Niki Bergstrom doesn’t bat an eye when she walks into a home with so much clutter only a path allows movement from room to room.

As a professional organizer who co-owns Organize 2 Survive — a business that specializes in hoarding — Bergstrom helps clients sort through stacks of paperwork, throw away what isn’t necessary, and restore order to a chaotic situation.

“We try to stay non-judgemental and wipe our face clear of emotion,” Bergstrom said of entering a hoarder’s home.

Hoarding is the excessive collection of items, along with the inability to discard them. Hoarding often fills a home to such a capacity, that only narrow pathways can be used to maneuver through the house. Some people also collect animals, keeping dozens or hundreds of pets often in unhealthy, unsanitary conditions.

Susan Congrave, director of the Koochiching County Health Department, said hoarding is a concern in the county.

“We do have hoarding problems throughout the county, and some are more serious than others,” she said. “The problems usually start small and grow into a larger issue.”

Congrave added that through her line of work, she has seen a lot of the animal hoarding throughout the county.

“The intention people have when they hoard animals is to save them,” she said. “They end up having so many cats and dogs that living conditions become very poor.”

Bergstrom said hoarding has gained more attention in recent years from the reality series “Hoarders” on the A&E channel.

“What we do is not like the television show,” the organizer said of her business, co-owned by Jennith Graves. “Hoarders,” Bergstrom said, films a team that comes into a hoarder’s home and literally takes shovels to go through the clutter. The process is rapid and Bergstrom said the hoarders on TV are forced to make “very quick, very drastic decisions.”

“What we do is we delve into why a client is hoarding and we get them talking,” Bergstrom said. “We work with (clients) on defining what is important to them and then go through and organize what they need to keep. We have a current client we’ve already spent over 150 hours with.”

Congrave said red flags of hoarding can include windows to a home shut with the curtains drawn or when someone won’t greet visitors at the door. She said that a lot of hoarding cases are discovered based on complaints.

“We have a public health nuisance ordinance in Koochiching County,” Congrave said. “If we get a complaint, we go out and investigate. We always try to work with the person and it can be a very long process.”

Sifting through hoarding

Most people who hoard don’t seek help on their own, Bergstrom says. A lot of her business comes from social services staff recommending her services to hoarders.

“A lot of times, hoarding clients have had this problem for five or more years before we get wind of it,” Bergstrom said.

Congrave explained anyone can have hoarding tendencies regardless of age, race, or gender.

“It is not true that hoarders are old, lazy and poor,” she said. “(Hoarding) can impact people of all walks of life.”

Bergstrom said the idea that is put out by reality TV on hoarding may make viewers think the problem goes away immediately after a clean-out. She confirmed, however, this is not the case.

“We promote maintenance,” she said. “After we do a clean-out of the home, we teach our clients skills to maintain a clean and healthy living environment.”

But expecting to see clean floors and countertops shortly after a clean-out may not be realistic.

“We do all we can to promote an organized lifestyle, but typically we find hoarders have lived through a traumatic event and we work with them and therapists to get through that,” Bergstrom said. “It is a long process.”

Congrave said depression is commonly associated with hoarding. “About 60 percent of people who meet the criteria of hoarders have major depression issues,” she said. “They become very isolated.”

Therapy for hoarding

Bergstrom said one of her main approaches to working with a hoarder is that she never throws anything away.

“We are not allowed to touch garbage,” she explained. “We hand garbage that needs to go into the garbage bag to the client — they need to feel like they’re in control of what goes into that bag.”

Congrave said people who hoard items can go into “panic mode” if too many of their things are being thrown away.

“There are no miracles when it comes to helping a hoarding lifestyle,” she said. “We encourage people to make piles — one for donating, one for throwing away, one for selling, and one for keeping — each item is considered and then the hoarder must decide which pile to put it in.”

Congrave added that one-on-one consultations are used to help a hoarder work through their problem and help them to achieve and maintain a healthier, safer lifestyle.

For more information on hoarding or where to get help, contact public health at 283-7070 or Organize 2 Survive at 324-0815 or 324-1486.