Dr. Robin Zasio provides practical advice for decluttering and organizing and explains how extreme cases of hoarding offer lessons for everyone.

Although twelve-year-old Cassidy Bean keeps a book of bad things, she did not expect her summer with the Tremont family in rural New Jersey to be one of them--but this year Ursula, a local hoarder, has died under mysterious circumstances, and Cassidy finds that there a great many bad and dangerous things hidden in her house, including, perhaps, her vengeful ghost.

"When an avalanche of books cuts off access to his living room, university librarian Jasper Richardson can no longer ignore the truth. His ever-growing piles of books, magazines and newspapers can no longer be classified as a 'collection.' It's a hoard, and he needs professional help. Professional clutter clearer and counselor Lewis Miller thinks he's seen it all, but even he has to admit he's shocked. Not so much by the state of Jasper's house, but...

Magpies Meg and Ash want their nest to be the best, and to have everything their chicks will need when they hatch, so they add everything from cuckoo clocks to mops and socks.

Betsy Devonshire, owner of the Crewel World needlework shop, doesn't mess around. But when a local hoarder is murdered, she'll need all her wits to dig a new friend out of a heap of trouble. After a tree falls on Tom Riordan's house, landing him in the hospital, the police discover a mountain of junk piled high in his home. Locals in Excelsior, Minnesota including Betsy and her Crewel World Monday Bunch offer to help with the cleanup while Tom recuperates....

When Katie Steury hires her old friend Harley Lambright to remodel her rundown old house into a charming bed and breakfast, she does so with trepidation. Though they are longtime friends, they've always had a rocky relationship, thanks to her being partly responsible for his most recent breakup. But while they may not always get along, she needs someone to trust with her secrets, and Harley is nothing if not trustworthy and loyal. Katie has always...

A memoir about growing up in a cluttered and rat-infested home--the result of her father's struggle with compulsive hoarding--describes how the burden led to the author's suicide attempt and her against-all-odds bond with her parents.

To be the child of a compulsive hoarder is to live in a permanent state of unease. Because if your mother is one of those crazy junk-house people, then what does that make you?