Sunday, April 13, 2014

Collector Care Chronicals: Extreme Cleaning and Hoarding Cleanup

Here at Collector Care no job is too big or small! What happens when squalor or squatters take over a foreclosed or abandoned home? We come in and clean up, that's what happens! I love hearing real estate agents and home owners gasp at the makeover of  the home after one of our deep cleans.
When we arrived to the location of our job we rang the bell but no one answered. I knocked softly, and then harder. Tony gave three hard "police" knocks. "Collector Care, we are here to organize your home this morning" I shouted in my high pitch voice. Shuffle shuffle shuffle we heard some noise behind the door. A small round shadow peeked through the crack of the door "Just a minute!" she shouted "I need to get dressed!" From the crack of the door 50 fruit flies escaped, and we could smell it was a level 5 hoard. We put on our hazmats suits and finished our coffee (not in that order). 15 minutes later she came back to the door, flung it open, and retreated to the back of the house. Taking that as our invitation, we entered the home. The smell of rotten food was overwhelming. It hit us right in the face like a baseball bat when we walked in. Barely getting the front door a foot open, we shimmied in sideways onto two feet of garbage in the foyer. I caught my balance on the side of the wall that was completely covered in black mold and spider webs. Phew, That was a close one, she had a full size broken mirror with glass on top of the hoard and I almost stepped down directly onto it. The commotion of us coming in caused three cats to scatter in all different directions, sending piles and piles of paperwork into avalanches throughout the front room. I think it was the front room, but I could not see any furniture. It was all covered in what looked like clothing, paperwork, food, garbage and human waste. Yes Collectors, when you are an extreme cleaner your nose can tell the difference between human waste and animal waste. I am a mom with pets also. Ok so, we still don't know where our client is but we have our bearings and it aint a pretty sight. "Good morning!" I shouted trying to figure out where she was (my clients love my high pitched voice by the way - especially first thing in the morning).
Our entire crew of six was now at the front door waiting for our instruction - and we needed to all come in and begin work. "In here!" I heard her grumble from the kitchen. You see, she was not excited to see us. Her landlord had told her that she had to clean her place up in 30 days or get out. She had lived there 20 years and the thought of moving elsewhere paralyzed her. She had two days left when she called us. There she was, in her robe, hair a mess, making herself toast in a squalor-ous (or at C2 we say "hoarderific" ) kitchen. My eyes scanned around and saw cockroaches, rat droppings, fruit flies and their droppings, silverfish, lots of pain killers, a ton (literally!) of unopened mail dating back to 1990, 4 trays of rotten strawberries (that's what I smelled!), and the rest kind of just blended in. The garbage heap was quite higher in the kitchen, at this point we were both about 3 feet up. I heard the crew coming in, and setting up in the front room. "The bathroom is broken. I am going to take a nap. Do what you have to do. Take everything but the cats." And there she went with a basket of strawberries in hand. I could see her go into her bedroom (she could not close the door on us due to the garbage) and lay down on top of a completely soiled mattress.  Within minutes I realized what she had meant about her bathroom. There were five gallon buckets throughout the home filled to the brim with human waste. By the end of the day we counted 15. There were cat boxes all over the place, with human waste inside of them. Some were overturned and soiling whatever was below and around it. Bedding and clothing were mixed in, jewelry, bags and bags of loose pocket change, food wrappers, rotten food and rats nests. Full size black widow families were in every corner of the ceiling, draping down there webs to the doorknobs of closets that had not been opened in years. Just another day at Collector Care. Determined to fix the situation we busted our tushies yall, and needless to say we pretty much flipped the place. Her inspection three days later passed, and the landlord personally called with extreme gratitude and amazement. Do you think your situation will shock us? Doubt it. We are non-judgemental, well trained and discreet. Our efficiency and attention to detail is what I pride our company on, as well as being sensitive to all of our clients needs. Call us. We are here to help.



Collector Care Professional Organizers & Extreme Cleaners
Serving Northern California, and anywhere else in the world.
www.collectorcare.com 925-548-7750 rachel@collectorcare.com
Licensed. Insured. Bonded.
Proud ICD Subscribers, and NAPO members.

3 comments:

  1. Wow felt like a roller-coaster to me. Scary and thrilling in the good way. I think is an amazing feeling helping people to get a new start, I hope the lady realizes that she didn't loose her stuff, she gained freedom to star over.
    Thank you for sharing this story Rachel.

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    1. Nacho, thank you for reading this story! I always hear peoples shame and embarrassment through the phone and I like to let people know that we have seen it all. Really. There is nothing out there that shocks us, and we are non judgmental. Our goal is to help.

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    2. Nacho, about her losing stuff - Without going into specifics :) she was able to keep a lot. We really do salvage what we can. She was very happy about the job and has managed to maintain her home with a little help from our scheduled maintenance visits. She is working with a therapist as well.

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