In pop culture, hoarding has become the topic du jour.
Two separate TV shows, Hoarding and Hoarders, are drawing in huge audiences across the country because of the fascinating nature of the subject: People who obsessively collect and keep their personal belongings, even if the possessions are worthless or dangerous. Piles of junk turn rooms into landfills and homes into junkyards.
As intriguing as it is for TV, hoarding is a serious problem, and seniors are generally more prone to compulsive hoarding.
Seniors clutter for a variety of reasons, experts say: fear of loss. Anxiety. Depression. Perhaps it is not knowing how to get rid of something, or that there are memories tied to a specific item that, in reality, holds no intrinsic value.
Here’s an excerpt from the new book, Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee:
Some theorists have posited that people with hoarding tendencies form attachments to possessions instead of people. Erich Fromm claimed that a “hoarding orientation” leads to social withdrawal. Hoarders, he suggested, are remote and suspicious, preferring the company of objects to that of people. Indeed, for some people prone to acute social discomfort, possessions can be stable and comfortable companions.
For seniors, hoarding leads to clutter, and clutter leads to accidents. Objects can fall over. People can trip and break bones or worse. And then there are the not-so-obvious problems: bills can be hidden by clutter and go unpaid. Medications can be missed if medicine can’t be easily found. And let’s not even think about rodents and other critters invading the home. Yuck.
Our Home Instead CAREGivers are trained to help seniors sort through their clutter to find the items of value, keeping houses clean, safe, and full of possessions and memories that truly matter. When one of our CAREGivers are visiting a senior on a weekly basis, he or she can spot the habits that can lead to too much clutter.
They can help a senior clean out a cabinet, get rid of old newspapers or magazines, and anything else that may prohibit the elderly person to navigate safely in the home. And they can even help the elderly person eat nutritious and safe food by making sure the refrigerator is cleaned out and rid of spoiled or dated foods and replaced with good food by helping the senior shop properly.
For assistance and home care help in the Richmond and Northern Neck areas, please call our Home Instead office at 804.527.1100 anytime. We want to help make a difference in a seniors life so that the problems don’t continue as our whole goal is to keep seniors living indendently in their own homes as long as possible.
