Get The Facts About Compulsive Hoarding Behavior

Over the course of a lifetime, it is natural to collect a variety of trinkets, keepsakes, and odds and ends that start to fill up your home. Many items we keep contain memories, sentimental value, or and can even become collector’s items with historical value. However, collecting too many things to the point of absolute clutter in a space may be a sign of compulsive hoarding behavior. Here are the facts that you should be aware if you suspect that you or someone in your life suffers from compulsive hoarding behavior.

Compulsive hoarding must include each of the three following conditions:

  • An individual retains many items, including items that appear to be useless or of little value to most people
  • The items kept create significant clutter in living spaces to the point where the individual cannot use their living spaces in a reasonable way
  • The items kept cause distress or issues in day-to-day activities

It is important to note that hoarding is different from collecting because in hoarding, individuals typically do not display their items proudly in an organized fashion, but instead collects the items in a disorderly way that creates significant clutter in living spaces.

Symptoms of compulsive hoarding behavior include:

  • Signficant difficulty in disposing of items
  • A pronounced amount of clutter in the office, home, car, or other spaces that impedes the ability to use furniture, appliances, or regular walkways
  • Losing important items in the clutter
  • Feeling overwhelmed by the volume of items that have “taken over” living spaces
  • Difficulty resisting acceptance of “free” items, even if the items are clearly useless or excessive
  • Buying unneeded items because they are a good deal or to stock up
  • Avoiding friends and family due to embarrassment about living space

Here are recommended guidelines that can help someone with compulsive hoarding behavior:

  • Have respect for the individual’s right to make their own decisions about their items at their own pace.
  • Try to sympathize with the individual and understand the importance of his or her items to him or herself as you develop a plan together to reduce the clutter.
  • Encourage the individual to come up with ideas to make their home into a safer and more ideal living environment.
  • Team up with the individual to offer collaborative solutions to motivate the individual to discard or organize.
  • Help the individual recognize that hoarding interferes with their goals or values in life.
  • Maintain trust by always asking before eliminating an item.

For helping recovering hoarders who are ready to de-clutter to improve their living situation, contact Elite Services Junk Removal for a free estimate today.

Tips to Clean Out and Organize Your Garage

With winter fast approaching, now might be the perfect time to try and declutter the garage, and get rid of anything you don’t use. To get as much done as possible, be sure to clean out and throw away items before you start your organization. To ensure a cleaner garage, be sure to follow the steps below.

  • Ask yourself when was the last time you used it? If the answer is more than a year ago, throw it out.
  • For any items that you believe you can get some value for, consider a garage sale or posting your items online to sell. It doesn’t hurt to see who might be interested in what you no longer have any use for, and any extra cash flow is always beneficial.
  • Make three piles of donation, trash, and what you are keeping.
  • Be sure to have a structured system including shelving, if it doesn’t already exist. This is a real space saver as you can put things on the wall instead of overstuffing your drawers.
  • Having bins where more items can be stored will help declutter and to become more organized. Introduce a color-coded system to make certain items easier to find, such as: tools, Christmas ornaments, etc. Make sure to clearly label the container.
  • Review your items to make sure you are not getting rid of anything you may need, and vice versa.
  • Once you have established all your categories, and you know what you no longer need, contact us to finalize your clean up!

We offer a variety of services such as furniture removal,  yard clean-up, and appliance removal, and would love to help make your life hoard-free.

For more information about how Elite Services can help you out, feel free to fill out our online contact form or give us a call at 978-317-5388.

Don’t Wait: Summer Junk Removal

As we enter august, it’s hard to believe but summer is actually winding down. In about 3-4 weeks kids will be back in school and summer will just be a distant memory in our rear view mirror. The warmer months and summer in particular is a great time to clean up your house and get rid of any extra unwanted junk. Although alot of people try for “spring cleaning”, spring comes and goes so quickly that before you know it, you’ve done nothing.

Before the busy school schedule and new year starts, this is the perfect time to take advantage of summer. Read our top 5 reasons to use this time for junk removal.

1) Warm Weather: Warm weather provides the perfect atmosphere to get our there and clean your house. Open up the windows and let all that dust float away.

2) More Time: For most people, the summer is slower. There is more time then during the rest of the year. It’s the perfect opportunity to set aside time.

3) Vacation: There may be nothing more frustrating then going on a long vacation and coming home to a dirty, clutter filled home. Vacations can honestly be tiring, and coming home to a clean house can make you feel so much better. Before that vacation trip, set aside time to dig through all your junk.

4) Kids Are Outside: Unless your kids are helping with your junk removal process, having them out of the house can make the whole process easier. With the warm weather, camps, and friends sleep overs, you’ll have more space and less distractions to remove that junk.

5) Junk Removal Specialists Are Ready: Junk Removal specialists are in high gear during the summer. This is there busy season, so taking advantage of this is important. Many junk removal projects take time and need help, so look into contacting a professional.

For more information about Junk Removal, please reach out the specialists at Elite Services. We can be contacted over the phone at 978-317-5388 or through our online contact form.

Junk Removal For Real Estate Agents

Residential junk removal isn’t just for homeowners! During times when a property is foreclosed, a real estate agent gets left with a house filled with junk. It is their home to sell now, and their responsibility to get it looking in tip-top shape.

Before the house is ready to hit the market and be looked at by potential buyers, it must be cleaned up first. The reason this happens is because their is no incentive for a former owner to leave the house in good condition. They have been kicked out and aren’t making any profit by having it look nice.

With this problem not being in the hands of the real estate agent, they want and need all the junk to be removed as efficiently and quickly as possible. This often includes removing old furniture, appliances and other unwanted items. Because of the short notice usually provided, this is the perfect job for a junk removal specialist.

Elite Services Junk Removal & Demolition is able to quickly remove any and all things within your home. On top of the normal junk removal work, our team is able to provide demolition services as well. Whether it be interior or exterior work in order to get the house in tip, top shape, we are here for you.

For more information about how we can help your real estate process, please feel free to give us a call at 978-317-5388 or fill out our online contact form.

 

Why Shouldn’t I Just Hire A Dumpster For Junk Removal?

When removing junk, people often come to a cross roads when they can’t decide between removing junk themselves with a dumpster or hiring a junk removal specialist. Hiring a dumpster may though hurt your back and your wallet though. One of the main reasons people don’t remove junk themselves is because it can take a toll on your body and without the needed experience, it can take much longer then you would like. As well, hiring a dumpster is much less economical. Elite Services Junk Removal & Demolition does recycling and donates everything that they can. Just because you don’t want it, it doesn’t mean that someone else doesn’t want it.

By you helping save the environment and working with us, you are actually saving money at the same time! Overall, working with Elite Services over hiring a dumpster for your junk removal will:

  • Save you money
  • Reduce Stress
  • Reduce negative effect of
  • Reduce Chance of Injury
  • Save You Time

For more information on how our Junk Removal process works, please feel free to give us a call at 978-317-5388 or fill out our online contact form.

What You Should “Not” Do With Your Junk

At one point or another, everyone starts to accumulate different amounts of junk, from furniture and accessories to large kitchen appliances. As people are about to through something away into the trash (if it’s a smaller item) a quick thought goes through your head thinking, “can this be recycled”. This is a very good thing that you are weighing your options.

If it can’t or shouldn’t just be tossed in trash re-purpose, donate, recycle or hire a professional to dispose of your junk properly. Please  don’t do the following things with your junk:

Throw it in the alley:

This may have been something you would do during your childhood, just dropping things wherever you wish because you haven’t lived a long enough life to understand the consequences. This can be a major inconvenience for everyone.

Burn it:

While it may be quite difficult to fight the urge of creating a bonfire with all your old junk, it isn’t safe for the environment. Many of your items release carbon and cornucopia and other harmful chemicals into the atmosphere.

Bury it:
Burying junk in your back yard will have more negative consequences then you may think. While this may not directly effect you, it could be a major inconvenience for the next owners of your property. As well, if you bury some liquids, the soil could be leached.

For many decades, simply throwing away junk without any regard for the environmental impact has made peoples lives much easier. But now, we are in a time where all these acts have made our lives more difficult. Being smart and talking with a professional is always the best option.

Elite Services is here to help with any of your junk removal & recycling questions. For more information, please feel free to give us a call at 978-317-5388 or fill out our online contact form.

Decutter Your Junk Space

Almost every family has that one space in their home where they toss unwanted and unused junk. Whether it be your attic, guest room, closet, basement or garage, I would bet money you have useless things taking space up in your home. Dealing with a cluttered home can often become overwhelming. There always comes that time where you very much want to use a space but don’t know what to do because it has become overrun with junk.

Studies have shown that clutter actually affects you both mentally and physically. It can alter your productivity and eat away at your precious time. All in all, cluttered junk makes you miss important meetings, and stresses you out.

How would you feel if your house want no longer cluttered? Do you want a home with no overrun rooms? If so, Elite Services can help. The junk removal experts at Elite Services can help take control of your home and your life. From furniture to appliances and everything in between, you won’t have to worry any more.

For more information, please feel free to give us a call at 978-317-5388 and we can discuss your current situation.

Downsizing & Moving

Moving can be one of the, more stressful experiences for just about anyone. Many people are finding themselves moving into smaller homes or just realizing they have old junk hanging around their house they don’t want to bring with them. The idea of downsizing means less space to clean, less space to maintain, and more time enjoying the real activities in life you enjoy. Even if you don’t downsize and you are moving into a larger space, this is often the time where families realize they have so many things that they don’t need.

Instead of cramming this unneeded junk into your new space, think about just getting rid of it. You will thank yourself when you have more room and empty space in your new home.

Elite Services is the perfect solution to help remove all that unneeded clutter. No matter what point of the process you are currently in, we are here to help. With all your unwanted beings, we will recycle or donate just about everything. Start the new chapter of your life, with a fresh start. For more information about our junk removal services, please feel free to give us a call at 978-317-5388 or fill out our online contact form.

Unwanted and Useless Household Junk Items

When upgrading furniture in your home or decluttering scattered items, people often toss things aside. The time and effort that goes into removing some of these pieces results in cramped rooms or garages filled with junk. We have compiled a list of the 5 most unwanted pieces of junk people just can’t seem to get rid of.

  1. Couches: People grow to love their couches. The amount of family time and memories shared while sitting on a couch seems to build a weird but strong relationship.  They are also difficult to removal because it is highly unlikely that your local trash pickup will take it away.
  2. Refrigerators:  So many people buy a new fridge and think it is a good idea to put their old fridge in the basement or garage. This offers extra cooling space or a more convenient place to get cool refreshments. As time goes on, many of these fridges will never get touched.
  3. Mattress and/or Box Springs: This is another large item that is difficult to remove. While they are difficult to dispose of people always seem to think that having an extra mattress lying around won’t hurt. If your mattress or box spring is collecting dust and nobody is using it, think about calling Elite Services.
  4. Television: What are you supposed to do with you old big screen TV or box television that you have in storage. You are enjoying your brand new Flat screen TV, so there is no need for these old TV’s. Televisions also need to be also need to be disposed of properly. Elite Services will take care of you TV in a safe and environmentally friendly manner.

Elite Services Junk Removal & Demolition is happy to work with any and all unwanted junk. If you want to free up space, you are one call away from making it happy.

Junk Removal Company vs. Doing it Yourself

As discussed in previous blogs, spring is finally here and it is time to think about cleaning up your property and house. Hiring a professional junk removal service is often the best option for home owners as it offers the most efficient and stress free avenue. Here are some benefits of hiring a professional junk removal company over doing it yourself:

  1. No risk of injury. Young or old, it can often be dangerous and risky on your body to remove junk throughout a home. From furniture to rubbish, we often see backs pulled or flesh wounds. Junk Removal will take everything off your hands.
  2. Efficiency. Sometime you just want stuff out of your house and you want it gone yesterday. Our team moves fast and efficiently. Your project time with be vastly decreased with our house. Our team has experience with moving just about everything so we will be gone from your house before you know it.
  3. Recycling & Donations. It is something we pride yourselves on.  Recycling is good for the environment, people and the world. Two days a week our company we gear a service toward reclining the products we removed from homes. When appliances, furniture or toys are left in good condition, nothing gives us more joy then to donate.

For more information or questions about how we can help you please give us a call at 978-317-5388.