A former ‘hoarder’ is now spending her days transforming the lives of people living in houses filled with mountainous piles of clutter and filth.
Lisa Curtis grew up with a fondness for ‘collecting’ things, which she later realized most people would describe as ‘hoarding’.
Her journey out of that mess began in 2013 when her 65-year-old father died. She discovered his house was bursting with chaos because he was also a hoarder.
She spent six months of her weekends sifting through his belongings, choosing what to keep, donate, sell, or discard to clear the mess.
“My dad would never let us into his house,” explained the 53-year-old from Newcastle, England. “I walked in and found that time had just stood still—he hadn’t thrown anything away.”
His mother (Lisa’s grandmother) had died back in 2001 and he started hoarding her old possessions to deal with the grief, and had also failed to keep on top of his housework.
Heartbroken, Lisa cleared out his cluttered, dirty home bit-by-bit and later realized that she also shared some of the same ‘collecting’ tendencies.
She then turned her attention to her own 3-bedroom home—stacked full of random collections—and managed to get rid of thousands of items.
She began taking requests for decluttering help from friends and colleagues and in 2017 her side-hustle became a full-time job for which she earns around 50k a year.
Now the mother-of-three spends every day walking into hoarders’ homes to help them tackle their habits—rewarded by the fact that she’s making a real difference in people’s lives (watch the video below).
“I can help people because I understand how they feel,” said Lisa, who posts videos on Tiktok at @motherclutteruk. “It’s not just laziness, there’s a story behind every hoarder.”
Some of Lisa’s most difficult projects have included rat-infested chairs and dead animals never taken outdoors.
“I work with quite a lot of older blokes, whose houses are piled full and they have a tiny little corner with a chair where they spend all day.”
She helps women who have shopping addictions, compulsively buying things like homeware and crafting supplies—and some even pay thousands to rent storage because they can’t fit all their stuff.
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“I had one lady who had thousands of knitting magazines, all completely unopened.
“I dealt with men who have stored their pee. I asked ‘why?’ and he couldn’t give an answer. He just couldn’t get rid of anything.”
She said being a collector doesn’t necessarily mean a house is unsanitary, but due to the lack of space, it can often lead to that for some people. It “happens slowly” over time, and often results in her getting elbow-deep in mildew, grease, and dust—and even a moldy freezer.
But because Lisa has struggled with hoarding tendencies herself, she can empathize—and, as a result, people are more comfortable letting her into their homes.
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Some of her clients have included white-collar workers like bank managers and architects—but you’d never know from the outside, because hoarders often feel great shame around their habits.
Lisa now wants to educate others on hoarding and raise awareness, so people don’t have to feel so ashamed.
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“Mean comments are what keep people from asking for help, but everyone has a story and if you knew theirs, you’d be less inclined to say horrible things.”
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