When people find out that part of our work at HALO is cleaning and repairing hoarder houses,they are intrigued. Many people launch into telling us about the hoarded home in theirneighborhood with boxes and newspapers piled on the front stoop and garbage strewn aroundthe yard. However, the reality is that many houses being lived in…

HALO’s cleanup portfolio is quite diverse. Recently we started sharingabout the different kinds of Trauma Cleanups that we work on; our last blogtalked about Crime Scene Cleanups. Although not always classified as atrauma, Needle and Drug Cleanups are treated with thesame extreme caution and care as cleanups in the trauma category. Myths Of Needle &…

Crime Scene cleanup is one of the most misunderstood kinds of Trauma Cleanups; and HALOdoes our fair share of them. What is a Trauma Cleanup? The simplest explanation of a Trauma Cleanup is that it requires the cleaning of biohazardousmaterials. There are different kinds of trauma cleanups including workplace and industrialaccidents, crime scenes, trauma scenes…

One of HALO’s specialties is Estate Cleanout Services. Our Estate Cleanout clients usuallycome as the result of saddening circumstances; sometimes a death, injury, disability orinability to live independently. It is not easy getting a call from the family, public guardian ortrustee of someone involved in a life-changing accident, whose parent has developedAlzheimer’s or has been…

I was having a conversation with a new friend who was curious to know more about HALO. “How do you know whether someone’s home is cluttered, whether they’re just a great collector or an actual hoarder?” she asked. What a great question, I thought to myself, hoarding vs clutter. Let’s break it down. Every now…

At HALO we are constantly contacted by family members and friends of people with hoarding disorder. Each story is filled with an overwhelming sense of urgency, sprinkled with worry and almost always expresses intense concern for the health and wellbeing of the person they’re contacting us about. Although this blog has a focus on dealing…

In HALO’s journey of working with people first before their messes or estates or traumas – we oftenencounter clients who are not proud of their situation. They are ashamed of the house that they haveturned into a “hoarder’s house” or the home they’ve lived in for 35 years without throwing anythingaway. For our clients, many…

Hi! I’m Melanie Bergsma – Owner of HALO. I wanted to introduce myself and tell you a little more about HALO’s hoarding cleanup process and they way we’re helping our amazing clients. Clients with hoarding disorder tell us that reaching out to HALO is both a great and hard decision. They are often ashamed and…

There’s plenty of reasons to declutter your home. Some of them might be obvious, but there’s a few you probably never thought of. Let’s start from the beginning. When you look around your home, what do you see? Maybe you have too many kitchen gadgets, or your kids’ toys are strewn around their rooms, down…

Struggling with a mental health issue at times can be a dark and lonely place. Motivation is lost and the ability to meet the day to day tasks of taking care of a home can begin to pile up. Often times, people struggling with mental health or addiction issues do so in silence. They may…