Laura asked 6 years ago
Good Afternoon, My name is Sarah and I am a compulsive hoarder, I am seeking help to have my home decluttered, basically, I want a professional house clearance company to come in and clear mostly everything only leaving a few items of furniture.
I need a company who can work discreetly, I am so embarrassed and ashamed of how I have let my home become and fear that my neighbors may be nebbing whilst my home is being cleared, what do house clearance companies use to mask rubbish?
From the outside my house looks clean and like any other house, once inside it’s a different story.
My home is a three bedroom with a garage in the Southwark area.
The whole downstairs of the house water damage that has caused the carpet to become moldy, on the carpet there used to be piles of magazines, the water damage has caused the paper to become mush, all the carpets will need to be ripped up.
The living room, and dining room have large furniture including a dining table, a tall two piece sideboard, a three-piece sofa suite, a large coffee table and two side units, there is also a huge amount of clutter, bags full of rubbish (no food waste) and boxes of junk everywhere.
The kitchen has Lino flooring, this has become thick with grease and will need to be removed, the fridge freezer hasn’t worked in over a year and has rotted food waste inside, the kitchen never gets used so all the food will be out of date.
The upstairs has piles of pressed down junk and rubbish covering the carpet in the hallway, the two spare bedrooms are filled with absolute rubbish, empty cardboard boxes, broken furniture and broken appliances.
The bathroom is covered in grease and dust, the bath is filled with empty shampoo bottles, toilet roll and clumps of hair.
My main bedroom is where I have been living, It is so bad now, that is why I have decided to have a house clearance, the mattress has rotted away underneath mountains of food waste, empty food cans and rubbish, my wardrobes can not be accessed at all due to the amount of clutter barricading them.
Inside my wardrobes is my jewellery box, I want this to be kept back for me.
The garage has a lot of junk that belonged to my granddad, I have been through it and removed things that I want kept, everything else in there is to be cleared.
In one of the spare bedrooms there is a heavily carved trunk amongst the rubbish, and a nest of carved Chinese style tables, I want these to be kept back for me.
Everything including carpets, all appliances and rubbish is to be cleared.
I am so embarrassed about the state of my house and do not want to be present for the house clearance, could I post keys to a head office? How will this work?
Will the company keep me updated throughout the day? How will I receive my keys back? And how will I make payment and receive my invoice?
Please, any information would be much appreciated.
Thank you, Laura
Danielle answered 6 years ago
Hi Sarah, Last year I couldn’t make ends meet, I couldn’t take living in absolute clutter anymore and decided it was time to have a fresh start.
I read many articles that people had written on living as a hoarder and having their cluttered home cleared.
I decided to research companies that offer a discreet service and specialise in clearing hoarded and cluttered houses.
I came across The Cluttered House Clearance Company, I was so embarrassed and ashamed of myself that I couldn’t officially call up to get information and instead I emailed Tiffany on clutteredclearances@yahoo.com and went from there.
After giving a detailed description on my hoarded house, Tiffany gave me information about the kind of services they offer. I hesitated with booking for a few months and Tiffany was very patient with me and answered every query that I had.
I eventually bit the bullet and decided to book a date, like you, I could not be present on the day of the clearance due to my sheer embarrassment, I posted the keys to the companies head office, and we went from there.
Tiffany confirmed when the keys had been received and kept me updated when the specialists arrived to clear my house.
My home had become so derelict due to lack of cleaning, there was food waste throughout the whole house and mountains of rubbish, I couldn’t bare to look at it anymore, I became deeply depressed and had no choice but to have my home cleared.
To me, the rubbish and junk seemed sentimental but now that I am living a clutter free life and have received specialist help, it all seemed so silly to hold on to what was actually junk.
Amongst the huge amount of rubbish in my main bedroom was a box containing my passport, jewellery and personal documents, I asked the team to keep it to one side, and they left it in the main bedroom for me.
My home is a three bedroom bungalow with a garage in the Southwark area.
The living room is where I had lived for several years, I had made a flooring from pushed down rubbish, the carpet was no longer visible.
In the living room was a huge amount of food waste and rubbish, there was a sofa suite, a television and stand, a large sideboard and a few tables, all the furniture had to be removed due to wood worm, and the sofa looked as if had been eaten away it was that decayed.
The kitchen has not been used for years, I was eating food from a tin and leaving the empty tin lying around, rotten food covered the bench tops and the fridge was filled with decaying food, the freezer had been switched off for months and the stench was unbearable.
The dining room had been filled with mountains of dirty laundry covering the dining table, there was stacked boxes containing junk I had bought from boot-sales and charity stores (most of this got donated to charities by the team).
The bathroom hadn’t been cleaned in years, the bath had been filled with food waste and bags full of rubbish.
All three bedrooms were extremely cluttered, I went through a phase of buying online, there were boxes of brand-new stuff everywhere, the team managed to donate a huge amount to charity in Southwark.
The garage had plastic boxes containing newspapers, some tool sets and a set of ladders, everything was to be cleared from there.
In regard to your questions, I was offered to post the keys to their head office, leave the keys with a neighbor or a friend to be collected, I opted to post them to their head office and asked for them to return them to my next door neighbor when done.
In regard to rubbish being cleared discreetly, the team sent photographs of the rubbish being removed in large sacks.
Once the team finished the clearance, they sent me photographs of my empty house, Tiffany called me to take payment via card machine and sent a copy of my invoice and card receipt via email.
It took three days to completely clear my whole house and garage.
I am so pleased that I decided to have my house cleared and seek professional help for my hoarding problem, a huge thank you to the cluttered house clearance company for making my life much easier, I have totally redecorated and furnished my home to a more minimal standard.
I hope this information helps you and I really hope you too can overcome being a hoarder.
Danielle.
AFTA Staff answered 5 years ago
Hiya, hopefully I can add further assistance.
We have a member that is fully licensed with the UK Environment Agency and also fully insured to undertake the clearance of hoarded and cluttered houses.
They cover all UK areas and list costs and prices on their website.
Check our members page here The Cluttered & Hoarded House Clearance Company
Hoarded house before and after pics | Hoarded house clearance how much? | Hoarded house clearance FAQs
Hope this helps Andy (AFTA Staff)