Hoarders

[Trekker4747]

Anyone ever see this show?

I've never seen it but it's a show about people confronting a loved-one who's a "hoarder" (i.e. doesn't throw anything away/hoards.) I saw a commercial for it during a recent episode of "The Glades" and recorded it. Part of the episode centered around a woman whose house looks like a landfill. She's the definition of a "Crazy Cat Lady" as she has several cats and her home is filled with garbage! Including un-cleaned cat feces. Disgusting and shocking that people can live like this woman did. She seemed surprised that her local municipality was threatening her with eviction if she didn't clean up her home (which near as I can tell could've only been done by burning it down and starting over.)

Ugh. I wish I could find images/video of this woman's house it has to be seen to be believed.

 

[McCoy]

I watch this all the time. I find it incredibly sad but can't stay away.

 

[Jack Bauer]

I actually knew a guy who hoarded all kinds of shit in his three room apartment. It was full of newspapers, magazines, junk mail, little trinkets, boxes full of odd little shit and fast food bags with half eaten food strewn between his junk.

 

[WillsBabe]

There used to be a show like this on UK tv a few years back. I can't remember what it was called now. It was quite moving at times. They used to try to find out why the individuals on the show had started to hoarde. I remember one woman told the show's resident shrink about how she lost her doll as a child when her family fled Germany during the war. As an adult she seemed to develop the need not to "lose" anything again. The Uk show seemed to be very cathartic for people.

 

[Aragorn]

I don't know anyone like this, but I saw a truck drive by once where the entire cab was filled to the roof with newspapers and what not, and I'm guessing he wasn't taking it to recycling.

 

[Miss Chicken]

My aunt was a hoarder but not like the hoarders on that show.

The main thing my aunt hoarded was toilet paper. When she died about 500 packets of toilet paper were found in her house and shed. That not 500 rolls, but 500 packets with between 2-6 rolls in each packet.

I think her obsession got out of control after my uncle became blind and he no longer went to the cupboards for things.

She also hoarded clothes bought for herself. Many of her clothes were still in their packaging.

Despite this hoarding my aunt's house was clean.

 

[Trekker4747]

Here's a LINK to the episode I was talking about (Vula/Lisa) that woman with the single most disgusting home ever (and she's clueless to it too) is Vula who, yes, is one letter around from having the worst name ever.

It's recommended that you do not watch the episode while eating.

 

[Wynterhawk]

Yes, I watch this if it's on while I'm channel surfing. A lot of the time their houses are disgusting and it only makes me want to super clean my own place and throw out stuff that's been sitting around

 

[JWD75]

Here's a LINK to the episode I was talking about (Vula/Lisa) that woman with the single most disgusting home ever (and she's clueless to it too) is Vula who, yes, is one letter around from having the worst name ever.

It's recommended that you do not watch the episode while eating.

I love the show and saw that episode. Absolutely horrific. It's unbelievable that someone could let their house go like that and wallow in such filth. I'm not sure I would even classify her as a hoarder. I'm a hoarder. I hoard books, but they are packed away in plastic totes and squirrelled away in my basement and my house is as clean as a whistle. What exactly was Vula hoarding? Cat feces and garbage?

 

[FordSVT]

^There is a difference between a collector and the people on this show. They have a severe mental problem where they literally can't throw anything away. It's like a kind of OCD.

There was one episode where the house had to be condemned. They found dad cats under the trash that was piled to the ceiling, old rotting food, feces, it was horrific. And the woman had no idea why people were upset about it and telling her she'd have to move.

 

[JWD75]

^^Good point. I stand corrected.

 

[Trekker4747]

^There is a difference between a collector and the people on this show. They have a severe mental problem where they literally can't throw anything away. It's like a kind of OCD.

There was one episode where the house had to be condemned. They found dad cats under the trash that was piled to the ceiling, old rotting food, feces, it was horrific. And the woman had no idea why people were upset about it and telling her she'd have to move.

Precisely the episode we are talking about.

 

[Jack Bauer]

I really feel badly for these people. They really need help. It's sad how the hoarding takes over their life yet they're totally oblivious to it. It's just odd and sad.

 

[BolianAuthor]

I find funny just how much crap the people cleaning the house take from the hoarder... they let the hoarder slow everything down by saying "Oh, not this... this was from so and so and blah-blah-blah", instead of tying the stupid hoarder up in a chair somewhere, and placing them outside while they clean the house, so it won't be torn down or so the kids won't get taken away.

Just like that stupid Intervention show, too... almost ALL of the time, the families of the addicts are total fucking enablers, instead of putting the hammer down and just cutting themselves off from the addict, so that the addiction doesn't either drag them down with them, or so they don't contribute to making it easier for the addict to maintain their addiction.

 

[Miss Chicken]

These people have an illness. To just tie them up and get rid of their stuff would only result in them hoarding again once you have gone. One needs to get them to break the cycle themselves and to teach them to control their addiction. That is not enabling them.

 

[Aragorn]

I find funny just how much crap the people cleaning the house take from the hoarder... they let the hoarder slow everything down by saying "Oh, not this... this was from so and so and blah-blah-blah", instead of tying the stupid hoarder up in a chair somewhere, and placing them outside while they clean the house, so it won't be torn down or so the kids won't get taken away.

Just like that stupid Intervention show, too... almost ALL of the time, the families of the addicts are total fucking enablers, instead of putting the hammer down and just cutting themselves off from the addict, so that the addiction doesn't either drag them down with them, or so they don't contribute to making it easier for the addict to maintain their addiction.

Well they are TV shows. They're more about the entertainment factor than actually helping people. How many TV shows that aim to help people actually follow up on them? Or rather, follow up on the ones that don't have a story that's great for the show?

 

[Leroy]

Hoarders had a follow up episode not long ago it showed that some cases were more successful at not having a relapse than others.

 

[Spot's Meow]

Yeah, I've watched the show, and every new episode you see seems to be worse and more disgusting than the last one. It's really sad. I still remember the one woman who had driven her adult children away because of the hoarding. When her daughter asked her to choose between her stuff and her children, she chose her stuff, because "it's here with me every day, you're not." That's just sad in so many ways.

 

[BolianAuthor]

I find funny just how much crap the people cleaning the house take from the hoarder... they let the hoarder slow everything down by saying "Oh, not this... this was from so and so and blah-blah-blah", instead of tying the stupid hoarder up in a chair somewhere, and placing them outside while they clean the house, so it won't be torn down or so the kids won't get taken away.

Just like that stupid Intervention show, too... almost ALL of the time, the families of the addicts are total fucking enablers, instead of putting the hammer down and just cutting themselves off from the addict, so that the addiction doesn't either drag them down with them, or so they don't contribute to making it easier for the addict to maintain their addiction.

Well they are TV shows. They're more about the entertainment factor than actually helping people. How many TV shows that aim to help people actually follow up on them? Or rather, follow up on the ones that don't have a story that's great for the show?

Well, the fact that it's a TV show and thus ought have a certain "entertainment" value is certainly a valid point, and once I can accept. But when you have a situation for example, where the hoarding is so bad that a family is in danger of literally losing their children... that is an instance where nobody should give the cleaning staff any crap, nor should the staff take any, because the stakes are too high...

If the parents/hoarders start crap like that, and impeding the efforts of the cleaners by saying "Oh, not this", and "Oh, you should check with me before you do this", and so on, the cleaning staff should just pick up a phone, and call child protective services right in front of the assholes, just to slap them sober and shut them up.

 

[McCoy]

Yeah, I've watched the show, and every new episode you see seems to be worse and more disgusting than the last one. It's really sad. I still remember the one woman who had driven her adult children away because of the hoarding. When her daughter asked her to choose between her stuff and her children, she chose her stuff, because "it's here with me every day, you're not." That's just sad in so many ways.

That same woman told her cancer-stricken adult daughter that she got along fine before she came along and she'll get along fine after she's gone.