Referral needed for professional organizer for my borderline hoarder mom. (sale, house)

[Stagemomma]

My mom is downsizing from about 1800sf to 1000sf. She has been in her home since 1986. We have been begging her for years to clear out her collections of things.

We've consulted some Senior Move Consultants who think they can sort her stuff in 10-14 hours. We think this is ridiculous. She will have a story to tell about each item, and she has piles of papers and articles and clippings that she thinks are really important, probably because she treasures the idea and if she lets go of the paper and forgets the idea it will be a great tragedy. We have agreed to photograph items so she can write the stories about them later, but even that will be time consuming. She has 'mending' piles that have 20 year old items and 'laundry' that is waiting to be ironed piled constantly in the den. We haven't been able to sit in there in like 10 years. She has a bad back and can't remain in any one position for more than 20 minutes.

There is a barberchair in the corner of our garage because my Dad used to be a Barbershop Singer. She refused to get rid of it because 'she wanted to be the kind of person who would own a barberchair'. It hasn't moved in 31 years. She plans to contact my dads former chorus members to see if anyone wants it.....may or may not happen in the next few weeks.

She's making good decisions about the furniture/rugs, so that's a plus! She was so proud she cleaned out a linen closet to prep for moving...it took her a week and many of the linens ended up in the laundry/ironing/mending piles.

She is moving on July 23 and our goal is to have the house empty by then. I've given up on getting it clean enough with her IN it to sell. She is like pig pen...newspapers and toast crumbs and tufts of dog hair follow her everywhere.

So this is the level of crazy I'm dealing with and I need someone who will work through some of this with her. Does anyone have references for an organizing service in NVA that can work with crazy?

[leighland]

I have relatives who like to keep stuff and, being older, they can't see crumbs on the floor or physically able to clean well. But thats just being older. They don't have junk permanently on the stairs or piles of flammable newspapers piled throughout the home.

Does she have hoarding disorder (which I believe is related to anxiety and depression)?

Asking a hoarder to clean up is like asking me to run on a treadmill to help while i'm simultaneous having a heart attack.

If she does have a problem, moving her will no doubt boomerang and make her symptoms (ie hoarding) much worse.

Have you had her evaluated?

[weezycom]

This guy, Scott Roewer https://www.theorganizingagency.com/

He and an assistant helped me clear out a basement with 15 years accumulated stuff in it, sorted in one afternoon -- most of it was going into a yard sale later in the month, for me, but he gave me the numbers of a couple of outfits that would pick up after the yard sale so that anything not sold went on a truck and out of my life forever.

He makes very good use of the time, and you can hire him in 3-4 hour blocks of time, so he can get a room done, for example, and then your mom can sort through a "maybe" pile before he comes back to do another room.

Also, before you get started on this, get the book by Marie Kondo, about decluttering, and have your mom read it. It's short and to the point, but it may help get her in a mindset to let more go more easily https://www.amazon.com/Life-Changing.../dp/1607747308

[Stagemomma]

Thank you Weezy!

Keep 'em coming!

[Bill790]

Originally Posted by Stagemomma

So this is the level of crazy I'm dealing with and I need someone who will work through some of this with her. Does anyone have references for an organizing service in NVA that can work with crazy?

You could try this. Be on TV and have it all done for free!

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[LynchburgLover]

I feel for your mother. We are in our early 60s and downsizing from about 4,000 square feet to about half that. This is the house where our children spent the bulk of their years growing up. It is very emotional to go through all those memories and decide what stays and what goes. Furniture is the easy stuff -- it's the "stuff" that bogs us down.

Depending on your mother's age and financial status, could you box most of it and put it in a storage unit for her? That way you are honoring her desire to save things that for whatever reason are important to her. She would have access to it and when she has passed, you can throw it away.

Hope it all goes smoothly.