If you typed ‘hoarder cleaning’ into a search box, you already know what comes back: page after page of clearance companies. Vans, crews, skips, rooms emptied in a day. Many describe themselves as a hoarding cleanup service, and most of them do exactly what the label says.
What those listings rarely ask is whether anyone still lives in the home. Whether anyone still lives there changes what kind of help fits. A home someone still lives in needs something different from a property being handed back.
Maybe the home is yours, and you have been circling this search for weeks. Maybe it belongs to your mum or your dad, and every kind of help you have found so far involves a van. Either way, the same worry sits underneath: that someone will treat the contents of a home as waste, and the person living there as an obstacle.
I’m Kari. I offer hoarding support in West London, working alongside people in their own homes rather than sending crews into them. The difference between the two services comes down to one question: who decides what happens to each item.
The short version: house clearance is a crew removing the contents of a property, usually in a day or two, and it fits homes nobody lives in or a hard deadline. Hoarding support as I do it, with decluttering and cleaning alongside, is support, not clearance: one person working beside you in your own home, over weeks, where every item is your decision. If someone still lives there and wants to keep living there, the second kind is usually the one that fits.
What people mean by ‘hoarder cleaning’ (and why that isn’t always wrong)
Most companies that appear when you search for help with a very full home are house clearance firms. A team arrives, works through the property, and loads everything into a van or a skip. The job is usually finished within a day or two, and payment is per load or per job. The person whose home it is usually isn’t the one making item-by-item decisions.
None of that is shady or wrong. Some of these firms are careful, decent people doing a hard job well. But the service itself is built for speed, not for deciding, and those are two different skills.
If a flat has been emptied by a bereavement and nobody is living there, clearance is the right tool. The same goes for an end of tenancy with a date set by a landlord, or a probate property that has to be handed back. For homes with nobody living in them and a deadline attached, a crew and a skip fit the job.
The trouble starts when someone still lives there. Then the contents stop being an inventory and start being possessions: birthday cards, unopened packs, a coat that might fit again one day. The person who knows what each thing means is usually standing in a doorway while strangers carry it all out. For a home that is still a home, that approach tends to do harm alongside the clearing.
What I do instead
This is support, not clearance. I arrive on my own, no crew and no van idling outside, and we start wherever feels least impossible: the kitchen table, a corner of the sofa, one chair. You can sort beside me, point from across the room, or spend the first hour telling me what the room has been like. All of it counts as starting.
I work with you, not on your behalf, so every item is your decision. I can ask questions and offer my read on a thing, but the final answer is yours. Nothing leaves your home without your say-so. That is the way I work.
The short name for how I work is 100% consensual support: nothing happens in your home unless you have agreed to it first.
Sessions run by the hour, with a two-hour minimum, and most people doing hoarding support with me book weekly or fortnightly. I stop at the booked time, even mid-room. If a session feels too much, we stop. If you change your mind about something, we put it back.
Rates, including the reduced rate I keep for tighter circumstances, are on my pricing page. The practical details of sessions are on my services page, and what to expect walks through a session from the first visit onwards.
There are no skips, either. Because the pace stays manageable, things leave the house gradually. I dispose of items directly, recycle what can be recycled, repurpose what makes sense, and arrange charity pickup for larger pieces of furniture. A few bags to the charity shop one week, a sofa collected the next.
Why the stuff coming back is the real problem
A crew can empty a room in an afternoon. An empty room, though, tends not to stay empty on its own.
In my experience, when a home is cleared without the person who filled it, the filling tends to start again. Not always, but often enough that families recognise the pattern. The room was full for reasons, and reasons do not fit in a skip: grief, memory, the fear of throwing out the wrong thing, years of habit. Take the stuff away and the reasons are all still there, waiting for next Tuesday.
That is why I put the difference this way: they come in, clear out, and leave. The stuff is gone but nothing has changed. My work runs on rhythm instead: an hour or two, the same day each week, someone calm beside you, sleeves up. Small decisions, made again and again, tend to hold in a way one heroic weekend rarely does.
Which one do you need?
A few plain situations, in the hope one of them matches yours:
- If nobody lives in the property, a probate flat or a house between tenants, a clearance company is built for the job. You choose the company and deal with them directly, and there is no shame in needing that speed.
- If there is a hard deadline you cannot move, a landlord’s notice or a completion date, clearance may be the only thing that fits the window. Using it then is not a failure.
- If the person who lives in the home is staying there, and the aim is a home that works rather than an emptied shell, that is the work I do. I’m not here to declutter your home. I’m here to help you declutter your home, at your pace, with your choices.
- If you are a family member and the person is still living in the home, it is worth reading how to help a family member who hoards before anything else. A crew brought in against someone’s wishes tends to cost you their trust, and trust is what makes any of this possible.
One more thing worth knowing. Social workers, community nurses, housing officers, GPs, and family members all get in touch with me, but I speak with the person themselves before any work starts. Support that the person has not agreed to does not tend to work, so I don’t arrange work around someone.
What a first conversation looks like
The first conversation is free, and it can happen in person or on the phone, in English or Spanish. There are no forms, no assessment, and no commitment. You don’t have to decide anything on that call, including whether we ever work together. If the phone feels easier than a face to begin with, that’s fine by me.
A little about me, in case it helps. I spent four years as an NHS Lived Experience Professional and two as a Recovery College Peer Trainer, where I taught a course called To Keep or Not to Keep, about decluttering and why we hoard. I’m DBS checked and have trauma-informed training. I’m not a clinician and I don’t diagnose anyone; what I bring is lived experience and practical, hands-on help.
I’ve struggled with depression for decades, and I know the paralysis of a home that feels too far gone. I also know it’s possible to come back from it, because I did.
If you want more detail on the ongoing work, my hoarding support page has it. If you would rather know what a first meeting feels like before you are in one, I wrote about what a first consultation looks like. And when you feel ready, the contact page is there, with no rush attached.
None of this has to be solved today, and nothing has to be decided tonight. If you would like to talk it through with someone calm, the first conversation is free: book one here. A first message can be two lines long, and it can say nothing more than: I am not sure what I need yet. And if now isn’t the time, that is allowed too; the door stays open.
If you are worried about someone’s immediate safety, contact your GP, call NHS 111, or in an emergency call 999. For ongoing support with hoarding, HoardingUK runs a helpline and family support groups. Samaritans are available free, day or night, on 116 123.
FAQ
Is this the same as house clearance?
No. House clearance means a team removing the contents of a property, usually within a day or two, priced per load or per job. I work alongside you in your own home, one decision at a time, over weeks or months. The aim is a home you can live in and keep living in, not an empty shell.
Do I need to tidy before you come?
You don’t need to tidy first. There is no version of your home that I haven’t seen, sat in, or lived through myself. If the most the day allows is clearing a path to the kettle, that is enough, and that is where we start.
Will anything be thrown away without me agreeing?
No. Nothing is thrown away, donated, or moved without your explicit agreement. That is the way I work, for as long as we work together. If you change your mind, it goes back.
Which areas do you cover?
I’m based in West Ealing (W13) and work across West and Central London, including Ealing, Hounslow, Hammersmith, Fulham, Richmond, Twickenham, Chiswick, Brentford, Acton, Kensington, and Shepherd’s Bush. Travel within 40 minutes of W13 by public transport is included. Further afield is usually possible, by minicab with the fare passed on at cost and agreed before you book anything.
Whenever you feel ready, the first conversation is free.