Overcoming Clutter, Hoarding, and Compulsive Acquiring: A Guide to Helping Your Loved One

Brenda De Wet: My husband is a mental health professional and a hoarder. (The family tree is full of nuts!) We have the most acclaimed text books and work books on the subject, written by eminent leaders in the field of hoarding, on our shelves - and have read them. But none of them deal suffiecntly with my problem - coping with a hoarder and his hoarding. This book does.
It deals with the anger and despair I experience on a daily basis and helps me understand his irrational behaviour. It does not ask me to accept it, or be his fake cheerleader when all I want to do is run for the hills. It warns me that hoarding will probably be a constant threat to our peace and happiness, but it does give me some strategies to deal with his stubborn refusal to discard things. It gives me a way to be my authentic self amidst all the chaos and preserve some of my dignity and self-respect. BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU ARE LIVING WITH A HOARDER. There is no cure, but it can be managed.

United States on Jun 17, 2023

Kira Griffiths: A very practical and helpful book for those supporting someone.

Australia on Jan 03, 2023

Donald Laramee: Still hoarding

Canada on Aug 05, 2020

Lauren Williams, the Casual Unclutterer: Digging Out: Helping Your Loved One Manage Clutter, Hoarding & Compulsive Acquiring by Michael A. Tompkins, Ph.D. and Tamara L. Hartl, Ph.D. offers a methodical, scrupulous, comprehensive and clinically-developed program for a support team to attempt to help a person with hoarding disorder clear his or her environment to an extent which will make that environment safe. The authors' guiding principle is that it may not be possible to ever convince a person with hoarding disorder to let go of even an insubstantial number of possessions or to stop acquiring unnecessary items. But it is often possible to persuade a person with hoarding disorder to clear his or her spaces such that they are safe(r). And that needs to be considered a success.

The protocols are designed with an assumption that the endangered person's team consists of family, perhaps friends and/or community members such as congregants of a church, and perhaps professionals like housing authority representatives or animal control officers. The authors underpin their understanding with a stipulation that these team members may have no practical training in therapeutic or conversational techniques which might...

United States on Sep 05, 2019

J. Ottosen: This book covers how to assess and clean up a hoarder’s home. It also suggests and covers “Harm Reduction Teams”. The idea of harm reduction is to meet the requirements for healthy living in the home that will stick with the hoarder. Lots of good information. As we’re walking through this situation now with relatives we are finding this book very useful.

Canada on Sep 03, 2019

Patricia Macdonald: very good book

Canada on Jan 02, 2017

reetaW: good book for helping relatives.....thank u...some good pointers

United Kingdom on Jan 24, 2015

Iain McLean: My family are a bunch of creatives and as such thed to hoard anything that looks remotely like it might come in useful sometime in the rest of their lives. It even got to the stage that when our son was born they passed on hand-me-down junk to us that filled our carport. I heard about this book from a friend and bought a copy. It really helped out.

First off I read it and learned exactly what hoarding is from a therapist's point of view and how to begin working on the problem without upsetting anyone. The main lessons were aimed at minimising harm and they simple language the two authors use got the message over really quickly and didn't leave me guessing about any big medical terminology. They even have a section on planning out your decluttering process. We worked through the book and have made progress. It's an opn-going thing and slowly we're learning to change the way we view our home and are really beginning to enjoy it now it's not a dumping ground for junk.

Top marks.

United States on May 27, 2012

Rock Art Hound: The book "Digging Out" takes a new, pragmatic tack toward the problem of moderate to severe hoarding behavior. It is written for those who are living with, are related to, or are friends of hoarders and as such is the first book to address their concerns directly. It also takes a health and safety approach that reduces unrealistic expectations while offering a toolbox full of useful techniques. I have used some of the communicative strategies in the book with success and the stress and conflict in my situation has been reduced.

Other reviewers criticize the book for its emphasis on the elderly and/or dementia sufferers. I did not find this emphasis distracting, though I must admit I see my situation inevitably heading in that direction. A more distracting technique was the repeated use of the phrase "loved one" to refer to the hoarder. Writing well is not a matter of search and replace. Nevertheless, I was motivated to finish reading the book despite its occasional formulaic quality.

The book is quite forward looking in its recognition that hoarding behavior might not be confined to OCD syndromes but also include ADHD profiles, which puts it near the leading edge of...

United States on Nov 22, 2011