Hoarding

Hoarding means the incessant habit of stacking items at the home without discarding them once they become unnecessary since hoarders place peculiar value on all sorts of possessions that they do not really need. When such items pile up overtime, they pose a threat to homeowners and those in the neighborhood. Commonly hoarded items are food, photographs, clothes, newspapers, cardboard boxes, paper and plastic bags and magazines.

Hoarders are anxious about discarding items, indecisive about which items to keep or throw away, embarrassed about their possessions, and suspicious that others are trying to touch their property. Obsessive thoughts on how they might need certain items in future and difficulty in organizing possessions are common. Since not much is known about the causes of hoarding, there is no sure way to prevent it from taking root and complicating selling the property. Hoarder houses are hazardous since they are a threat to homeowners and neighboring communities because incidents of fires may quickly spread and harm fellow homeowners.

The dangers are even more heightened to resident in the hoarder house – as there will be blocks of exits, cluttered spaces which are a threat of vermin and bacteria that may cause an assortment of illnesses.