HALO Home and Life Organizers

09/17/2025

📦 Too Much to Tackle?

You’re not lazy. You’re not dirty. Hoarding is a complex mental health condition that affects an estimated 1.5 million Canadians—and that number is likely underreported. Many sufferers hide it due to shame or fear of judgment. But behind every closed door is a story that deserves compassion, not criticism.

In one Ontario case, a home had over 4,000 pounds of material removed—everything from newspapers stacked 6 feet high to expired food from the 90s. It took 5 days, 4 people, and multiple dumpsters.

If this sounds shocking, it’s because it is. Hoarding is isolating. But it doesn't have to stay that way.

🏡 Cleaning the mess is just the surface work. Healing begins when we understand the why.

09/13/2025

🦠🧹 Under the Piles

Beneath the clutter is often danger —not just discomfort. A home’s air quality, water access, and even structural safety can all be compromised.

Hoarding disorder isn’t about mess—it’s a serious mental health issue. Tackling the clutter means more than tossing junk; it often means calling in plumbers, electricians, and general contractors to restore basic function. Often, as we remove layers of clutter, we uncover dangerous issues hidden beneath—mold, pests, rotting walls, unsound structures, and violations of health and building codes. Sometimes these can be fixed. Other times, the home is too far gone.

A shocking 60% of hoarded homes have building code violations, and many teeter on the edge of being condemned.

09/10/2025

💙 Listen to What’s Not Said

World Su***de Prevention Day is a call to compassion. People with hoarding disorder often suffer in silence, weighed down by shame, trauma, and isolation.

There is a proven link between hoarding disorder and depression. Many feel like they can’t ask for help—some don’t even realize help exists.

This is why HALO listens without judgment. Cleans without criticism. And offers a hand where others turn away.

In Canada, su***de remains a leading cause of death among people experiencing mental illness, especially when compounded by isolation. Hoarding doesn’t just impact living conditions—it can make people feel like life itself is no longer manageable.

***dePreventionAwareness

09/09/2025

🐶 68 Dogs Rescued in Winnipeg

In May 2024, emergency services responded to a welfare check at a home in Winnipeg. What they found was unimaginable: 68 dogs, some living in squalor so severe that responders donned hazmat suits to enter ― the air thick with urine, f***s, and intense stench. Many dogs were matted, dehydrated, suffering eye issues, and traumatized from neglect.

This was not a breeding operation—it was a tragic case of animal hoarding, where love became neglect. These dogs were living, suffering, hidden behind doors nobody dared to open. The Winnipeg Humane Society described the conditions as “horrific.”

HALO sees parallels in human hoarding: the isolation, denial, and breakdown of daily living. Our mission extends to preventing such crises—to save lives, restore health, and reconnect families—with empathy and hands-on care.



📎 https://zurl.co/SsmBN --> follow this link to learn more

Early Wednesday, Winnipeg police called animal services to a home in the Richmond West neighborhood, where 68 dogs were rescued from reportedly horrific conditions.

09/05/2025

📦💔 Hidden in Plain Sight

Hoarding isn’t just about mess—it’s about mental health. Families often suffer in silence, overwhelmed and unsure about where to start. One in every 20 people in North America struggles with hoarding disorder, and many of them are parents. Their kids grow up surrounded by boxes, bags, and barriers instead of safe, open space.

Children of hoarders are uniquely affected—they may struggle with shame, anxiety, and isolation long into adulthood. The impact isn’t just physical clutter—it’s emotional weight.

💡 Clutter isn’t always visible from the outside. Behind closed doors, there’s often heartbreak—and a desperate need for help and healing.

09/01/2025

👷 Real Labour, Real Love

Do you know what Labour Day is really about? It began in the 1800s as a fight for workers' rights—the right to fair wages, safe conditions, and dignity in labour. Over time, it evolved into a national holiday in Canada that honours all contributions to society through work.

At HALO, our work isn’t on factory floors or in office towers. It’s inside homes so filled with hoarding that you can’t reach the bed, the stove, or the door. It’s physical. It’s emotional. It’s labour that heals.

We scrub. We sort. We haul. We help people reclaim their homes and their lives. This work restores dignity—not just to the space, but to the people inside it.

HALO's labour is for those who’ve fallen through the cracks, and for families who’ve long stopped believing that help is possible. It’s for safety. For health. For peace.

Hoarding is a mental health disorder, and our work makes a real difference—especially in crisis. One of the greatest fears we hear from family members is, “What if they need help and no one can reach them?” In one real case in Victoria, British Columbia in 2021, emergency responders had to remove part of a wall and use specialized equipment to extract a resident after they were trapped behind years of hoarded material during a medical emergency.

That’s why we do what we do.

08/29/2025

🧹💖 With Cleaning Comes Dignity

We talk about dignity—not just as a word, but as a feeling. Dignity means being able to invite someone into your home without fear. It means using your bathroom in private, sleeping in your own bed, and sitting at a table without climbing over chaos. It’s a sense of worthiness, of belonging, of having a space that reflects your value.

For people with hoarding disorder, that sense of dignity is often lost. Over 90% report intense shame. They’re not lazy. They’re not messy by choice. They’re overwhelmed by trauma, anxiety, and emotional pain.

Extreme cleaning isn’t about perfection—it’s about helping people reclaim the dignity they deserve. And every cleared room, every uncovered floor, every usable space is a powerful restoration of that right.

08/25/2025

⚠️ Alberta Home Condemned

In 2023, Edmonton officials condemned a hoarded home after discovering rotting carcasses, sewage backups, and collapsed walls. The stench alone could be detected from the sidewalk. Officials wore hazmat gear just to enter the premises. In addition to piles of trash and decomposing organic matter, the structural integrity of the home was so compromised that emergency responders deemed the property unsafe for any form of human occupancy.

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine living there—that's the reality for some. Behind the front doors of homes like these are people who’ve lost the ability to manage their surroundings. HALO works to prevent that final collapse by restoring homes and hopeful futures—before the walls literally fall down.



https://zurl.co/h2bxV --> read more by following this link

08/17/2025

🚧 Buried by the Hoard

In Aberdeen, Scotland, a shocking hoarding case made headlines in 2023 when a man was found deceased in a home so tightly packed with canned goods, cleaning supplies, and toilet paper that emergency responders were unable to safely access him. The property was packed floor to ceiling in every room—leaving no clear path to reach the body.

It took professional cleaners a full half day to reach the body and then an additional full five weeks to clear the home entirely.

This tragic story isn’t just news—it’s reality for many people battling chronic hoarding disorder. HALO sees these hidden dangers every day. We don’t just clean—we rescue, restore, and help reconnect people with safety, dignity, and support.



https://zurl.co/Pkrwi --> read more about the story here

08/16/2025

📞 Don't Wait for a Crisis

Sometimes it takes a fire, an eviction, or a health emergency before families reach out for help. But by then, the emotional damage is already deep—for the person living in it and for those who love them.

Hoarding disorder is often hidden behind closed doors.
No visitors. No one sees inside.
But what’s hidden doesn’t heal.

✨ The truth?
You don’t have to wait for things to be “bad enough.”
Compassionate support before the crisis can prevent the pain that comes after.

HALO helps families step in gently, with kindness, not shame.
We walk alongside—not over—the people who need help most.

08/12/2025

🎒 Kids Deserve Better

On International Youth Day, we remember the children—especially those who grew up in hoarded homes. No child should be forced to parent their parent. No child should grow up afraid of their own home. At HALO, we see their pain. We hear their anger. And we honour their truth.

For children of hoarders, life can feel like filth and chaos. They often grow up in environments filled with shame, isolation, and a complete lack of control. Toys are buried under boxes. Bathrooms are inaccessible. Friends can’t come over. And the emotional scars follow them well into adulthood.

We see you. We’re sorry for what you went through. And we’re working every day to help make sure other kids don’t have to.

08/09/2025

📤🔚 From This to That

We post a simple before-and-after: a porch once buried in trash bags, now simply… organized. Not beautiful. Not perfect. But free of the garbage that once occupied it.

Hoarding disorder isn’t cured with one cleanout—but these moments are powerful. They give people space. And with space, comes breath.