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S07.E08: Michelle & Mary


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Michelle/Mary

Michelle's husband is a recovering alcoholic and his sobriety is in real danger due to her massive doll hoarding. Mary's house is ground zero for the rat population in the neighborhood because of her hoard and the neighbors are about to report her to authorities due to fear of hantavirus and plague carrying rodents in the region. 

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That was hard to watch because of all the rats.  I hate mice and rats worse than anything.  How did she live with them and not get sick?  That was such a sad story.  

 

It said the couple had not auctioned Michelle's dolls yet.  I would be all over that for $500,000.  I thought it was odd that mother and daughter both had such colorful hair and even grandma had a very unnatural red.  

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(edited)

Raise your hand if you knew that bubonic plague was still a thing. I certainly didn't.

And how was the house still festooned with dolls if there were $500K worth in storage?

Edited by ktwo
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How much appreciation has there been in the collectible doll market? Even if her investment doubled, she's spent $250k on dolls. Where did a retired store clerk get that kind of money? Still, I enjoyed their reaction to the news. Maurice seemed nice so I hope he stays sober and the family gets better.

Mary is lucky to have such a good friend. Her lot looked nice so she should be able to get something for it. And she should be getting a pension, so maybe she could rent somewhere before she starts hoarding up her friend's house.

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(edited)
Raise your hand if you knew that bubonic plague was still a thing. I certainly didn't.

 

It's pretty much a West Coast thing.  Bubonic plague struck San Francisco in the early 1900s.  The city and state officials blamed Chinese immigrants and sealed off Chinatown while not doing anything about the rats in the rest of the city.  By the time everyone realized that this plan wasn't working, bubonic plague spread throughout most of the rodent population in California.  It's spread through a good portion of the Western states through the fleas on the rodents.  There are usually a few cases of bubonic plague diagnosed even now--in bad years, it can be as high as 30-40 cases in the US.  Since Mary lives in Fresno, they're right to be worried about the plague. Oh and by the way, EEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Oh and sorry for the historical lecture--studying public health and the history of public health has always fascinated me.

Edited by Mybrainhurts
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Genny was a piece of work. I think this is the first time the "official" hoarder wasn't the worst person on the show? Of course who knows, maybe Maurice was just on his best, and uncharacteristic, behavior. But if alcohol's your thing, that house + the mother and daughter passive-aggressive/aggressive-aggressive duo would certainly drive ME there.

 

The DVR cut off just as they were (apparently) going to give the update on Mary's house. Was it torn down? Or was it the usual, "she's mulling her options" endings?

 

I think part of my fascination with this program and others like it, is that I recognize in myself some of the tendencies. To not throw away something that has life left in it. Obviously not rat turd infested clothing or other porous items, but honestly -- if Matt took a dump in that glass bowl, and then it was cleaned with bleach, yah I'd eat out of it. If you got a kiddie pool and filled it with a high concentration of bleach, and ran her dishes through it? That seems not unreasonable. Clearly 99% of the contents of that house, plus the house, should have been shoveled directly into a dumpster. But if there was jewelry, or china or whatever, I don't think everything was necessarily unrecoverable. Am I on a slippery slope here?

 

/side-eyeing the Funko dolls on the bookshelf

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It said the couple had not auctioned Michelle's dolls yet.  I would be all over that for $500,000.  I thought it was odd that mother and daughter both had such colorful hair and even grandma had a very unnatural red.  

Yeah, they will sit in storage and deteriorate while she tells everyone about her doll collection that's worth a half a mil.  I would have made the auctioneer take them with him and set up the auction as soon as possible!  I don't believe we have ever seen a hoarder with a more valuable hoard.

 

Genny was a piece of work. I think this is the first time the "official" hoarder wasn't the worst person on the show? Of course who knows, maybe Maurice was just on his best, and uncharacteristic, behavior. But if alcohol's your thing, that house + the mother and daughter passive-aggressive/aggressive-aggressive duo would certainly drive ME there.

 

The DVR cut off just as they were (apparently) going to give the update on Mary's house. Was it torn down? Or was it the usual, "she's mulling her options" endings?

 

I think part of my fascination with this program and others like it, is that I recognize in myself some of the tendencies. To not throw away something that has life left in it. Obviously not rat turd infested clothing or other porous items, but honestly -- if Matt took a dump in that glass bowl, and then it was cleaned with bleach, yah I'd eat out of it. If you got a kiddie pool and filled it with a high concentration of bleach, and ran her dishes through it? That seems not unreasonable. Clearly 99% of the contents of that house, plus the house, should have been shoveled directly into a dumpster. But if there was jewelry, or china or whatever, I don't think everything was necessarily unrecoverable. Am I on a slippery slope here?

 

/side-eyeing the Funko dolls on the bookshelf

I believe they did leave it open ended with Mary.  They said she was bringing in contractors and weighing her options.  I also didn't get the thing about the dishes.  If you run them through a good sanitizing dishwasher, they will be fine.  I actually own a glass bowl just like the one that Matt wanted to take a dump in. LOL  I love Matt in a sick, twisted, sadistic way.LOL

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Genny was a piece of work. I think this is the first time the "official" hoarder wasn't the worst person on the show? Of course who knows, maybe Maurice was just on his best, and uncharacteristic, behavior. But if alcohol's your thing, that house + the mother and daughter passive-aggressive/aggressive-aggressive duo would certainly drive ME there.

 

It bothered me that the Hoarders staff acted like the family's disfunction was all fixed once they found out that the dolls were worth so much money.   OMG, Genny is absolutely toxic.  I can understand that her son-in-law was probably quite horrible when he was drunk and that her daughter is a passive-aggressive mess, but still.   Genny laid the foundation for her daughter's problems during the daughter's childhood I'm sure.

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I actually know Michelle from a couple doll conventions (she's kind of hard to miss with that hair) so you could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw she was the doll collector.  Not really surprised that she hasn't sold the dolls yet.  Unfortunately it probably justified buying more in her subconscious.

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OMG. Those rats!  Though I did like the sight of the mouse leaping from one piece of furniture to another.  I dunno about the dishes.  If the rats peed on them once (or Matt took a dump once), maybe they could be cleaned and salvaged.  But if it had been used that way repeatedly for years?  Probably not and I wouldn't want them anywhere near my dishwasher.  She's apparently ahead of some other hoarders who have destroyed their houses in that at least her lot was worth something.

 

I believe that the U.S. has bubonic plague deaths every year or every few years or so, primarily in the areas around the Navajo Indian reservation.  Had no idea that it spread there from San Francisco though, so thanks for the history MyBrainHurts.

 

Agree that doll lady's family was a just a big massive heap of dysfunction.  Quite frankly, if I  had to face all of those doll faces everywhere in the house, (no escape!), I'd hit the bottle too. I work on a college campus so the hair didn't phase me.  I just thought that it was odd that both mother and daughter basically had the same hair colors, though.

 

She should be selling the dolls, 2-3 boxes at a time, every few months or so.  She'd have a nice boost in her income.  Sadly, we all know that is not going to happen.

  • Love 2
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I think part of my fascination with this program and others like it, is that I recognize in myself some of the tendencies. To not throw away something that has life left in it. Obviously not rat turd infested clothing or other porous items, but honestly -- if Matt took a dump in that glass bowl, and then it was cleaned with bleach, yah I'd eat out of it. If you got a kiddie pool and filled it with a high concentration of bleach, and ran her dishes through it? That seems not unreasonable. Clearly 99% of the contents of that house, plus the house, should have been shoveled directly into a dumpster. But if there was jewelry, or china or whatever, I don't think everything was necessarily unrecoverable. Am I on a slippery slope here?

/side-eyeing the Funko dolls on the bookshelf

I agree, the solid, smooth, non-porous items like glass and china could be sanitized and saved but who has the time or desire to dig through the rat shit to get to them? What kitchen with a sanitizing dishwasher is gonna welcome boxes of rodent poop smeared dishes to clean? That whole place was a loss, Matt was right when he said a fire would only be an improvement.

The grimy rodent trails were really disturbing, but the ones along the cane room divider thing were kind of interesting though, you could see the outline of poop smears in the shape of the divider on the wall where it was. The mop handle ramp and accompanying "deer cam" style footage showing its use were pretty neat too. There are only so many times you can show a dusty spider web fluttering in the corner so I'm sure the cameramen and editors get pretty excited when they discover new ways to convey the filth and squalor.

The dusty fluttering web should be worth at least one shot in a Hoarders drinking game, BTW. How about a sip of beer for every Target bag, a shot for every sail cat, 2 shots if the dead cat has been stored in the freezer instead, and chug an entire beer each time we are shown a toilet full of human feces?

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Where did a retired store clerk get that kind of money?

I thought she might have worked at Toys R Us, or a similar place, and was able to grab all the special new ones as they came in.

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No, just the drinking game.

Oh, I get it. In was confused cause for some reason I thought you were asking what the hoarder said when she asked if she could keep any alcohol they found in her hoard, I didn't realize that was a drinking game suggestion. I think would save the whole bottle for when a sail spouse is found, we really have seen such atrocious living conditions that hoarding dead humans is really the only way it could get worse.

  • Love 2
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(edited)

Genny was a piece of work. I think this is the first time the "official" hoarder wasn't the worst person on the show? Of course who knows, maybe Maurice was just on his best, and uncharacteristic, behavior. But if alcohol's your thing, that house + the mother and daughter passive-aggressive/aggressive-aggressive duo would certainly drive ME there.

 

The DVR cut off just as they were (apparently) going to give the update on Mary's house. Was it torn down? Or was it the usual, "she's mulling her options" endings?

 

I think part of my fascination with this program and others like it, is that I recognize in myself some of the tendencies. To not throw away something that has life left in it. Obviously not rat turd infested clothing or other porous items, but honestly -- if Matt took a dump in that glass bowl, and then it was cleaned with bleach, yah I'd eat out of it. If you got a kiddie pool and filled it with a high concentration of bleach, and ran her dishes through it? That seems not unreasonable. Clearly 99% of the contents of that house, plus the house, should have been shoveled directly into a dumpster. But if there was jewelry, or china or whatever, I don't think everything was necessarily unrecoverable. Am I on a slippery slope here?

 

/side-eyeing the Funko dolls on the bookshelf

You're not on a slippery slope.   I had some rat/mouse things come in this winter, and they pooped on my tile counter and on my tile floor, and got in my linens and pooped there.    I trapped the ones inside, sealed the entry, and ended their little rodent party.    The tiled surfaces were cleaned with bleach, and the linens were bleached and hung out in the sun.   Ultraviolet light breaks down viruses and bacteria.    I guess I should have pried up all the tile and got new everything?

 

I too would have saved all the glass wear and silver wear I needed.    One cycle in the dishwasher at heavy would have fixed them up.   Anything plastic would have went.    Sometimes Matt is ridiculous. 

 

However, I did notice they kept a couple of old looking furniture pieces.   Surely the rodents ran over them?   Why were they saved?

Edited by Mu Shu
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I find it hard to believe that those dolls were worth half a mil unless she had some very rare early Barbies.

I personally know nothing about the market for Barbies. But, a friend's brother recently died and in cleaning out his house she had to deal with a big collection, though significantly smaller than this one. It fit in one room! His things weren't hoarded up with dust and filth, of course. She found someone who specializes in selling them on ebay, and agreed to split the proceeds. So far she's received $30K as her share! Apparently the little accessories -- shoes, purses, outfits -- can be hot sellers. It looked like Michelle had thousands upon thousands of these things. The problem for my friend was finding the space to store, and the time to sell everything one at a time. We all know Michelle will never do that.

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They need to sell the barbies to fix the roof! They didnt show us if the roof was fixed at the end!

 

I think, I am not sure, that Doc Green was actually wearing leggings or very tight pants that were the same color as her skin, with a tunic over it. So it looked like hot pants or a mini skirt! I erased it so if someone can look closely. It was in the first scene when she came in and was talking to that biatch Genny. What a mouth on that woman! Horrible! 

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(edited)

Living for so long with an alcoholic husband could drive a person to become a hoarder, I think

As for the filth -- no doubt, Michelle is responsible for some of it. 

But alcoholics aren't exactly famous for cleaning, or even for throwing their own garbage into the trash...

Edited by Crazy Bird Lady
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I don't think garbage was the problem.  It was the 30,00 dolls and accessories.  Maurice needs to divorce his wife and let her deal with Mrs. Costanza herself.    I would drink and smoke crack if I lived with those women.    

 

I didn't notice Dr. Green's maybe hot pants,  but I did notice that her face actually appeared green, and her wig looked like it was from the Rene of Paris collection.    Hair and makeup need to get on that, stat. 


I find it hard to believe that those dolls were worth half a mil unless she had some very rare early Barbies.

Actually,  I just realized if she had 30,000 dolls and each one was worth no more than 20.00, that would be 600,000.  Maybe she had less dolls, and they were worth more?

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