Why it Might Be Better to Start Over New
Did you know that the average American has 300,000 items in their home? It doesn’t take much for that number to grow exponentially, especially if you have a difficult time organizing or letting go. Excessive items in a home often compromise walking space, safety, and general hygiene of a home. If this sounds familiar, know that you can get your quality of life back with a little help. Before you do, you should weigh a few factors before deciding the best way to cut through the clutter and get your life back. How severe is the condition of the home? What is the cost of cleaning a hoarder home?
First, if you’re helping someone with a hoarder home, allow them to make their own decisions at their own pace. Avoid forcing or tricking the person into getting rid of their belongings. When they’re ready, you can partner with them and discuss the different options. Depending on how you go about decluttering, cleaning out a hoarder home can get expensive.
To help you get started, here are some pros, cons, and costs of cleaning out a hoarder home versus selling the home.
What are the Pros, Cons, and Costs of Cleaning a Hoarder Home with Help from Friends and Family?
If you have a hoarder house on your hands, you can recruit a trusted friend or family member to assemble a cleaning team to help. Select a team leader that can be patient, positive, and supportive during the entire project. Ask the cleanup team to consult with you during the process and break items up into categories. For instance, make a pile for valuable items for keeping, items to discard, recyclables, and items to donate. Trash and recycle dumpsters can be found at Hometown Dumpster Rental.
Pros: People who hold onto things find it difficult to accept help or throw away objects. So relatives and close friends may be able to provide the trust, support, motivation, and tough love that a person needs to get through the decluttering process. Family members may also be more empathetic and mindful when dealing with treasured belongings. They may also be a more cost effective solution. Relatives are likely to charge you a lot less than professional cleaners, or perhaps nothing at all. In the end, dumpster rentals and decontamination services are probably going to be your major expenses.
Cons: Your relatives and friends most likely have jobs. This means they may only have a limited amount of time to devote to helping you clean-up. Also, because they aren’t professional cleaners, they may not be equipped or willing to handle hazardous waste or infestations. So you may wind up paying for hazardous waste removal and decontamination services.
Approximate Cost of Cleaning a Hoarder Home With Family and Friends:
- Dumpster Rentals: Approx. $400 per dumpster.
- Cleaning and Decontamination Costs: Cleaning and decontamination services generally start around $1,500. Hoarder houses with animals or large amounts of urine and/or feces will cost more to clean.
What are the Pros, Cons, and Costs of Cleaning a Hoarder Home with a Professional Cleaning Service?
Pros: Professional cleaners are trained to clean and decontaminate your home, so they can do so safely and more thoroughly. And because they’re paid to clean your home, they have more time to dedicate to the cleanup than your family and friends would.
Cons: The estimated cost of cleaning out a hoarder home with professional cleaners is about $1,000 a day. This service can wind up being unaffordable, especially if you want the time to look through everything. When decisions aren’t made in a timely manner, hoarder home cleanups can cost three to five times more than the original quote. Lastly, it may be difficult to trust strangers around the home, especially for homeowners who have emotional attachments to their things.
Approximate Cost of Cleaning Hoarder Home Using a Professional Cleaner:
- Debris and Junk Removal: About $1,000 per day; $10,000 to $20,000 on avg.
- Cleaning and Decontamination: Starts at $1,500; depends on the types of hazardous waste and severity of the condition.
- Organizing costs: Organizing services and supplies generally cost less than cleaning and removal for a hoarder home. Organizing costs will vary greatly from home to home depending on purchases made for storage, furniture, and reconfiguration.
What are the Pros, Cons, and Costs of Selling a Hoarder Home As-Is?
Sell a Hoarder Home ‘As-Is’ Through a Property Investor
Pros: Property investors, like Arbor View, will buy certain properties as-is, which allows homeowners to start over fresh and with a lot less hassle. Selling your house as-is eliminates all the cleaning and repair costs that go into getting your house ready for showings. We also pay cash for homes, which makes the sales process go by much faster and much smoother. You’ll also save money because we don’t charge realtor commissions. To put your mind at ease, we will stay in touch during the cleanup process and work carefully to identify objects that seem valuable. The homeowner is even allowed to monitor the clean-out process and watch for any other valuables we may have missed.
Cons: Although Arbor View allows the homeowner to take valuable items during the cleanup, we won’t sort the remaining contents into categories for recycling, trash, donations, etc. To remain time and cost efficient, we discard most contents other than valuable items that the homeowner may want to keep.
Approximate Cost of Selling Your Home As-Is: Since Arbor View buys hoarder homes as-is, you don’t have to worry about paying out-of-pocket to sell your home. Instead, we will assess any repairs that need to be made, the amount of cleanup needed, and the condition of the home and make a fair offer.
Everyone’s situation is different, so go with the solution that works best for you and your family. It’s important to note, however, that cleaning out a hoarder home doesn’t mean the habit of holding on to things goes away. To prevent your home, or the home of a loved one, from getting cluttered again, it’s important to treat the underlying issue, which may include learning new organizational habits.
How much would you get for selling your home as-is? Call Arbor View today for a free, no-obligation quote for your home.