SINGAPORE – When her only child died 15 years ago, Salma (not her real name) started collecting items that she felt her daughter might have wanted if she were alive.
The housewife, 57, told The Straits Times that she could not accept the death of her daughter, who was in her teens when she took her own life.
Salma, who was diagnosed with clinical depression in 2018, said: “When my daughter died, her room looked empty. So I filled the space up.”
She added that initially, her husband, a 60-year-old aircraft technician, did not stop her from buying items in memory of her late daughter. Like her, he too was devastated by their loss.
Over the years, she started buying perishable items like fruit and snacks that her daughter had liked, and placed them in the girl’s room, in the hope that her “daughter’s spirit would eat” the food.
But because she sometimes forgot that she had left food in her daughter’s room, the edible items ended up rotting and attracting flies, maggots, lizards and cockroaches, she said.
Her husband’s pleas for her to stop only led to arguments between the two, Salma said.
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Soon, the room got messy, dirty and infested with pests.
Salma, however, did not stop hoarding. Instead, she started storing things in the living room and the other bedroom in her three-room flat in Toa Payoh.
Salma’s life changed one evening when her husband refused to return home after work.
“He said he cannot come back home any more when he cannot see the floor under all that mess,” she said.
It was then that she realised that she had a real problem.
Salma said that she cleared small parts of her home daily for two months. However, she started sliding back into her habit of collecting items. Unable to complete that Herculean task alone, she approached a volunteer group for help to clean her home.
“Watching my daughter’s room getting cleaned was the most difficult thing in my life,” Salma said. She added that attending monthly check-ups with her psychiatrist and consuming her medication on a strict schedule have helped keep her hoarding habit at bay.
An extremely cluttered and dirty residential unit in Kitchener Road before a team of volunteers cleaned it up. PHOTO: KEEPING HOPE ALIVE
Like Salma, there are others who, for a raft of reasons, end up collecting too many items and hoarding them in and outside their homes.
Experts said that, sometimes, people may have a problem discarding items because of experiences with loss or stress in the past. The emotional void they face leads them to hold on to things they do not need.
Hoarding compulsively may not be intentional, and it can trigger conflict within families and between neighbours. In some cases, hoarding can result in pest infestations and an increase in hazards like residential fires.
In response to queries from ST, the Ministry of National Development (MND) said the authorities are working on 302 active hoarding cases in residential units as at December 2022 – an uptick from the number of active cases from about six months before. In June 2022, there were 260 active hoarding cases.
MND said its Hoarding Management Core Group – a multi-agency work group that coordinates efforts to address issues linked to hoarding – has managed to reduce the severity of 227 other cases as at December 2022.
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Legal implications
Hoarding, especially when goods spill over into common areas such as common corridors and lift landings, can sometimes be punishable by law.
Covenant Chambers director Ronald J.J. Wong and associate Darryl Lau told ST that anyone found guilty of cluttering or obstructing common areas faces a fine of up to $10,000, a jail term, or both.
Residents, the lawyers added, can make a report through OneService, a portal to submit reports on municipal matters, if the hoarding of items in common residential areas poses a threat to public health and safety. The cases will be referred to agencies for further assessment.
Impact on loved ones
Mr Andrew, a man in his early 30s, is the son of a hoarder who died in 2022 at the age of 56 after a bout of ill health. Mr Andrew said that most of his life was spent in cluttered homes, given his father’s hoarding habit. He said: “I could never invite my friends over to my house. There were times I didn’t even feel like coming back home.”
After his father died, Mr Andrew sought the help of friends and volunteer groups to clean up his home. Since then, he has maintained a clean unit.
The now-clean and neat unit was once filled with rubbish and unwanted items hoarded by Mr Andrew’s late father. PHOTO: COURTESY OF ANDREW
“I am finally in the type of place I had always hoped to live in. I feel sad that my father is not alive to share this neat space with me,” he said.
Help is available
Social welfare group Keeping Hope Alive founder Fion Phua said her team of volunteers has been helping to clean up homes of hoarders for more than 20 years. The group usually runs door-to-door visits for lower-income residents living in rental flats on Sundays.
Ms Phua added that hoarders tend to collect things like plastic bags, toilet rolls and even containers of food. She told ST that many generally have difficulty throwing such items away because they think they may need them one day when they cannot afford to purchase the items.
Volunteers from Keeping Hope Alive preparing to clean a dirty and cluttered home in Kitchener Road. PHOTO: KEEPING HOPE ALIVE
An extremely cluttered and dirty residential unit in Kitchener Road before a team of volunteers cleaned it up. PHOTO: KEEPING HOPE ALIVE
She said: “Compulsive hoarding is not restricted to only a certain age group or people who are from lower-income groups. In my experience helping in cleanups, I have even seen a 30-year-old graduate who has a hoarding problem.”
Volunteers with the resident (third from left) who received help after the cleaning session at the residential unit in Kitchener Road. PHOTO: KEEPING HOPE ALIVE
“What is needed is to help them clear out their mess. We also must teach them how to organise the items that they collect neatly, and this helps to curb a mess from re-emerging.”
Social workers and volunteer groups are available to assist residents who need help to clear clutter from their homes.
Links to mental health issues
Ms Ng Jing Xuan, founder and clinical psychologist at Open Journey Psychology Clinic, said people who hoard too many items in their living areas tend not to recognise that it is an issue.
She added that she usually encourages family members to understand their situation and not assume that their compulsive hoarding is a result of laziness or messiness. Ms Ng also said families can try to be empathetic when they attempt to address hoarding behaviours.
Saying something like “I feel worried when the walkway is so cluttered as you may trip and fall over something” is an example of how family members can speak to people who hoard things compulsively, she said.
A residential unit before and after a cleaning session by volunteers from Habitat for Humanity Singapore. PHOTOS: HABITAT FOR HUMANITY SINGAPORE
Ms Ng said compulsive hoarding could be linked to psychological disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or depression.
She added that while based on research there is no clear cause of a hoarding disorder, some possible factors that lead to that state are family history and stressful life events such as the death of a loved one.
She suggested that families of people who hoard items compulsively should discuss ways to make their residential area safer, instead of forcefully clearing out the clutter. She added that the hoarding of unnecessary items may still continue without proper intervention. Therefore, timely diagnosis and treatment are important, she said.
Mr Ng Keng Guan, 21, a Keeping Hope Alive volunteer, said he works with close to 70 volunteers each time he heads out to clean homes. “The whole idea is to respect the hoarders’ needs and lifestyle, and to keep what they find important. They are not purposely hoarding items... Everything has a reason.”
Hoarding can sometimes be punishable by law. PHOTOS: HABITAT FOR HUMANITY SINGAPORE
Mr Ng added that the volunteers talk to residents who hoard excessively to identify items that they would like to keep and those that they do not mind throwing away. “Personally talking to them has provided us with the chance to understand what happened to them and why they became compulsive hoarders,” he said.
A spokesman for Habitat for Humanity Singapore (Habitat Singapore), a charity which assists with rehabilitating flats in Singapore for vulnerable individuals and families, said the group runs Project HomeWorks, a programme which oversees the rehabilitation of cluttered flats in Singapore.
The programme, launched in 2006, aims to improve the living conditions of compulsive hoarders and create a secure and hygienic environment for them to live in.
“Sometimes, home owners are unwilling to dispose of unwanted items,” the spokesman said, highlighting one of the major challenges faced when clearing cluttered homes.
The programme was launched in 2006 and aims to improve the living conditions of compulsive hoarders. PHOTOS: HABITAT FOR HUMANITY SINGAPORE
Due to the mental health issues of the home owners, it can be more difficult to assist compulsive hoarders because they must accommodate the person’s sensitivities, the spokesman said.
Nonetheless, while cluttered homes are being cleared, the home owner’s needs are taken note of and permission is sought before items are thrown away, she added.
The Habitat Singapore spokesman added that social workers refer residents struggling with obsessive hoarding to the charity. Volunteer groups generally assist residents based on referrals from social workers and other community organisations.
Salma said the timely help she received from volunteers kept her from relapsing into her old habit of collecting items. “Seeing a neat and tidy home makes me feel a lot better emotionally. My husband and I can finally breathe. I have been maintaining a clean home for six months now, and I am proud to say that I am reformed,” she added.
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‘I collected items to fill up emptiness’: Loss, stress at root of hoarding problem, say volunteers
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