Further to my post Smells Nice! regarding the show Hoarders, it’s very instructive to see how the English handle the same problem.

In the American version, counselors try to reason with the poor victims of their compulsion, and persuade them that they really should do something about it. Sometimes they succeed, but more often than not a few things get grudgingly thrown out (with half of them secretly rescued) and the hoarder ends up basically in the same situation.

In the UK show How Clean Is Your House?, Kim (the SS dominatrix) and Aggie (the stern English nanny) simply march into the offender’s home and tell them what a dirty dog they are, should be ashamed living in such filth. They take biological samples from bathroom and kitchen and describe in detail the horrible diseases they will cause. Then they set the owner scrubbing the toilet with a toothbrush, while their crew clears out and dumps everything. At the end, the ex-hoarder sheds tears of joy at finally seeing the floor, and maybe even being able to have people around again.

Much more effective, one might think, and Kim and Aggie did try a similar venture in the States, but as my son just pointed out, the relative rate of gun ownership between the UK and US, especially among the more obsessive members of the community, may rule against too assertive an approach in that country.