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Boom! Or did you want it built into the OS?
Welcome to the sub.
> I've gotten estimates for a one time cleaning fee from $1,500 to $4,300. I can't afford that. Is that reasonable for the pictures linked below in the Chicago area?
Sounds about right for a "clean" hoard. From this article about hoarding in the New York Times:
> Darren Johnson, an inspector with the Orange County Fire Authority...[uses] a standard checklist to rank homes. Those rated at levels 1 through 3 may need intervention but may not have descended into squalor. “I’ve never seen a level 5” — the highest — “be cleaned up for less than $20,000,” said Mr. Johnson...who travels among 23 cities in Orange County and says he sees between 60 and 80 severe cases a year.
For more on how professionals gauge clean-up costs for a hoard, check this article.
As I see it, your biggest cost is going to be labor--actual people coming into the home, sorting through the trash, and tossing it out. What you might consider doing is using a service like TaskRabbit to find some day laborers who can come out for a day or two to throw out and clean. Failing that, there's always Craigslist, but you do have to be mindful of scammers and people who might steal valuables from your mom's house.
What about friends and/or relatives? You might be able to bring in those folks to clean up for the low, low price of pizza and beer/soda. If your mom is active in a faith community (church/mosque/synagogue/etc.), it's possible that members might be willing to help, too. Talk to the priest/pastor/imam/rabbi/etc. and see if s/he can help you round up some willing souls.
Depending on the size of the hoard, you might only need 3 - 5 people, plus a supervisor. Getting just a few people to come in and clean out for one day at no charge could reduce your costs--all you'd need to do is feed them, provide cleaning materials, and provide a dumpster or two.
You can arrange for dumpsters for the trash long-distance. If actual dumpsters are outside your budget, check out this post about Bagster. It's a great lower-cost alternative. Be sure to check into getting a permit to have the dumpster in the driveway, or you risk fines! And make arrangements for those items that can't go into the regular trash, such as medications, paint, etc..
If your mom has donate-able items, many charities will come to the house and pick those items up. You'll have to schedule the pick-up times in advance. And don't forget that there are tax deductions for donations!
If you manage to put together a clean-up team, do you have a trusted friend or relative in your mom's area who would be willing to supervise the clean-up, since you're out of town? We have basic directions on how to approach cleaning a hoarded house here. The person supervising could use that list to get started, and tweak it to fit the needs of your mom's house.
The supervisor would direct the laborers from room to room, and make the final call on which items should be designated Keep, Donate,Trash, or Recycle. The supervisor would also help you with keeping track of donations. You can register yourself at www.ItsDeductible.com and have your on-site supervisor make a list of the stuff your mom donates (and, of course, collect the receipts from the places getting the donations). You can then upload the info from that list at the web site. There's also app versions from both iTunes and Google Play. The last year I donated stuff from my parents' hoard, I got a $7,000.00 USD tax deduction (YMMV, please check tax deduction guidelines), so it's a good idea to keep track.
The supervisor would also keep his/her eyes peeled for important items. Hoarders have a nasty habit of putting things like the deed to the house in a pile of trash (because in hoarder thinking? that pile of trash is just as important as the deed!), so the supervisor will need to alert people to look for those things, and take possession of them when they're found.
Bear in mind that you don't have to clean the entire house right away. Depending on the size of the hoard, it might make more sense for you from a financial standpoint to have a team clean out for one day in October, then come back and clean out for one day in November, and then finish up in December.
You mentioned selling the house. Post hoard-removal, there are a couple of things you want to be prepared for:
- Hoards hide damage. That is, there could be damage to the home that you and your mom aren't aware of until the hoard is removed. It can be as simple (and cheap) as a little drywall damage or a need to paint, or as complicated (and expensive!) as actual structural damage, such as floors separated from walls, water damage from leaks that your mom didn't know occurred because the hoard covered it up, and so forth. So brace yourself for finding out the true condition of the house once the hoard is gone.
- Hoards also hide vermin. Cockroaches, rats, mice, etc., LOVE paper products (including things like cardboard). Rats and mice will nest in a paper like crazy. Hoards allow these creatures to go unchecked in a house, and once the hoard is removed you'll start seeing the. If your mom has an infestation and it's bad enough, you may have to hire a professional exterminator to deal with it. You'll want to prepared for that, too.
Bottom-lining it: cleaning out a hoarded home ain't cheap. Even if you get lucky and manage to arrange for free labor, I would guess-timate that you're probably going to be out roughly $300 - 400 for a couple of Bagsters, and then $100 - $150 for each day of clean-up required (based on the cost of clean-up materials and lunch for a team of four people, a three-bedroom house hoarded as shown in your photos, no significant damage or vermin, and no safety issues). If the team can get it done in two days, that would be around $700 - $800. Of course, that all hinges on getting a good, solid clean-up crew--that's the biggest challenge.
Frankly, that estimate of $1,500.00 for the professional clean-out sounds like a bargain to me (depending on what, exactly, the company would be doing, of course). Were I you, instead of spending hours and hours trying to cobble together a clean-up team of volunteers, I'd probably start looking into ways to come up with that money--overtime, part-time work, etc.--and have the professionals do it.
> I was also thinking maybe I could start a fund raiser but I have know clue where to get started doing that. I was hoping someone here could either help me figure this out or direct to me to a better resource. I don't really know where to begin.
You mean like GoFundMe or something? I don't have any idea, but perhaps someone else here does.
Anyway, good luck with your situation! I hope the above helps. Let us know how it goes.
> Can anyone give me any idea at all on where I start? I've been lost in my cave full of junk for too long, and I don't know what to do.
Welcome to the sub! I recommend the following:
- Start small.
- Change your goal from "Clean up" to "Re-Train My Brain".
On starting small:
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.
So when you decide to start tidying up, choose one small space to begin with. Not a whole room, and certainly not the whole house. You want a space that's manageable, impactful, time efficient and most importantly, encourages you to keep going. Suggested small areas to de-clutter include, but are not limited to:
- your kitchen or office junk drawer
- your dining room table (or part of it)
- the top of a coffee table
- the magazine collection behind the TV
- that stuff right in front of that door that you have to keep stepping over to move through the house.
- your night table in your bedroom
- a utility or storage closet
- your medicine cabinet
- your bathroom sink
The idea is that completing a series of smaller organizing tasks allows you to feel a sense of accomplishment without becoming overwhelmed. Try to begin with a visible area, a place where you'll see results quickly.
When de-cluttering, set yourself a short time frame. Many folks here like the 20/10 unf*cking approach from UfYH, or the 15 minute Clutter Sweeps from PersonalOrganizing.About.com. The short time frame also gives you the comfort of knowing that it will be over soon!
If the idea of cleaning out a space that size or a timed de-cluttering is still too overwhelming for you, focus on just getting rid of three things a day. Even the most diehard compulsive hoarders can admit that there's probably three items they need to get out of the house.
Three things may not seem like much, but remember that your goal is to re-train your brain so that it's not so anxiety-inducing or stress-inducing when you de-clutter. Big clean-ups mean lots of stress. But a small clean-up of three things? You're more likely to go, "Yeah, I don't really need that."
One step you might want to consider taking as you select your three (or however many) items is to do the Downward Arrow (video link). You select an item under consideration for removing from your home, and examine your feelings about it. Do this for each item. Ask yourself: what does this item mean to me? Why do I feel like I have to keep it? What do I think would happen if I part with the item? How likely is it that it would really happen? Watch the video to get an idea of the steps and resolving them. You might also want to try the "Experimenting with Reduction of Clutter" (PDF) exercises from Francine Gordon, to help you understand and manage your reactions when you attempt to de-clutter.
Finally, as you're working towards your clutter-free home, be patient with your process. As you get rid of things in layers over time, your confidence in letting go will increase, and you'll find that you'll slowly be more comfortable getting rid of things. Once you start to feel more comfortable with getting rid of things, please check out this section of our Hoarding Resource List: I Have Hoarding Tendencies and Want to Learn How to Clean Up - How Do I Start?, which will give you guidance on additional steps you can take as you not only de-clutter, but clean the freed-up spaces.
> I have a hard time going through his things and figuring out what to do with it all.
Donate! Donate! DONATE!
Many charities will not only take stuff off your hands, but they'll come and pick it up from your home! Check out Donation Town to find charities in your area that do this. Be sure to check out their donation guidelines, as some charities can't accept certain items.
Donations to charity are frequently tax-deductible, too. You can check the Salvation Army's Donation Value Guide, or track your donations over the year via TurboTax's It's Deductible website (they offer an app version from both iTunes and Google Play).
Good luck!
Really? I could do my taxes through turbo tax on a ZTE Zinger, walmarts shittiest $20 phone. I'm not saying that desktops are dead, I completely disagree with that. But I am saying that you do not need one to use turbotax.