Our Community in Fairfax County, Virginia

To a certain extent, all of us hoard-keep things that we will never need.  I still have my college textbooks, even though I have not used them since graduating college.  Until recently, I also kept all my old bank statements, credit card receipts, and utilities bills going back more than 20 years.

It always starts out innocent enough.  Newspapers that you haven't had a chance to fully read.  Magazines with interesting articles that you might want to read again.  Scrap materials that you might be able to use someday.  Receipts that you have to keep for a month, but end up never throwing out.  Items you bought from a mail order catalog or a home shopping network that sounded neat at the time you ordered them, but now you don't know what to do with them.

Hoarding strikes particularly hard at elderly residents who live alone.  They have nobody at home to complain about the mess, to help clean up, to talk them out of buying things they don't need, or to talk them into throwing out things like magazines that cost money but are no longer useful.  Anyone over 65 also has vivid memories of the Great Depression and how hoarding was a means of survival for many people back then.

Hoarding strikes younger adults, too.  A middle-aged Northern Virginia couple recently had the walls of their townhouse sag and their front door pop off because of the incredible weight of junk they had hoarded, much of it in stacks reaching from floor to ceiling.  It took 18 large trash dumpsters to haul away all the junk after the county intervened.  The couple was fined and sent to jail.

First and foremost, hoarding is a fire hazard.  Hoarded materials often consist of paper, which is highly combustible.  Living rooms with little space to maneuver can be a deathtrap to residents in a dark, smoky home trying to escape from a fire.  Firemen also face a greater risk of injury entering a dark smoke-filled home that is filled with junk.

Hoarding also can be a health problem.  Who knows what sort of critters can make their home in a room full of papers, scrap materials, and other things that never get moved? 

People with serious hoarding problems tend to not invite others over to their house because of the mess, which in turn allows them to hoard with impunity.  If you are uncomfortable inviting friends into your house because it is so messy, that too is a sure sign of a serious hoarding problem.

What To Do?

If you know you have a hoarding problem and you want to do something about it, just ask for help:

• Ask a relative or friend that you trust to come over to your home for a day and recommend what you should throw out or give away.  Then, do what they say!  Have them help you to throw out the trash.  Plan on how you would rearrange the furniture once the mess is cleaned up, and then do it once the area is clear.


• Ask the county for help.  Contact the fire department and ask for someone to come out and do a safety inspection.  Then, do what they say!


• Ask yourself how your living room looked the first year you lived in it, and promise yourself to make it look the same in 30 days or less.  You may be tempted to just move everything to another room, but even that would be an improvement.  Anything to make your living room a living area, not a storage room.

For oversized trash, call 703-802-3322 to arrange for convenient curbside pick-up provided by Fairfax County at no charge.  For used clothing and other items that could be re-used by others, there are many local and national charities that would be willing to pick these items up-just give them a call.  The Northern Virginia Training Center, 703-323-4000 will accept most everything.  Bailey's Crossroads Community Shelter, 703-820-7621, will provide you with a wish list.  Bailey's Elementary School, 703-575-6800, will accept clothes for adults and children, along with financial donations.  They will provide a receipt for tax deduction purposes.

Think about taking before-and-after pictures so that you never forget how messy it was and how much better it looks after your hard work at cleaning up!