Expert Services for Extreme Decluttering Hoarding Behaviors & Clinical Clutter
America’s Most Organized (AMO) manages the multifactorial impacts of hoarding disorder and other forms of clinical clutter, understanding that a clinical diagnosis can disrupt all areas of an individual’s life. Hoarding behaviors and clinical clutter affect finances, health and wellness, personal relationships, and the safety of the home. In severe cases, hoarding behaviors cause legal concerns.
Changing the Conversation about Hoarding Disorder
Melissa Hladek (Lad-ek) founded America’s Most Organized after spending more than three decades managing the remediation of clinical clutter cases across the country. Hladek and the America’s Most Organized team offer professional consultations, clinical clutter remediation services, and resources for individuals, families, agencies, professionals in the healthcare, finance, legal, and government sectors, and others who need to intervene when clutter feels overwhelming.
America’s Most Organized specializes in remediation services for clients who also need assistance with recovering valuable items during a forced clean-up process during a disaster or forced legal action. The team identifies lost or mishandled financial assets hidden among the piles, and Hladek and her team have recovered historic artwork, important documentation, jewelry, estate planning and financial instruments, and priceless items such as family histories with photographs, letters, and heirlooms.
A Collaborative and Integrative Approach to Decluttering Services
Some individuals and family units acquire an overabundance of items with mixed values over a long period of time, and when left unmanaged, often creates a home with life threatening health and safety concerns. While the diagnosis “hoarding disorder” is a medical diagnosis to indicate a level of severity in connection to this compulsivity of amassing items, the term "hoarder" has negative connotations recently.
For this reason, ‘clinical clutter’ is the preferred term to describe situations of extreme disorganization in a home or environment. encompasses a spectrum of severity, with the most concerning clinical clutter cases leading to life-threatening and uninhabitable environments.
What is ‘clinical clutter’ and when does a collection become a problem? Value and organization delineate a collection from clutter. Those who collect items understand their value and often utilize organization techniques to preserve and showcase their items. Clutter, however, lacks any sense of organization and even valuable items can be damaged.
While collections are focused, clutter lacks any sense of functional focus. Those who struggle with clinical clutter might save everything, amassing mountains of stuff so deep and tall that the items block doors and hallways. As storage areas dwindle, individuals move their items to bathtubs, beds, and other living spaces.
Remediating a clinical clutter case requires a multimodal approach that addresses the individual and creates a “search, rescue, and assessment plan” for cleaning the home, evaluating the contents, and collaborating with the family to determine the best living situation for the individual. The team at America’s Most Organized works and collaborates with government agencies, families, and caregivers to ensure that the remediation plan addresses the health conditions of the living space, compassionately counsels the residents, and saves important items within the home.
Mindfully and Compassionately Navigating the Process of a Whole House Cleanout
America’s Most Organized remediates all levels of clinical clutter situations. Hladek uses a collaborative and transparent approach to remediation, managing both the emotional connection to the items and the physical manifestation of the compulsion. Removing the collection of items has a profoundly emotional effect on the individual, and successful remediation requires the care team to identify and address the underlying cause of the compulsion.
Successful interventions do not simply remove the piles of items from a home, they address and compassionately manage the underlying emotions of the individual to ensure a long-term solution for more organized living. Each case is unique; some individuals move to senior living homes, or the America’s Most Organized team helps family members find the best aging in place home care for their loved one to live a quality meaningful, clutter-free, healthy life.
Clinical clutter concerns affect individuals across all age groups, though; for younger individuals, Hladek and the team work with family members and agency staff to help find support services for the individual and family with the goal to help them live independently in a safe and organized environment or a supportive facility.
Transparency Practices in Organization and Clinical Clutter Remediation
Hladek and the team educate the family and explain every step of the process. During the home remediation, the family is invited to watch the team work via Zoom. Together with the family, the team organizes possessions labeled as salvage, save, and discard, and rescues important belongings and cleans the home.
When Clinical Clutter Threatens the Wellbeing of Pets
Some extreme cases of clinical clutter involve too many animals in the home. Other clutter cases negatively impact the health and wellbeing of pets. When an individual can no longer provide a safe, loving, and healthy environment for an animal, Hladek and the team help rehome the pets and ensure they stay safe.
America’s Most Organized values each client and wants them to feel comfortable during remediation. Nothing in the process is hidden or completed without consent. Families and individuals are invited and encouraged to ask any questions and voice concerns.
ICD Level 5 Specialist and Consultant
Clinical clutter cases are classified by specialists using a leveled scoring system of severity. Level 1 denotes no signs of illness or issues with severe disorganization.
Level 5 is the most severe; level 5 sufferers typically live in concerning conditions that could impact their health and safety. By the time an individual’s compulsions reach this stage, personal safety and hygiene are at risk. Piles of clutter lead to bug or rodent infestations, and the volume of collected items can block sinks, toilets, and closets, making basic self-care impossible. Some level 5 situations have led to individuals who have been crushed and killed when the piles of items trap and suffocate them.
Resource Center
Clinical clutter cases are common. In fact, millions of individuals suffer from this type of compulsive need to collect and save items. The Resource Center offers a blog with articles discussing clutter remediation and how to intervene when a family member or loved one needs help. Explore the articles to learn more about the levels of clinical clutter and how to find guidance, support, and resources.
Hladek is an Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD) Clutter Level 5 Specialist; she is trained and qualified to remediate the worst clinical clutter scenarios and understands the correct processes and compassionate approach necessary to help individuals suffering from this level of clutter compulsion.