Hoarding party

Compulsive home clutterers have the medical world baffled, David Wilson writes.

Even the loo is crammed with replica owls and pigs that spook visitors obeying the call of nature. The rest of Yaron Hallis's five-room Leichhardt house (pictured) is so cluttered it's hard to walk from one end to the other.

"Two rooms are completely dysfunctional - just piled to the rafters," Hallis, 35, says, adding that he feels locked in a battle to make more space.

The musician may be what psychologists call a "compulsive hoarder" - someone, often creative, with an urge to acquire and a paralysing reluctance to chuck, just in case. Hallis refers to his condition as "excessive-compulsive".

Compulsive hoarding made news in the US earlier this year when a Virginia man protested about a "neatness police" raid on his apartment. The case highlighted how the man had piled his belongings from floor to ceiling, only to return home one day to find his door locks changed and a yellow sign saying, "Unfit for Human Habitation".

In another case, a 62-year-old Washington woman was found smothered under mounds of clothes, apparently while looking for the telephone. Marie Rose's home was so cluttered that police officers' heads touched the ceiling as they tried to get around.

Clutter blindness

Gary Kemper, Sydney general manager of the rubbish clearance company 1800-GOT-JUNK?, says many hoarders have a deep-rooted reason for never disposing of their possessions.

"People become blind to the clutter," Kemper says. "They literally don't see it in front of them."

His company will take away almost anything - from old furniture and appliances to backyard waste and renovation debris. Workers give an on-site estimate before any loading begins and do the entire job, so those burdened with junk don't even need to get it to the curb.

Kemper says hoarders only realise they must act when faced with "a catastrophic change" - moving house, for example.

Self-defeating

Even when the jolt comes, hoarders often dither, crippled by anxiety so intense they feel unhinged, says Dr Sarah Edelman, a psychologist at the University of Technology, Sydney, who estimates that one in 200 Australians hoards obsessively. The obsession baffles observers because it's "self-defeating and dysfunctional", she says.

For treatment, psychologists enlist cognitive behavioural therapy. That means coaxing the hoarder into tolerating the discomfort of disposal, starting with low-anxiety, less threatening things - think half-eaten bagels.

"I am not kidding," Dr Edelman says, citing McDonalds wrappers, newspapers, tissues, rubbish and soap. Nobody knows what causes the bizarre malaise. The inclination may run in families, she says, mentioning overlapping and competing theories that have spawned many books.

Just can't get enough

Hallis, who lives alone, admits he can't resist amassing "unusual, crazy objects", often animal-related. The place he affectionately calls his "camel room" contains about 400 camel items he says were collected randomly: "I bought one, I bought a friend for that camel..."

Sharing his domestic zoo are llamas, along with those obsessive litter gatherers Wombles (some riding camels), countless instruments, shoes and model bananas bought in response to the real banana price inflation.

He only disposes of stuff to make space for, well, more stuff. If his house were twice its size, he would still fill it, he admits.

Explaining why he can't stop hoarding, Hallis sighs and recounts how his habit stems from childhood. Even then, he would have gone overboard had he possessed the resources to pursue his passion.

Hallis loves "the hunt", he says - scouring garage sales, op shops and flea markets for bargains. He paints it as a bohemian eccentricity mirroring the magpie nature of the "gypsy music" he makes. But, designating his pad "a disaster zone", he bemoans the lack of wall space and, embarrassed, asks that the photographer not visit before he tidies up a touch.

USEFUL CONTACTS

Clutter management: 1800-GOT-JUNK? 1800 468 586
Sorted: 1300 767 813
The Office Organiser: 1300 857 756
Support: Anxiety Disorders Alliance Information Line: (02) 9879 5351
SANE Australia: 1800 187 263

SOURCE: Sun Herald

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