Community Chat

[Cranberries]

I too do not understand hoarding, well the dirty aspect of it. Trash all over, expired food in the refrigerator, dog/cat pee/poop all over, mice, bugs. ICK. I feel bad that people live that way but I do think they share most of the blame with hoarding. Your house doesn't just magically dirty and out of order.

[littleblueparakeet2]

gazelle77: was the episode you saw the one with the black widow spiders and 200+ syringes that were strewn throughout the house? I think the homeowner's name was Sherry and she blamed her 2 kids for not taking out the trash.

[chickenbutt]

I agree that there seems to be two different concepts here - There are hoarders who are into accumulating and keeping everything, perhaps because of some sort of past trauma or desire to feel in control. Then there are the ones who just seem to not want to clean anything or wash the dishes, etc.

I've seen both on those shows over the years. The ones who are just lazy are the ones with mounds of dirty dishes and filth everywhere. I don't think one can call them hoarders. I've seen how they act about it and it's just that they prefer to sit in filth to doing anything about it. Then they get to the point that it doesn't even bother them anymore and are only mildly, if at all, embarrassed when the troops arrive to 'fix' it and them.

[MomOf4]

Have you ever noticed how many boxes from QVC are throughout some of the hoarder's homes?

[littleblueparakeet2]

On 11/3/2014 MomOf4 said:

Have you ever noticed how many boxes from QVC are throughout some of the hoarder's homes?

Yes, and one of the hoarders admitted that she received her items from the Q, but never got around to opening them.

[151949]

On 11/3/2014 MomOf4 said:

Have you ever noticed how many boxes from QVC are throughout some of the hoarder's homes?

And for some reason you think that is QVCs fault?

[gazelle77]

On 11/3/2014 littleblueparakeet2 said:

gazelle77: was the episode you saw the one with the black widow spiders and 200+ syringes that were strewn throughout the house? I think the homeowner's name was Sherry and she blamed her 2 kids for not taking out the trash.

Yes. SO many roaches! And the fridge filled with food, not working for years....the stench. OMG!

[RedTop]

After watching the hoarding shows for years, I have come to the conclusion that hoarders even have an attachment to their garbage. Anything they have handled belongs to them, and they cannot bear to see it thrown away. I keep reminding myself that hoarding is a mental illness; in some episodes that is more obvious than in other episodes. The one thing that annoys me with the cleanup, is when the hoarder loses her purse, teeth, jewelry, in the hoard, and the crew has to search what has already been thrown into the truck for those important items. If I agreed to let my stuff be sorted and tossed, I think I would be responsible enough to make sure I grabbed my most essential things first to make sure they didn't get lost, but apparently most hoarders don't think of it.

[PalmSpringsTransplant]

My sister is a hoarder and I was both drawn to and repelled by these shows at the same time. She stuffed a 1 BR apartment so much that you needed to be a mountain goat to get around. The shower/bath had become unusable and she took "birdbaths" in the kitchen sink.

Worst part is that I co-owned this with her and became responsible for the mess. $60,000 to clean up. Black mold, mouse skeletons, unimaginable dirt.

She's out and doesn't speak to me anymore. Blames me for her becoming a hoarder.

When I watch the shows, and I'm drawn to them to try to understand, I always get p/o'd by the indulgent treatment given to the hoarders by the shrinks and organizers, etc. Many of these hoarders -and I speak from experience - wrecked major havoc on their families- and are then coddled and allowed to examine every matchbox.

[kittymomNC]

I've watched these shows from time to time, and I don't understand how anyone can watch these people and not KNOW that there has to be mental illness involved in all of these situations, and especially where animal hoarding is involved. I simply do not believe that pure laziness or being a "slob" could cause a human being to live in some of these conditions.

And I agree with HH that they need to be treated for the mental illness before they are forced into having to go through these "clean-up" days. Maybe that's just not possible in a lot of cases, but it seems particularly harsh to make an obviously mentally ill person have to go through that.