'Hoarders' expert has tips for decluttering - New Day NW

[Applause] as a New Year's and spring ritual to get rid of things we don't need and put what's left in order with easy solutions you can use right now welcome a featured expert on Annie's hit show hoarders Erica de Miley how are you I was telling you before we went on the air that I trashed like a huge amount of stuff out of my kitchen just cleaning up my kitchen do you think we kind of are people kind of natural hoarders you know research shows that some hoarding behaviors you know are genetic but it also is and can be a learned behavior as well so it just totally depends on the person I certainly don't have a house full of stuff like the things that are featured on your show but I do look at things and think I might use that someday and then stick it in a drawer what what are the thoughts we should replace that thought with so I think the key word that I just heard you say was the word someday whenever my clients say maybe I should or someday those are triggers for me to kind of gently challenge them you know but are you going to if you should are you going to and someday let's make that day now or let's say goodbye in part with it that's going to be hard but I'm going to try it you know we we moved you guys remember we were in an old building then we moved here and there were things that we took along from the old building for some reason I brought home two orange safety vests and my husband my husband said to me under what circumstances are you anticipating that we're going to meet up yeah and I think that was his version of your question I love it so you've always been organized always how you're the newest expert on the show correct we're in the night season that's amazing and people can't get enough of this I mean one thing it's fun to see the mess and then see it cleaned up but also to explore the psychology and the emotions behind this what is your your background how do you get this expertise yeah so I am a part of ICD which is the Institute for challenging disorganization I've been in the industry for nearly a decade I've been in business for almost four years do you have clients you go and help a client base yes and I've been in hundreds of horded homes I mean to a woman who collected 250 porcelain dolls to an episode that I'm a bored that I'm on with a man who hoards 300 plants so I feel like I've seen it all but whenever I think I've seen it all I see something new something else and I haven't yet it really is remarkable what is the psychology behind hoarding yes so hoarding is a brand-new disorder in the dsm-5 which is the mental health professionals guide to diagnosis and so in 2013 it became its own disorder and diagnosis people used to think that it was a part of OCD but now it is its own disorder and with behaviors that define it so I think what it boils down to is the impairment and lost a function in a person's home for example someone can't bathe in their bathtub because it's filled with magazines or newspapers right or boxes on someone can't cook in their kitchen so they are contained just using their microwave I've been in homes where a lot of people just have goat trails in their home and they can barely walk around their grief we know what what where this comes from is there a common experience that people have in their backgrounds yeah so usually there is a trigger and as I said it's a learned it can be a learned behavior but usually when I talk to my clients who are severe hoarders there's a trigger either there's a loss a point of grief a point of contention somewhere in their life that the hoarding behavior really picked up but the research has shown that there is a genetic predisposition to these behaviors and that's why some people have a really hard time getting organized in staying organized because they can never really grasp innately what it means to actually have their house in order it is fascinating well obviously it's fascinating because there been nine seasons yeah okay good enough let's take a look at a clip okay it's kind of one of the last final rooms that we would love to help you out with so if you can identify kind of what you see in this room what stays what goes and then we are on to the plants now okay though the two chairs are actually almost a brand name but I've gotten used in this rope but their keepers okay and then what about the barrels of worms why do you have three barrels of worms in your living room what's the what was the and you don't understand why I would have three because one of those red wigglers and one of them is European night colors and one of them is great jumpers incident why are they because they like the company okay I always talk to them when I go for you to fish and they say don't treat me to the fish okay okay though that's great I love that you have that interaction with them keeping them or lesson free in the yard well I don't know that would that's a bot I guess Delanie logical sequences to dump him out in the yard okay so we're gonna do an assembly line out of here what about the plants probably most of them are keep why don't you put them under the willow tree well they don't work look it started what do you think [Music] hi can I help you oh you'll have to find out oh my gosh okay it does air on Sunday is that so um so he had an answer for why his worms were in the house which I thought was a good question and a an interesting answer where do you start with somebody yeah so where I start with someone like that and he's a wonderful man but I do rely on the knowledge of a mental health professional that I was working when and you hope to find out who the doctors if you watch on Sunday and she was amazing and so in any hoarding situation I think the collaboration between hoarding specialists like myself and a mental health professional is the magic sauce to really helping someone who hoards to that degree because if they can't get down to sort of the root of this then it's just a self fulfilling thing that just keeps happening absolutely and I deal with the stuff and the inevitable motions that go along with that but I need to rely on the knowledge of a therapist really dig down underneath the behaviors okay well let's talk about in our own homes you know as I said I'm not a hoarder but sometimes I do let things pile up I sort of feel that meeting the piles is a sort of organization but I know that's not true yeah and on the other hand when I do finally declutter when I look at something ago know and throw it all out I feel great yeah do most people get that feeling I mean non hoarding people do we like that when we clean things up or is that unique to certain personalities no it's it's totally cathartic and I think you know i s I want to express is that I don't just work with people who hoard I work with you know normal individuals who just need some home organization so hopefully is cathartic to discard good what a lot of people don't realize is how good it feels and they're scared to go there and so that's why they hire a professional organizer or a hoarding specialist to kind of be that objective third party to come in and in assist them in doing so it's so cathartic that I thought about we live on a ravine and we toss our cut or tree up and throw it over the ravine yeah I'd like to just throw it over well it still got all the stuff yeah love it I love it let's talk about some of the tools we need to get organized that make it fun and can we start here cuz I'm all about the label right you know it's so cute and fun so this is a key touch brother I think one thing when people think about home organization they think oh my gosh I need to have a membership to storables The Container Store you don't I got these things at storables you can get them at Target and Fred Meijer organizing doesn't have to be as complicated as people make it right I think that where people get tripped up is when I come into a client's home and they say what do I need to buy beforehand I say nothing yeah let's not go there especially for people who hoard all the time they have everything I need to do my job that they are underutilizing because they can't find it in their home that's a thought because I bet I have untold numbers of bends in the garage yeah I just got them out and you use them properly and part of my conviction in my business I love to be resourceful with what people already have and I have no desire to rack up people's tabs higher than it needs to be as I say what do you already have that we can resource and utilize and if we really hit a wall let's go to some of these super simple storage solutions that I can show you okay so label makers help because label makers talk because they implement a system so a lot of people you know they want places for their things but they say well I have four kids and how is that system going to stay in place a label maker great way and it's always an you know these come unstuck these labels and so you can change them it isn't permanent so this is a great way to implement a system and make it stick I like the idea literally make it stand make it okay spices this is you know cabinets of course are always a problem and it's great if you can afford all the gizmos but if you can't are things like this really helpful super helpful again target Fred Meyer storables Container Store this is how I organize my spices these are actually my spices and some of my supplemental pake um and so this can also be used in the refrigerator as well I think it's like 799 super cost efficient and affordable you can see everything so that helps not just leave stuff in the back that stays there for years that is the kicker so you want everything to be visible because especially for a person who hoards out of sight out of mind I can't tell you how many times I've gone to a home and they say you know I'm out of the spice or amount of toilet paper or paper towels I can always find it and they have so much in their garage they don't even know they're starting to worry about myself now know when I organize my kitchen I kid you not we found 40 balls you know those little devils I found several of a lot of things yeah gone out to buy I only could start my own store for coughing tube I'll stop the eyes around the kitchen anyway yeah this is not about me yeah no so you've got shoes in here was that a good idea so this is kind of silly I mean it's one of my favourite things um so for women who have a ton of shoes I don't know about you I have a few um so I have 10 pairs of shoes and I feel like maybe I'm the only woman in the world who has 10 pairs of shoes however this is great and these are a pair of my flats um and this is a shoe box that you can get again right and you've got a picture and I have a picture and so you know you can laminate it if you want to get really savvy with it I just cut this out and then you can stack on top of each other and so this way your shoes are visible it's brilliant really good idea and it's simple and it feels like you're shopping in your closet which a lot of women love you've got to come back yeah it was many more tips I love it you can catch Erica's episode of Hoarders this Sunday at what time 9:00 p.m. on Annie plus she brought gift cards to storables for everybody in the audience yeah organization faces ooh creepy a great label maker yeah after the break how to start 2017 with good financial habits as well best-selling author a financial expert named and Part B is here after a break Thanks Oh [Applause]

Channel: KING 5

Views: 721,637

Keywords: Entertainment, Television, Programs, New-Day-Northwest, hoarders, decluttering, hoarding

Id: Nz4wGOV9R_4

Length: 11min 35sec (695 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 04 2017