Hoarders - General Discussion

[FormerMod-a1]

39 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

And I suspect that many of the family members/friends/neighbors just agree to help because they want to experience the process of filming a TV show first-hand.  They end up being horrified/shocked/exhausted by the reality of cleaning up after a hoarder.

And with the added bonus of the next time someone asks them why they are not close with their mom/brother/sister/ex/whatever they can point to the TV show and say "here, this should answer it".  

[AZChristian]

1 hour ago, aquarian1 said:

And with the added bonus of the next time someone asks them why they are not close with their mom/brother/sister/ex/whatever they can point to the TV show and say "here, this should answer it".  

That is a MAJOR point (from the point of view of someone who has been there and done that).  

[ChristmasJones]

I love this show and really enjoy the two-hour episodes focused on one hoarder.  

[JudyObscure]

I never mind the hoarders getting free sofas, etc.  Most of it looks like Big Lots stuff and probably costs less than a thousand dollars.  These people have "starred" in a two hour show and spent several long days working and filming.  I'll always remember, about 30 years ago, when it was revealed that every cast member of "Seinfeld" got a million dollars per show.  "Hoarders, A&E" is getting off cheap even after they pay the the crew and specialists.  I actually wish they would do more to the homes.  "Hoarding -- Buried Alive" did a few shows where they quickly spray painted the interiors and had them looking very fresh clean when they were done.  I thought of it as my reward for having watched all the filth come out.

[QuinnInND]

I mind in the way that with some of the Hoarders it's a total waste of furniture and appliances. The items will be crapped up again in no time. Might as well just take them from the store and throw them in the garbage. It would be nice if they gave them to people who would appreciate and take care of the things. 

[lu1535]

On 8/10/2020 at 9:51 PM, CrazyInAlabama said:

BSOJ

Please forgive my denseness but what does BSOJ stand for?

The not knowing is driving me nuts! 😵😁

[RobustRutabaga]

10 minutes ago, lu1535 said:

Please forgive my denseness but what does BSOJ stand for?

The not knowing is driving me nuts! 😵😁

Yeah, it's not the most intuitive and I had to check it just now to make sure I was correct. I know it came coined from the old "Television Without Pity" forum days - and stands for "black screen of judgment" or "black screen of justice". 😁   Those stark, text-on-screen updates.

The "BSOJ" is even listed in somebody's dissertation (bottom-numbered page 105 here) on "Organizing the American Domestic Interior, 1978-2010". You know a term has made it when its reached not just pop culture but academia! ☺️   The context is:

"At the end of the episode, an inter-title informs viewers of the less-than-impressive outcome of the intervention: “After ten hours the cleanup crew is leaving for the day. Linda has cleared part of one room. Six people worked 10 hours in Linda’s 2000 sq foot home…only one room was cleared.”  The inter-title confirms the viewer’s suspicion that the narrative will reach no satisfactory end, promoting a sense that the project undertaken by the show far exceeds the expectation of the usual home makeover format. In acknowledging the frustration of leaving the episode’s narrative incomplete, the show re-emphasizes its clinical perspective on clutter—no matter how fast we want it to go away, this issue is out of our hands."

Edited August 15, 2020 by RobustRutabaga

[lu1535]

Thank you @RobustRutabaga. No, I never would have gotten that but I love it! You guys are so perfect in so many ways. 😍

[RobustRutabaga]

I have to say that those piano-note stingers (heard here starting at the 25 second mark) always crack me up. Nothing wrong with the musical idea - simple, short, effective - but it's so cold and stark and hopeless - sounds like it should be in a post-apocalyptic thriller with characters looking out drearily on the morning sun cast across a deserted wasteland for any sign of anything - human life, food, animal or plant life. There's also roughly a metric ton of excessive audio processing on what started as a lone piano key strike but finishes as a lot of reverb and delay and frequency-boosting cranked WAY up to "11" to add to the hopelessness. Geez. All they need is some 4-year-old's voice with equally added reverb crying out faintly, "Mommy?!". I give them credit, though - you can hear those stingers from another room and know what show it is.

Anyway, they seem to be used a little more sparingly this season but I'm thinking it's because we're not toggling between two subjects per-episode. Personally I'd enjoy maybe an April Fool's Episode where Dr. Tonya Harding, Lurch and others do A-cappella re-creations of them - Pentatonix style!
 

 

Edited August 15, 2020 by RobustRutabaga

[JudyObscure]

Oh thank you, RobustRutabaga, for such a great description of one of my favorite things about the show.  I also love the long violin (?) screech we hear when they first show the trucks coming.

[RobustRutabaga]

9 minutes ago, JudyObscure said:

Oh thank you, RobustRutabaga, for such a great description of one of my favorite things about the show.  I also love the long violin (?) screech we hear when they first show the trucks coming.

Oh yes! 😄   I colloquially call that "the table saw". It's not part of that audio package that the Youtube clip from its makers was showing off, but I know exactly what you mean and liken it to someone sending wood through a table saw with its "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" squelch. Inevitably they combine that with a sped-up, time-lapse version of trucks arriving (and now often shot with drone photography - first time I started seeing that I thought, "They're getting fancy! How upscale..."). The show's entire sound and music package is effective but I'll be darned if it doesn't sound like it belongs in the next "Mad Max" movie installment as underscore.
 

[enoughcats]

On 8/14/2020 at 6:55 AM, JudyObscure said:

I never mind the hoarders getting free sofas, etc.  Most of it looks like Big Lots stuff and probably costs less than a thousand dollars. 

I do wish they would encapsulate the mattresses and box springs to keep the cooties out.  I know that no one would want something out of any of these after houses, but I hate gratuitous waste.  Even waste with an agenda. 

OK, maybe I'm concentrating on the furniture, because concentrating on the wasted lives is too painful.

But of the people we've known with mental problems, none have been helped in the long run.  Either the doctors can't get the med prescriptions correct (IF there are meds that work) or the problems never even get diagnosed.

The childrens' lives are nightmares, and the line between the parents being barely there acceptible and bad enough to place the children elsewhere seems to be ill defined and full of deviations.

[AZChristian]

6 minutes ago, enoughcats said:

But of the people we've known with mental problems, none have been helped in the long run.  Either the doctors can't get the med prescriptions correct (IF there are meds that work) or the problems never even get diagnosed.

Or the "mental problem" is comprised of selfishness, meanness and a desire to make everyone around them miserable.  I don't think there are pills for that.  Except maybe cyanide.

[readheaded]

3 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

Oh thank you, RobustRutabaga, for such a great description of one of my favorite things about the show.  I also love the long violin (?) screech we hear when they first show the trucks coming.

It sounds like a swarm of flies to my ear, lol.

 

[readheaded]

1 hour ago, enoughcats said:

I do wish they would encapsulate the mattresses and box springs to keep the cooties out.  I know that no one would want something out of any of these after houses, but I hate gratuitous waste.  Even waste with an agenda. 

OK, maybe I'm concentrating on the furniture, because concentrating on the wasted lives is too painful.

But of the people we've known with mental problems, none have been helped in the long run.  Either the doctors can't get the med prescriptions correct (IF there are meds that work) or the problems never even get diagnosed.

The childrens' lives are nightmares, and the line between the parents being barely there acceptible and bad enough to place the children elsewhere seems to be ill defined and full of deviations.

Unfortunately, that's the reality for so many people who suffer from severe mental illness.  Their lives, in many ways, are often a living hell.  My grandmother suffered from either bipolar disorder or schizophrenia (she was diagnosed with both, but we were never sure which was the true diagnosis) and she could literally never trust her own mind.  That left a trail of terrible dysfunction for all of her children, who she loved but wasn't of sound mind to protect from the all that comes with having a seriously mentally ill parent.  My mom's almost 70 and she remembers when she was child, her mother, who was never violent or threatening, would be taken out of her home in handcuffs by police to be committed to the state mental facility.  Sadly, once she'd come home, she'd be well for a while, but then descend back into the madness and paranoia.  My mom's become a hoarder since my grandmother's death.  I'm quite sure there's a connection there, even though I wouldn't begin to be able to unravel it.  

[camom]

I get so frustrated with family members, landlords, etc. who don't follow through when the hoarders won't clean up.  Why don't spouses move out (and take the kids)?  Why don't landlords evict them after threatening to?  As long as there are no consequences to the hoarder, there is absolutely no reason for them to change.

 

[auntjess]

4 hours ago, camom said:

I get so frustrated with family members, landlords, etc. who don't follow through when the hoarders won't clean up.  Why don't spouses move out (and take the kids)?  Why don't landlords evict them after threatening to?  As long as there are no consequences to the hoarder, there is absolutely no reason for them to change.

I know, I watched that early (2007) hoarder show, and woman got eviction notice, and therapist getting her to do a shelf a week or so, is saying eviction will only move her problem somewhere else.
SO WHAT?  The danger to others in the building far outweighs the rights of the hoarder.
I really want them to drag the stuff out.  I hate the coddling.

[CrazyInAlabama]

It's not just hoarding the house that damages the structure.   Many of them seem to have no heat or air conditioning, and plumbing issues.   Like Becky's flooded basement.      They also have a lot of vermin damage, or feces and urine for house pets that never go outside, so that will soak into a house, and start rotting the floor out.   If they have a leaking toilet, or sink drain or faucet, then the hoarders either never let a repair person in to fix it, or the repair person can't get close to the location to fix it.   I bet a lot of them don't even notice there is an issue either.    I'm sure Becky's flooded basement on her current house is undermining the structure.    

The crew member that got sick at the shoot in the Woodlands (near Houston), on the other show,  didn't turn out to have Hantavirus.     However, I've always wondered if some of the crew on both shows ever got sick from the hoards, with the amount of filth and vermin in these houses.  

Edited August 16, 2020 by CrazyInAlabama

[readheaded]

11 hours ago, camom said:

I get so frustrated with family members, landlords, etc. who don't follow through when the hoarders won't clean up.  Why don't spouses move out (and take the kids)?  Why don't landlords evict them after threatening to?  As long as there are no consequences to the hoarder, there is absolutely no reason for them to change.

 

They probably won't change anyway, even if there are consequences.  That's one of the really difficult things about dealing with people who have mental illness; they're often really great people in many ways or at least have people in their lives who love them and have compassion for them. Hoarding isn't necessarily the sum of a person.  Some of the people we see on the show are assholes, but they'd be assholes whether they were hoarders or not.

Also, if a loved one had cancer and couldn't physically keep up with housework, etc., it would be understood that the person was maybe not physically able to do what needed to be done.  Hoarders have mental illness that's kind of the same.  My own mother has told me that getting rid of things is nearly impossible for her.  But, she's my mother and I love her for all the reasons you love your mother, even if she's imperfect and has a really big problem.  She knows she has a problem, but she struggles.  "Consequences" wouldn't do any good and in fact, would probably make her hoarding worse because the hoarding isn't based in any rational thought.  If hoarders could connects the dots enough for consequences to work, then they'd probably not feel the need to hoard.

[Ligeia]

7 hours ago, readheaded said:

"Consequences" wouldn't do any good and in fact, would probably make her hoarding worse because the hoarding isn't based in any rational thought.  If hoarders could connects the dots enough for consequences to work, then they'd probably not feel the need to hoard.

I get what you mean, but consequences can do a great deal of good to the victims of the hoarder, be it children or neighbours etc... And that's what matters most.

Edited August 17, 2020 by Ligeia

[readheaded]

1 hour ago, Ligeia said:

I get what you mean, but consequences can do a great deal of good to the victims of the hoarder, be it children or neighbours etc... And that's what matters most.

I don't disagree, but what's good and right for the hoarder's victim is a different discussion than what will work to reform the hoarder. which is what I was replying to.  In my mom's case, it's my dad who bears the brunt.  He's a guy who doesn't really like, want, or need "stuff," so the hoard is really hard on him.  It'd definitely be a victory for him if we just cleared the hoard out of my parents' house (let me be clear that my mother's hoard doesn't include animals or trash and the house is not in disrepair), but it would probably destroy my mother, so it'd be a hollow victory for sure.

Having said all that, let me be clear that I don't think that hoarders should be allowed to victimize others with their hoard.  I'm just explaining why people won't necessarily put hoarders' feet to the fire.

 

[JudyObscure]

10 minutes ago, readheaded said:

It'd definitely be a victory for him if we just cleared the hoard out of my parents' house (let me be clear that my mother's hoard doesn't include animals or trash and the house is not in disrepair), but it would probably destroy my mother, so it'd be a hollow victory for sure.

You sound very compassionate, Readheaded.  Any time I get totally fed up with the hoarders and want to throw a match into their stuff I remember the documentary  Cynthia Lester made about her mother's hoarding, "My Mother's Garden".  After her mother had completely hoarded the house she was living like a homeless person in her own, overgrown back yard.  Once the family got her cleaned out she was so depressed I was afraid she was going to kill herself.  I feel for your father, too.  The least bit of clutter makes me nervous and I know I would be constantly irritable and anxious inside a hoard.

[Ligeia]

1 hour ago, readheaded said:

I don't disagree, but what's good and right for the hoarder's victim is a different discussion than what will work to reform the hoarder. which is what I was replying to.  In my mom's case, it's my dad who bears the brunt.  He's a guy who doesn't really like, want, or need "stuff," so the hoard is really hard on him.  It'd definitely be a victory for him if we just cleared the hoard out of my parents' house (let me be clear that my mother's hoard doesn't include animals or trash and the house is not in disrepair), but it would probably destroy my mother, so it'd be a hollow victory for sure.

Having said all that, let me be clear that I don't think that hoarders should be allowed to victimize others with their hoard.  I'm just explaining why people won't necessarily put hoarders' feet to the fire.

 

I get what you mean, my mother was actually a hoarder in a similar manner than yours so I understand where you're coming from. She died last month and my father and I couldn't believe the amount of stuff she'd accumulated in all those decades. But it's not hoarded to the point where the house is dangerous or filthy, so we basically didn't realize how much of a hoarder she was. I had talked to her many times about how unnecessary keeping that much stuff was, there was no way to get through to her about that, but it wasn't THAT bad so we never felt a brutal intervention was needed. Had she lived a few more years it might have been a different story, since on top of everything else she'd began accumulating furniture for a few years and she was less clean and tidy (which was understandable given her age).

Anyway this is not the same as the cases of filthy houses filled with roaches and mice... When other people are in direct danger or abused because of the hoarding, the well-being of the hoarder clearly becomes less of a priority for me.

Edited August 17, 2020 by Ligeia

[enoughcats]

Tonight 8/17 retired architect Dennis has learned to repurpose (new word here) from one project to another.   Now has has lots and lots and lots and plans for how to repurpose it. 

But his wife is ill, he is her caregiver and 
the projects he genuinely planned to finish.................

...................

remain unfinished. 

I have got to get my husband to watch this one. 

 

[funky-rat]

All I can hear is "I HAD PLANS FOR THAT ROCK!!!!!"

[FormerMod-a1]

I believe Matt Paxton is in this one.

[RobustRutabaga]

1 hour ago, aquarian1 said:

I believe Matt Paxton is in this one.

Ah, cool.

Did anyone here read Matt's 2011 book, "The Secret Lives of Hoarders"? I signed it out from the local public library at one point as I was mainly curious how he might spin his experiences into a book format. Nothing too earth-shattering there, but an okay idea to capitalize on his name recognition. I have not yet read Dr. Tonya Harding's book, apparently also from 2011, though.

 

[camom]

Maybe I'm heartless, but if my parent or spouse was a hoarder, I wouldn't stay in the situation no matter how much I loved them.  (I'm talking dirty, dangerous hoard here, not just too much stuff in a clean house.)  I understand that these people have a mental illness and I can sympathize, but I wouldn't be willing to sacrifice my own health or the health of my children.  As for the comparison to a disease like cancer, I assume if they got cancer they would pursue treatment.  Most of the hoarders we see aren't willing to even admit there is a problem, much less accept treatment.

 

[LittleIggy]

5 hours ago, aquarian1 said:

I believe Matt Paxton is in this one.

Yay!

[AZChristian]

25 minutes ago, camom said:

I understand that these people have a mental illness and I can sympathize, but I wouldn't be willing to sacrifice my own health or the health of my children.  

I am very allergic to dust.  I had to wear a mask when I visited my hoarding brother, or within 10 minutes I'd start getting hoarse and be unable to breathe.  He thought I was being dramatic.  I was just trying to stay alive in a toxic environment.

[ams1001]

7 hours ago, aquarian1 said:

I believe Matt Paxton is in this one.

I was in the kitchen when it started with the little preview bits; I thought I heard his voice.

This man's poor wife, living in a massive hoard with advanced Parkinson's. How have their kids not gotten her out of there? Or someone not called adult protective services? 

[FormerMod-a1]

He brought his hoard with him! 😮  Something tells me this cleanup will not go well/easy (even compared to others this season, all of which have been challenging).  

[CrazyInAlabama]

I'm so glad they showed the building materials going to Habitat for Humanity for resale.   Where I live the Habitat people have built over a hundred houses in the area.  

The living room looks spectacular.  I hope this is the one that clears the rest out, and stays that way.  

BSOJ (Black Screen of Justice, ending update)-Dennis is doing aftercare, he's trying.   Code enforcement is working with them.   Dennis and the wife are doing well.    I really hope this is a total success, and the home will be clean and safe for the wife.      I hope the back yard is cleared out by now too.     Habitat for Humanity could probably have used the old tools, and other items that were still around too.   

Matt said at the end that they removed 1,000,000 pounds, or 500 tons of donations, garbage, and other stuff from the property.    In case I screwed it up, or you think the number is wrong, it's One Million pounds.    

Citrus Heights, CA. or near there.    I'm guessing it once was endless farms of orange and other citrus groves.    (I'm so old I remember when Disney Land was in an orange grove, and Orange County actually had farms).  

Edited August 18, 2020 by CrazyInAlabama

[ams1001]

It boggles my mind when Matt quantifies things in hundreds of thousands of pounds. 

Glad he was at least able to donate the cinderblocks and other building materials. Not surprised no one wanted the rest of his stuff.

And then came the dead rats...

I would not be touching my face with those gloves on after working in that house...

500 tons...a million pounds. And they're not even done with the stuff outside.

The ending seemed hopeful, though (unless I missed a screen...). Hopefully he'll keep it manageable for his wife's sake, if not his own.

 

[Elizzikra]

2 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I was in the kitchen when it started with the little preview bits; I thought I heard his voice.

This man's poor wife, living in a massive hoard with advanced Parkinson's. How have their kids not gotten her out of there? Or someone not called adult protective services? 

When Code Enforcement came, they called APS, who allegedly were "very concerned." I don't know why they didn't immediately remove Judith - maybe with the promise of the show coming they held off? She didn't seem to be staying there when the episode was filming and when they came into the clean house, he told her that they'd sleep there tomorrow night so maybe they were staying in a hotel during the cleanout? The environment was awful but he did seem to love her and to be taking care of her well (overlooking her living conditions). She looked clean - not that you can really tell via television, but her hair was brushed and didn't look dirty and her clothes looked clean. She wore diapers and they didn't find a huge hoard of dirty ones so at least that garbage was going out.

 

Edited August 18, 2020 by Elizzikra

[enoughcats]

11 hours ago, enoughcats said:

I have got to get my husband to watch this one

The wife's advanced Parkinson's put that plan aside.  I knew my husband's Grandfather had had Parkinson's but with years of being confined to his bed.  Dennis' wife seemed so helpless being carried around, because she is that helpless. My husband couldn't bare to watch.

The money that they both spent to move stuff from Pennsylvania to California.  And they both liked going to thrift stores to buy stuff. Eighty thousand dollars to move stuff cross country.  The estimate that he, maybe they, had spent a million on stuff.  And the other number dropped: that the show had a hundred thousand dollars to clear the hoard.  

I'd never thought to put price tags on hoards beyond storage spaces and wasted opportunities. 

Which brings back the money attached to things and the incalculable money to lost lives. 

There's no way to know what Dennis' wife thinks about this, or what she thought as the situation was spiraling out of control  

[LittleIggy]

I love Matt! When he told Dennis to shut it because he hadn’t interrupted Dennis when he was talking, 🥰! Dr. Tompkins is a fave of mine too. His voice is so soothing, and he seems so empathetic.

I wonder if they could get any $$ for those model trains and tracks? I hope this will be a success story. 🙏🏻

[ams1001]

9 hours ago, Elizzikra said:

When Code Enforcement came, they called APS, who allegedly were "very concerned." I don't know why they didn't immediately remove Judith - maybe with the promise of the show coming they held off? She didn't seem to be staying there when the episode was filming and when they came into the clean house, he told her that they'd sleep there tomorrow night so maybe they were staying in a hotel during the cleanout? The environment was awful but he did seem to love her and to be taking care of her well (overlooking her living conditions). She looked clean - not that you can really tell via television, but her hair was brushed and didn't look dirty and her clothes looked clean. She wore diapers and they didn't find a huge hoard of dirty ones so at least that garbage was going out.

Thanks, I knew I missed some stuff in the beginning. She did look like she was being taken care of pretty well (though I cringed at the thought of tube feeding in that environment).

I did wonder where she was during filming (since obviously she couldn't stay there) and who was taking care of her. Maybe they (or the show) hired a nurse for those days? I noticed the "tomorrow night" line, too, so I figured they were staying somewhere else and maybe it was too late in the day to deal with moving her and all her medical stuff back. 

[FormerMod-a1]

I've never been so happy to be wrong.  Thank goodness he has seen the aftercare therapist, AND it sounds like the family is staying involved.  I do wonder how long it will take to remove the rest of the stuff from the property, but my goodness!  1MM pounds in 4(?) days!  WOW.  At one point in the ep Matt did say they were removing 10 tons an hour, so I knew it was a LOT, but WOW.  That has to be the most of any hoarder on this show yet.  AND there is still the whole back yard and rest of house.  That said, We know they did more than clear out a few rooms - they also got deep cleaned (at least a few of them).  I do worry about all the critters appearing now that their hidey-holes (all that clutter) have been taken away inside and out.  That will affect the neighbors, too.   I have seen exterminators in the background of shots on some eps, so maybe they were there for this one, too.  (I'm sure they'll need to return a few times).  Still so much better than having that 500 tons of stuff removed is SUCH a great achievement.  

[QuinnInND]

I'm still trying to process the amount of stuff they took... 500 TONS! That's just unreal. All the lumber on the roof, enough pavers and cinder block to make a house and pave a street.. All those bread trucks... Just the sheer volume of stuff. Just wow. And how much is still left. They needed 4 weeks to clean that all out. Not just 4 days. 

I had a love hate relationship with Dennis. He loved his wife, and was trying to take care of her at home, as she wanted. Which is wonderful. However, when he started bitching about society not allowing him to live in a hoarded mess, and subject the neighborhood to his crap, and saying his wife e wasn't complaining, I wanted to slap him back to Pittsburgh. She can't complain you pinhead! How dare you make your disabled wife live in such filth. In that same vein, how did the kids not realize how bad the house was, and how bad the master bedroom was where their mother was sleeping? Did they ever look? If not, why not?  They seemed like decent  caring people.. Did they think the bedroom was pristine and clean? I'm surprised that APS didn't immediately remove Judy when the situation became apparent. 

I was pleasantly surprised when Dennis let everything go. I wonder why the donation places wouldn't take his stuff. I've never heard that before. I hope the trains were saved. Those are collectors items and worth some money. 

Judy looked so much better at the end. I hope that Dennis is getting some help at home now too. Taking care of her is too much for one person. He needs some respite care. 

Did anyone else notice how much the son looked like Dr Tompkins? 

[AZChristian]

8 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

I wonder if they could get any $$ for those model trains and tracks? I hope this will be a success story. 🙏🏻

They might have been able to donate them to a train collectors' club, but I doubt they were worth much.  My brother's hoard ("some of my things are valuable, museum-quality antiques") had an "original" Lionel train set in a box.  They were selling for $12 on eBay.  A lot of the problem is with the condition.  The stuff in Dennis' hoard became dust and rat-feces-covered junk.  

[AZChristian]

2 minutes ago, QuinnInND said:

I was pleasantly surprised when Dennis let everything go. I wonder why the donation places wouldn't take his stuff. I've never heard that before. I hope the trains were saved. Those are collectors items and worth some money. 

Donation places don't want massive piles of junk.  Had it been clean and reusable, they might have taken it.  But in a case like Dennis, they would have just been an extra step between the horde and the dump.

[FormerMod-a1]

25 minutes ago, QuinnInND said:

Did anyone else notice how much the son looked like Dr Tompkins? 

Yes!  His very first talking head I had to do a double take.  

[QuinnInND]

39 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

Donation places don't want massive piles of junk.  Had it been clean and reusable, they might have taken it.  But in a case like Dennis, they would have just been an extra step between the horde and the dump.

I've never heard them say that the donation places wouldn't take the stuff before though. I agree that 99% of the stuff I've seen go into the "donate" pile on this show over the years should be trashed. 

[RobustRutabaga]

1 hour ago, QuinnInND said:

Did anyone else notice how much the son looked like Dr Tompkins? 

Oh man, now that you pointed that out I can't unsee it! You are right! 🤣

"Say, Doc...were you by chance passing through this neck of the woods in your travels a few decades back...?"

[enoughcats]

1 hour ago, QuinnInND said:

I was pleasantly surprised when Dennis let everything go.

I went to sleep trying to figure out what was different in his letting go.  Was it the sheer mass of stuff?  Normally (not that there is any normal in hoarding) we'd see the "I have to touch every piece" syndrome.  

First, he must know that he couldn't possibly touch every piece, even given the rest of his life.  

Which led to the question, how the heck did he accumulate that much weight and volume just in the back yard.  The stuff moved from Pennsylvania was still there, untouched, but it represented a decade or two of accumulation.  Both his children had moved to CA and he and his wife moved there to be near them.  That can't have been more than a decade ago, because the son and daughter weren't that old.

Take away the time spent doing the necessities for Judith,  and that for several years, how much did Dennis buy in a year, five years to fill all that space, how much in a day?  Not just the bread trucks (maybe a one time purchase) but all the wood (bet he got it delivered to the roof?) and all the things that were no longer recognizable. 

Edited August 18, 2020 by enoughcats

[CrazyInAlabama]

I suspect a lot of 'donations' on this show go right to the dump.  It's not right to send stuff that's obviously trash, and vermin infested to a charity, and shift the expense of getting the contaminated stuff to the dump onto that organization.   I'm guessing a lot of trash from this show has to go to the biohazard part of the dump too.  .    

Edited August 18, 2020 by CrazyInAlabama

[CrazyInAlabama]

What a waste of money to ship everything to California for $80,000.    They could have furnished the entire house with very expensive furniture for that, and still had a lot left over.     What a total waste of money the hoard was, and I can see why they called Hoarders.    I can't imagine how much getting rid of all of that stuff would have been to the homeowners.   1 million pounds is just astounding.    The dump fees alone would have been horrendous.      I wonder if any more stuff is gone from that yard?    I hope so.  The vehicles need to be gone too, since they're probably leaking all kinds of toxic fluids. 

[readheaded]

18 hours ago, camom said:

Maybe I'm heartless, but if my parent or spouse was a hoarder, I wouldn't stay in the situation no matter how much I loved them.  (I'm talking dirty, dangerous hoard here, not just too much stuff in a clean house.)  I understand that these people have a mental illness and I can sympathize, but I wouldn't be willing to sacrifice my own health or the health of my children.  As for the comparison to a disease like cancer, I assume if they got cancer they would pursue treatment.  Most of the hoarders we see aren't willing to even admit there is a problem, much less accept treatment.

 

The comparison to cancer was that if a person has cancer and is too sick to clean up (whether in treatment or not), no one faults that person.  A hoarder is also sick (whether in treatment or not).

[Pj3422]

On 8/15/2020 at 10:03 AM, readheaded said:

It sounds like a swarm of flies to my ear, lol.

 

There’s a Kathy Griffin special from several years ago, in which she talks about Hoarders, and specifically that sonic sting.