So im sorta a child of a hoarder but ive also done some stuff aswell, its nothing like whats on tv, but its still a problem as we want to move. My mother keeps saying she wants me and her to get the junk out first but shes having trouble terterming whats trash compared to me, nor can we really afford some team to clean everything up.
What would be the best course of action here, because 2 people is not working.
Get a box. A bunch of boxes. Walk to the first thing you see. Pick it up. Ask yourself two questions.
Have I used this in the past 5 years?
Will I use it in the next 5 years?
If you answered no, put it in the box.
Now repeat. Over and over and over. With every single item in the house.
When you’re done, take the boxes to goodwill.
Now do this same process every 5 years. And when you’re buying a new thing, ask yourself: "Do I really want this thing in my house, and add to the next roundup?
You may find you buy less things, just because your cleanup every 5 years takes too long.
As someone who likes stuff and struggles with mild hoarding tendencies myself, I would say that this is good advice except that
“Do I really want this thing in my house, and add to the next roundup?”
is not the best way to frame it because the answer will often be “yes”. I’ve switched to making myself decide exactly where something will be stored before I buy it.