Squalor, faeces and rotting groceries: The truth about hoarders
While the idea of spending your working days in squalor and faeces-riddle houses removing stockpiles of random items may seem like a nightmare, for one NSW woman it’s a chance to rebuild lives.
Christine Hahn has been running her Lismore-based business ‘A Hoarder’s Nightmare’ for nearly seven years, helping people declutter their life both physically and mentally.
Determined to better understand the minds of hoarders, the 48-year-old took a four-year hiatus from her psychology degree so she could help figure out why people have such a difficult time parting with items they haven’t used in years.
Ms Hahn told Yahoo7 News that the emotional attachment hoarders form with their items is far more complicated than it may seem from the outside.
"The common misconception is people think hoarders are lazy...but that is not the case," Ms Hahn said.
She said telling hoarders to clean up or throw away their clutter is like “telling someone with an alcohol problem not to go to go to the pub”.
Ms Hahn admitted the process of decluttering is both mentally and physically draining for herself and her clients.
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“Walking into a house of squalor is very confronting, there’s the smell, you’ve got faeces on the floor, rotting food in the hallway.
“They do their shopping and don’t realise they have to put things in the fridge. That thought process isn’t there."
Ms Hahn doesn’t practice with her psychology degree but instead uses it to build a better relationship with her clients in an attempt to help them from reverting back to old ways.
“There is always an emotional attachment, there is a sentimental value if it’s been handed down through the family.
“Utility based hoarders think they can always use it for something else, they think to throw it out would be a waste.
“You’ve got to talk to them and teach them to re-think how not to buy unnecessary items.”
