How to Help a Hoarding Family Member Using Self-Storage Units
Self-storage units are valuable for organizing your life, running a charity or even supplementing some businesses under the right circumstances. In terms of hoarders though, the extra space can only make a problem worse. This becomes obvious when individuals fill up massive storage units, or many units up with unnecessary items, often scattered and disorganized.
If you have a friend or a family member that's suffering from a hoarding disorder, it's important to try and recognize the issue as soon as possible and to take steps to help that person overcome their problem.
Get Educated About Hoarding
Hoarding is a serious mental disorder and individuals collect items they do not need, in sometimes staggering quantities, for a number of reasons. Some are suffering from extreme depression, others from obsessive-compulsive disorder, and still others from grief. While it's true that only a professional therapist is qualified to diagnose your loved one's condition, you should still get educated along with everyone else in your family about hoarding.
Call on all your other close family members and visit a therapist to talk about the disorder your loved one is going through and to learn how to hold a proper intervention. Also, try and set up a time for your loved one to come in for therapy with the same therapist at this time.
Have an Intervention and Offer Help
Schedule an intervention at a time that works well for everyone. Sit down with friends and family and have the friend that's suffering from a hoarding disorder sit down with you to talk about the situation.
Do your best to supporting them to consult a therapist for help. If a therapist can help them set goals, it can result in a beneficial organization and decluttering of their self-storage unit.
Help with Clearing the Storage
Now that your hoarding friend or family member is on-board with clearing out and downsizing their belongings, bring a truck to units and help them start sorting and getting rid of items.
If you're at a location like Fortress Secure Mini Storage you'll have access to drive-up storage for many of the units making this process easier. You don't have to convince your loved one to give up their storage in Arroyo Grande, CA altogether, but you can try to get them to let go of some of the units if they have several or to downsize from a large space to a smaller one.
Self-storage can be helpful, but it's best to help family members and friends to overcome and manage their issues with hoarding if they're suffering financially, psychologically, or their living conditions are suffering.
