Hoarding: 'The inability to let go of items that others consider trash'

By Lauren Lee KVAL News Published: Nov 21, 2011 at 5:57 PM PDT

EUGENE, Ore. -- Hoarding is a mental illness that is marked by a need to acquire things and the inability to let go of items that others consider trash. Mental health professionals believe it effects 1.5 million Americans.

It is an illness that mental health professionals are still trying to understand. Recently, the issue has been shining in the spotlight with television shows including A&E’s "Hoarders" and TLC’s "Hoarders: Buried Alive."

The television shows have come to the Eugene-Springfield area twice in the past year alone.

Jan Lehman, professional organizer of Can The Clutter based in Eugene, was featured on a recent episode of Hoarders to help a local man. She works with clients on all levels from those with office clutter to others with extreme disorganization.

“In a lot of situations with extreme hoarders, it’s a mental condition that actually causes them to save so much,” said Lehman. “They just look at life very differently and so they truly have to work with a mental health professional to change their behavior in order to stop the hoarding.”

Along with seeking help from a mental health professional, a professional organizer can help teach hoarders new behaviors in their homes.

“A professional organizer can be that extension of that therapy in the home. So they’ll work with the psychologist to talk about the behavioral change and then a professional organizer can work with them in the home,” said Lehman.

Lehman said it's important to understand those with hoarding tendencies or excessive clutter. "It really starts off with understanding what they're stressed about, or what transition through going through," she said.

Gretchen Davey from Lebanon is not a hoarder but could have gone down that path without help. She has had difficulties with organization and had pack-rat tendencies during the past 14 years.

“There was no place you would look that you’d see piles of stuff. Underneath things, boxes of stuff and every cupboard was stuffed with stuff,” said Davey.

A year and a half ago, she sought help from Kristin Bertilson of Queen B Organizing. Bertilson appeared on an episode of Buried Alive to help a hoarder in Springfield. Birtilson said Davey is situationally disorganized.

“I always say she’s situationally disorganized,” Bertilson says of Davey. “She’s not a hoarder because she never had the attachments to things she was afraid of letting go of.”

Since Bertilson started helping Gretchen clean out her entire house and organizer her life, everything has changed.

“It’s freed me up to enjoy things more. I don’t feel like I don’t have a way to get away from it. It was an inescapable problem and not it’s not a problem anymore,” said Davey.

Now, Davey’s entire household is cleaned up and more organized than ever before.

Both Lehman and Birtilson said hoarding is an issue that effects all communities, not just the Eugene-Springfield area. They also say the reality television shows have helped shed light on the issues surrounding hoarding.

Birtilson says it’s important to be patient and understanding with hoarders.

“Most of the time, they don’t ask to be in that situation. It’s not that they’re like ‘oh, I don’t mind living like this so I’m gonna keep doing this’. It’s an illness,” she said.

She also says it takes time to change. “It’s not gonna happen overnight. One of the things you can say is ‘it didn’t take you a week to get here. So it’s not gonna take you a week to un-get here,” said Birtilson.