Recently I joined a small group of Professional Organizers to attend a screening of a documentary called “My Mother’s Garden.” It’s an amazing story about a woman with a hoarding disorder and how her family comes to terms with her mental illness.

On the road trip up to Maryland to see the film, we talked very little about the film. You see, as Professional Organizers we hear stories all the time about hoarders who can no longer sleep in their beds because the bed is covered with stuff. We hear stories about finding dead animals under piles of clothing and rotten food in refrigerators. We expected the film to give us a full view of the life of a hoarder. Not just some quick snippets of their story and some instant before and after photos. We went to see this film because deep down, I think, we wanted something more than Oprah and Clean Sweep. Ohhh and we got more!

Not only did this film give us a full view of the life of a hoarder, it gave us a full view of the hoarders family and their struggles with the disorder. On the ride back to Richmond we were dumbfounded by the extent of the pain, frustration, anger, resentment, sadness and instability that was brought on this family due to a hoarding disorder. Coming from a family of alcoholics I can very easily relate to the issues this family was having. Then to pick up a camera and document it all, amazed me. How strong this family must be to air their dirty laundry. How selfless they were to let us in on their misery. All so they can teach us what really goes on in the mind of a hoarder and how the mental illness effects the entire family.

After seeing the film the group of us were so motivated and enlightened. I think we were charged by the fact that we know we have a responsibility here. As Professional Organizers we are the ones who should be creating awareness of this disorder in our community. We need to collaborate with medical professionals and city ordinances to create a task force to educate our community. We know this is a HUGE undertaking. We see the amount of work this would take and the number of people we would need to make such an accomplishment occur. But after seeing this film, we just aren’t able to help ourselves. It’s just so fascinating!

I have blogged about this topic before. I have preached about the importance and severity of this issue. But this movie explains it all. I couldn’t ever put it into such context. Go to http://www.mymothersgardenmovie.com and find out where this movie is showing or buy the DVD. See it as soon as you can. Just about everyone I know has a family member suffering from this mental illness. Learn how this family was able to establish “some” peace. Notice I didn’t say “complete” peace. You’ll see how this disorder is way to massive for one family to handle. Not to mention, the disorder is still so new to us. We have a lot to learn and a documentary like this is a very good starting point.

They hire a Professional Organizer! That’s right, I hired a Professional to help me with my mess of a basement. Cathy Lehew of Space Matters was kind enough to assist me.

I set up the appointment about three weeks in advance. I didn’t think much about it until the day before. I was having such a crazy week with work… I was dying to cancel. I had so many other things that were more important to do. I was so frustrated that I had to take time out of my day to organize my basement!!!!! The day of my session Cathy came to my door, and she could tell, I was not happy.

I moved into my home in September and everything in the basement had not been touched since the day we moved. It was full of tools, equipment, gardening supplies, paint cans, left over bathroom and kitchen tiles, the dreaded tennis stringer (that has not been used in close to two years), and then some. As Cathy and I walked downstairs I was giving her the rundown. It was so amusing to be explaining my mess. I mean, I am the one usually doing the listening. I caught myself saying things like, “I have no idea what’s in that bin” or “why is this down here?” or “how did we acquire 7 levels?!!!!!” Cathy and I shared many laughs.

Immediately Cathy started explaining the zones that we would break the basement into. She was full of ideas I never thought of. Since it was my basement and my stuff, I had lost the ability to see it any other way. I loved that she was making the decisions and taking charge. Which was a HUGE surprise. My biggest worry having her help me was that I would try to control things. Believe it or not, I can be quite bossy. But ironically, I didn’t want to be bogged down with decisions. I just wanted to get the basement organized. Cathy told me what to do and I did it. When I was done, I asked her to give me another task. It was much less overwhelming.

As we worked together I also realized I didn’t feel any guilt. If I had asked a friend to help me organize my creepy, grimy, bug infested basement, I would have been concerned about them and how they were doing. Because I was paying Cathy and knew she was a professional, I could let her do her thing and I could move forward with my tasks.

After about three hours of work, I was so ready to quit. I begged Cathy to leave my house!!!! She insisted we finish up the final hour. Sluggishly, I did menial tasks so I looked like I was working. And then finally, time was up!

We weren’t able to complete the project, but my basement has been completely transformed. I now have an area for bulk storage, garden tools, and my husband actually has a great area to work on projects and store his tools. It felt good to be productive and see the results.

Then our session was complete… thank God! Cathy left and I crashed.