There’s no quick fix when it comes to hoarding, so it could be quite some time before Pauline and Gary Jollymour’s lives are free of clutter once again.

But the Jollymours said they would welcome outside help, as long as no one’s pushing them.

Gary Jollymour, 56, struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder, and hoards piles upon piles of objects in the Chilliwack house he shares with his 91-year-old mother, Pauline.

“You can’t even sit down in the house,” Pauline told CTV News Thursday. “It’s the worst mess that I could even think of. I’ve had 90 years and this is the worst time of my life – my golden years turned to a hard rock.”

When asked if they would be open to getting help cleaning up the place and getting counselling, Pauline said she liked the idea, and was grateful for the offer.

So far, the Jollymours seem to be resisting help.

Chilliwack’s city council voted recently to clean up the house, saying it’s a severe fire risk, but they can only deal with the outside of the home. They can’t force their way inside.

Denyse Houde of the Fraser Health Authority said her organization is doing what it can, including counseling and support, but there’s a limit to how much it can do.

“We do not have the jurisdiction to impose ourselves into someone’s home and force them to do anything,” Houde said.

The Jollymours say the city’s action feels too sudden. Gary wants to buy time while he and his mother seek counselling.

“To me it’s just like putting the cart ahead of the horse,” he said. “I mean, I was hoping for things to work out before it got to this point but now the city’s really pushing and things are a mess.”

Given the extent of Gary’s hoarding, the mother and son would need help clearing everything out – but they don’t want things thrown out indiscriminately.

“We have to do it,” Pauline said. “People think that everything is junk. I know there’s lots of junk – I know that – but everything is not junk. It has to separated, right?”

“Would you like someone to come into your place and just take everything out?” she said.

Amidst the junk are things worth keeping, but it won’t be easy to sort through the towering piles that overwhelm the home, Pauline said.

Gary said the problem has developed gradually over the past five or six years.

“Just progressive accumulation, really,” he told CTV News. “And attachment to certain things that I also contributed. Things just piled up.”

The Jollymours admit the piles of clutter are a problem.

“How hard is it on me? It’s killing me,” Pauline said. “It’s literally killing me.”

Joti Samra, clinical psychologist at SFU, said many people with hoarding problems don’t seek help until the problem gets out of hand.

“Most people that engage in hoarding behaviour don’t voluntarily present for treatment,” she said. “They often don’t recognize that they have significant difficulties and often aren’t wanting to change their behaviour.”

She said treating the issue is very complex, as patients need professional support to manage the stress of letting go of their possessions, and counselling to make sure they don’t keep on hoarding after their house has been cleared out.

“Just taking away the objects that someone is hoarding is a band-aid solution,” she said. “That doesn’t work in the long term.”

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Norma Reid