I have been around the forum for many years - mostly gaining help. I did a search and did not see this issue being discussed. Just wondering if anyone else has had to deal with their HD family member hoarding? And most importantly - How to deal with it!

Oh boy, this was a hard one for me! My mom kept everything - even though the mice got into everything, too. It was a mess when I finally had to clear out her house. Once I got her out of the house and into assisted living, it was a little bit more manageable. While she was in her home, it was impossible. However, even in the assisted living and now nursing home, we had a lot of issues with hoarding food. The only thing that seemed to work (and it made her really mad) was that everyday, the CNA's would just clean out her drawers and the top of her dresser and throw it away. It wasn't easy, but it prevented mice and bugs from accumulating in her room which was not good. Now it doesn't seem to be much of a problem and she doesn't save food for later. I think it is like a lot of things with HD with my mom - it became an obsession for a while, but now she has moved on to a different obsession.

Kim's top dresser drawer is filled with straws, just filled with them. We keep things to a minimum here at our home but... in her own home that we got her out of was declared condemned because of the hoarding and cats, which is a form of hoarding also I believe. She's mellowed with meds and stage of the disease and we keep things cleared out of her room but just not tolerating and choosing our battles.. hence the straws. We've laid down the law on a few things, like bathing and not putting clothing into the hamper to be laundried so she doesn't wear the same thing over and over and OVER so it smells. Eventually, HOPEFULLY your Phd will get to a stage where you can manage it. Pat

My husband has never hoarded anything but I have a couple people I know who have no connection to HD and they hoard everything.

Eventually I cleared most of my Father's junk by taking stuff out a few boxes at a time when he wasn't looking. He never missed it, but he's pretty far along. If I tried to remove even the most useless item when he was watching, it was an issue.