"Safety Day" - Another Way to Talk to a Hoarder About Cleaning Up

From TheHoardingProject.org:

Safety Day is a term we’ve coined to talk about conducting a “modified clean-out” of a hoarded home. The term came from a conversation about needing to call the process something other than a “clean-out” as that term seemed to heighten the anxiety of the clients with whom we were working. The goal of Safety Day is to ensure safety in a client’s home.

In other words, we aim to make sure that a client can use and access his or her home in the way it was intended to be used without significant risk of harm to his- or herself. The way we do this is through a carefully planned and structured, team-based approach to clearing “just enough” of the possessions in the home to create a safe living environment (also called a “Harm Reduction approach”). This is done with the client’s mental health and stress level during the process as the number one priority.

...What we know about clean-outs currently is that, for individuals who have a severe hoarding problem, the process of having possessions completely cleaned out of their home is a traumatic event...Through our work, we have found that, in situations that necessitate a clean-out, if we take preventative action- like building coping skills and planning- leading up to Safety Day, practice stress management skills and maintenance during Safety Day, and process distress and other related mental health concerns after Safety Day, we get the best and most sustainable results from our clients.

Related r/hoarders post: Harm Reduction - What It Means, How To Do It