Last week, I shared a common factor among clients in my post called “Those Pretty Little Bins,” where most clients want to buy storage containers before I come help them organize.
Today, I want to share with you a second commonality among clients. They worry they are hoarders. They apologize when I come into their homes. They jokingly ask if I want to bring in the cameras and film their mess like the show.
So I compassionately tell my clients:
You are not a hoarder. Hoarding is a mental health issue. Hoarders don’t recognize they need help, and most of them don’t want it. The hoarder is not the one actually calling for help. To get a hoarder to clean up, there has to be an intervention.
Just by the simple fact a client is calling me to schedule proves she is not a “hoarder.”
I also tell clients — as they nervously pace, apologizing and showing me their cluttered space — every single home I’ve ever been in looks the same. My clients are so average when it comes to clutter. (Sorry clients, but it’s true.) I have never been shocked when I walked into a home. Not once.
Most homes I declutter look like this.
That’s because most clients have the same issues. They live in beautiful homes that have lots of large closets, a garage, an attic, a basement and other “unique” storage ideas they fell in love the minute they walked in with the Realtor.
Then, over a period of years, they have weddings, children, parents who pass away, and they fill up those spaces to the point they can’t breathe.
When a client tells me her story, I reassure her that our relationship is a judge-free zone. It’s your stuff, not mine. I have no attachment to it or emotion about it. It’s you who can’t breathe, not me.
When a client apologizes to me, they are really apologizing to themselves. And when I come, it’s time to forgive. I help them begin the healing they are craving.
Just so you know, when you call me, you are definitely not a hoarder. The thought has never popped into my mind.
Instead, I celebrate you. Calling me means you are taking a step towards living your best life.
And you deserve that.