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Specialist cleaners and a clinical psychologist have revealed some of the worst hoarding cases they have worked on and shared tips on how to get help.  

Hoarding is not just being ‘a bit messy’ – it is a psychological disorder that can leave sufferers living ‘in total squalor’ or forced to move out. It is often a sign or symptom of a serious underlying mental health condition such as OCD or depression.

Davina Furbert, 32, from New York, runs a compassionate cleaning company and said she has ‘seen it all’ through her work with over 300 clients in the past five years.

Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, she, along with other experts, share some of their most startling discoveries and tips on how to get help. 

BEFORE
AFTER

Davina Furbert runs a specialist cleaning company, Compassionate Cleaning, and has helped over 300 people clear out their homes

She shares before and after pictures of the work to help people realize they are not alone

She shares before and after pictures of the work to help people realize they are not alone 

About 19 million Americans suffer from a hoarding disorder, with many needing professional help to overcome the behavioral condition. 

Furbert said: ‘People think they are just dirty and nasty and lazy.’   

‘But a lot of these people are depressed, anxious or they went through a traumatic experience like they lost a parent and are trying to fill a void. 

‘Some people do it subconsciously, they don’t even know that they’re doing it, they don’t have the capacity to realize they are doing it. They don’t even realize the mess is there or they don’t realize how bad it is.’

Furbert frequently shares before and after photos on her Instagram account to help show other people they are not alone, and encourage them to seek help. 

For her, the most serious case she has seen was the first home she went into. 

She said: ‘It was roaches, mice, maggots everything you can think of. 

‘I went in because she had ACS cases, she was at risk of her having her kids taken away. So I said let me help you.’

She added: ‘When people have children, and then everything you touch, there is roaches coming under it and then mice coming out. 

‘People sometimes don’t understand the hazards of mice. It’s very dangerous. They carry germs and leave nasty things behind.’ 

Sharing the photos has helped reduce the shame and stigma for people in similar positions, Furbert says

Sharing the photos has helped reduce the shame and stigma for people in similar positions, Furbert says

That case kickstarted her company. She said: ‘After I posted those pictures, so many people reached out and said I have the same thing going on.’ 

Now she helps three people a week and has a friend who takes on the cases she doesn’t have time for. 

Meanwhile, Nicole Levine, who founded specialist cleaning company Hoarders911 in 1991, told DailyMail.com that there are different forms of hoarding. 

Years ago, in Brooklyn, her company was called to a house of a deceased person. 

She said: ‘There was a body, a person who had died of hoarding, and they didn’t know where it was. It was just somewhere in the house under the piles of the rubbish. 

‘A lot of the time people will have tripped and fallen and they are unable to come back to the house until it is in a liveable condition. It becomes hazardous and then we have to get involved.’

She added: ‘We often get animal hoarders, people who have eight or more of the same type of animal – it’s different than a breeder. 

‘We had people who would collect pigeons from outside and they would capture them and bring them in and let them roam around the house. 

One of the most interesting types of hoarding, she said, is information hoarding. 

‘This is people who have a lot of books, magazines from the 1940s, 1950s. Usually these are very smart people with very successful careers in the law or politics. That’s a really common type,’ she explained. 

Meanwhile, clinical psychologist and hoarding expert, Dr David Tolin, said that in some very severe, rare cases, people have been known to save bodily fluids, nail clippings or even the bodies of dead pets. 

Furbert said an early sign of hoarding is when people have multiple copies of the same unnecessary item that they never use

Furbert said an early sign of hoarding is when people have multiple copies of the same unnecessary item that they never use

Some of the videos show Furbert clearing out inches worth of grime

Some of the videos show Furbert clearing out inches worth of grime

Furbert’s first and most important piece of advice for hoarders is ‘don’t look at the house as a whole’.

‘Start with one area, clear the couch off – that’s all you have to do for the day. Do one little thing and then save it for the next day,’ she said.

‘If you look at it as a whole, without a doubt you will burn out, you will get overwhelmed. One thing at a time. You just have to do one thing at a time.’

When deciding what to keep and what to throw out, she continued: ‘I categorize it. Sometimes it’s things they maybe got from family members that pass away. It’s okay to keep those things, you can box those up’. 

But she added: ‘Drawers, if you haven’t opened that drawer for a season, just toss everything – unless it’s important papers.’

Furbert also warned that it’s important to know when to get professional help. 

‘I would say get professional help when it’s at a point that its affecting your mental health when you walk through your front door.’

She said a helpful test to find out if you may have a problem is: ‘Can you light a candle? Is that a hazard?’

Although some of the people she helps go ‘back to square one’, some are able to maintain the level of cleanliness. 

She said: ‘It’s a personal change, you just know that somebody, you have some support, you know there is someone there to help.’

Nicole Levine started Hoarders911 in 1991, she has worked with hoarders for over 30 years and has come up with categories of different types of hoarding

Nicole Levine started Hoarders911 in 1991, she has worked with hoarders for over 30 years and has come up with categories of different types of hoarding

Dr David Tolin has shared some of the main causes of hoarding and a few methods people can use to help themselves as well as seeking professional help

Dr David Tolin has shared some of the main causes of hoarding and a few methods people can use to help themselves as well as seeking professional help

Dr Tolin, said: ‘Hoarding disorder is more than just being messy, it refers to an inability to when we have great difficulty discarding possessions.’

Some of the most serious cases he has seen are ‘when people have homes that are really nonfunctional and they are living in absolute squalor and they are unable to live in the home.’

He said the important first step is recognizing you have a hoarding problem by asking yourself a series of questions. 

‘A lot of us have a lot of clutter, but in a disorder, we are talking about a point where living spaces are no longer usable for their intended purposes: can I reasonably cook, can I use my bathroom? Or, have those parts of my living space become storage areas?’

‘You need to understand what happened in your past to point you down this path. We need to understand what is propping this problem up and what makes it persist,’ he added. 

His research has found that hoarding can come down to issues with four main things: executive functioning, emotional dysregulation, cognitive distortion and low motivation and insights.

Tackling the issues require asking yourself difficult questions. 

Often the client will keep a few things and decide to throw everything else away

Often the client will keep a few things and decide to throw everything else away

BEFORE
AFTER

Furbert said some of her clients tell her to just clean it as though it is her stuff

He said: ‘If you’re a person with hoarding disorder you have potentially four different targets. If you find your problem is primarily executive functioning, then you need to practice effective decision making by challenging yourself with making decisions.

‘If it is emotional dysregulation, then we need to practice distress tolerance, practice being uncomfortable and learn that discomfort doesn’t ruin your life.

‘If the problem is cognitive distortion it may help to ask, am I really thinking about this accurately? Is there an alternative way to look at this?

‘If it is motivation and insight, we encourage people to think about what is really important now, what do you want for your life? Is my behavior pointing me towards that life that I want or away from it?’

He added: ‘They are very difficult questions, hoarding is very difficult to tackle on your own. If your initial efforts at self-help don’t work, don’t be discouraged, it’s very difficult and you must seek professional help.’

Although people can feel shame at seeking help, he said: ‘This is a little bit like taking off your clothes at the doctors office, sometimes you just have to do it so that the professionals can help you.’

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Post sourceDaily mail

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