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'We made a difference': Cleanup company remediates hoarding situation in West Mayfield

Beaver County Times - 9/28/2019

Sep. 28--WEST MAYFIELD -- Cumulative losses -- divorce, deaths, house fire -- were too much for Mina Mineard.

To fill the void, placate the pain, the 78-year-old woman clung to things -- lots of material things.

"My mom's had some great losses in her life," said daughter Wanda Martin of Wheatland, Wyo., one of Mina's six children.

"Because of that reason she just started holding on to things -- and hoarding food, mostly."

Food, Martin said, is the only thing "that won't leave her."

Mina and husband, Clark, now deceased, divorced in the early '70s, Martin said.

"Back in '85, she lost her boyfriend," said Martin.

Mina and Tom Beaman planned to marry and retire to Florida, said son Dave Mineard of Beaver Falls. Upon Beaman's death, he left Mina his two-story, white-sided home, built approximately 100 years ago.

In 2005, Mina's son Timothy Sarvey, who was repairing the back roof on her home, fell, suffered head injuries and later died.

A few years after, a basement fire -- presumed to be electrical -- caused extensive damage and destroyed personal belongings.

The combined impact pushed Mina into hoarding, said son Donald Mineard, 56, who 15 years ago moved in with his mother to help care for her after she was diagnosed with diabetes.

"She hoards a lot of food and a lot of old memories ... sentimental things" -- treasured things from her children, from Beaman, he said. "She kept everything."

Donald tried to convince her to part with the stuff -- stuff piled in boxes, cluttering tabletops and counters, strewn about in every room -- to where it's now a health and safety issue.

"She wouldn't let me get rid of nothing. She just didn't want to let the memories go, memories from her past," Donald said.

And then, Mina got sick.

In August, she underwent quadruple bypass and heart valve replacement surgery, Martin said. Presently, she's in a rehabilitation facility.

Martin came home for her mother's surgery, appalled at the condition of the house.

Mina wants to return home, but Martin said it's "not a safe environment for her."

The aged structure needs repairs, Martin said. The house sits on a hill overlooking the former Babcock & Wilcox Co.'s cold-drawn steel plant. From the street, one must climb 15 steep steps to get to the front porch.

Water damage caused soffit to collapse on the porch roof. A gaping hole exposes blue sky, rotted wood and crumbling insulation.

There's no bathroom on the two-room second floor where Mina sleeps.

"The care plan is to release her into the community," Martin said. "Being her daughter, I want better for her, but I can't stop her from coming home if that's what she wants ... I don't know what's going to happen, to be honest with you."

She invited her mother to live with her in Wyoming, but Mina refused.

Martin visited Beaver County Office on Aging to investigate help that might be available.

Timing couldn't have been better.

Steri-Clean Inc., a national company that provides hoarding cleanup services, annually offers a one-day cleanout in advance of the holidays to people who can't afford the fee, a labor-intensive service with disposal costs that can be in the thousands of dollars, according to Cory Chalmers, president.

Steri-Clean Pittsburgh/Cleveland, a franchise based in Chippewa Township and owned by Marc and Rachel Cline, participates in "Happy Hoardidays," which asks western Pennsylvania families in need of its services to apply.

Steri-Clean marketed the event to the county's office on aging; Pittsburgh Chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers; board of directors at Beaver County Children/Youth Services; hoarding task forces in Beaver and Allegheny counties; and area school superintendents.

Applicants had to agree to have a team of hoarding experts and volunteers clean their home in October or November and to have media cover the event.

When Martin visited the office on aging in Beaver Falls, staff informed her of the free offer and she applied. Because the Mineards required an immediate cleanout to facilitate Mina's homecoming, Steri-Clean advanced its timeline to September.

Martin said Mina agreed to the cleanout.

Following a home inspection, the Clines felt its company could "make a significant difference in the house in one day," Rachel said, plus the Mineards are a local family "so it's great to be able to help people in a community that has been so supportive of our business."

Besides helping a family in need, the event, she said, "provides an amazing opportunity to educate the local communities on the truths about hoarding. There are so many misconceptions and allowing volunteers and media into the homes of hoarders, they typically find out the loving, brilliant, hardworking people that are labeled 'hoarders.'"

It's estimated that hoarding, now classified as a mental disorder often triggered by trauma, afflicts 5 percent of people in the United States -- approximately 16.3 million -- from all socio-economic backgrounds. It's a complex illness involving psychological components, including anxiety, depression and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Cleanup begins

Shortly before 9 a.m.Sept. 25, an 11-member Steri-Clean crew -- staff and volunteers -- arrives at Mina Mineard's home with a large dump truck and cargo van filled with cleaning supplies, shop vac, five 42-gallon garbage cans, heavy duty bags and shovels.

Marc Cline greets Donald Mineard to review the day's operations, the first of which is removing bags of clothing -- at least a dozen -- piled on the front porch, which Donald removed from his mother's bedroom.

Because of the many steps, the crew queues in row, passing bags one to another to pitch in the dump truck that holds 2 to 3 tons.

Buried under the clothing pile, they find a tire iron, hubcap, old television, kids' playthings and rotten wood.

Before entering the house, everyone dons gloves and N95 respirators that filtrate airborne particles.

But the respirator can't mask an overpowering odor, largely due to cat and dog urine and years of general cleaning neglect.

"I can't go in," said Wendy Mineard, Dave's wife. She and her husband sit in plastic chairs across the street, watching the proceedings.

"The smell. It's in the walls, it's in that floor, in that carpet," Wendy said. "That smell just lingers into the walls ... They'll never get all that smell out of there no matter what they do."

Shortly after Beaman's death, Mina kept to the plan to move to Florida, but only lasted about 10 years before returning to West Mayfield. During her absence, son Clark Mineard and his wife lived in the house with their cats.

And then Mina got a Lhasa Apso. Snoopy was trained on puppy pads, but "every once in awhile he missed the pad," Donald said, which now happened more frequently with the 14-year-old dog's advancing age.

"That scent is still in the rug in some places," Donald said. "We don't have the dog no more."

Martin said she had to "surrender" Snoopy as his care was becoming too difficult.

Rachel Cline said a home's clutter condition is rated using the Clutter-Hoarding Scale -- an assessment measurement tool developed by the Institute for Challenging Disorganization. The scale ranks a home from one to five, five being the most severe with extreme clutter indoors and out; inadequate plumbing and heating; insect and mice infestation; hallways and stairs blocked; living spaces not usable; rotting food and squalor.

The Clines assessed Mina's home between a level two and three, defined on the scale as having clutter in two or more rooms beginning to obstruct living areas; strong odors; limited evidence of housekeeping; mildew; pet dander; some plumbing not fully functional.

A bucket collects water from a leaking drain under Mina's kitchen sink.

Wendy doesn't think Mina will be able to return after she's discharged from the nursing facility.

"There's no way," she said.

Three years ago, Mina fell and broke ribs, Dave said, and spent time in a rehabilitation center.

"Then it wasn't great for her to come back," Wendy said. "This time, it's triple the mess."

Even after a cleanout, she expects the hoarding behavior will continue.

Hoarding has a 97 percent recidivism rate, according to hoardingcleanup.com, without cognitive behavioral therapy and aftercare.

Beth Gimbus, assessment case manager at the office on aging, said social workers at Mina's nursing facility should be working now on a transition-to-home care plan.

She also provided Martin with information on how to apply for local in-home services and a phone number for protective services.

"We can tell them what's available, but it's their job to follow through with it," Gimbus said.

Elders want to remain in their homes, but sometimes basic maintenance and upkeep "gets away from them. They can't handle everything," she said.

'A compassionate way'

Against a wall in the living room, boxes -- filled with knitting, crocheting and other sewing projects and related paraphernalia -- stacked four high. Food -- canned and boxed -- stuff tote bags. Mounds of magazines; stacks of mail; old receipts; slips of paper with names and phone numbers; office supplies; chips and snack crackers pile atop coffee and end tables.

Austin Burau, Steri-Clean technician, and Gimbus, who volunteered to help, sort the mess.

They find a phone invoice from 1999 and mail dating to 2007, but must sort through every piece to make sure important records and documents are not discarded.

All magazines and catalogs can go, Donald says, but he tells them to keep his mother's Guideposts, an inspirational magazine, and coloring books.

"If it's food, take it," he says. "Keep the tote bags."

The crew does not haphazardly throw things away without asking Donald first.

"If I make suggestions you're not happy about, please speak up," Marc Cline says.

"I'm really impressed with the owner," says Veronica Wright, a member of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers, who volunteered to help with the cleanup.

"He has a very compassionate way and softness, the way he talks. He's very respectful and very nice and non-judgmental. I'm just really impressed with him. It takes a certain type of personality," she said, to do this job.

But it's the plethora of food -- bottled, jarred, canned and boxed -- packed in boxes or spread on tables in the dining room and kitchen that astonishes.

"Probably 40 boxes," Donald says.

The majority came from a food bank. A lot has expired.

Molly Suehr, Steri-Clean marketing manager, says she found nonperishables from 2010.

Even if the food hasn't expired, it can't be donated, Marc says. It could absorb odors and foul a new place. Roaches, bed bugs or mice droppings lurking in food boxes could be transferred.

"We don't want to create new issues," he said.

The crew sorts clutter. Trash is discarded. What's to be salvaged is packed in boxes, labeled, and stored in the basement or upstairs.

Ultimately, approximately 2 tons of waste is removed from the house and taken to a disposal site.

Now, they clean.

Normally, a crew consists of four, Marc says, and would take two to three days to declutter and deep clean, but with 11 people, the job is accomplished in a day. The crew, however, only concentrates on rooms downstairs -- living, dining, kitchen and bath.

They wash walls with a citrus-scented, heavy-duty degreaser; dust and polish furniture; wash windows; clear dust and cobwebs; use a sweeper attachment to clean sofa and chair cushions; wipe ceiling fan blades; run the shop vac and sweeper multiple times over badly worn and discolored carpeting; scour kitchen counters, stove and inside cabinets; remove refrigerator bins and shelves to clean and scrape caked-on crud; disinfect toilet and shower stall; and scrub flooring in kitchen and bathroom.

Tracey Borden, who's been with Steri-Clean a couple of weeks, tackles the bathroom.

"I like it," she says of her new job. "It makes me feel I'm helping somebody that couldn't otherwise do it themselves."

Steri-Clean technician Kersten Lech concentrates on kitchen door jambs, scrubbing brown, dot-like speckles.

"You know what that is?" Marc asks.

Excrement of flies, spiders and other insects.

'We made a difference'

It's shortly before 4 p.m. when work wraps up.

"My goodness," Rachel says. "Look how nice that kitchen looks."

Dirty dishes and pans, piled in the sink and on top of the stove, are washed and stowed. Unexpired canned and boxed goods on counters and a dining table are organized in cabinets.

"I feel like we made a difference," Marc says, and included Donald in the equation.

"Donald did a real nice job of getting rid of a lot of stuff. Even while we were working up here, he was pulling things out of the basement."

He did a "fair amount of decluttering before we got here," Marc says. "We just hauled it all out."

Donald says Steri-Clean did an "amazing job. It looks real nice, looks a lot better. I just wish my mum could see it right now. They done a real, good job."

___

(c)2019 the Beaver County Times (Beaver, Pa.)

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