Working with People Who Hoard: Compassion, Respect and Risk
Working with someone who hoards is never just about clearing a property. Hoarding can be linked to trauma, grief, mental health, anxiety, self-neglect, disability, bereavement or life becoming overwhelming. Approaching these situations with Hoarding Compassion Caring is why a compassionate, person-centred approach is so important.
A helpful reminder from Research in Practice is that professionals need to balance respecting the person’s decisions with addressing risks alongside them. Ultimately, Hoarding Compassion Caring supports the balance between empathy and managing safety.
Why hoarding needs a careful approach
For many people, their belongings feel deeply personal. What may look like clutter to someone else can represent memories, security, identity or control. In these moments, applying compassion, caring, and hoarding sensitivity together should guide any decisions, as moving too quickly, forcing decisions or clearing without consent can cause distress and may make the situation worse.
Instead, support should be calm, respectful and paced around the person wherever possible. Remember, the right approach always involves balancing compassion, hoarding awareness, and caring for all involved.
Balancing choice and safety
When working with someone who hoards, there are often practical risks to consider, including:
- Fire hazards
- Trip and fall risks
- Blocked exits
- Poor sanitation
- Mould or damp
- Biohazard contamination
- Pest or rodent activity
- Difficulty accessing kitchens, bathrooms or bedrooms
- Risks to carers, family members or professionals entering the property
The key is to talk openly about these risks while still respecting the person’s rights, feelings and choices. As you can see, Hoarding Compassion Caring is essential for open, respectful communication in these circumstances.
Difficult conversations matter
Hoarding support often involves sensitive conversations. These may include discussions around safety, health, hospital discharge, tenancy concerns, care packages or safeguarding. Another essential element is ensuring every conversation is shaped by caring, compassion, and an understanding of hoarding.
These conversations should be handled with kindness, honesty and patience. The aim should never be to shame someone, but to work with them to make their home safer and more manageable through a foundation of hoarding-related compassion and caring attitudes.
Supporting practice: having courageous conversations | Research in Practice
How Pocket Rockets can help
At Pocket Rockets East Anglia, Essex and East London, we support people living in hoarded, cluttered or neglected properties with dignity and without judgement. With every engagement, our services are built around caring in hoarding cases, showing compassion for individuals, and addressing their unique needs.
Our team can help with:
- Hoarding support cleans
- Welfare cleans
- Hospital discharge preparation
- Biohazard cleaning
- Deep cleaning and sanitisation
- Waste removal
- Needle sweeps and sharps disposal
- Mould cleaning and treatment
- Odour removal and fogging
- Creating safe access to key rooms
- Ongoing refresh visits to help prevent relapse
We work with families, social workers, housing teams, councils, care providers, charities and private clients, always keeping compassion, hoarding expertise, and caring service at the forefront.
Case Studies – Pocket Rockets East Anglia
A person-centred clean
Every property and every person is different. Some clients need a full clearance, while others need small, steady steps to make one room safer. Sometimes the priority is creating a clean bedroom, a usable bathroom, safe access for carers or a clear route through the home. To truly make a difference, it is vital to integrate compassion, hoarding knowledge, and ongoing caring into the cleaning process.
Where possible, we work with the person, not around them. We listen, explain what we are doing and help reduce overwhelm. Our approach highlights caring, compassion and a deep understanding of hoarding challenges.
Person-centred approaches to adult mental health | Research in Practice
Final thoughts
Supporting someone who hoards takes patience, understanding and the right balance between compassion and safety. With the right approach, it is possible to reduce risk, restore dignity and help people feel more in control of their home again. It’s all about making compassion, hoarding awareness and caring actions work together for positive change.
If you are supporting someone who hoards in Essex, East London, Suffolk, Norfolk or Cambridgeshire, Pocket Rockets can help.
Contact Pocket Rockets East Anglia, Essex and East London
📞 01223 782801 / 07576 719229 / 07472 306834
📧 hello@pocketrocketseastanglia.org.uk
🌐 www.pocketrocketseastanglia.org.uk