Hello.
I’m in my 30’s and I haven’t been in my father’s trailer (he’s 82) since I was a teenager. He won’t let anyone in his home. There have been hints that something was wrong.
He can’t get to rooms in his home. He has to go out a back door to the outside to get into another part of the house. He doesn’t throw anything away. My sister forced herself in there a few years ago and said it was horrible and barely had words to describe how bad it is.
He’s always blowing his nose and sick with allergy type symptoms. He has had a problem with mice now for almost a year. He won’t let me, my mom (his ex but they are good friends) or my sister come over to help him clean. He is now going to let us come over in 3 weeks to let us help him. I think the rodent problem is what has pushed him over the edge to wanting help.
Last week I showed him a couple of articles on hording and he admited that he is a horder and looked at pictures of homes of horders and said that they looked like his place. Now, my 70 year old disabled mother and my sister are going to go there (Murrells Inlet, SC) for a weekend to try to help clean.
Several of my friends have warned me that we have no idea what we are getting ourselves into. They’ve watched some Horder Show on TV that I’ve never seen. I’m sure that they are right. We don’t really know what we’re doing. I did talk with dad about the reasons behind it. He said that growing up (Great depression/WWII era) that he wasn’t allowed to throw anything away. He agreed that he’d feel better if we could give some things away as opposed to throwing it away. I agreed. I’m a therapist by profession, so I started in with the emotional processing a bit. Nevertheless, this is NOT my area of specialty nor do I have any personal or professional experience in this area. I feel overwhelmed and am open for any suggestions.
Also, if anyone knows of groups in the Myrtle Beach area that could help us, I’d greatly appreciate that. Thank you very much.
