Hoarders: Beautiful Home Hidden Under HUMONGOUS Hoard | A&E

[Music] i'm carmen and i'm a retired data management specialist [Music] i now consider myself to be a hoarder i moved into my home almost 20 years ago it's about 3 200 square feet the way things are in here right now i do not feel like i'm at home i don't feel like i'm in a place where i belong i don't feel like a human being in this house most of my hoard consists of holiday decorations and seasonal decorations i definitely have a lot but i love them all if i didn't love them i wouldn't have [Music] in the family room you'll find some garbage you'll find some clothes both clean and not clean you will find used drink cups i currently sleep in a chair i do have beds upstairs that i could sleep in but my lymphedema is bad going up the stairs is difficult so i'd prefer to sleep in the chair walking into the kitchen you see a filthy kitchen you will see a sink wall that has dirty dishes and take out stuff that needs to be thrown away emptied and thrown away um we have a problem with the plumbing so there are no working bathrooms in the house using the bathroom i have a system set up where the paper products are collected and thrown out at the end of the day it is absolutely horrible demoralizing awful and disgusting to live like this i'm melissa and carmen is my mom the last time i was at my mother's house was several years ago the condition of the home then was [Music] extreme it was certainly cluttered and there were lots of boxes and there was disorganization i am concerned that the house will be obviously much worse i have concerns for her safety in the home and i have concerns about just the standard of living that she's now accepted for herself as normal and it's not normal [Music] i got a call from my first love mike we got together when i was 12 he was 15. we met at church and we were together for about eight months i knew that was the guy that god created for me i just knew it he calls me out of the blue 40 years later and we saw each other and it was it it was over we're doing this we're finally getting it together [Music] i'm sorry this is hard when i talk about michael [Music] it's like it happened yesterday [Music] my mom has really dealt with mike's death by purchasing things and staying at home she has closed herself off to her friends to the family in lots of ways time stopped when mike died and it hasn't started again 11 months after michael's death i had a problem with my neck and i ended up disabled my job of over 20 years is gone and i am without the only thing i have where i can go and not think about what's going on in the house that michael is gone and then i'm forced to be here in the stuff and i'm not physically able to do anything with the stuff and that's driving me insane i can't find my good jewelry including my wedding ring which is a sapphire set in two diamonds [Music] and it's just getting worse around me and i want to fix it and i can't even make the decisions necessary to fix it i died i just died good morning good morning we are excited to be here we're excited to help carmen yes good i'm glad you're excited i am carolina harvey professional organizer and productivity expert so carmen this is your daughter melissa correct right we have melissa here and her husband eric welcome and robin michael's sister right and scott your brother robin correct yes welcome it's great to have you guys here we have a huge team to help you we have the stand up guys we have the organizers and we have dr zazio to help you out so carmen do you give us permission to start in from the front entryway you can start wherever you want all right i like it i like it that's perfect is everybody ready yeah all right let's do this come on [Music] this was a little heavy let me just give you that one [Music] oh goodness michael's obituaries that's when we had his memorial service so we're going to keep or donate at this point because there's probably not a lot of trash here right linens keep london's you want to keep all the linens yep how about we pull them all out first and see here no i'm keeping them all you gonna keep them all i know what they are how many tables do you have two so you want to keep all of them there's none that you're willing to donate i want to keep them all so if we run into more linens are you gonna get rid of some of those not if they're new no you said you want to keep these as well yep there is going to be a point where you're not going to have enough space to store all the linens that you keep and if i have to make another choice i'll make it they're for easter can we donate those no so you want to keep these also okay video dvd collection yeah i'm keeping that i've kind of been watching on the sidelines you can tell you're getting a little bit elevated yes we already knew that the new stuff was going to be tough for you so don't mistake carolina's pushing you for this idea that we want you to get rid of everything at the end of the day we just want to make sure you have room for everything so dr salzio when there's always a reason how do we move forward so this is where mom struggles she sees value in all the stuff she purchased once again what we have to get back to is where are we going to put all this stuff just work with us and know that we have your best interest at heart and we are thinking about the big picture okay we don't want to put everything back in bins in boxes that you can't get to i'm not gonna push you i'm gonna really encourage you all right okay and know that every day is gonna be just like today we're gonna walk you through every step no surprises no sneaky business it's all gonna be just like we've done here okay [Music] i am concerned that when the real volume starts to come out of the house the challenge becomes completely different because there's always going to be a reason why it should stay [Music] i want you to take back your life you think i don't want my life back to listen do you not think i want i want a life the hardest thing of all is the future i planned with my husband i know it's over when mike died i died i know that you're not gonna mean the same person and i don't know what life on the other side of this looks like but this is a den of grief and sadness and anger and shame and wretchedness you are so buried i don't know how to make you stop grieving i haven't that's the whole point mom you have grieved you've just grieved in the most destructive way possible maybe you said that's true but i don't know how i'm in this place where i want to let go of the old welcome the new and i want to move on with a life it's hard [Music] eric uh robin and scott can i see you guys in the house really quickly please okay so let's have an honest conversation as a family sure okay the reality of the situation is all of the has to come back into the house because there's no place else for it to go so none of the problem is solved with the hugs and kisses and the we understand and it's not that we don't love her and it's not that we don't understand but it is that we have a goal and an objective to accomplish that is the reason there are eight people standing out there with nothing to do because nobody wants to hold her accountable to make the hard decision and i get it i don't want to do it either but if i have to be the bad guy and be the only one to say god to do that i know it's not fair for you to do that i'm willing to do that i've been said that since the beginning so stop that you need to take a deep breath that's true that's fair okay i listen i'm hearing what you're saying you know your mom better than anybody okay i hear what you're saying so how about this how about if we all go back in again and say look because you're not able to make any you're still you're still struggling we're going to extend today and try to make another run and another push to get rid of stuff okay okay with with that in in in that respect should should we hit it at well then fine we're leaving then yeah okay okay okay i understand the kid's glove thing i do but i also understand i've been inspiring ways to motivate her to go forward not through threats i i don't understand that's right that's right she'll then threaten you back and call your bluff we'll get there we'll get him i promise i've been there a couple times with her and then after that points yeah then it all comes out it all comes out let's go back out tell her that we're not going to shut down for the day that we're going to give it another push and i want all of you out there to observe her and if she's not showing an increase in improvement then you guys need to swoop in okay does that sound okay okay thank you all right let's hit it okay melissa's tried the loving approach but as the day continued she just couldn't do it anymore and interestingly enough they're both in similar positions melissa fearful that our mom is not going to get this house in order carmen fearful of letting go of their stuff so we'll just have to see what happens okay so we've set up the space so that you can look at all the different categories your household supplies your craft supplies your papers furniture dog supplies i wanted you to see the volume of what you have okay so we're gonna do a push right all hands on deck you ready to do this yeah all right let's go [Music] okay what about all your little pink baskets this is supposed to go inside the furniture in the spare bedroom upstairs i need those we're keeping those light bulbs we're keeping those are the new curtains for the breakfast is this is that a keep box yes we'll put those in mama box and what's up [Music] all this is garage that's for the laundromat okay so that one will keep open that one up just for double checking desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures hello carter hi dad i want to tell you we love you very much very much we've been through a lot of problems together and we have been able to solve all of them and move on but you're confronted with a problem right now that seems like it's a river it's a raging river and it's just too big to cross we wish we could be there with you however you have love runs that you're surrounded by who want the very best for you your mother and i view this event as an opportunity of a lifetime for you and i am asking you with all of our love really common to get rid of this stuff so you can lead a good life thank you dad it it means a lot to me that you were willing to talk to me and i i hear what you're saying yeah and it was better coming from you there's a new life for you okay dad we're gonna help you live thank you grandpa we love and appreciate you we'll call you soon all right bye what did that mean for you my dad is a christian man he's a good man and i know he loves me and it was nice to hear him say those things gives me a little bit more help these items are a hindrance and a burden and prevent her from living the life that she deserves and i think she really needed to hear her father say that to her and tell her that she deserved to have better and to do better and that she could do better and he would love and support her through that you ready to get started yeah yes yep all right let's do it keep uh donate well-oiled machine here yeah a little further go leave so these are donate please okay bye bye all right can i have another donate box please thank you the shampoo donate i am not keeping any of these things we're in the bedroom and everything seems to be going just fine and then all of a sudden out of the blue uh there's too many people here i'm starting to get panicky okay i'm gonna have to have a chair okay do you feel like you're gonna have a panic attack yeah okay i need to get her out of here take her back through that one get her out i know carmen's anxiety level is heightened so i'm gonna have to keep a close eye on her because the last thing that i need her to do is to have a panic attack and shut everything down deep breath there you go now just breathe normal what's going on i'm i'm okay just making sure okay blood pressure is good what is it blood pressure is 130 over 82. well that's the best it's been it's the best it's been since i've taken it and you know what if you make more decisions it'll go down to 120 over 72. the past few days have been really overwhelming we've been pushing her really hard she's just getting worn down and she needs to rest i think that we need to come up with a plan b for your bedroom because that is a massive job i need her in there okay but hang on a second so the plan is melissa okay you're going to be in charge of the bedroom okay she has indicated that all of michael's clothes can go is that correct i know there's a couple of things yeah with the exception of a few items and the sports memorabilia stuff okay i'll start that does that sound okay yes let's do that okay okay okay this is a donate donate donate [Music] donate donate you can get rid of that anything important we're in the final push today i'm excited to keep going and get the house ready for carmen and the family but we still have every room to touch the bedroom the bathroom the kitchen the living room the dining room and our collectibles room we need all hands on deck [Music] get rid of it sold okay it's not old but you can donate it because i don't like it [Music] are you keeping this no okay it's not fixable okay thank you [Music] [Music] welcome oh my god oh my god come on in oh gosh opening those front doors and looking into an entry that was clear and a dining room where we could have family gatherings and have those experiences that are so important to her and to our family it's just it's such a great experience and it's such a great feeling i'm thrilled yeah yes speechless to be able to come back into my dining room and enjoy it i this is phenomenal to me it's beautiful it is lovely you're happy very okay i couldn't be happier good truly we're going to continue on the tour and while we're here we don't want to ignore the elephant in the room which is right behind you so do a little about face there so you wanted to keep a hundred percent of your holiday decor and it's staring at you i'm glad that it's all in one place yeah and that it's all in front of me to make me see how much i actually have the volume you have yeah because that's insane wait timeout [Laughter] it was insane the way it was before but it is now um so okay but you recognize it that's really good you recognize it's too much yes good over the last four days we filled three dumpsters of trash we filled one dumpster with donations and we opened over a thousand boxes and the majority of it went back into the house and back into the garage you still have a lot of stuff to go through and i know your family said they're willing to support you and look through it with you so i hope that still will happen so that you can pare down i can manage this i can stick with this and i'm gonna have help [Music] in carmen's case aftercare is going to be an essential process in order for her to continue her grief process and not revert back to hoarding behaviors she feels very confident that that's not going to happen but the reality is the percentage of people that do revert back to hoarding behaviors is over 90 so she really is still at risk even though she's feeling very confident this process comes full circle and we were looking for all of the treasures and it was always a needle in a haystack [Music] i was i was over the moon to get my ring back on my finger where it belongs back on my ring thank you you're welcome it feels right to be wearing it and i missed it a whole bunch so i was really grateful i'm overwhelmed i'm just overwhelmed for everything you've done for me in giving me a chance to start over it's been the most incredible experience of my life it really has it's it's been so positive i'm not going to let you down i'm not i'm going to do you proud okay it's not by any means about us carmen it's about you and your relationship with your family absolutely i'm so blessed with family you really are and you've demonstrated that through all your hard work so i want to say welcome home thank you very welcome thank you very much [Music] hi thanks for being a fan of hoarders and subscribe to a e for more videos and click the links around me to watch more

Channel: A&E

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Id: 5yIGxleNfTw

Length: 27min 27sec (1647 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 07 2021