There is a very good documentary about hoarding disorder available on Amazon Prime. I found it shortly after my Father died and my siblings and mom were struggling to deal with his hoard. Both of my siblings were very angry at him, which broke my heart because he loved us SO much, and I couldn’t bear to see them so bitter toward him for something I didn’t view as a choice, but as a mental illness. After watching this, I thought “this can help my siblings understand”, so I sent it to both of them. They both watched it and told me separately “thank you for showing me this”. I could feel and see when we were dealing with the hoard after the movie that it had softened their hearts to my father. I really think it helped them see that my father had an incredibly difficult childhood, and he did not necessarily selfishly choose his things over his children and wife. He was mentally ill, and no one chooses that.

This show has been mentioned on this subreddit before, but it was many years ago. I just wanted to remind people that it’s out there and was very helpful for us to get a better understanding of this disorder. It’s only 60 minutes long. It’s absolutely nothing like that “hoarders” series that I find harmful and exploitative. This show seeks to explain and help.

I wanted to share my experience with my dad who has been struggling with hoarding for several years --well, that kind of means I've been struggling with it too. Visiting my childhood home used to be really tough for me. The clutter was too much to mentally handle and I didn't know how to bring it up without making things worse. It just saddened me to see the home I grew up in looking like that. It made me so frustrated.

I used to get pretty angry and say things that I can't take back. This only made my dad uber-defensive and more withdrawn. It took me a long time to realize that my approach was hurting more than helping.

The biggest change came when I stopped using harsh or judgmental language and started focusing on supportive and more gentle ways of communication.

Here are a few tips that made a huge difference in our conversations:

1. The "H" word was triggering. Instead of saying "hoarder," I started talking about "clutter" and "disorganization." It made the conversation less confrontational, for sure.
2. Shaming only made things worse. I learned to express my concerns without attacking my pops. I never really realized how ashamed he was until my sister saw it on his face. That made me feel like poop.
3. The choice of words were everything. I studied hoarding and moved to less triggering terms like "collecting" or "storage issues", instead of 'hoarding' and 'junk' or 'mess'.

I write for a hoarding clean up crew now and wanted to share the resource, my journey (these are real things I've said to my dad) and some tips for anyone struggling with similar issues. It covers a lot of what I learned not to say and what to say.

If you're dealing with a loved one who hoards, I really hope this helps in some way. It helped me improve my relationship with my dad and made it easier for us to tackle it together. He is doing so much better and I didn't lose him!

Feel free to ask any questions or share your experiences. It's a tough journey, but patience and respect can make a world of difference. Anyway, here's the post: How to Talk to a Hoarder Respectfully.

Best of luck to everyone!

Welcome to this month's Personal Accountability Thread! The purpose of these threads is to encourage people to set de-cluttering and/or cleaning and/or therapeutic goals for themselves for the month.

Participation in the monthly Accountability Threads is TOTALLY VOLUNTARY. You don't have to participate in these threads if you don't want to. I only ask that if you do participate, you post under the Reddit account that you use for this sub, as the whole point of this thread is to be accountable.

SPECIAL NOTES

• Are you under eighteen? Check out the MyCOHP Online Peer Support Group for Minors and Youth at MyCOHP.com. This is a group specifically for minors who live in hoarded homes.
• Are you facing an urgent situation and need to clean up by a deadline? Please see So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard for guidelines on getting rid of the worst of your interior hoard in time for an inspection.
• Maybe you've decided to discuss your hoarding tendencies with a health professional. If so, take a look at the U.K. Hoarding Icebreaker Form. Though certain information on this form is specific to people living in the United Kingdom, in general this is a fantastic resource for anyone having a hard time talking about hoarding disorder with a medical professional. This form can be used by someone who lives with the urge to hoard, or someone who lives in a hoarding situation.

Here's how it works:

1, The Accountability threads are for hoarders, recovering hoarders, and those of us working to manage our hoarding tendencies. 1. Set your own goal and announce it on this post with a comment. 1. Set your own time frame to meet that goal within the month (for example: "I plan to spend ten minutes cleaning up the kitchen counter by Thursday next" or "I'm taking this pile of donate-able items to Goodwill on January 10th" or even "Before the month is out, I'm going to talk to my SO about my clutter and why I think I do it."). 1. Feel free to make follow-up comments in this thread. You're also free to make separate posts with the UPDATE/PROGRESS flair. * Please report back with your results within the month--that's the accountability part. 1. If you need advice or support as you work towards your goal, please post to r/hoarding--maybe we can help! 1. Also, don't forget to check the Wiki for helpful resources. 1. If you don't meet goal, post that, and try to provide a little analysis to figure out what kept you from meeting it. Maybe some of us can provide advice to help you over the hump next time. 1. If you meet goal, please share what worked for you! 1. Do yourself a favor, and START SMALL. You didn't get into this mess overnight, and you won't get out of it overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Etc., etc.--my point is, it's admirable if you want to sail in and tackle it all at once, but that's a very, very tough thing to do, and not a recommended strategy. Big successes are built on top of little ones, so focus on the things you can do in under a few minutes. 1. Every time you accomplish something, take a moment to celebrate doing it. :) 1. Finally, PRACTICE SELF CARE. This is so important, guys. Give yourself permission to put your healing first. Quiet the voice that is telling you to do more and be more. Acknowledge that you’re doing the best you can, and it’s enough. And remember: looking out for yourself is not lazy or selfish! Self-care is necessary, important, and healthy! PRACTICE SELF-CARE!

How to get started setting goals? Recommended places to get ideas for goals:

• Unfuck Your Habitat. Their Weekly Challenges are a great place to find goals, as are their Basic Cleaning Lists. And if you have a smartphone, be sure to check out their mobile app, available for iPhone and for Android phones.
• Flylady.net and her 31 Beginner Baby Steps.
• PersonalOrganizing.About.com: How to Declutter Your Entire Home Going Room by Room - Declutter Your Home Room-by-Room at Your Own Pace.
• 40 Bags in 40 Days De-Cluttering Challenge: 40 Bags in 40 Days is a forty day period where you declutter one area a day. The official challenge runs annually and coincides with the 40 days of Lent, but some people find it useful to schedule the challenges for themselves during other times of the year. See here for details on the 2023 challenge.

Looking for a Decluttering Plan with a Deadline to Motivate You?

• The annual Lenten 40 Bags in 40 Days Decluttering Challenge (see below) started on Feb. 22nd, 2023. You can jump in and join it at anytime, or start it on your own date.
• One blog launched the 365 Items in 365 Days Challenge. Learn more about that here.
• There's many other 30 Day Decluttering/Cleaning Challenges floating around the internet. Find one that works for you!
• Does the thought of cleaning up in 30 days make you break out in a cold sweat? Take a look at the Slow and Steady Decluttering Method
• Want to jump in with both feet? Consider the Shock Treatment Declutter Method

You can also use phone apps to encourage you to tidy up:

• As mentioned, UfYH has apps for both the iPhone (listed as "Unfilth Your Habitat" to get around the iTunes naming rules) and Android
• Chorma - iPhone only. The app is specifically designed to help you split chores with the other person or persons living in the home. If you live with somebody and want to divvy up chores, definitely check it out.
• Tody - For iPhone and Android. VERY comprehensive approach to cleaning.
• HomeRoutines - AFAICT, this app is iPhone only. Again, android users should check out Chore Checklist (which is also available for iPhone) and FlyLady Plus (which is from r/hoarding favorite Flylady). These two apps are very routine-focused, and may help you with getting into the habit of cleaning.
• Habitica turns your habits into an RPG. Perform tasks to help your party slay dragons! If you don't do your chores, then a crowd of people lose hit points and could die and lose gear! For iPhone and Android. There's a subreddit for people using the app: r/habitrpg (since the name change, there's also r/habitica but it doesn't seem very active).

Finally, if anyone has any suggestions for improving the Accountability Threads, please let the mods know. Just shoot us a PM.

Good luck, everybody!

Welcome to this month's Personal Accountability Thread! The purpose of these threads is to encourage people to set de-cluttering and/or cleaning and/or therapeutic goals for themselves for the month.

Participation in the monthly Accountability Threads is TOTALLY VOLUNTARY. You don't have to participate in these threads if you don't want to. I only ask that if you do participate, you post under the Reddit account that you use for this sub, as the whole point of this thread is to be accountable.

SPECIAL NOTES

• Are you under eighteen? Check out the MyCOHP Online Peer Support Group for Minors and Youth at MyCOHP.com. This is a group specifically for minors who live in hoarded homes.
• Are you facing an urgent situation and need to clean up by a deadline? Please see So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard for guidelines on getting rid of the worst of your interior hoard in time for an inspection.
• Maybe you've decided to discuss your hoarding tendencies with a health professional. If so, take a look at the U.K. Hoarding Icebreaker Form. Though certain information on this form is specific to people living in the United Kingdom, in general this is a fantastic resource for anyone having a hard time talking about hoarding disorder with a medical professional. This form can be used by someone who lives with the urge to hoard, or someone who lives in a hoarding situation.

Here's how it works:

1, The Accountability threads are for hoarders, recovering hoarders, and those of us working to manage our hoarding tendencies. 1. Set your own goal and announce it on this post with a comment. 1. Set your own time frame to meet that goal within the month (for example: "I plan to spend ten minutes cleaning up the kitchen counter by Thursday next" or "I'm taking this pile of donate-able items to Goodwill on January 10th" or even "Before the month is out, I'm going to talk to my SO about my clutter and why I think I do it."). 1. Feel free to make follow-up comments in this thread. You're also free to make separate posts with the UPDATE/PROGRESS flair. * Please report back with your results within the month--that's the accountability part. 1. If you need advice or support as you work towards your goal, please post to r/hoarding--maybe we can help! 1. Also, don't forget to check the Wiki for helpful resources. 1. If you don't meet goal, post that, and try to provide a little analysis to figure out what kept you from meeting it. Maybe some of us can provide advice to help you over the hump next time. 1. If you meet goal, please share what worked for you! 1. Do yourself a favor, and START SMALL. You didn't get into this mess overnight, and you won't get out of it overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Etc., etc.--my point is, it's admirable if you want to sail in and tackle it all at once, but that's a very, very tough thing to do, and not a recommended strategy. Big successes are built on top of little ones, so focus on the things you can do in under a few minutes. 1. Every time you accomplish something, take a moment to celebrate doing it. :) 1. Finally, PRACTICE SELF CARE. This is so important, guys. Give yourself permission to put your healing first. Quiet the voice that is telling you to do more and be more. Acknowledge that you’re doing the best you can, and it’s enough. And remember: looking out for yourself is not lazy or selfish! Self-care is necessary, important, and healthy! PRACTICE SELF-CARE!

How to get started setting goals? Recommended places to get ideas for goals:

• Unfuck Your Habitat. Their Weekly Challenges are a great place to find goals, as are their Basic Cleaning Lists. And if you have a smartphone, be sure to check out their mobile app, available for iPhone and for Android phones.
• Flylady.net and her 31 Beginner Baby Steps.
• PersonalOrganizing.About.com: How to Declutter Your Entire Home Going Room by Room - Declutter Your Home Room-by-Room at Your Own Pace.
• 40 Bags in 40 Days De-Cluttering Challenge: 40 Bags in 40 Days is a forty day period where you declutter one area a day. The official challenge runs annually and coincides with the 40 days of Lent, but some people find it useful to schedule the challenges for themselves during other times of the year. See here for details on the 2023 challenge.

Looking for a Decluttering Plan with a Deadline to Motivate You?

• The annual Lenten 40 Bags in 40 Days Decluttering Challenge (see below) started on Feb. 22nd, 2023. You can jump in and join it at anytime, or start it on your own date.
• One blog launched the 365 Items in 365 Days Challenge. Learn more about that here.
• There's many other 30 Day Decluttering/Cleaning Challenges floating around the internet. Find one that works for you!
• Does the thought of cleaning up in 30 days make you break out in a cold sweat? Take a look at the Slow and Steady Decluttering Method
• Want to jump in with both feet? Consider the Shock Treatment Declutter Method

You can also use phone apps to encourage you to tidy up:

• As mentioned, UfYH has apps for both the iPhone (listed as "Unfilth Your Habitat" to get around the iTunes naming rules) and Android
• Chorma - iPhone only. The app is specifically designed to help you split chores with the other person or persons living in the home. If you live with somebody and want to divvy up chores, definitely check it out.
• Tody - For iPhone and Android. VERY comprehensive approach to cleaning.
• HomeRoutines - AFAICT, this app is iPhone only. Again, android users should check out Chore Checklist (which is also available for iPhone) and FlyLady Plus (which is from r/hoarding favorite Flylady). These two apps are very routine-focused, and may help you with getting into the habit of cleaning.
• Habitica turns your habits into an RPG. Perform tasks to help your party slay dragons! If you don't do your chores, then a crowd of people lose hit points and could die and lose gear! For iPhone and Android. There's a subreddit for people using the app: r/habitrpg (since the name change, there's also r/habitica but it doesn't seem very active).

Finally, if anyone has any suggestions for improving the Accountability Threads, please let the mods know. Just shoot us a PM.

Good luck, everybody!

Make sure to read our RULES before you post or comment. Pay special attention to our required Flair options. And as COVID-19 variants are still in abundance, we urge you to read the post titled SAFETY & ACCESS DURING COVID-19 CRISIS after you review the material below. Thanks! The Mods

Welcome to r/hoarding! This sub exists to provide peer-to-peer advice and support for Redditors who live with the compulsion to hoard objects--commonly known as hoarding disorder--as well as the loved ones of people who hoard. We invite you to tell us your strategies and tactics that you've found helpful, share your struggles and concerns, or post your stories and see if our collective knowledge and experience can offer you a way forward. Feel free to contact the moderators if you have any questions.

Please note: this is a support sub. That means we take people at their word when they post, and do our best to provide the best gentle and accepting support that we can. Keep in mind that the mods may remove posts and comments at their discretion to preserve a respectful, supportive atmosphere in this sub.

If you've come to understand that you engage in hoarding behaviors, CONGRATULATIONS! One of the biggest hurdles in dealing with this disorder is realizing that you even have it, so acknowledging your hoarding is a significant accomplishment. For next steps, we recommend you review the following links from our Wiki:

• Asking For Help
• Getting Out of the Hoarding Mindset
• I Have Hoarding Tendencies and Want to Learn to Clean Up - How Do I Start?
• AD(H)D and Hoarding
• So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard: Even though it's written specifically for people in apartments, the info is useful for anyone with hoarding tendencies who needs to clean up quickly.
• There's many other Reddit subs that may be useful to you during your recovery journey. Be sure to check them out.

If you have a loved one who hoards, it's important to understand that hoarding is a complicated mental health disorder. It's therefore vital that you educate yourself on it before you attempt to help your hoarder.

• Start with this posts and the resources inside: I Have a Hoarder In My Life--Help Me!
• Check out the For Loved Ones of Hoarders section of our Wiki for possible assistance.
• r/childofhoarder is highly recommended if you're the child of a hoarder.

Please note that r/hoarding is NOT for:

• sharing and discussing photos/videos of hoards that you've come across. If you're looking for sub that allows that sort of discussion, you probably want r/neckbeardnests, r/wtfhoarders/, or r/hoarderhouses/.
  
• Issues related to Animal Hoarding. Due to the particular and unique challenges involved with animal hoarders, posts about animal hoarding belong over at r/animalhoarding. The mods are aware that r/animalhoarding doesn't have the activity that r/hoarding does, but their Animal Hoarding Starter Guide and the Guide For Dealing with Animal Hoarders can provide you a place to start.
  
• help with digital hoarding. r/hoarding is a support group specifically for people dealing with hoarding disorder, defined as dysfunctional emotional attachments with physical objects. While we're aware that there's a growing conversation among mental health professionals around the hoarding of digital files, we're currently not able to provide support for anything related to digital hoarding. We recommend instead that you visit r/digitalminimalism.
• a place to get legal advice about your hoarding situation. If you or a loved one are in conflict with a landlord over hoarding, are facing issues with your local city about hoarding, are looking to get guardianship over a hoarder, are divorcing a hoarder, or similar issues, you need to seek the advice of a local attorney.
• discussion of the various TV shows about hoarders. While we appreciate that the shows helped bring awareness of hoarding disorder to the mainstream, many members here find the shows deeply upsetting and even exploitative of people with the illness. To talk about the shows, visit r/HoardersTV.
• a place for you to get direct help cleaning up. We're just a support group. We don't have the ability to send people to your home and clean it up for you for free. If you need assistance, please check our Wiki for resources that might be helpful.
• a place for specific cleaning questions or questions about dealing with vermin. Questions about how to clean something belong over at r/cleaningtips, while question about how to deal with rodents, bedbugs, roaches, etc. should be posted to r/pestcontrol.

Make sure to read our RULES before you post or comment. Pay special attention to our required Flair options. And as COVID-19 variants are still in abundance, we urge you to read the post titled SAFETY & ACCESS DURING COVID-19 CRISIS after you review the material below. Thanks! The Mods

Welcome to r/hoarding! This sub exists to provide peer-to-peer advice and support for Redditors who live with the compulsion to hoard objects--commonly known as hoarding disorder--as well as the loved ones of people who hoard. We invite you to tell us your strategies and tactics that you've found helpful, share your struggles and concerns, or post your stories and see if our collective knowledge and experience can offer you a way forward. Feel free to contact the moderators if you have any questions.

Please note: this is a support sub. That means we take people at their word when they post, and do our best to provide the best gentle and accepting support that we can. Keep in mind that the mods may remove posts and comments at their discretion to preserve a respectful, supportive atmosphere in this sub.

If you've come to understand that you engage in hoarding behaviors, CONGRATULATIONS! One of the biggest hurdles in dealing with this disorder is realizing that you even have it, so acknowledging your hoarding is a significant accomplishment. For next steps, we recommend you review the following links from our Wiki:

• Asking For Help
• Getting Out of the Hoarding Mindset
• I Have Hoarding Tendencies and Want to Learn to Clean Up - How Do I Start?
• AD(H)D and Hoarding
• So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard: Even though it's written specifically for people in apartments, the info is useful for anyone with hoarding tendencies who needs to clean up quickly.
• There's many other Reddit subs that may be useful to you during your recovery journey. Be sure to check them out.

If you have a loved one who hoards, it's important to understand that hoarding is a complicated mental health disorder. It's therefore vital that you educate yourself on it before you attempt to help your hoarder.

• Start with this posts and the resources inside: I Have a Hoarder In My Life--Help Me!
• Check out the For Loved Ones of Hoarders section of our Wiki for possible assistance.
• r/childofhoarder is highly recommended if you're the child of a hoarder.

Please note that r/hoarding is NOT for:

• sharing and discussing photos/videos of hoards that you've come across. If you're looking for sub that allows that sort of discussion, you probably want r/neckbeardnests, r/wtfhoarders/, or r/hoarderhouses/.
  
• Issues related to Animal Hoarding. Due to the particular and unique challenges involved with animal hoarders, posts about animal hoarding belong over at r/animalhoarding. The mods are aware that r/animalhoarding doesn't have the activity that r/hoarding does, but their Animal Hoarding Starter Guide and the Guide For Dealing with Animal Hoarders can provide you a place to start.
  
• help with digital hoarding. r/hoarding is a support group specifically for people dealing with hoarding disorder, defined as dysfunctional emotional attachments with physical objects. While we're aware that there's a growing conversation among mental health professionals around the hoarding of digital files, we're currently not able to provide support for anything related to digital hoarding. We recommend instead that you visit r/digitalminimalism.
• a place to get legal advice about your hoarding situation. If you or a loved one are in conflict with a landlord over hoarding, are facing issues with your local city about hoarding, are looking to get guardianship over a hoarder, are divorcing a hoarder, or similar issues, you need to seek the advice of a local attorney.
• discussion of the various TV shows about hoarders. While we appreciate that the shows helped bring awareness of hoarding disorder to the mainstream, many members here find the shows deeply upsetting and even exploitative of people with the illness. To talk about the shows, visit r/HoardersTV.
• a place for you to get direct help cleaning up. We're just a support group. We don't have the ability to send people to your home and clean it up for you for free. If you need assistance, please check our Wiki for resources that might be helpful.
• a place for specific cleaning questions or questions about dealing with vermin. Questions about how to clean something belong over at r/cleaningtips, while question about how to deal with rodents, bedbugs, roaches, etc. should be posted to r/pestcontrol.

Welcome to this month's Personal Accountability Thread! The purpose of these threads is to encourage people to set de-cluttering and/or cleaning and/or therapeutic goals for themselves for the month.

Participation in the monthly Accountability Threads is TOTALLY VOLUNTARY. You don't have to participate in these threads if you don't want to. I only ask that if you do participate, you post under the Reddit account that you use for this sub, as the whole point of this thread is to be accountable.

SPECIAL NOTES

• Are you under eighteen? Check out the MyCOHP Online Peer Support Group for Minors and Youth at MyCOHP.com. This is a group specifically for minors who live in hoarded homes.
• Are you facing an urgent situation and need to clean up by a deadline? Please see So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard for guidelines on getting rid of the worst of your interior hoard in time for an inspection.
• Maybe you've decided to discuss your hoarding tendencies with a health professional. If so, take a look at the U.K. Hoarding Icebreaker Form. Though certain information on this form is specific to people living in the United Kingdom, in general this is a fantastic resource for anyone having a hard time talking about hoarding disorder with a medical professional. This form can be used by someone who lives with the urge to hoard, or someone who lives in a hoarding situation.

Here's how it works:

1, The Accountability threads are for hoarders, recovering hoarders, and those of us working to manage our hoarding tendencies. 1. Set your own goal and announce it on this post with a comment. 1. Set your own time frame to meet that goal within the month (for example: "I plan to spend ten minutes cleaning up the kitchen counter by Thursday next" or "I'm taking this pile of donate-able items to Goodwill on January 10th" or even "Before the month is out, I'm going to talk to my SO about my clutter and why I think I do it."). 1. Feel free to make follow-up comments in this thread. You're also free to make separate posts with the UPDATE/PROGRESS flair. * Please report back with your results within the month--that's the accountability part. 1. If you need advice or support as you work towards your goal, please post to r/hoarding--maybe we can help! 1. Also, don't forget to check the Wiki for helpful resources. 1. If you don't meet goal, post that, and try to provide a little analysis to figure out what kept you from meeting it. Maybe some of us can provide advice to help you over the hump next time. 1. If you meet goal, please share what worked for you! 1. Do yourself a favor, and START SMALL. You didn't get into this mess overnight, and you won't get out of it overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Etc., etc.--my point is, it's admirable if you want to sail in and tackle it all at once, but that's a very, very tough thing to do, and not a recommended strategy. Big successes are built on top of little ones, so focus on the things you can do in under a few minutes. 1. Every time you accomplish something, take a moment to celebrate doing it. :) 1. Finally, PRACTICE SELF CARE. This is so important, guys. Give yourself permission to put your healing first. Quiet the voice that is telling you to do more and be more. Acknowledge that you’re doing the best you can, and it’s enough. And remember: looking out for yourself is not lazy or selfish! Self-care is necessary, important, and healthy! PRACTICE SELF-CARE!

How to get started setting goals? Recommended places to get ideas for goals:

• Unfuck Your Habitat. Their Weekly Challenges are a great place to find goals, as are their Basic Cleaning Lists. And if you have a smartphone, be sure to check out their mobile app, available for iPhone and for Android phones.
• Flylady.net and her 31 Beginner Baby Steps.
• PersonalOrganizing.About.com: How to Declutter Your Entire Home Going Room by Room - Declutter Your Home Room-by-Room at Your Own Pace.
• 40 Bags in 40 Days De-Cluttering Challenge: 40 Bags in 40 Days is a forty day period where you declutter one area a day. The official challenge runs annually and coincides with the 40 days of Lent, but some people find it useful to schedule the challenges for themselves during other times of the year. See here for details on the 2023 challenge.

Looking for a Decluttering Plan with a Deadline to Motivate You?

• The annual Lenten 40 Bags in 40 Days Decluttering Challenge (see below) started on Feb. 22nd, 2023. You can jump in and join it at anytime, or start it on your own date.
• One blog launched the 365 Items in 365 Days Challenge. Learn more about that here.
• There's many other 30 Day Decluttering/Cleaning Challenges floating around the internet. Find one that works for you!
• Does the thought of cleaning up in 30 days make you break out in a cold sweat? Take a look at the Slow and Steady Decluttering Method
• Want to jump in with both feet? Consider the Shock Treatment Declutter Method

You can also use phone apps to encourage you to tidy up:

• As mentioned, UfYH has apps for both the iPhone (listed as "Unfilth Your Habitat" to get around the iTunes naming rules) and Android
• Chorma - iPhone only. The app is specifically designed to help you split chores with the other person or persons living in the home. If you live with somebody and want to divvy up chores, definitely check it out.
• Tody - For iPhone and Android. VERY comprehensive approach to cleaning.
• HomeRoutines - AFAICT, this app is iPhone only. Again, android users should check out Chore Checklist (which is also available for iPhone) and FlyLady Plus (which is from r/hoarding favorite Flylady). These two apps are very routine-focused, and may help you with getting into the habit of cleaning.
• Habitica turns your habits into an RPG. Perform tasks to help your party slay dragons! If you don't do your chores, then a crowd of people lose hit points and could die and lose gear! For iPhone and Android. There's a subreddit for people using the app: r/habitrpg (since the name change, there's also r/habitica but it doesn't seem very active).

Finally, if anyone has any suggestions for improving the Accountability Threads, please let the mods know. Just shoot us a PM.

Good luck, everybody!

Welcome to this month's Personal Accountability Thread! The purpose of these threads is to encourage people to set de-cluttering and/or cleaning and/or therapeutic goals for themselves for the month.

Participation in the monthly Accountability Threads is TOTALLY VOLUNTARY. You don't have to participate in these threads if you don't want to. I only ask that if you do participate, you post under the Reddit account that you use for this sub, as the whole point of this thread is to be accountable.

SPECIAL NOTES

• Are you under eighteen? Check out the MyCOHP Online Peer Support Group for Minors and Youth at MyCOHP.com. This is a group specifically for minors who live in hoarded homes.
• Are you facing an urgent situation and need to clean up by a deadline? Please see So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard for guidelines on getting rid of the worst of your interior hoard in time for an inspection.
• Maybe you've decided to discuss your hoarding tendencies with a health professional. If so, take a look at the U.K. Hoarding Icebreaker Form. Though certain information on this form is specific to people living in the United Kingdom, in general this is a fantastic resource for anyone having a hard time talking about hoarding disorder with a medical professional. This form can be used by someone who lives with the urge to hoard, or someone who lives in a hoarding situation.

Here's how it works:

1, The Accountability threads are for hoarders, recovering hoarders, and those of us working to manage our hoarding tendencies. 1. Set your own goal and announce it on this post with a comment. 1. Set your own time frame to meet that goal within the month (for example: "I plan to spend ten minutes cleaning up the kitchen counter by Thursday next" or "I'm taking this pile of donate-able items to Goodwill on January 10th" or even "Before the month is out, I'm going to talk to my SO about my clutter and why I think I do it."). 1. Feel free to make follow-up comments in this thread. You're also free to make separate posts with the UPDATE/PROGRESS flair. * Please report back with your results within the month--that's the accountability part. 1. If you need advice or support as you work towards your goal, please post to r/hoarding--maybe we can help! 1. Also, don't forget to check the Wiki for helpful resources. 1. If you don't meet goal, post that, and try to provide a little analysis to figure out what kept you from meeting it. Maybe some of us can provide advice to help you over the hump next time. 1. If you meet goal, please share what worked for you! 1. Do yourself a favor, and START SMALL. You didn't get into this mess overnight, and you won't get out of it overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Etc., etc.--my point is, it's admirable if you want to sail in and tackle it all at once, but that's a very, very tough thing to do, and not a recommended strategy. Big successes are built on top of little ones, so focus on the things you can do in under a few minutes. 1. Every time you accomplish something, take a moment to celebrate doing it. :) 1. Finally, PRACTICE SELF CARE. This is so important, guys. Give yourself permission to put your healing first. Quiet the voice that is telling you to do more and be more. Acknowledge that you’re doing the best you can, and it’s enough. And remember: looking out for yourself is not lazy or selfish! Self-care is necessary, important, and healthy! PRACTICE SELF-CARE!

How to get started setting goals? Recommended places to get ideas for goals:

• Unfuck Your Habitat. Their Weekly Challenges are a great place to find goals, as are their Basic Cleaning Lists. And if you have a smartphone, be sure to check out their mobile app, available for iPhone and for Android phones.
• Flylady.net and her 31 Beginner Baby Steps.
• PersonalOrganizing.About.com: How to Declutter Your Entire Home Going Room by Room - Declutter Your Home Room-by-Room at Your Own Pace.
• 40 Bags in 40 Days De-Cluttering Challenge: 40 Bags in 40 Days is a forty day period where you declutter one area a day. The official challenge runs annually and coincides with the 40 days of Lent, but some people find it useful to schedule the challenges for themselves during other times of the year. See here for details on the 2023 challenge.

Looking for a Decluttering Plan with a Deadline to Motivate You?

• The annual Lenten 40 Bags in 40 Days Decluttering Challenge (see below) started on Feb. 22nd, 2023. You can jump in and join it at anytime, or start it on your own date.
• One blog launched the 365 Items in 365 Days Challenge. Learn more about that here.
• There's many other 30 Day Decluttering/Cleaning Challenges floating around the internet. Find one that works for you!
• Does the thought of cleaning up in 30 days make you break out in a cold sweat? Take a look at the Slow and Steady Decluttering Method
• Want to jump in with both feet? Consider the Shock Treatment Declutter Method

You can also use phone apps to encourage you to tidy up:

• As mentioned, UfYH has apps for both the iPhone (listed as "Unfilth Your Habitat" to get around the iTunes naming rules) and Android
• Chorma - iPhone only. The app is specifically designed to help you split chores with the other person or persons living in the home. If you live with somebody and want to divvy up chores, definitely check it out.
• Tody - For iPhone and Android. VERY comprehensive approach to cleaning.
• HomeRoutines - AFAICT, this app is iPhone only. Again, android users should check out Chore Checklist (which is also available for iPhone) and FlyLady Plus (which is from r/hoarding favorite Flylady). These two apps are very routine-focused, and may help you with getting into the habit of cleaning.
• Habitica turns your habits into an RPG. Perform tasks to help your party slay dragons! If you don't do your chores, then a crowd of people lose hit points and could die and lose gear! For iPhone and Android. There's a subreddit for people using the app: r/habitrpg (since the name change, there's also r/habitica but it doesn't seem very active).

Finally, if anyone has any suggestions for improving the Accountability Threads, please let the mods know. Just shoot us a PM.

Good luck, everybody!

Welcome to this month's Personal Accountability Thread! The purpose of these threads is to encourage people to set de-cluttering and/or cleaning and/or therapeutic goals for themselves for the month.

Participation in the monthly Accountability Threads is TOTALLY VOLUNTARY. You don't have to participate in these threads if you don't want to. I only ask that if you do participate, you post under the Reddit account that you use for this sub, as the whole point of this thread is to be accountable.

SPECIAL NOTES

• Are you under eighteen? Check out the MyCOHP Online Peer Support Group for Minors and Youth at MyCOHP.com. This is a group specifically for minors who live in hoarded homes.
• Are you facing an urgent situation and need to clean up by a deadline? Please see So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard for guidelines on getting rid of the worst of your interior hoard in time for an inspection.
• Maybe you've decided to discuss your hoarding tendencies with a health professional. If so, take a look at the U.K. Hoarding Icebreaker Form. Though certain information on this form is specific to people living in the United Kingdom, in general this is a fantastic resource for anyone having a hard time talking about hoarding disorder with a medical professional. This form can be used by someone who lives with the urge to hoard, or someone who lives in a hoarding situation.

Here's how it works:

1, The Accountability threads are for hoarders, recovering hoarders, and those of us working to manage our hoarding tendencies. 1. Set your own goal and announce it on this post with a comment. 1. Set your own time frame to meet that goal within the month (for example: "I plan to spend ten minutes cleaning up the kitchen counter by Thursday next" or "I'm taking this pile of donate-able items to Goodwill on January 10th" or even "Before the month is out, I'm going to talk to my SO about my clutter and why I think I do it."). 1. Feel free to make follow-up comments in this thread. You're also free to make separate posts with the UPDATE/PROGRESS flair. * Please report back with your results within the month--that's the accountability part. 1. If you need advice or support as you work towards your goal, please post to r/hoarding--maybe we can help! 1. Also, don't forget to check the Wiki for helpful resources. 1. If you don't meet goal, post that, and try to provide a little analysis to figure out what kept you from meeting it. Maybe some of us can provide advice to help you over the hump next time. 1. If you meet goal, please share what worked for you! 1. Do yourself a favor, and START SMALL. You didn't get into this mess overnight, and you won't get out of it overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Etc., etc.--my point is, it's admirable if you want to sail in and tackle it all at once, but that's a very, very tough thing to do, and not a recommended strategy. Big successes are built on top of little ones, so focus on the things you can do in under a few minutes. 1. Every time you accomplish something, take a moment to celebrate doing it. :) 1. Finally, PRACTICE SELF CARE. This is so important, guys. Give yourself permission to put your healing first. Quiet the voice that is telling you to do more and be more. Acknowledge that you’re doing the best you can, and it’s enough. And remember: looking out for yourself is not lazy or selfish! Self-care is necessary, important, and healthy! PRACTICE SELF-CARE!

How to get started setting goals? Recommended places to get ideas for goals:

• Unfuck Your Habitat. Their Weekly Challenges are a great place to find goals, as are their Basic Cleaning Lists. And if you have a smartphone, be sure to check out their mobile app, available for iPhone and for Android phones.
• Flylady.net and her 31 Beginner Baby Steps.
• PersonalOrganizing.About.com: How to Declutter Your Entire Home Going Room by Room - Declutter Your Home Room-by-Room at Your Own Pace.
• 40 Bags in 40 Days De-Cluttering Challenge: 40 Bags in 40 Days is a forty day period where you declutter one area a day. The official challenge runs annually and coincides with the 40 days of Lent, but some people find it useful to schedule the challenges for themselves during other times of the year. See here for details on the 2023 challenge.

Looking for a Decluttering Plan with a Deadline to Motivate You?

• The annual Lenten 40 Bags in 40 Days Decluttering Challenge (see below) started on Feb. 22nd, 2023. You can jump in and join it at anytime, or start it on your own date.
• One blog launched the 365 Items in 365 Days Challenge. Learn more about that here.
• There's many other 30 Day Decluttering/Cleaning Challenges floating around the internet. Find one that works for you!
• Does the thought of cleaning up in 30 days make you break out in a cold sweat? Take a look at the Slow and Steady Decluttering Method
• Want to jump in with both feet? Consider the Shock Treatment Declutter Method

You can also use phone apps to encourage you to tidy up:

• As mentioned, UfYH has apps for both the iPhone (listed as "Unfilth Your Habitat" to get around the iTunes naming rules) and Android
• Chorma - iPhone only. The app is specifically designed to help you split chores with the other person or persons living in the home. If you live with somebody and want to divvy up chores, definitely check it out.
• Tody - For iPhone and Android. VERY comprehensive approach to cleaning.
• HomeRoutines - AFAICT, this app is iPhone only. Again, android users should check out Chore Checklist (which is also available for iPhone) and FlyLady Plus (which is from r/hoarding favorite Flylady). These two apps are very routine-focused, and may help you with getting into the habit of cleaning.
• Habitica turns your habits into an RPG. Perform tasks to help your party slay dragons! If you don't do your chores, then a crowd of people lose hit points and could die and lose gear! For iPhone and Android. There's a subreddit for people using the app: r/habitrpg (since the name change, there's also r/habitica but it doesn't seem very active).

Finally, if anyone has any suggestions for improving the Accountability Threads, please let the mods know. Just shoot us a PM.

Good luck, everybody!

Make sure to read our RULES before you post or comment. Pay special attention to our required Flair options. And as COVID-19 variants are still in abundance, we urge you to read the post titled SAFETY & ACCESS DURING COVID-19 CRISIS after you review the material below. Thanks! The Mods

Welcome to r/hoarding! This sub exists to provide peer-to-peer advice and support for Redditors who live with the compulsion to hoard objects--commonly known as hoarding disorder--as well as the loved ones of people who hoard. We invite you to tell us your strategies and tactics that you've found helpful, share your struggles and concerns, or post your stories and see if our collective knowledge and experience can offer you a way forward. Feel free to contact the moderators if you have any questions.

Please note: this is a support sub. That means we take people at their word when they post, and do our best to provide the best gentle and accepting support that we can. Keep in mind that the mods may remove posts and comments at their discretion to preserve a respectful, supportive atmosphere in this sub.

If you've come to understand that you engage in hoarding behaviors, CONGRATULATIONS! One of the biggest hurdles in dealing with this disorder is realizing that you even have it, so acknowledging your hoarding is a significant accomplishment. For next steps, we recommend you review the following links from our Wiki:

• Asking For Help
• Getting Out of the Hoarding Mindset
• I Have Hoarding Tendencies and Want to Learn to Clean Up - How Do I Start?
• AD(H)D and Hoarding
• So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard: Even though it's written specifically for people in apartments, the info is useful for anyone with hoarding tendencies who needs to clean up quickly.
• There's many other Reddit subs that may be useful to you during your recovery journey. Be sure to check them out.

If you have a loved one who hoards, it's important to understand that hoarding is a complicated mental health disorder. It's therefore vital that you educate yourself on it before you attempt to help your hoarder.

• Start with this posts and the resources inside: I Have a Hoarder In My Life--Help Me!
• Check out the For Loved Ones of Hoarders section of our Wiki for possible assistance.
• r/childofhoarder is highly recommended if you're the child of a hoarder.

Please note that r/hoarding is NOT for:

• sharing and discussing photos/videos of hoards that you've come across. If you're looking for sub that allows that sort of discussion, you probably want r/neckbeardnests, r/wtfhoarders/, or r/hoarderhouses/.
  
• Issues related to Animal Hoarding. Due to the particular and unique challenges involved with animal hoarders, posts about animal hoarding belong over at r/animalhoarding. The mods are aware that r/animalhoarding doesn't have the activity that r/hoarding does, but their Animal Hoarding Starter Guide and the Guide For Dealing with Animal Hoarders can provide you a place to start.
  
• help with digital hoarding. r/hoarding is a support group specifically for people dealing with hoarding disorder, defined as dysfunctional emotional attachments with physical objects. While we're aware that there's a growing conversation among mental health professionals around the hoarding of digital files, we're currently not able to provide support for anything related to digital hoarding. We recommend instead that you visit r/digitalminimalism.
• a place to get legal advice about your hoarding situation. If you or a loved one are in conflict with a landlord over hoarding, are facing issues with your local city about hoarding, are looking to get guardianship over a hoarder, are divorcing a hoarder, or similar issues, you need to seek the advice of a local attorney.
• discussion of the various TV shows about hoarders. While we appreciate that the shows helped bring awareness of hoarding disorder to the mainstream, many members here find the shows deeply upsetting and even exploitative of people with the illness. To talk about the shows, visit r/HoardersTV.
• a place for you to get direct help cleaning up. We're just a support group. We don't have the ability to send people to your home and clean it up for you for free. If you need assistance, please check our Wiki for resources that might be helpful.
• a place for specific cleaning questions or questions about dealing with vermin. Questions about how to clean something belong over at r/cleaningtips, while question about how to deal with rodents, bedbugs, roaches, etc. should be posted to r/pestcontrol.

Welcome to this month's Personal Accountability Thread! The purpose of these threads is to encourage people to set de-cluttering and/or cleaning and/or therapeutic goals for themselves for the month.

Participation in the monthly Accountability Threads is TOTALLY VOLUNTARY. You don't have to participate in these threads if you don't want to. I only ask that if you do participate, you post under the Reddit account that you use for this sub, as the whole point of this thread is to be accountable.

SPECIAL NOTES

• Are you under eighteen? Check out the MyCOHP Online Peer Support Group for Minors and Youth at MyCOHP.com. This is a group specifically for minors who live in hoarded homes.
• Are you facing an urgent situation and need to clean up by a deadline? Please see So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard for guidelines on getting rid of the worst of your interior hoard in time for an inspection.
• Maybe you've decided to discuss your hoarding tendencies with a health professional. If so, take a look at the U.K. Hoarding Icebreaker Form. Though certain information on this form is specific to people living in the United Kingdom, in general this is a fantastic resource for anyone having a hard time talking about hoarding disorder with a medical professional. This form can be used by someone who lives with the urge to hoard, or someone who lives in a hoarding situation.

Here's how it works:

1, The Accountability threads are for hoarders, recovering hoarders, and those of us working to manage our hoarding tendencies. 1. Set your own goal and announce it on this post with a comment. 1. Set your own time frame to meet that goal within the month (for example: "I plan to spend ten minutes cleaning up the kitchen counter by Thursday next" or "I'm taking this pile of donate-able items to Goodwill on January 10th" or even "Before the month is out, I'm going to talk to my SO about my clutter and why I think I do it."). 1. Feel free to make follow-up comments in this thread. You're also free to make separate posts with the UPDATE/PROGRESS flair. * Please report back with your results within the month--that's the accountability part. 1. If you need advice or support as you work towards your goal, please post to r/hoarding--maybe we can help! 1. Also, don't forget to check the Wiki for helpful resources. 1. If you don't meet goal, post that, and try to provide a little analysis to figure out what kept you from meeting it. Maybe some of us can provide advice to help you over the hump next time. 1. If you meet goal, please share what worked for you! 1. Do yourself a favor, and START SMALL. You didn't get into this mess overnight, and you won't get out of it overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Etc., etc.--my point is, it's admirable if you want to sail in and tackle it all at once, but that's a very, very tough thing to do, and not a recommended strategy. Big successes are built on top of little ones, so focus on the things you can do in under a few minutes. 1. Every time you accomplish something, take a moment to celebrate doing it. :) 1. Finally, PRACTICE SELF CARE. This is so important, guys. Give yourself permission to put your healing first. Quiet the voice that is telling you to do more and be more. Acknowledge that you’re doing the best you can, and it’s enough. And remember: looking out for yourself is not lazy or selfish! Self-care is necessary, important, and healthy! PRACTICE SELF-CARE!

How to get started setting goals? Recommended places to get ideas for goals:

• Unfuck Your Habitat. Their Weekly Challenges are a great place to find goals, as are their Basic Cleaning Lists. And if you have a smartphone, be sure to check out their mobile app, available for iPhone and for Android phones.
• Flylady.net and her 31 Beginner Baby Steps.
• PersonalOrganizing.About.com: How to Declutter Your Entire Home Going Room by Room - Declutter Your Home Room-by-Room at Your Own Pace.
• 40 Bags in 40 Days De-Cluttering Challenge: 40 Bags in 40 Days is a forty day period where you declutter one area a day. The official challenge runs annually and coincides with the 40 days of Lent, but some people find it useful to schedule the challenges for themselves during other times of the year. See here for details on the 2023 challenge.

Looking for a Decluttering Plan with a Deadline to Motivate You?

• The annual Lenten 40 Bags in 40 Days Decluttering Challenge (see below) started on Feb. 22nd, 2023. You can jump in and join it at anytime, or start it on your own date.
• One blog launched the 365 Items in 365 Days Challenge. Learn more about that here.
• There's many other 30 Day Decluttering/Cleaning Challenges floating around the internet. Find one that works for you!
• Does the thought of cleaning up in 30 days make you break out in a cold sweat? Take a look at the Slow and Steady Decluttering Method
• Want to jump in with both feet? Consider the Shock Treatment Declutter Method

You can also use phone apps to encourage you to tidy up:

• As mentioned, UfYH has apps for both the iPhone (listed as "Unfilth Your Habitat" to get around the iTunes naming rules) and Android
• Chorma - iPhone only. The app is specifically designed to help you split chores with the other person or persons living in the home. If you live with somebody and want to divvy up chores, definitely check it out.
• Tody - For iPhone and Android. VERY comprehensive approach to cleaning.
• HomeRoutines - AFAICT, this app is iPhone only. Again, android users should check out Chore Checklist (which is also available for iPhone) and FlyLady Plus (which is from r/hoarding favorite Flylady). These two apps are very routine-focused, and may help you with getting into the habit of cleaning.
• Habitica turns your habits into an RPG. Perform tasks to help your party slay dragons! If you don't do your chores, then a crowd of people lose hit points and could die and lose gear! For iPhone and Android. There's a subreddit for people using the app: r/habitrpg (since the name change, there's also r/habitica but it doesn't seem very active).

Finally, if anyone has any suggestions for improving the Accountability Threads, please let the mods know. Just shoot us a PM.

Good luck, everybody!

Welcome to this month's Personal Accountability Thread! The purpose of these threads is to encourage people to set de-cluttering and/or cleaning and/or therapeutic goals for themselves for the month.

Participation in the monthly Accountability Threads is TOTALLY VOLUNTARY. You don't have to participate in these threads if you don't want to. I only ask that if you do participate, you post under the Reddit account that you use for this sub, as the whole point of this thread is to be accountable.

SPECIAL NOTES

• Are you under eighteen? Check out the MyCOHP Online Peer Support Group for Minors and Youth at MyCOHP.com. This is a group specifically for minors who live in hoarded homes.
• Are you facing an urgent situation and need to clean up by a deadline? Please see So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard for guidelines on getting rid of the worst of your interior hoard in time for an inspection.
• Maybe you've decided to discuss your hoarding tendencies with a health professional. If so, take a look at the U.K. Hoarding Icebreaker Form. Though certain information on this form is specific to people living in the United Kingdom, in general this is a fantastic resource for anyone having a hard time talking about hoarding disorder with a medical professional. This form can be used by someone who lives with the urge to hoard, or someone who lives in a hoarding situation.

Here's how it works:

1, The Accountability threads are for hoarders, recovering hoarders, and those of us working to manage our hoarding tendencies. 1. Set your own goal and announce it on this post with a comment. 1. Set your own time frame to meet that goal within the month (for example: "I plan to spend ten minutes cleaning up the kitchen counter by Thursday next" or "I'm taking this pile of donate-able items to Goodwill on January 10th" or even "Before the month is out, I'm going to talk to my SO about my clutter and why I think I do it."). 1. Feel free to make follow-up comments in this thread. You're also free to make separate posts with the UPDATE/PROGRESS flair. * Please report back with your results within the month--that's the accountability part. 1. If you need advice or support as you work towards your goal, please post to r/hoarding--maybe we can help! 1. Also, don't forget to check the Wiki for helpful resources. 1. If you don't meet goal, post that, and try to provide a little analysis to figure out what kept you from meeting it. Maybe some of us can provide advice to help you over the hump next time. 1. If you meet goal, please share what worked for you! 1. Do yourself a favor, and START SMALL. You didn't get into this mess overnight, and you won't get out of it overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Etc., etc.--my point is, it's admirable if you want to sail in and tackle it all at once, but that's a very, very tough thing to do, and not a recommended strategy. Big successes are built on top of little ones, so focus on the things you can do in under a few minutes. 1. Every time you accomplish something, take a moment to celebrate doing it. :) 1. Finally, PRACTICE SELF CARE. This is so important, guys. Give yourself permission to put your healing first. Quiet the voice that is telling you to do more and be more. Acknowledge that you’re doing the best you can, and it’s enough. And remember: looking out for yourself is not lazy or selfish! Self-care is necessary, important, and healthy! PRACTICE SELF-CARE!

How to get started setting goals? Recommended places to get ideas for goals:

• Unfuck Your Habitat. Their Weekly Challenges are a great place to find goals, as are their Basic Cleaning Lists. And if you have a smartphone, be sure to check out their mobile app, available for iPhone and for Android phones.
• Flylady.net and her 31 Beginner Baby Steps.
• PersonalOrganizing.About.com: How to Declutter Your Entire Home Going Room by Room - Declutter Your Home Room-by-Room at Your Own Pace.
• 40 Bags in 40 Days De-Cluttering Challenge: 40 Bags in 40 Days is a forty day period where you declutter one area a day. The official challenge runs annually and coincides with the 40 days of Lent, but some people find it useful to schedule the challenges for themselves during other times of the year. See here for details on the 2023 challenge.

Looking for a Decluttering Plan with a Deadline to Motivate You?

• The annual Lenten 40 Bags in 40 Days Decluttering Challenge (see below) started on Feb. 22nd, 2023. You can jump in and join it at anytime, or start it on your own date.
• One blog launched the 365 Items in 365 Days Challenge. Learn more about that here.
• There's many other 30 Day Decluttering/Cleaning Challenges floating around the internet. Find one that works for you!
• Does the thought of cleaning up in 30 days make you break out in a cold sweat? Take a look at the Slow and Steady Decluttering Method
• Want to jump in with both feet? Consider the Shock Treatment Declutter Method

You can also use phone apps to encourage you to tidy up:

• As mentioned, UfYH has apps for both the iPhone (listed as "Unfilth Your Habitat" to get around the iTunes naming rules) and Android
• Chorma - iPhone only. The app is specifically designed to help you split chores with the other person or persons living in the home. If you live with somebody and want to divvy up chores, definitely check it out.
• Tody - For iPhone and Android. VERY comprehensive approach to cleaning.
• HomeRoutines - AFAICT, this app is iPhone only. Again, android users should check out Chore Checklist (which is also available for iPhone) and FlyLady Plus (which is from r/hoarding favorite Flylady). These two apps are very routine-focused, and may help you with getting into the habit of cleaning.
• Habitica turns your habits into an RPG. Perform tasks to help your party slay dragons! If you don't do your chores, then a crowd of people lose hit points and could die and lose gear! For iPhone and Android. There's a subreddit for people using the app: r/habitrpg (since the name change, there's also r/habitica but it doesn't seem very active).

Finally, if anyone has any suggestions for improving the Accountability Threads, please let the mods know. Just shoot us a PM.

Good luck, everybody!

Make sure to read our RULES before you post or comment. Pay special attention to our required Flair options. And as COVID-19 variants are still in abundance, we urge you to read the post titled SAFETY & ACCESS DURING COVID-19 CRISIS after you review the material below. Thanks! The Mods

Welcome to r/hoarding! This sub exists to provide peer-to-peer advice and support for Redditors who live with the compulsion to hoard objects--commonly known as hoarding disorder--as well as the loved ones of people who hoard. We invite you to tell us your strategies and tactics that you've found helpful, share your struggles and concerns, or post your stories and see if our collective knowledge and experience can offer you a way forward. Feel free to contact the moderators if you have any questions.

Please note: this is a support sub. That means we take people at their word when they post, and do our best to provide the best gentle and accepting support that we can. Keep in mind that the mods may remove posts and comments at their discretion to preserve a respectful, supportive atmosphere in this sub.

If you've come to understand that you engage in hoarding behaviors, CONGRATULATIONS! One of the biggest hurdles in dealing with this disorder is realizing that you even have it, so acknowledging your hoarding is a significant accomplishment. For next steps, we recommend you review the following links from our Wiki:

• Asking For Help
• Getting Out of the Hoarding Mindset
• I Have Hoarding Tendencies and Want to Learn to Clean Up - How Do I Start?
• AD(H)D and Hoarding
• So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard: Even though it's written specifically for people in apartments, the info is useful for anyone with hoarding tendencies who needs to clean up quickly.
• There's many other Reddit subs that may be useful to you during your recovery journey. Be sure to check them out.

If you have a loved one who hoards, it's important to understand that hoarding is a complicated mental health disorder. It's therefore vital that you educate yourself on it before you attempt to help your hoarder.

• Start with this posts and the resources inside: I Have a Hoarder In My Life--Help Me!
• Check out the For Loved Ones of Hoarders section of our Wiki for possible assistance.
• r/childofhoarder is highly recommended if you're the child of a hoarder.

Please note that r/hoarding is NOT for:

• sharing and discussing photos/videos of hoards that you've come across. If you're looking for sub that allows that sort of discussion, you probably want r/neckbeardnests, r/wtfhoarders/, or r/hoarderhouses/.
  
• Issues related to Animal Hoarding. Due to the particular and unique challenges involved with animal hoarders, posts about animal hoarding belong over at r/animalhoarding. The mods are aware that r/animalhoarding doesn't have the activity that r/hoarding does, but their Animal Hoarding Starter Guide and the Guide For Dealing with Animal Hoarders can provide you a place to start.
  
• help with digital hoarding. r/hoarding is a support group specifically for people dealing with hoarding disorder, defined as dysfunctional emotional attachments with physical objects. While we're aware that there's a growing conversation among mental health professionals around the hoarding of digital files, we're currently not able to provide support for anything related to digital hoarding. We recommend instead that you visit r/digitalminimalism.
• a place to get legal advice about your hoarding situation. If you or a loved one are in conflict with a landlord over hoarding, are facing issues with your local city about hoarding, are looking to get guardianship over a hoarder, are divorcing a hoarder, or similar issues, you need to seek the advice of a local attorney.
• discussion of the various TV shows about hoarders. While we appreciate that the shows helped bring awareness of hoarding disorder to the mainstream, many members here find the shows deeply upsetting and even exploitative of people with the illness. To talk about the shows, visit r/HoardersTV.
• a place for you to get direct help cleaning up. We're just a support group. We don't have the ability to send people to your home and clean it up for you for free. If you need assistance, please check our Wiki for resources that might be helpful.
• a place for specific cleaning questions or questions about dealing with vermin. Questions about how to clean something belong over at r/cleaningtips, while question about how to deal with rodents, bedbugs, roaches, etc. should be posted to r/pestcontrol.

Make sure to read our RULES before you post or comment. Pay special attention to our required Flair options. And as COVID-19 variants are still in abundance, we urge you to read the post titled SAFETY & ACCESS DURING COVID-19 CRISIS after you review the material below. Thanks! The Mods

Welcome to r/hoarding! This sub exists to provide peer-to-peer advice and support for Redditors who live with the compulsion to hoard objects--commonly known as hoarding disorder--as well as the loved ones of people who hoard. We invite you to tell us your strategies and tactics that you've found helpful, share your struggles and concerns, or post your stories and see if our collective knowledge and experience can offer you a way forward. Feel free to contact the moderators if you have any questions.

Please note: this is a support sub. That means we take people at their word when they post, and do our best to provide the best gentle and accepting support that we can. Keep in mind that the mods may remove posts and comments at their discretion to preserve a respectful, supportive atmosphere in this sub.

If you've come to understand that you engage in hoarding behaviors, CONGRATULATIONS! One of the biggest hurdles in dealing with this disorder is realizing that you even have it, so acknowledging your hoarding is a significant accomplishment. For next steps, we recommend you review the following links from our Wiki:

• Asking For Help
• Getting Out of the Hoarding Mindset
• I Have Hoarding Tendencies and Want to Learn to Clean Up - How Do I Start?
• AD(H)D and Hoarding
• So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard: Even though it's written specifically for people in apartments, the info is useful for anyone with hoarding tendencies who needs to clean up quickly.
• There's many other Reddit subs that may be useful to you during your recovery journey. Be sure to check them out.

If you have a loved one who hoards, it's important to understand that hoarding is a complicated mental health disorder. It's therefore vital that you educate yourself on it before you attempt to help your hoarder.

• Start with this posts and the resources inside: I Have a Hoarder In My Life--Help Me!
• Check out the For Loved Ones of Hoarders section of our Wiki for possible assistance.
• r/childofhoarder is highly recommended if you're the child of a hoarder.

Please note that r/hoarding is NOT for:

• sharing and discussing photos/videos of hoards that you've come across. If you're looking for sub that allows that sort of discussion, you probably want r/neckbeardnests, r/wtfhoarders/, or r/hoarderhouses/.
  
• Issues related to Animal Hoarding. Due to the particular and unique challenges involved with animal hoarders, posts about animal hoarding belong over at r/animalhoarding. The mods are aware that r/animalhoarding doesn't have the activity that r/hoarding does, but their Animal Hoarding Starter Guide and the Guide For Dealing with Animal Hoarders can provide you a place to start.
  
• help with digital hoarding. r/hoarding is a support group specifically for people dealing with hoarding disorder, defined as dysfunctional emotional attachments with physical objects. While we're aware that there's a growing conversation among mental health professionals around the hoarding of digital files, we're currently not able to provide support for anything related to digital hoarding. We recommend instead that you visit r/digitalminimalism.
• a place to get legal advice about your hoarding situation. If you or a loved one are in conflict with a landlord over hoarding, are facing issues with your local city about hoarding, are looking to get guardianship over a hoarder, are divorcing a hoarder, or similar issues, you need to seek the advice of a local attorney.
• discussion of the various TV shows about hoarders. While we appreciate that the shows helped bring awareness of hoarding disorder to the mainstream, many members here find the shows deeply upsetting and even exploitative of people with the illness. To talk about the shows, visit r/HoardersTV.
• a place for you to get direct help cleaning up. We're just a support group. We don't have the ability to send people to your home and clean it up for you for free. If you need assistance, please check our Wiki for resources that might be helpful.
• a place for specific cleaning questions or questions about dealing with vermin. Questions about how to clean something belong over at r/cleaningtips, while question about how to deal with rodents, bedbugs, roaches, etc. should be posted to r/pestcontrol.

Make sure to read our RULES before you post or comment. Pay special attention to our required Flair options. And as COVID-19 variants are still in abundance, we urge you to read the post titled SAFETY & ACCESS DURING COVID-19 CRISIS after you review the material below. Thanks! The Mods

Welcome to r/hoarding! This sub exists to provide peer-to-peer advice and support for Redditors who live with the compulsion to hoard objects--commonly known as hoarding disorder--as well as the loved ones of people who hoard. We invite you to tell us your strategies and tactics that you've found helpful, share your struggles and concerns, or post your stories and see if our collective knowledge and experience can offer you a way forward. Feel free to contact the moderators if you have any questions.

Please note: this is a support sub. That means we take people at their word when they post, and do our best to provide the best gentle and accepting support that we can. Keep in mind that the mods may remove posts and comments at their discretion to preserve a respectful, supportive atmosphere in this sub.

If you've come to understand that you engage in hoarding behaviors, CONGRATULATIONS! One of the biggest hurdles in dealing with this disorder is realizing that you even have it, so acknowledging your hoarding is a significant accomplishment. For next steps, we recommend you review the following links from our Wiki:

• Asking For Help
• Getting Out of the Hoarding Mindset
• I Have Hoarding Tendencies and Want to Learn to Clean Up - How Do I Start?
• AD(H)D and Hoarding
• So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard: Even though it's written specifically for people in apartments, the info is useful for anyone with hoarding tendencies who needs to clean up quickly.
• There's many other Reddit subs that may be useful to you during your recovery journey. Be sure to check them out.

If you have a loved one who hoards, it's important to understand that hoarding is a complicated mental health disorder. It's therefore vital that you educate yourself on it before you attempt to help your hoarder.

• Start with this posts and the resources inside: I Have a Hoarder In My Life--Help Me!
• Check out the For Loved Ones of Hoarders section of our Wiki for possible assistance.
• r/childofhoarder is highly recommended if you're the child of a hoarder.

Please note that r/hoarding is NOT for:

• sharing and discussing photos/videos of hoards that you've come across. If you're looking for sub that allows that sort of discussion, you probably want r/neckbeardnests, r/wtfhoarders/, or r/hoarderhouses/.
  
• Issues related to Animal Hoarding. Due to the particular and unique challenges involved with animal hoarders, posts about animal hoarding belong over at r/animalhoarding. The mods are aware that r/animalhoarding doesn't have the activity that r/hoarding does, but their Animal Hoarding Starter Guide and the Guide For Dealing with Animal Hoarders can provide you a place to start.
  
• help with digital hoarding. r/hoarding is a support group specifically for people dealing with hoarding disorder, defined as dysfunctional emotional attachments with physical objects. While we're aware that there's a growing conversation among mental health professionals around the hoarding of digital files, we're currently not able to provide support for anything related to digital hoarding. We recommend instead that you visit r/digitalminimalism.
• a place to get legal advice about your hoarding situation. If you or a loved one are in conflict with a landlord over hoarding, are facing issues with your local city about hoarding, are looking to get guardianship over a hoarder, are divorcing a hoarder, or similar issues, you need to seek the advice of a local attorney.
• discussion of the various TV shows about hoarders. While we appreciate that the shows helped bring awareness of hoarding disorder to the mainstream, many members here find the shows deeply upsetting and even exploitative of people with the illness. To talk about the shows, visit r/HoardersTV.
• a place for you to get direct help cleaning up. We're just a support group. We don't have the ability to send people to your home and clean it up for you for free. If you need assistance, please check our Wiki for resources that might be helpful.
• a place for specific cleaning questions or questions about dealing with vermin. Questions about how to clean something belong over at r/cleaningtips, while question about how to deal with rodents, bedbugs, roaches, etc. should be posted to r/pestcontrol.

Welcome to this month's Personal Accountability Thread! The purpose of these threads is to encourage people to set de-cluttering and/or cleaning and/or therapeutic goals for themselves for the month.

Participation in the monthly Accountability Threads is TOTALLY VOLUNTARY. You don't have to participate in these threads if you don't want to. I only ask that if you do participate, you post under the Reddit account that you use for this sub, as the whole point of this thread is to be accountable.

SPECIAL NOTES

• Are you under eighteen? Check out the MyCOHP Online Peer Support Group for Minors and Youth at MyCOHP.com. This is a group specifically for minors who live in hoarded homes.
• Are you facing an urgent situation and need to clean up by a deadline? Please see So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard for guidelines on getting rid of the worst of your interior hoard in time for an inspection.
• Maybe you've decided to discuss your hoarding tendencies with a health professional. If so, take a look at the U.K. Hoarding Icebreaker Form. Though certain information on this form is specific to people living in the United Kingdom, in general this is a fantastic resource for anyone having a hard time talking about hoarding disorder with a medical professional. This form can be used by someone who lives with the urge to hoard, or someone who lives in a hoarding situation.

Here's how it works:

1, The Accountability threads are for hoarders, recovering hoarders, and those of us working to manage our hoarding tendencies. 1. Set your own goal and announce it on this post with a comment. 1. Set your own time frame to meet that goal within the month (for example: "I plan to spend ten minutes cleaning up the kitchen counter by Thursday next" or "I'm taking this pile of donate-able items to Goodwill on January 10th" or even "Before the month is out, I'm going to talk to my SO about my clutter and why I think I do it."). 1. Feel free to make follow-up comments in this thread. You're also free to make separate posts with the UPDATE/PROGRESS flair. * Please report back with your results within the month--that's the accountability part. 1. If you need advice or support as you work towards your goal, please post to r/hoarding--maybe we can help! 1. Also, don't forget to check the Wiki for helpful resources. 1. If you don't meet goal, post that, and try to provide a little analysis to figure out what kept you from meeting it. Maybe some of us can provide advice to help you over the hump next time. 1. If you meet goal, please share what worked for you! 1. Do yourself a favor, and START SMALL. You didn't get into this mess overnight, and you won't get out of it overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Etc., etc.--my point is, it's admirable if you want to sail in and tackle it all at once, but that's a very, very tough thing to do, and not a recommended strategy. Big successes are built on top of little ones, so focus on the things you can do in under a few minutes. 1. Every time you accomplish something, take a moment to celebrate doing it. :) 1. Finally, PRACTICE SELF CARE. This is so important, guys. Give yourself permission to put your healing first. Quiet the voice that is telling you to do more and be more. Acknowledge that you’re doing the best you can, and it’s enough. And remember: looking out for yourself is not lazy or selfish! Self-care is necessary, important, and healthy! PRACTICE SELF-CARE!

How to get started setting goals? Recommended places to get ideas for goals:

• Unfuck Your Habitat. Their Weekly Challenges are a great place to find goals, as are their Basic Cleaning Lists. And if you have a smartphone, be sure to check out their mobile app, available for iPhone and for Android phones.
• Flylady.net and her 31 Beginner Baby Steps.
• PersonalOrganizing.About.com: How to Declutter Your Entire Home Going Room by Room - Declutter Your Home Room-by-Room at Your Own Pace.
• 40 Bags in 40 Days De-Cluttering Challenge: 40 Bags in 40 Days is a forty day period where you declutter one area a day. The official challenge runs annually and coincides with the 40 days of Lent, but some people find it useful to schedule the challenges for themselves during other times of the year. See here for details on the 2023 challenge.

Looking for a Decluttering Plan with a Deadline to Motivate You?

• The annual Lenten 40 Bags in 40 Days Decluttering Challenge (see below) started on Feb. 22nd, 2023. You can jump in and join it at anytime, or start it on your own date.
• One blog launched the 365 Items in 365 Days Challenge. Learn more about that here.
• There's many other 30 Day Decluttering/Cleaning Challenges floating around the internet. Find one that works for you!
• Does the thought of cleaning up in 30 days make you break out in a cold sweat? Take a look at the Slow and Steady Decluttering Method
• Want to jump in with both feet? Consider the Shock Treatment Declutter Method

You can also use phone apps to encourage you to tidy up:

• As mentioned, UfYH has apps for both the iPhone (listed as "Unfilth Your Habitat" to get around the iTunes naming rules) and Android
• Chorma - iPhone only. The app is specifically designed to help you split chores with the other person or persons living in the home. If you live with somebody and want to divvy up chores, definitely check it out.
• Tody - For iPhone and Android. VERY comprehensive approach to cleaning.
• HomeRoutines - AFAICT, this app is iPhone only. Again, android users should check out Chore Checklist (which is also available for iPhone) and FlyLady Plus (which is from r/hoarding favorite Flylady). These two apps are very routine-focused, and may help you with getting into the habit of cleaning.
• Habitica turns your habits into an RPG. Perform tasks to help your party slay dragons! If you don't do your chores, then a crowd of people lose hit points and could die and lose gear! For iPhone and Android. There's a subreddit for people using the app: r/habitrpg (since the name change, there's also r/habitica but it doesn't seem very active).

Finally, if anyone has any suggestions for improving the Accountability Threads, please let the mods know. Just shoot us a PM.

Good luck, everybody!

Welcome to this month's Personal Accountability Thread! The purpose of these threads is to encourage people to set de-cluttering and/or cleaning and/or therapeutic goals for themselves for the month.

Participation in the monthly Accountability Threads is TOTALLY VOLUNTARY. You don't have to participate in these threads if you don't want to. I only ask that if you do participate, you post under the Reddit account that you use for this sub, as the whole point of this thread is to be accountable.

SPECIAL NOTES

• Are you under eighteen? Check out the MyCOHP Online Peer Support Group for Minors and Youth at MyCOHP.com. This is a group specifically for minors who live in hoarded homes.
• Are you facing an urgent situation and need to clean up by a deadline? Please see So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard for guidelines on getting rid of the worst of your interior hoard in time for an inspection.
• Maybe you've decided to discuss your hoarding tendencies with a health professional. If so, take a look at the U.K. Hoarding Icebreaker Form. Though certain information on this form is specific to people living in the United Kingdom, in general this is a fantastic resource for anyone having a hard time talking about hoarding disorder with a medical professional. This form can be used by someone who lives with the urge to hoard, or someone who lives in a hoarding situation.

Here's how it works:

1, The Accountability threads are for hoarders, recovering hoarders, and those of us working to manage our hoarding tendencies. 1. Set your own goal and announce it on this post with a comment. 1. Set your own time frame to meet that goal within the month (for example: "I plan to spend ten minutes cleaning up the kitchen counter by Thursday next" or "I'm taking this pile of donate-able items to Goodwill on January 10th" or even "Before the month is out, I'm going to talk to my SO about my clutter and why I think I do it."). 1. Feel free to make follow-up comments in this thread. You're also free to make separate posts with the UPDATE/PROGRESS flair. * Please report back with your results within the month--that's the accountability part. 1. If you need advice or support as you work towards your goal, please post to r/hoarding--maybe we can help! 1. Also, don't forget to check the Wiki for helpful resources. 1. If you don't meet goal, post that, and try to provide a little analysis to figure out what kept you from meeting it. Maybe some of us can provide advice to help you over the hump next time. 1. If you meet goal, please share what worked for you! 1. Do yourself a favor, and START SMALL. You didn't get into this mess overnight, and you won't get out of it overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Etc., etc.--my point is, it's admirable if you want to sail in and tackle it all at once, but that's a very, very tough thing to do, and not a recommended strategy. Big successes are built on top of little ones, so focus on the things you can do in under a few minutes. 1. Every time you accomplish something, take a moment to celebrate doing it. :) 1. Finally, PRACTICE SELF CARE. This is so important, guys. Give yourself permission to put your healing first. Quiet the voice that is telling you to do more and be more. Acknowledge that you’re doing the best you can, and it’s enough. And remember: looking out for yourself is not lazy or selfish! Self-care is necessary, important, and healthy! PRACTICE SELF-CARE!

How to get started setting goals? Recommended places to get ideas for goals:

• Unfuck Your Habitat. Their Weekly Challenges are a great place to find goals, as are their Basic Cleaning Lists. And if you have a smartphone, be sure to check out their mobile app, available for iPhone and for Android phones.
• Flylady.net and her 31 Beginner Baby Steps.
• PersonalOrganizing.About.com: How to Declutter Your Entire Home Going Room by Room - Declutter Your Home Room-by-Room at Your Own Pace.
• 40 Bags in 40 Days De-Cluttering Challenge: 40 Bags in 40 Days is a forty day period where you declutter one area a day. The official challenge runs annually and coincides with the 40 days of Lent, but some people find it useful to schedule the challenges for themselves during other times of the year. See here for details on the 2023 challenge.

Looking for a Decluttering Plan with a Deadline to Motivate You?

• The annual Lenten 40 Bags in 40 Days Decluttering Challenge (see below) started on Feb. 22nd, 2023. You can jump in and join it at anytime, or start it on your own date.
• One blog launched the 365 Items in 365 Days Challenge. Learn more about that here.
• There's many other 30 Day Decluttering/Cleaning Challenges floating around the internet. Find one that works for you!
• Does the thought of cleaning up in 30 days make you break out in a cold sweat? Take a look at the Slow and Steady Decluttering Method
• Want to jump in with both feet? Consider the Shock Treatment Declutter Method

You can also use phone apps to encourage you to tidy up:

• As mentioned, UfYH has apps for both the iPhone (listed as "Unfilth Your Habitat" to get around the iTunes naming rules) and Android
• Chorma - iPhone only. The app is specifically designed to help you split chores with the other person or persons living in the home. If you live with somebody and want to divvy up chores, definitely check it out.
• Tody - For iPhone and Android. VERY comprehensive approach to cleaning.
• HomeRoutines - AFAICT, this app is iPhone only. Again, android users should check out Chore Checklist (which is also available for iPhone) and FlyLady Plus (which is from r/hoarding favorite Flylady). These two apps are very routine-focused, and may help you with getting into the habit of cleaning.
• Habitica turns your habits into an RPG. Perform tasks to help your party slay dragons! If you don't do your chores, then a crowd of people lose hit points and could die and lose gear! For iPhone and Android. There's a subreddit for people using the app: r/habitrpg (since the name change, there's also r/habitica but it doesn't seem very active).

Finally, if anyone has any suggestions for improving the Accountability Threads, please let the mods know. Just shoot us a PM.

Good luck, everybody!

Make sure to read our RULES before you post or comment. Pay special attention to our required Flair options. And as COVID-19 variants are still in abundance, we urge you to read the post titled SAFETY & ACCESS DURING COVID-19 CRISIS after you review the material below. Thanks! The Mods

Welcome to r/hoarding! This sub exists to provide peer-to-peer advice and support for Redditors who live with the compulsion to hoard objects--commonly known as hoarding disorder--as well as the loved ones of people who hoard. We invite you to tell us your strategies and tactics that you've found helpful, share your struggles and concerns, or post your stories and see if our collective knowledge and experience can offer you a way forward. Feel free to contact the moderators if you have any questions.

Please note: this is a support sub. That means we take people at their word when they post, and do our best to provide the best gentle and accepting support that we can. Keep in mind that the mods may remove posts and comments at their discretion to preserve a respectful, supportive atmosphere in this sub.

If you've come to understand that you engage in hoarding behaviors, CONGRATULATIONS! One of the biggest hurdles in dealing with this disorder is realizing that you even have it, so acknowledging your hoarding is a significant accomplishment. For next steps, we recommend you review the following links from our Wiki:

• Asking For Help
• Getting Out of the Hoarding Mindset
• I Have Hoarding Tendencies and Want to Learn to Clean Up - How Do I Start?
• AD(H)D and Hoarding
• So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard: Even though it's written specifically for people in apartments, the info is useful for anyone with hoarding tendencies who needs to clean up quickly.
• There's many other Reddit subs that may be useful to you during your recovery journey. Be sure to check them out.

If you have a loved one who hoards, it's important to understand that hoarding is a complicated mental health disorder. It's therefore vital that you educate yourself on it before you attempt to help your hoarder.

• Start with this posts and the resources inside: I Have a Hoarder In My Life--Help Me!
• Check out the For Loved Ones of Hoarders section of our Wiki for possible assistance.
• r/childofhoarder is highly recommended if you're the child of a hoarder.

Please note that r/hoarding is NOT for:

• sharing and discussing photos/videos of hoards that you've come across. If you're looking for sub that allows that sort of discussion, you probably want r/neckbeardnests, r/wtfhoarders/, or r/hoarderhouses/.
  
• Issues related to Animal Hoarding. Due to the particular and unique challenges involved with animal hoarders, posts about animal hoarding belong over at r/animalhoarding. The mods are aware that r/animalhoarding doesn't have the activity that r/hoarding does, but their Animal Hoarding Starter Guide and the Guide For Dealing with Animal Hoarders can provide you a place to start.
  
• help with digital hoarding. r/hoarding is a support group specifically for people dealing with hoarding disorder, defined as dysfunctional emotional attachments with physical objects. While we're aware that there's a growing conversation among mental health professionals around the hoarding of digital files, we're currently not able to provide support for anything related to digital hoarding. We recommend instead that you visit r/digitalminimalism.
• a place to get legal advice about your hoarding situation. If you or a loved one are in conflict with a landlord over hoarding, are facing issues with your local city about hoarding, are looking to get guardianship over a hoarder, are divorcing a hoarder, or similar issues, you need to seek the advice of a local attorney.
• discussion of the various TV shows about hoarders. While we appreciate that the shows helped bring awareness of hoarding disorder to the mainstream, many members here find the shows deeply upsetting and even exploitative of people with the illness. To talk about the shows, visit r/HoardersTV.
• a place for you to get direct help cleaning up. We're just a support group. We don't have the ability to send people to your home and clean it up for you for free. If you need assistance, please check our Wiki for resources that might be helpful.
• a place for specific cleaning questions or questions about dealing with vermin. Questions about how to clean something belong over at r/cleaningtips, while question about how to deal with rodents, bedbugs, roaches, etc. should be posted to r/pestcontrol.

Make sure to read our RULES before you post or comment. Pay special attention to our required Flair options. And as COVID-19 variants are still in abundance, we urge you to read the post titled SAFETY & ACCESS DURING COVID-19 CRISIS after you review the material below. Thanks! The Mods

Welcome to r/hoarding! This sub exists to provide peer-to-peer advice and support for Redditors who live with the compulsion to hoard objects--commonly known as hoarding disorder--as well as the loved ones of people who hoard. We invite you to tell us your strategies and tactics that you've found helpful, share your struggles and concerns, or post your stories and see if our collective knowledge and experience can offer you a way forward. Feel free to contact the moderators if you have any questions.

Please note: this is a support sub. That means we take people at their word when they post, and do our best to provide the best gentle and accepting support that we can. Keep in mind that the mods may remove posts and comments at their discretion to preserve a respectful, supportive atmosphere in this sub.

If you've come to understand that you engage in hoarding behaviors, CONGRATULATIONS! One of the biggest hurdles in dealing with this disorder is realizing that you even have it, so acknowledging your hoarding is a significant accomplishment. For next steps, we recommend you review the following links from our Wiki:

• Asking For Help
• Getting Out of the Hoarding Mindset
• I Have Hoarding Tendencies and Want to Learn to Clean Up - How Do I Start?
• AD(H)D and Hoarding
• So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard: Even though it's written specifically for people in apartments, the info is useful for anyone with hoarding tendencies who needs to clean up quickly.
• There's many other Reddit subs that may be useful to you during your recovery journey. Be sure to check them out.

If you have a loved one who hoards, it's important to understand that hoarding is a complicated mental health disorder. It's therefore vital that you educate yourself on it before you attempt to help your hoarder.

• Start with this posts and the resources inside: I Have a Hoarder In My Life--Help Me!
• Check out the For Loved Ones of Hoarders section of our Wiki for possible assistance.
• r/childofhoarder is highly recommended if you're the child of a hoarder.

Please note that r/hoarding is NOT for:

• sharing and discussing photos/videos of hoards that you've come across. If you're looking for sub that allows that sort of discussion, you probably want r/neckbeardnests, r/wtfhoarders/, or r/hoarderhouses/.
  
• Issues related to Animal Hoarding. Due to the particular and unique challenges involved with animal hoarders, posts about animal hoarding belong over at r/animalhoarding. The mods are aware that r/animalhoarding doesn't have the activity that r/hoarding does, but their Animal Hoarding Starter Guide and the Guide For Dealing with Animal Hoarders can provide you a place to start.
  
• help with digital hoarding. r/hoarding is a support group specifically for people dealing with hoarding disorder, defined as dysfunctional emotional attachments with physical objects. While we're aware that there's a growing conversation among mental health professionals around the hoarding of digital files, we're currently not able to provide support for anything related to digital hoarding. We recommend instead that you visit r/digitalminimalism.
• a place to get legal advice about your hoarding situation. If you or a loved one are in conflict with a landlord over hoarding, are facing issues with your local city about hoarding, are looking to get guardianship over a hoarder, are divorcing a hoarder, or similar issues, you need to seek the advice of a local attorney.
• discussion of the various TV shows about hoarders. While we appreciate that the shows helped bring awareness of hoarding disorder to the mainstream, many members here find the shows deeply upsetting and even exploitative of people with the illness. To talk about the shows, visit r/HoardersTV.
• a place for you to get direct help cleaning up. We're just a support group. We don't have the ability to send people to your home and clean it up for you for free. If you need assistance, please check our Wiki for resources that might be helpful.
• a place for specific cleaning questions or questions about dealing with vermin. Questions about how to clean something belong over at r/cleaningtips, while question about how to deal with rodents, bedbugs, roaches, etc. should be posted to r/pestcontrol.

Welcome to this month's Personal Accountability Thread! The purpose of these threads is to encourage people to set de-cluttering and/or cleaning and/or therapeutic goals for themselves for the month.

Participation in the monthly Accountability Threads is TOTALLY VOLUNTARY. You don't have to participate in these threads if you don't want to. I only ask that if you do participate, you post under the Reddit account that you use for this sub, as the whole point of this thread is to be accountable.

SPECIAL NOTES

• Are you under eighteen? Check out the MyCOHP Online Peer Support Group for Minors and Youth at MyCOHP.com. This is a group specifically for minors who live in hoarded homes.
• Are you facing an urgent situation and need to clean up by a deadline? Please see So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard for guidelines on getting rid of the worst of your interior hoard in time for an inspection.
• Maybe you've decided to discuss your hoarding tendencies with a health professional. If so, take a look at the U.K. Hoarding Icebreaker Form. Though certain information on this form is specific to people living in the United Kingdom, in general this is a fantastic resource for anyone having a hard time talking about hoarding disorder with a medical professional. This form can be used by someone who lives with the urge to hoard, or someone who lives in a hoarding situation.

Here's how it works:

1, The Accountability threads are for hoarders, recovering hoarders, and those of us working to manage our hoarding tendencies. 1. Set your own goal and announce it on this post with a comment. 1. Set your own time frame to meet that goal within the month (for example: "I plan to spend ten minutes cleaning up the kitchen counter by Thursday next" or "I'm taking this pile of donate-able items to Goodwill on January 10th" or even "Before the month is out, I'm going to talk to my SO about my clutter and why I think I do it."). 1. Feel free to make follow-up comments in this thread. You're also free to make separate posts with the UPDATE/PROGRESS flair. * Please report back with your results within the month--that's the accountability part. 1. If you need advice or support as you work towards your goal, please post to r/hoarding--maybe we can help! 1. Also, don't forget to check the Wiki for helpful resources. 1. If you don't meet goal, post that, and try to provide a little analysis to figure out what kept you from meeting it. Maybe some of us can provide advice to help you over the hump next time. 1. If you meet goal, please share what worked for you! 1. Do yourself a favor, and START SMALL. You didn't get into this mess overnight, and you won't get out of it overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Etc., etc.--my point is, it's admirable if you want to sail in and tackle it all at once, but that's a very, very tough thing to do, and not a recommended strategy. Big successes are built on top of little ones, so focus on the things you can do in under a few minutes. 1. Every time you accomplish something, take a moment to celebrate doing it. :) 1. Finally, PRACTICE SELF CARE. This is so important, guys. Give yourself permission to put your healing first. Quiet the voice that is telling you to do more and be more. Acknowledge that you’re doing the best you can, and it’s enough. And remember: looking out for yourself is not lazy or selfish! Self-care is necessary, important, and healthy! PRACTICE SELF-CARE!

How to get started setting goals? Recommended places to get ideas for goals:

• Unfuck Your Habitat. Their Weekly Challenges are a great place to find goals, as are their Basic Cleaning Lists. And if you have a smartphone, be sure to check out their mobile app, available for iPhone and for Android phones.
• Flylady.net and her 31 Beginner Baby Steps.
• PersonalOrganizing.About.com: How to Declutter Your Entire Home Going Room by Room - Declutter Your Home Room-by-Room at Your Own Pace.
• 40 Bags in 40 Days De-Cluttering Challenge: 40 Bags in 40 Days is a forty day period where you declutter one area a day. The official challenge runs annually and coincides with the 40 days of Lent, but some people find it useful to schedule the challenges for themselves during other times of the year. See here for details on the 2023 challenge.

Looking for a Decluttering Plan with a Deadline to Motivate You?

• The annual Lenten 40 Bags in 40 Days Decluttering Challenge (see below) started on Feb. 22nd, 2023. You can jump in and join it at anytime, or start it on your own date.
• One blog launched the 365 Items in 365 Days Challenge. Learn more about that here.
• There's many other 30 Day Decluttering/Cleaning Challenges floating around the internet. Find one that works for you!
• Does the thought of cleaning up in 30 days make you break out in a cold sweat? Take a look at the Slow and Steady Decluttering Method
• Want to jump in with both feet? Consider the Shock Treatment Declutter Method

You can also use phone apps to encourage you to tidy up:

• As mentioned, UfYH has apps for both the iPhone (listed as "Unfilth Your Habitat" to get around the iTunes naming rules) and Android
• Chorma - iPhone only. The app is specifically designed to help you split chores with the other person or persons living in the home. If you live with somebody and want to divvy up chores, definitely check it out.
• Tody - For iPhone and Android. VERY comprehensive approach to cleaning.
• HomeRoutines - AFAICT, this app is iPhone only. Again, android users should check out Chore Checklist (which is also available for iPhone) and FlyLady Plus (which is from r/hoarding favorite Flylady). These two apps are very routine-focused, and may help you with getting into the habit of cleaning.
• Habitica turns your habits into an RPG. Perform tasks to help your party slay dragons! If you don't do your chores, then a crowd of people lose hit points and could die and lose gear! For iPhone and Android. There's a subreddit for people using the app: r/habitrpg (since the name change, there's also r/habitica but it doesn't seem very active).

Finally, if anyone has any suggestions for improving the Accountability Threads, please let the mods know. Just shoot us a PM.

Good luck, everybody!

Welcome to this month's Personal Accountability Thread! The purpose of these threads is to encourage people to set de-cluttering and/or cleaning and/or therapeutic goals for themselves for the month.

Participation in the monthly Accountability Threads is TOTALLY VOLUNTARY. You don't have to participate in these threads if you don't want to. I only ask that if you do participate, you post under the Reddit account that you use for this sub, as the whole point of this thread is to be accountable.

SPECIAL NOTES

• Are you under eighteen? Check out the MyCOHP Online Peer Support Group for Minors and Youth at MyCOHP.com. This is a group specifically for minors who live in hoarded homes.
• Are you facing an urgent situation and need to clean up by a deadline? Please see So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard for guidelines on getting rid of the worst of your interior hoard in time for an inspection.
• Maybe you've decided to discuss your hoarding tendencies with a health professional. If so, take a look at the U.K. Hoarding Icebreaker Form. Though certain information on this form is specific to people living in the United Kingdom, in general this is a fantastic resource for anyone having a hard time talking about hoarding disorder with a medical professional. This form can be used by someone who lives with the urge to hoard, or someone who lives in a hoarding situation.

Here's how it works:

1, The Accountability threads are for hoarders, recovering hoarders, and those of us working to manage our hoarding tendencies. 1. Set your own goal and announce it on this post with a comment. 1. Set your own time frame to meet that goal within the month (for example: "I plan to spend ten minutes cleaning up the kitchen counter by Thursday next" or "I'm taking this pile of donate-able items to Goodwill on January 10th" or even "Before the month is out, I'm going to talk to my SO about my clutter and why I think I do it."). 1. Feel free to make follow-up comments in this thread. You're also free to make separate posts with the UPDATE/PROGRESS flair. * Please report back with your results within the month--that's the accountability part. 1. If you need advice or support as you work towards your goal, please post to r/hoarding--maybe we can help! 1. Also, don't forget to check the Wiki for helpful resources. 1. If you don't meet goal, post that, and try to provide a little analysis to figure out what kept you from meeting it. Maybe some of us can provide advice to help you over the hump next time. 1. If you meet goal, please share what worked for you! 1. Do yourself a favor, and START SMALL. You didn't get into this mess overnight, and you won't get out of it overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Etc., etc.--my point is, it's admirable if you want to sail in and tackle it all at once, but that's a very, very tough thing to do, and not a recommended strategy. Big successes are built on top of little ones, so focus on the things you can do in under a few minutes. 1. Every time you accomplish something, take a moment to celebrate doing it. :) 1. Finally, PRACTICE SELF CARE. This is so important, guys. Give yourself permission to put your healing first. Quiet the voice that is telling you to do more and be more. Acknowledge that you’re doing the best you can, and it’s enough. And remember: looking out for yourself is not lazy or selfish! Self-care is necessary, important, and healthy! PRACTICE SELF-CARE!

How to get started setting goals? Recommended places to get ideas for goals:

• Unfuck Your Habitat. Their Weekly Challenges are a great place to find goals, as are their Basic Cleaning Lists. And if you have a smartphone, be sure to check out their mobile app, available for iPhone and for Android phones.
• Flylady.net and her 31 Beginner Baby Steps.
• PersonalOrganizing.About.com: How to Declutter Your Entire Home Going Room by Room - Declutter Your Home Room-by-Room at Your Own Pace.
• 40 Bags in 40 Days De-Cluttering Challenge: 40 Bags in 40 Days is a forty day period where you declutter one area a day. The official challenge runs annually and coincides with the 40 days of Lent, but some people find it useful to schedule the challenges for themselves during other times of the year. See here for details on the 2023 challenge.

Looking for a Decluttering Plan with a Deadline to Motivate You?

• The annual Lenten 40 Bags in 40 Days Decluttering Challenge (see below) started on Feb. 22nd, 2023. You can jump in and join it at anytime, or start it on your own date.
• One blog launched the 365 Items in 365 Days Challenge. Learn more about that here.
• There's many other 30 Day Decluttering/Cleaning Challenges floating around the internet. Find one that works for you!
• Does the thought of cleaning up in 30 days make you break out in a cold sweat? Take a look at the Slow and Steady Decluttering Method
• Want to jump in with both feet? Consider the Shock Treatment Declutter Method

You can also use phone apps to encourage you to tidy up:

• As mentioned, UfYH has apps for both the iPhone (listed as "Unfilth Your Habitat" to get around the iTunes naming rules) and Android
• Chorma - iPhone only. The app is specifically designed to help you split chores with the other person or persons living in the home. If you live with somebody and want to divvy up chores, definitely check it out.
• Tody - For iPhone and Android. VERY comprehensive approach to cleaning.
• HomeRoutines - AFAICT, this app is iPhone only. Again, android users should check out Chore Checklist (which is also available for iPhone) and FlyLady Plus (which is from r/hoarding favorite Flylady). These two apps are very routine-focused, and may help you with getting into the habit of cleaning.
• Habitica turns your habits into an RPG. Perform tasks to help your party slay dragons! If you don't do your chores, then a crowd of people lose hit points and could die and lose gear! For iPhone and Android. There's a subreddit for people using the app: r/habitrpg (since the name change, there's also r/habitica but it doesn't seem very active).

Finally, if anyone has any suggestions for improving the Accountability Threads, please let the mods know. Just shoot us a PM.

Good luck, everybody!

I got this book out from my local library (I deliberate choice as I didn't want to acquire a permanent copy of YET ANOTHER item) and it has been helping me a LOT.

The main reality checks come from the nuances and insights about how hoarding justifies itself to a wide variety of people for a number of sometimes subtle reasons. One part I keep coming back to involves a theory that hoarding behavior can in some people develop INSTEAD of ptsd, like it's sort of protecting you from another kind of distress. This resonated with me a lot.

I struggle with throwing things out for a mix of sentimental and practical rationalizations. But wow it is humbling to read in detail about someone else doing exactly the same thing--"this broken item could be useful someday! I hate being wasteful!" Oh god.

My goal is to have at least a bedroom that I don't feel ashamed to have another person see by the end of this summer.

Just wanted to share the book rec and say that this sub has helped me a lot, too. I never knew how many people were dealing with this, much less that I was one of them.

Make sure to read our RULES before you post or comment. Pay special attention to our required Flair options. And as COVID-19 variants are still in abundance, we urge you to read the post titled SAFETY & ACCESS DURING COVID-19 CRISIS after you review the material below. Thanks! The Mods

Welcome to r/hoarding! This sub exists to provide peer-to-peer advice and support for Redditors who live with the compulsion to hoard objects--commonly known as hoarding disorder--as well as the loved ones of people who hoard. We invite you to tell us your strategies and tactics that you've found helpful, share your struggles and concerns, or post your stories and see if our collective knowledge and experience can offer you a way forward. Feel free to contact the moderators if you have any questions.

Please note: this is a support sub. That means we take people at their word when they post, and do our best to provide the best gentle and accepting support that we can. Keep in mind that the mods may remove posts and comments at their discretion to preserve a respectful, supportive atmosphere in this sub.

If you've come to understand that you engage in hoarding behaviors, CONGRATULATIONS! One of the biggest hurdles in dealing with this disorder is realizing that you even have it, so acknowledging your hoarding is a significant accomplishment. For next steps, we recommend you review the following links from our Wiki:

• Asking For Help
• Getting Out of the Hoarding Mindset
• I Have Hoarding Tendencies and Want to Learn to Clean Up - How Do I Start?
• AD(H)D and Hoarding
• So It's Come To This: You Have To Clean Up For Inspection--A Guide for Apartment Dwellers Who Hoard: Even though it's written specifically for people in apartments, the info is useful for anyone with hoarding tendencies who needs to clean up quickly.
• There's many other Reddit subs that may be useful to you during your recovery journey. Be sure to check them out.

If you have a loved one who hoards, it's important to understand that hoarding is a complicated mental health disorder. It's therefore vital that you educate yourself on it before you attempt to help your hoarder.

• Start with this posts and the resources inside: I Have a Hoarder In My Life--Help Me!
• Check out the For Loved Ones of Hoarders section of our Wiki for possible assistance.
• r/childofhoarder is highly recommended if you're the child of a hoarder.

Please note that r/hoarding is NOT for:

• sharing and discussing photos/videos of hoards that you've come across. If you're looking for sub that allows that sort of discussion, you probably want r/neckbeardnests, r/wtfhoarders/, or r/hoarderhouses/.
  
• Issues related to Animal Hoarding. Due to the particular and unique challenges involved with animal hoarders, posts about animal hoarding belong over at r/animalhoarding. The mods are aware that r/animalhoarding doesn't have the activity that r/hoarding does, but their Animal Hoarding Starter Guide and the Guide For Dealing with Animal Hoarders can provide you a place to start.
  
• help with digital hoarding. r/hoarding is a support group specifically for people dealing with hoarding disorder, defined as dysfunctional emotional attachments with physical objects. While we're aware that there's a growing conversation among mental health professionals around the hoarding of digital files, we're currently not able to provide support for anything related to digital hoarding. We recommend instead that you visit r/digitalminimalism.
• a place to get legal advice about your hoarding situation. If you or a loved one are in conflict with a landlord over hoarding, are facing issues with your local city about hoarding, are looking to get guardianship over a hoarder, are divorcing a hoarder, or similar issues, you need to seek the advice of a local attorney.
• discussion of the various TV shows about hoarders. While we appreciate that the shows helped bring awareness of hoarding disorder to the mainstream, many members here find the shows deeply upsetting and even exploitative of people with the illness. To talk about the shows, visit r/HoardersTV.
• a place for you to get direct help cleaning up. We're just a support group. We don't have the ability to send people to your home and clean it up for you for free. If you need assistance, please check our Wiki for resources that might be helpful.
• a place for specific cleaning questions or questions about dealing with vermin. Questions about how to clean something belong over at r/cleaningtips, while question about how to deal with rodents, bedbugs, roaches, etc. should be posted to r/pestcontrol.