10 Goals for Eliminating Hoarder Clutter in the Kitchen

If you have a family member or other loved one with a hoarding disorder, what steps can be taken to regain a sense of order at and in their home? Before diving into one specific strategy, it is essential to note that supporting a loved one with a hoarding disorder necessitates a comprehensive approach to the condition. This includes restoring the loved one’s home to a livable condition and supporting the person with a hoarding disorder to obtain appropriate mental health assistance.

When it comes to tackling the challenging endeavor or restoring a hoarder’s home to a livable condition, it is wise to undertake that process one area of the residence at a time. For example, starting the hoarder cleanup process in the kitchen frequently makes sense. In that regard, there are 10 goals to bear in mind when it comes to eliminating clutter in the kitchen of a home where a person with hoarding disorder resides:

• Create a kitchen cleanup action plan
• Encourage your loved one to stop accumulating stuff
• Stake out a small area in the kitchen to cleanup
• Schedule specific cleanup time periods
• Coordinate kitchen-related storage
• Install proper disposal bins
• Get assistance
• Just begin the process
• Add new touches to the kitchen
• Encourage your loved one to use the kitchen for its purpose

What Is Hoarding Disorder?

Before discussing how to effectively eliminate hoarder clutter in a kitchen, it’s crucial to have a meaningful, accurate understanding of hoarding disorder. For this information, we turn to the highly regarded Mayo Clinic. This medical center has been extensively involved in treating people with hoarding disorder. Hoarding disorder is defined as:

Hoarding disorder is a recognized mental health condition. It has been recognized as a mental health condition since the early years of the 21st century. Hoarding disorder is defined as a persistent, pervasive difficulty discarding or otherwise parting with possessions because of a perceived need to save them. A person with hoarding disorder experiences distress at the thought of getting rid of the items. Excessive accumulation of items, regardless of actual value, occurs as a result.

Hoarding ranges from mild to severe. In some instances, hoarding may not impact a person’s life much. In other cases, hoarding can seriously affect a person’s functioning on a daily basis.

 Create a Kitchen Cleanup Action Plan

When you want to assist your loved one with hoarding behavior or hoarding disorder, you cannot go about the process willy-nilly. This includes coming up with a kitchen cleanup action plan. The kitchen cleanup action plan needs to include many of the elements that are part of this article, including setting specific days of the week and time periods on those days when cleaning will occur. The plan should also include milestones like by a certain date, cabinets will all be cleaned up.

Encourage Your Loved One to Stop Accumulating Stuff

As you prepare to undertake hoarding clutter cleanup in your loved one’s kitchen, while you are preparing the action plan, you must encourage your loved one to do his or her best to stop accumulating stuff. This is also a good juncture at which your loved one should be further encouraged to seek support from a counselor or therapist with experience in working with people with hoarding disorder (if the counseling or therapy process has not already commenced).

Stake Out a Small Area in the Kitchen to Cleanup

A commonplace error people make in supporting a person with hoarding disorder is to fail to be targeted in cleaning efforts. For example, they proclaim “we’re going to cleanup your kitchen!” What really needs to occur is a decision to clean up this part of the kitchen (like the kitchen table) followed by another section of the space and so forth.

Schedule Specific Cleanup Time Periods

In addition to targeting specific areas of the kitchen to clean at any given time you also need to schedule specific cleanup time periods. You do not want to overdo in this area by suggesting that you and your loved one will spend all day involved in kitchen hoarder cleanup. That can prove unnecessarily overwhelming. Rather, schedule specific days for cleaning during a particular week and allocate a specific period of time each day – perhaps even an hour.

Coordinate Kitchen-Related Storage

People with hoarding issues tend to be unorganized. As part of the cleanup process, work with your loved one to coordinate kitchen-related storage for all kitchen related items – from food items to dinnerware. 

Install Proper Disposal Bins

At the heart of hoarding is holding onto items of all types. This can include objects of no value. It can even include what fairly can be classified as trash. As part of the overall kitchen cleanup endeavor, install proper disposals bins in the kitchen. 

Get Assistance

Restoring a kitchen in the home of a person with hoarding disorder to a useable condition can be quite overwhelming even when the tactics outlined in this article are considered. Therefore, you may be wise to engage the services of a professional hoarder cleanup company to assist in undertaking this endeavor. 

Just Begin the Process

Of course saying “just do it, just start the process” is easier said than done. However, with that said, the anticipation of a challenging event sometimes – oftentimes, really – can be worse than the actual activity itself. Beginning the process with a defined area of the kitchen over reasonably scheduled cleaning periods really can get the proverbial ball rolling.

Add New Touches to the Kitchen

As the cleaning process advances, consider planning some new touches to the kitchen with your loved one. This is not a call to get more stuff. Rather, consider fresh paint and touches of that nature.

Encourage Your Loved One to Use the Kitchen for Its Purpose

Finally, once the hoarding kitchen cleanup is completed, encourage your loved one to use the kitchen for its intended purpose going forward. A kitchen table is not an expanse to dump stuff. Neither is the oven. And so forth. 

Consider scheduling a regular meal with your loved one in his or her kitchen once the cleaning is complete. You don’t want to burden them with having to always prepare meals. Instead, suggest bringing food items to their home and preparing a meal together. This can establish an enjoyable routine that also encourages your loved one to keep the kitchen in a clean, tidy condition in the future.