Hoarding cleanup is harder than regular cleanup of your house. Cleaning that many accumulated items may feel like a scavenger hunt. You may find something valuable but most of the time you don’t. Hoarding cleanup sometimes even puts at health risk. This is why many people prefer to just call hoarding cleanup services to do the job for them. But if you want to do it yourself, you should know-how and we’re going to tell you.
Create A Strategy
Hoarding cleanup is a huge task, it needs proper planning if you want it to be successful. Keep in mind that hoarders don’t have the ability or the intention to classify items based on their needs and values so you will have a hard time cleaning the mess. Formulating a strategy will help you a lot. Create a strategy based on the priority of the work that needs to be done, make a list of what tools you will need, and assign time to each specific task.
Safety First
So you have made a strategy and now before starting to work, make yourself safe. Hoarding cleanup sometimes includes safety hazards so it’s better safe than sorry. The tools you need are disposable gloves, dust masks, goggles, sturdy shoes, and a hard hat. To be safer, keep these things close: a fire extinguisher, a repellent spray, a flashlight, and last but not least, a first aid kit.
Make Sure You Have All the Supplies You Need
Safety equipment isn’t the only tool you will need. You will need other supplies as well. You will need heavy-duty trash bags, empty boxes, buckets, universal cleaning agents and disinfectants, brooms, dustpan, step ladder, vacuum cleaner, mops, sponges, Lysol, etc. Now, you may not need everything listed here but you will need most of them for sure. You can make your own list depending on your needs.
Start Cleaning
Now that you have all the things you need, make a proper staging area and secure the exits. Then go to the room that needs to be cleaned and start sorting salvageable items. You will see that lots of items there are able to be recycled and used again. Keep them aside and the rest of them on another side. What you can keep and what you can’t depend on you.
Clean The Place Properly
When you’re done cleaning the junk and clutter, you need to clean the room properly. Remember that this room has housed lots of different types of items for years and it’s not suitable to live in. You need to give it a deep cleaning. This will take some time and lots of energy but it needs to be done. Scrub the floors over and over again, and wash or replace the curtains and the rug areas. Wash it properly with bacteria repellents.
Conclusion
As you have probably realized, it’s very hard to do a hoarding cleanup. It’s mostly because of the number of items there are. If you think it’s too much for you, just call hoarding cleanup or “home junk removal near me” services, like Jiffy Junk, and they will do it all for you. Otherwise, follow our steps and clean it yourself.