A couple of years ago I wrote about the then current fad, the KonMari Method. Since then the fad has grown. With success comes questions and critics. We aren’t critics. If it works for you, great! We don’t use the KonMari method, but that’s because it isn’t suitable for our clients.
Recently Maria was asked about using the KonMari Method in hoarding situations. Hoarding Disorder has two important characteristics: an overwhelming desire to acquire things; and an inability to dispose of them. This is often confused with collecting, but it is different, as I wrote a few years ago.
There is also a question of how hoarded an environment is. The Institute for Challenging Disorganization created the industrywide, internationally accepted Clutter-Hoarding Scale. This scale rates the amount of stuff in a home on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being your average everyday home and 5 being something you would see on a TV show about hoarding. This is a physical measurement, not a description of the resident’s mental state. At any given time someone with Hoarding Disorder may live in a home that’s anywhere between a 1 and a 5.
The KonMari method is a wonderful tool, if you and your home are able to use it. But if your home is hoarded then it may be a physical impossibility to use that method. And if you have Hoarding Disorder it may be an emotional impossibility. That’s when other methods and a support team become necessary.