Here’s a hoarding cleanup checklist with 10 steps to help you prepare for your cleanup project. This checklist applies to houses where there is a mix of garbage and items that you want to salvage.

If your hoarded house is one that’s too hazardous to enter, don’t attempt to clean it yourself. Call a professional crew trained in dealing with biohazards or mold remediation. If the house is full of junk that can’t be donated or that you don’t want to keep, and you don’t want to haul it out yourself, call a junk removal service. After the stuff is out of the house, you can clean it up for sale or hire a cleaning crew to do the dirty work.

If you’re doing a cleanup with the hoarder himself, you’ll want to do some other prep to help them get mentally ready for the challenge ahead.

Hoarding Cleanup Prep Checklist

1. As I’ve mentioned before, the very first step before you clean out a hoarded house is to think long and hard about whether it’s something you truly want and need to do yourself.

2. Assess the situation and figure out whether you’ll need a specialized cleaning crew to help with any of it. If you’re dealing with any biohazards or toxic mold, the answer is yes.

3. Figure out the schedule for when you’ll be able to work on the cleanup.

If you aren’t working towards a specific deadline, it might help to set a target date for yourself so that your project doesn’t feel open-ended or like “The Never-ending Story” but without the flying dragon. It’s likely there will be detours and unexpected delays that come up. Hoarded homes can be full of surprises. Shoot for your deadline but don’t beat up on yourself if unforeseen circumstances make that deadline impossible.

4. Determine who’ll be able to help you.

Think about whether the people you have in mind will help or hinder you emotionally. There were some folks I couldn’t include because I knew they would get sidetracked or have too much trouble discarding items. Or, in their well-meaning way, they might pressure me to keep something because “It’s old.”/“Your parents really loved this.”/“You’ll want to keep this heirloom.”/“You can give it to your (nonexistent) grandkids.”/[Insert your choice of emotion-based rationale here.] This should go without saying, but definitely don’t include another hoarder in the cleanup. That. Won’t. Work.

5. Assemble your cleaning tools and supplies based on the types of messes you’ll be tackling.

6. Plan how you’ll handle any important papers you find.

To keep the cleanup humming along, we had a big plastic storage bin and threw any kind of personal, official, or financial-looking mail and documents into it, without stopping to read or analyze them. I went through the bin during a time that was separate from the cleaning session. That way, I could concentrate and take action instead of taking time out from the cleanup and getting distracted. Most of the junk mail went straight into a different recycling bin.

7. Set some guidelines for yourself. 

It helps before you’re in the midst of the fray to know what items you can immediately throw away, which ones you’ll keep for an auction, estate sale, or charitable donation, and which ones you’ll keep for yourself or other family members.* (See the important footnote on this below.)

8. Speak to the people who’ll be handling the auction or estate sale, if you’ll have one. 

They might be able to sell things that you would unthinkingly dispose of. Do a walk-through to see whether there are objects they want you to keep for the sale or whether there are any less popular items that you can go ahead and safely donate. It can save you time and energy if there’s less cleanup you need to do than you thought.

9. Plan how you’re going to reward yourself for a hard day’s work. 

The reward doesn’t have to be big. For me, sometimes it was simply the treat of walking down to 7-Eleven for an ice-cold Slurpee. You need something to acknowledge your effort, because the progress may seem unimpressive or invisible to you at first, aside from your exhausted muscles and mind.

10. Plan a big reward for the end of the cleanup.

Figure out something to honor the work you did for yourself and on behalf of your loved one who couldn’t. It can be big, like a full-blown vacation, or small but highly enjoyable, like a massage or an ice cream sundae at the place you haven’t been to in years where you used to go with your loved one. Whatever it is, it should be something symbolic and special to bring this project to a positive close. And it’ll give you something to daydream about when the going gets tough.

Stay tuned for a coming post with tips on tackling the actual cleanup.

Hope and joy,

Rachel

* HEAR YE, HEAR YE: Don’t save things for family members if they haven’t specifically requested them. You may be practicing wishful thinking that they’ll want them. You might be surprised by the things they do or don’t want, such as childhood art or toys. Those types of items are often more meaningful to the parents than the kids themselves.

Also, don’t accept a blanket answer of “Keep whatever you think I’ll like and I’ll take a look at it later.” Nope. Nyet. Jamais.

I did save photos for people who might enjoy them and who might not have copies already. Photos are small, and people are free to dispose of them as they choose. Photos also share memories of times they spent with the people who’ve passed away, which can be a touching way to say farewell or remember the good times.