Hoarding has become in major issue in America, and unfortunately usually from people who suffer from mental illness or post traumatic stress.
This particular hoarder was suffering from just that. She lost her husband in Afghanistan fives years prior and has been suffering emotionally since then. She never could accept the fact that he was gone and she took her emotions out on her home. She was an extreme hoarder that started with clothing and apparel, then things got out of hand. Fueling her habit was a large settlement from life insurance, on which she has been spending it on everything under the sun. I guess this is her way of coping with his death, but her home was wrecked and she was the one who courageously called and asked for help.
Advanced Bio Treatment doesn’t only clean up bloody murders, we also clean up hoarding disasters.
She was explaining to us over the phone that it has turned into an unsafe area and she desperately needs help. She said that she has three cats and one has been missing for a few days and she worries that the cat might possible be deceased somewhere amongst the piles of clothes, shoes and trash.
We made our way to her home and it was an extremely nice home located in a decent area. From the outside looks you would never guess that an extreme hoarder was lurking inside.
Her living room was the first room we made our way through. You literally couldn’t even see the couches. There was a narrow walkway that was about 2 feet wide. We couldn’t imagine how she could survive in this clutter. Not only does it stink like rotting food and death, but it’s dangerous to have such high piles of items around the home like that. You could get stuck or worse die from a falling object.
When we made our way to the back of the home every room was the same; stacked full, it was unreal!
We started to notice a foul odor from the back bedroom and that’s when we decided it had to have been a deceased cat. We know death when we smell it and she wasn’t surprised, but the smell was awful. The scene needed to be under control immediately before her or any of us get seriously injured or breathe in any potentially risky bacteria.
It took a lot of manpower and disinfecting to get this home back up to par. We disposed of hundreds of pounds of waste and was able to located the deceased cat and dispose of the body properly. She was grateful of the outcome of our services and we are pleased to bring some sense of control back in her life.