Hire a dumpster and some high school students to just clear it all out as quickly as possible.

Is there any chance that there is anything valuable? If there is, then you have to go through things with a bit more care.

Get a dumpster. Get several family members or friends to help. Set up three collection area. You can use large tarps to lay the stuff in each area. Label the areas Keep, Donate and Trash.

Sort through the stuff and put in appropriate piles.

A relative helped to clean out the MIL's house. She was known for hiding things, so they had to go through every pocket, zipper compartment, box, etc. They found a fair amount of cash by doing that.

Are you the occupant hoarder or are you decluttering someone else’s apartment?

if you are attempting to clutter your own home, it is not as simple generally for most people to just haul out everything. But if it is someone who has died and you are clearing it out, by all means just get rid of everything after making sure you aren’t tossing anything valuable. My parents weren’t squalid hoarders but saved everything. I had the luxury of time and so I was able to go through everything in their retirement condo slowly and then hired someone to hold an estate sale for what I didn’t want and they got rid of everything that didn’t sold.

I assume you are not literally a hoarder in the sense of holding on to rotten food and junk mail as depicted in the television series but you are the kind of person who finds it easier to keep stuff and having lived a long period of time you have never had to purge when you move So now you are faced with the accumulation of stuff you have bright home after the past two decades

I recently went through the process when I remodeled after living in the same place for many years and it was crammed because it was easier for me to accumulate things rather than let go. I had to do it in stages by getting rid of the most obvious crap when I packed up and then going through it again when I unpacked.

I did it slowly in stages with the help of people and it really helped me to have other people make decisions as I gave away stuff. it is a work in progress. Although I still have too much crap that I don’t need it is stored away and isn’t negatively impacting my life. I still find myself releasing stuff that I realize I don’t want or need. I had my maid to help with the physical stuff and a very organized person who helped me work through how to best organize.

There are books that that can help you start the process. I am nit particularly a fan of Kondo because she’s a bit extreme in terms of tackling everything at once. There is a book called Swedish Death Decluttering which is helpful in terms of realizing that no one wants your crap and burdening someone else with dealing with the crap when you die is selfish.

Its helpful to just start small. Pick a shelf or a box or a drawer and just go through it. Throw out anything that has no use in your life or anyone else’s and donate the rest. It’s exhaisting both physically and e,optionally so just start in small chunks. Once you have cleared out a bit, it does get easier when you realize you don’t miss the crap and that it’s actually an improvement in one‘s life not to deal with it. I got rid of all my books because I realized that anything I wanted was accessible in an instant by downloading. I own no tapes or cds and I used to have literally thousands of tales, cds and albums.

We cleaned out MIL's apartment after she passed away. (She would have never let us do it while she was living.) We rented a BIG dumpster. The roof had leaked in the back bedroom and National Geographics, empty boxes, and old clothes were wet and nasty.

And she had stockpiled paper goods - napkins, toilet paper, Kleenex, etc. cause Johnny Carson said there was going to be a shortage!!!! We threw it all away.

We did go thru some things very carefully. Found a savings bond bought for DH's brother when he was 5 years old that no one knew about.

“Declutter” and “hoarder” do not belong in the same sentence. Is the person-in-question’s apartment (what is an “18-year teacher,” btw?) just super cluttered or is it truly an unsafe living environment? Is this person still living? If so, what is your relationship to him or her?

Don’t have the hoarder there Whike you’re de-cluttering. If you do, you’ll not get anything cleared due to the protests and melt-downs. The hoarder can’t be there.

How can an 18 year old be a teacher?

I had to help clean out a hoarder's house once (after his death). It was my aunt's father, and it was a horrible process. The weird things he saved ... a box of candy wrappers. Literally trash. I can't imagine what it'd be like with the hoarder present.

Best advice: Hire a dumpster.

MrsPete, 18-year teacher, not 18-year-Old.

Teachers can certainly accumulate a lot over a career.

Wills, What is the goal? Does the person still live there? If so, will they continue to do so? Is anything sensitive, like student identification?

If the person is deceased or has legally been declared incompetent, you can hire a dumpster and dig into the mess. Otherwise, you have a human whose personality has to be factored into the process. You need to know if you are dealing with hoarding, which is a personality disorder, or just someone who has accumulated too much stuff over time and doesn't know how to get out of the mess they've made. They have a lot in common on the surface and many of the reactions look the same. The big difference is that you may be able to convince the pack-rat that life will be more pleasant with less stuff. The hoarder will never buy into that until the underlying psychological issues are resolved. I'm helping a couple of pack-rats right now who are trying to downsize. That's hard enough. No way would I try to dig out a living hoarder.

I like to start with something that has low emotional content to avoid tangents. Since teachers tend to collect a lot of paper and educational supplies, I'd ease into it by starting with personal paperwork to show that the world doesn't end if one keeps less paper.