know quite a few people with this issue and Im not sure myself what to do especially since one lives downstairs from me and I had to go buy a fire ladder to make sure we have a way out in case of a fire

Re: How do you go about helping a severe hoader?

Thanks for the advice guys. Just another question. We took some incriminating photos to have as evidence. We were thinking of showing them to her daughter (my SIL) since she is completely unaware of how my MIL lives and has defended her in the past because she thinks DH and I are too hard on her. Is this a good idea or do you think we would be totally out of line for doing this?

Re: How do you go about helping a severe hoader?

Re: How do you go about helping a severe hoader?

My grandparents are hoarders. We never went to their house really when we were growing up. My dad didn't really know what to do with it until my grandparents were diagnosed with Alzheimers and then my parents went in, cleaned up a lot of the stuff and made it livable. They tried to do this once before and my grandparents became violent towards my parents. Its not a pretty situation and its very difficult!