Hoarders: Fan FAVORITES - TWO-Hour MEGA-Compilation | A&E

[music playing] I'm Dolores. I love to shop, but I'm out of control. My problem is that I like too many things, and it's hard for me to let go. I think I'm a shopper and a hoarder. I'm Arthur and I'm Dolores' husband. The current condition of our home is that every room is full. I mean, if you come into the entrance and you look to your left is the living room. It's full. You look to the right, and the dining room is full. You go straight ahead to the kitchen, it's full. You go to the family room, it's full. You go up the stairs if you can, there's stuff on the stairs, the three bedrooms up there are full. So every room is full, and the garage. She doesn't like to stay in the house because of the condition of the house. Where have you been? No, we have to elbow. How are you? How are you, Stephanie? I love, love, love to shop. What are you looking for today? We got tons of jewelry over there. Well, you know me. I'm first with the jewelry. I know you like the jewelry. Well, here look. Pearl clip. Pearls are big again. Look at these. My favorite thing to buy is jewelry. That's my weakness. These are good. OK. Keep your pile over here like always. I love my clothes-- Orange is 25 off and green is half off. And there's the yellow. You love yellow. --I love my shoes. I get a high when I go shopping, especially if it's on sale. And this is what-- half? Yes, 75. Not half, 75 off. I get very excited-- this is nice. I want to get this. Oh, that's nice. --and I buy it whether I need it or not. I want no shopping bag. Oh, really? Arthur's gonna see it. Tell him you went to the grocery store and you got some toiletries. That's what I say. I have spent several $100,000 over the years on my stuff. It made me happy. I don't regret it. She'll go into stores, see something she likes, and she'll buy it and bring it home. Arthur, you home? And hide it. And it's led to this current condition. I'm Jenny, and Dolores is my mom. I think my mom is a hoarder. I feel like she's caused the situation, but she doesn't want to be around it. It's like she loves these possessions, but she also resents them as well. DOLORES: We've lived in this house for 41 years. This is my dream house. It was always picture perfect. I would always entertain, have my friends over, and had beautiful dinners for Christmas. I was always a perfectionist. I put my house before myself. ARTHUR: Early on, Dolores didn't have any of those tendencies as far as collecting things and over buying and purchasing. She was pristine. I mean, her house-- she could eat off the floors. Everything was in order. I'm Ardy, and I'm Dolores oldest child. My house growing up, my mom was like a neat freak. So she would just always want everything in order, and she was all about keeping her house nice and neat. I remember my mom picking up lint from the carpet. Everything had to be perfect, picture perfect. ARTHUR: The problem that we currently have didn't start until probably 25 years being in the current house. In other words, she's probably been doing it for the last 10 to 12 years. DOLORES: Arthur would like me to get rid of everything. Arthur would get very mean with me and tell me he's going to leave if the house is not in order, he can't live like this anymore. He would say, I'm going to Texas, I'm going to move in with Ardy. I said, fine, do that if that's what you want. The more Arthur would get angry with me, I would go shopping more. And I knew that would upset him by me not having the house in order. All this stuff in the house is payback. As far as I'm concerned, you can go into that house and throw everything out. Everything, everything. Nothing in there is mine. Nothing. I feel like my dad's been put through a lot. She's the one who did it and the victim's my dad. It's been torture for him. I think that my dad really doesn't know how to handle her, and I think it's hurting their marriage tremendously. If my mom's not willing to clean up the house, I think that my dad is going to have no other choice but to leave. ARTHUR: The problem of the hoarding has to be addressed and has to be fixed. And if Dolores doesn't change her habits, I really don't know what our future will be. - Good morning, everybody. - Morning. Good morning. We're here, big team, because we've got a big job inside this house. We are going to spend the entire day today earning your trust. And we want you feeling good about this and feeling comfortable about it. We have enough people to help that we can actually get this done. Guys, you ready to go? - Ready. All right, let's do it. So we just had a really good morning meeting, I've set the plan, and we're all very clear on what our roles are going to be today. Dolores in the house with the organizers and me and Ardy in the cleaners and the garage. And we're going to bang out the whole first floor, and we're going to bang out the garage, and everybody's going to be happy. No, just leave that there. That did not happen. 5 minutes in, Dolores gets distracted with the garage. Hey, Dolores-- No, you see what happen? MATT: Hold up. No, no. Dolores immediately leaned down, put her hand on something, and had to touch it. So what is your theory right here? What are we doing? This is Siesta Keys-- It's a bag of sand. Yeah. And from the very first minute, we're just watching Dolores pick. See this? This is Christmas. OK, we're going to sort all of that for you over at the tables. - Dolores. What, hon? You're supposed to be inside-- Yes, I know. I just-- You can't look at all this stuff. We're going to pull it out for you, and we're going to let you sort it. We saw immediately what Arthur and the family was telling us about. She is unable to stay focused even for 60 seconds. I need you inside, telling the girls what to do. I'll go out. So I need you to trust me to get this empty. This is not going to go in the dumpster, OK? ARTHUR: This is exactly what happens. Any time you try to get rid of stuff, she starts looking in every bag and tries to keep everything there. It's the same damn thing. I see. The same thing. Just leave these two boxes there. I'll get it. I'll pull them to the side. - Yeah. - No, because-- It's unbelievable. So we got to interrupt this process. Oh, yeah. Yeah. This has to stop. - All right. So the girls are waiting on you at the front door. All right. And I'll-- nope, don't go to the garage. I'll get all this. I got a bunch of people that can help me with this. Yeah, OK. --just throw it out. All right. All right, if you see this row right here, this is from the garage. And that's a lot of mouse poop. And it's really just this row here. But it's pretty saturated with both poop and urine, OK? Can I put this on the Dolores' commandments which is anything covered in rat poop? - Oh, yeah. - You agree with that? Yeah. OK. What's this in here? I don't know, but it's trash bags. So I think it's going to be bad. So I would suggest letting it go because it's covered in rat pee and poop. DAVID: Now Dolores, you're going with your bare hands through stuff that's covered in mouse poop. - Throw it out. - There you go. You've given us the OK. I'm going to let you pick that top corner. All right. Now you're fiddling with things again-- No, no. This all goes. OK. If it goes, then you can leave-- - Doing great. - Yeah. DAVID: There you go. DOLORES: Yeah, this goes. MATT: OK. I won't even tell you what this cost, these four things. Dolores, I'm going to be really blunt-- if you want an empty house, you're going to lose stuff that is important to you. Do you hear me? Mm-hmm. MATT: Do you-- What? Do you agree or do you care? Certain things, I will not. Certain things, I will not. Like these, these are very, very expensive and I'll use them. I'm just going to really question how important is this stuff versus clearing the house out for your grandkids. Certain things are important. What's more important, a fake gold plate or making space for your grandkids? Some is my stuff. Your stuff is more important than making space for the grandkids? Probably. You mean that? The stuff is more important? Certain things, yes. I'm Dr. David Tolan. I'm a clinical psychologist and a specialist in the study and treatment of hoarding disorder. I was shocked. Jenny is standing right there and that's got to be brutal to hear your mom say that. Jenny, you look like you're feeling something as you're listening to this. Tell me what's going on with you. It's just a lot. DAVID: Tell me. It's just a lot of stuff. No one can use all this stuff. So it's just-- I understand it's hard to make a decision on every single one. But we can't sit here and make a decision on every single piece. DAVID: We can't. Or else we're never going to get this house done. DAVID: Right. We're only on the garage right now. So we need to move a little bit. Move along a little bit. DAVID: But it's really going to require a tough choice from you, Dolores. I know that you put family first. And I think deep in your heart, you know that to be true as well. But I think right now, your thinking has been clouded by this drug that's all around you, this clutter. I believe that deep in her heart, she really wants to get over this. At the same time, Dolores has been thrown into the middle of something huge and overwhelming. And she's doing what she can to feel a semblance of control. You could do it. You have our support. You don't need this stuff. I have to work with Dolores to try to understand the reasons why she hoards so that she can get better control over herself. So please, we're begging you. Please get rid of this stuff. We're begging you, please. I want to put all the bulk together. I'm concerned about the pace that this is going at. Right now, Dolores still has to handle and look at every single item. How are you're making the decision? If Dolores doesn't fundamentally change her behavior-- all right-- we're not really going to accomplish much. We can clean out the house. But if Dolores doesn't change, she's just going to fill it up again. If we go at the pace we're going right now, we'll be lucky to finish downstairs. And that's just not enough for everybody. I need to get rid of some stuff, either trash, donate, or sell. So Matt's question is, are you willing to let the organizers make some decisions about what stays and what goes without you having to look at every one of them. If you do that, then we can just move on with the other stuff too because we need to get to these other rooms, OK? Mm-hmm. So would that be OK with you, Dolores, to let other people go through some stuff for you instead of you having to do it all yourself? Yeah. OK, good. (SINGING) Your lover-- Yeah, good, Dolores. We need that. [laughter] - Arthur. Yeah, yeah. Take it. MATT: Kind of surprised how easily Dolores is saying OK. She's saying, yeah, go for it. And so we did. For the last two hours, we really cranked it out. We've got a full team, we're going as fast as we can. And the reality is we have not put a dent in this house. I got 10 feet of white tile. That's it. I've got to clean four rooms tomorrow and get upstairs if I have any chance of saving this house. Day four is always tough. You really hope you're going to finish, but I don't know if we're going to finish. We've been cranking all morning. We're making really good progress upstairs, and we're about to fill our 10th dumpster, which is going to put us over 25,000 pounds of trash in the last three days. Donate. Our pace has picked up considerably because Dolores got out of the house and let us work. Donate. Donate. All right, I like it. Got it. - Donate. Donate. MATT: Dolores is out front, going through thousands of pieces of clothing. I would estimate probably 10,000 pieces of clothing are coming from upstairs. And my goal is to keep her doing that the rest of the day. Donate. But we are going to be up to the very last second to finish this. We did it. We cleaned the upstairs and the downstairs. It was a slow start, but we really pulled it out at the end. We're getting ready to take the family in and show them all the work that we did. Oh, boy. Oh, my goodness. aye Goodness. My house. MATT: What do you think? DOLORES: Great. Oh, my god. ARTHUR: My god. It's just hard to believe I haven't seen this room in probably 10 years. MATT: You know, it's always fun to see a family walk into a house they haven't seen in 20 years. And you could see the emotion immediately from everybody. Jenny, how'd you feel? Definitely brings back a lot of good memories. DAVID: Yeah? You got good memories in here too? Mm-hmm. It's just hard to put into words. It's just really unbelievable. I never thought that this would happen. Oh, my god. It looks brand new. Yeah. Go on in. It's unbelievable. DOLORES: Oh, my god. ARTHUR: Oh, my god. Wow This is like a rebirth. I mean, this is just something that I never dreamed could happen. Never. Arthur truly believes he's getting his life back. That's a really powerful thing to see. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. I haven't seen that granite in many moons. It was just astounding to see it totally clear the way I remembered it from many years ago. Now I'm very excited just to live a normal life. MATT: This is absolutely a win. We finished the house, we got 25,000 pounds of trash out of here, and a family has got a chance at getting their life back. Oh, my goodness. My goodness. ARTHUR: Oh, my god. DOLORES: Just beautiful. How do you feel, dear? Terrific. Now we're going to keep it this way, right? - That's right. - All right. It's not going to change. Absolutely. It's really important to recognize that this is not the end of the story. This is the beginning of the story. We got them off to a good start, but now it's up to them. I'll never forget any of you. It's just amazing. Amazing, amazing, amazing. MATT: You said something me in the garage today. You remember what you said? There's no way to repay what you have done. All of you. All of you, the whole crew. You folks did a great job yourselves. You worked your butts off this week. And it shows. Open your house and open your hearts. And maybe you'll have a new life. MATT: Is Dolores cured of hoarding? Not at all. The real work starts next week when Dolores has the urge to go shopping. The only way this house stays clean is that Dolores goes to therapy. I'm going to make sure that she gets the help that she needs. I think this family needs to keep practicing setting limits. But if everybody does their part, I think we may be able to keep this problem away for good. I am not going to hoard anymore. Absolutely not. And I promise to my husband and my children that this will not happen again. This is the beginning of the rest of my life, to live happily ever after. I'm Nora, a retired medical professional, and I'm a collector. I'm a collector of everything. I collect cuckoo clocks, owls, I collect owls, lamps, sleepwear-- I'm one for a lot of Victoria's secret sleepwear-- and I can't even tell you everything that's under the pile. I just know it's things that I've collected over the years. You cannot walk through rooms. The stove is piled up to where I cannot cook on it. The sinks are piled up to where I can't get even any water out of the sink. I'm Sheila, and Nora is my sister. The last time I was in Nora's home was over 13 years ago. She will not allow you even to visit or stop by. And if you continue to ask, she becomes very upset and asks why are you assuming that I am a hoarder. I'm Verlee, and I am Nora's sister. There's been days where I can't get hold of my sister for like a day and a half on the phone. Yes, I'm worried about her. About 30 years ago, her son Kevin was diagnosed with a brain tumor. And he lived about eight years with it. They stopped life support at 5:30 in the evening. And that's when my life ended. Not a day goes by that I don't think of Kevin. When Kevin passed away, that's when the things started accumulating. Every time I would buy a set of something, I would buy a set for him. It was almost a feeling that Kevin was going to come back. She's so attached to these items that taking them away is like reliving Kevin's death. It really is. She's told us she does not want to get rid of anything, she doesn't have anything to get rid of, and she will die first in the home before she parts with them. If Nora is not able to get rid of any of her things and refuses help, then we have to call Protective Services. I said, you best not do anything like that. I'm not hoarding anything. I'm collecting things. And I love my collectibles, and I'm going to keep collecting them. I'm very concerned that my sister will die in the home and no one be there with her. Nora, we were told you wanted to talk to us this morning. My name is Cory Chalmers. I'm an extreme cleaner specializing in biohazard and hoarding. I had some very exciting news later last night. My nephew, Sheila's son, who's in the military-- he's a naval officer-- is coming home. And he asked last night, could he come to my house and visit a few days. So we got to get moving today. Well, I love that. I love that. CORY: Well, good. Let's do it. Let's get going. Donate. Yeah. Donate, donate. Donate. Cookbooks, donate. CORY: Things are going great so far. She's letting the sisters make decisions while she hangs out in the tent. Keep. Decide on one of them. Would that be OK? I just bought those for [inaudible] or something. Throw them in the keep box. Keep. Oh, I know where all this stuff goes-- Moving things. --back in the house some places later. It's been kind of slow going. At this rate, it would take weeks, if not months, to go through everything. [gags] I keep gagging. I have to stop. Odor is very foul and lingering. What's wrong? Why did I-- Oh, my gosh. CORY: You can't do this to yourself, OK? I understand how you're feeling. But you can't beat yourself up, OK? You can't go back. There's nothing you can do to go back. There she is. We're just talking. You all are throwing too much stuff away out there. Is that right? The donate boxes? Yes. What's the matter. Verlee is upset. About what? Oh, I'm just feeling sad and guilty because when I let you come home from my house, I didn't know it was like this. Well, don't feel sad. Feel happy that you're able to help me now. Oh, good. Are you OK with us helping you though now? Yeah, I'm OK. I'm sorry you're going through this. No, I just love you. I love you too, sweetie. Love you. Well, wait a minute. Did you find those binoculars? They're expensive and I'm selling them. There should have been a little pair. What are you looking for? They were in-- if they were in the case, we never took them out. They are $2000. Where are they? I know there was binoculars in there. I know that I could sell them within a day and I know what I can get out for it because I've got the receipt of what I paid for. I feel like we're going back to yesterday afternoon when you started to check out and you started to get stressed and I don't want to do that to you. So I need to make sure your head's still in this and you still really want it to go. It is. I just don't want four or five, $6,000 worth thrown away either. Dr. Tompkins has some work to do. He's got to sit down with her and see if we can't proceed. But at this point, it's not looking good. What were your concerns, Nora, when you went into the house? That things will be thrown away or have been thrown away or donated, which I would not have permitted. There was an entire apartment building that burned down a couple of cities over and 48 families were homeless. They're going to come and get all this and give it to all those families. But does that help just knowing that these families are getting it? Oh, this makes me happy. It really does. That's what we like to hear. Yeah When I was in second grade, our home burned down. So I know how devastating that is. And I just want to give whatever we can to these victims. CORY: I just want to really applaud you. I mean, I think they took 75 boxes away, which, for me, is a record. And hopefully that will motivate you to let go of even more tomorrow morning, OK, because that's the last we have. Tomorrow morning's it. Michelle, can we donate this? Sure. Where am I? When I walked in the front door, it felt like I was in a dream. I just couldn't believe it was my home. This means so much to me. I can't. SHEILA: It actually look like someone waved a magic wand. It brought us all to tears. When Kevin was alive, this space was filled with love, caring, kindness. Then we lost Kevin. And you filled the space around your heart with things. So what brought us here was to bring love and caring back in your life. It feels like there's been some weight lifted off of my heart. I mean that. I mean that with all my heart. Now Nora can create new memories of love and caring. And it was there. It was right there in the room. You could see it. OK, here we go. I'm Margie, and I'm a hoarder. When you come into our house, you're crowded immediately at the entry with a TVs still in the box that needs to be installed. A lot of the things that have accumulated in here are magazines, books, some stuffed animals, not necessarily stuff we need, but stuff that I like. Oh, want that there. Lady. [whistles] I'm Bethel. I'm a retired engineer, and Margie is my wife. There's three cars on the property. No, four. Let me take that back because I forgot the suburban. There's four cars on the property that don't run. We have about 10 cats-- that number fluctuates-- One horse, our dog Macy who is-- she runs the house, and three possums that come and eat the cat food and get petted. The hard part is to be able to find some room to be able to prepare stuff because the cabinets are piled with all kinds of little gadgets. So you have to move things around to be able to to prepare. MARGIE: Our living room has a TV. Bethel has a chair that he sits in. What've you been doing, Macy? Have you been a good girl today? As long as it's just the two of us, the living room functions fine. What are you working on? Crocheting those mats for the homeless. BETHEL: She does a lot of things for people. So if you need something done, she's there to do it. This is my plarn, plastic yarn. I'm Shannon and Margie is my mother-in-law. I'd like to say that they have really good hearts. I think one of the reasons they hoard things is to help other people. When Margie goes out shopping, she's not just thinking of herself. She's thinking of other people. She loves to shop. That's the problem is her compulsive shopping. But it's not just about her. DWAYNE: My mom's shopping is out of control. She'll go to a store and spend hours there, garage sales on Friday, Saturday, Sundays, whenever they're open. She loves that can I find a deal. She will find something that maybe she doesn't need right this instant, and she'll go ahead and purchase that. Well, once you purchase that, when you bring it into the house, you've got to store it somewhere until you either use it or it sits there for 15 years. It just starts piling. I consider myself a hoarder, yes. Not to the degree that Margie is. I can get rid of stuff, but the hoarding I have is that I look at it, does it have an economic purpose. If there's still some value left in it, I have a hard time getting rid of it because then I got to go to my bank account and replace it. I'm JoDawna, and Margie is my mother. I do believe my dad is a hoarder also. He was raised from parents from the depression. And whatever they had, they didn't let go of it because they didn't know if they'd be able to replace it. And so that was his upbringing, and he just brought it into the marriage. So the two of them together make great hoarders. My biggest concern with the house is just their safety. If a fire broke out or if one of them-- they're aging. If she fell over, the paramedics would have an impossible time of getting her out. I'm very afraid that if they don't clean their house that within the next five years, they're both going to die. With everything in the home, they won't be around very much longer. For me, day one is always about earning trust. I'm just going to focus on earning trust and make sure we don't have any blow-ups. And otherwise, everything should go great. Welcome, everybody. ALL: Welcome. All right big family, big crew, big house. We've got a great team from Junk King, we got three extra organizers here. I think I want to start with why are we all here. And anyone in the family can answer that. Well, to help my parents hopefully get this clean, alleviate our safety concerns. My mom's got a bad back, and we'd like her to be able to get the surgery and be able to recover in a nice, safe home. I say let's just get to it. All right, you guys ready? ALL: Ready. OK, let's go. All right, so is this your fabric you used for sewing-- No, this was potential see if our daughter wants it. OK. See if Bri will use it. Bri will never wear that. So is this a good thing to donate? Yes. --goodbye to this. All right, way to go, Margie. I'm going to give you the honor of throwing it in the donate bag, Margie. [cheering] We got to go into this stuff real quick. All right, this was to the VA [inaudible].. It's already sorted. It's ready to go. [interposing voices] MATT: Hold up. She really shouldn't be touching that. MATT: Hold up. We've got mouse poop all over it. On the top. MATT: I understand that. But from a donation center standpoint, they're not-- They're going to throw it away because of that. And the other choice is walk it in there and you put it in the washing machine and then you give it to them. That's a great theory and realistically are you able to do that. It'll never get done. Yes, it will. I'm not sure that Margie has really grasped the magnitude of this hoard. I don't think she realizes how much stuff she's actually going to have to get rid of to make this house safe, healthy, and livable. I'm going to have to put my foot down on the kid stuff. We can't donate that. I'm not donating that. What are you doing with it? She wants to keep it and wash it. And do what with it? Peyton is-- You can't let a human baby wear that. It didn't have mouse poop on it, OK? Matt, JoDawna has already indicated that she wouldn't let her grandbabies wear those. If they're dirty with feces-- They weren't. - They are. - All right. No, they-- - They say they are. [interposing voices] --is coming out with feces all over it. You can see it. This is the part that's hard because as it's covered in mouse poop-- could you clean it? Sure. But is it realistic with your time? Yes. We can't-- The donation-- You know what, I don't work out of the home or anything. I have the time. You have the time, but you also have 1,000 things to do. Anything that they used as their bathroom needs to go. It's got to get out. Then you might as well burn the whole place, OK, right now. Well, and I'm going to tell you this-- when you die, that's what we're going to have to do. Well, and won't be using it. You can do whatever you desire with it, my dear. It has to go so that they can come over and spend time with you. Because right now, they don't want to. We don't want our children around it. That is why Bri and Cole won't come here. I am so mad because Margie seems to be picking her stuff over her grandkids. She doesn't care that they don't want to spend time with her. You don't want Raegan and Peyton growing up and never ever stepping foot in your home. Do you care? You really-- no, that look right there just said you don't care. I see them other places. So it's not that critical. So do you want them growing up knowing that great grandmother's house was so bad they couldn't go in it? Because that's your legacy right now. Bri tells everybody that she almost became the beetle girl at school because the beetles got in her backpack because she came over here. And don't you ever say it's her fault. Don't say it again because it's not her fault. She had nowhere to put that backpack. If she had a place to put the backpack, it wouldn't have been put on bucket full of beetles. That's not how the beetles got in. Yes, it is! When Margie looks at me when I call her out, I feel like, once again, she's shrugging off my children. She's, oh, well, and I want my kids to be able to have grandparents. Excuse me. I'm scared to go here, but let's just jump in and try it here. What are the rules that we're going to have? Is there anything that you can tell me without even looking at it you know you can go. I got a bunch of old peppers in there that are decaying. I don't want those dumped because we're going to can after you guys leave. If it's clearly spoiled food-- But that's the problem. Clearly is not-- There's no clear. Hoarding 101, get a definition of what trash, keep, save, and donate is. And saving decaying rotting food-- day two, I do not have a definition of trash. I need you to pick out something I can throw in this trash bag. What about the old ketchup packets that are in there? I was just going to put them in my ketchup. And that needs to go in the first aid stuff and that needs to go back in the bathroom. This, we store food in. All right, how about an old biscuit? Wait a minute. It's got biscuits in it. How old are these biscuits? Just very few days. Put them in this and in that box can go. Now when you put them in the microwave, believe me, they soften. I think I lost like 30 minutes of my life today. It's just a bottle of water. Still drinkable or I can dump it in the aquarium. Dump it in aquarium, let's get rid of the bottle. I've written about Oklahoma hoarders because they're the most difficult to help. They take pride in suffering like their ancestors did. Margie didn't get mean, she just totally ignored me completely. I've been ignored by many women in my life, but not like this. I'm going to go put it outside. I feel like she's winning. I got to be honest. I don't feel like I'm making any progress. And there's the master of her manipulation. I feel like she's winning and I'm losing. And really this whole family is losing. Nothing's happened. You don't need this. It's dried. That one-- Oh, what was-- oh. It's rotted food. It's fine, Margie. They were some grapes for the possum tonight. Oh, well, dadgum it. The possum is not going to get fed. I think it's wild. It'll get its own food. No, they come up on the porch. Because you trained it. They came up on their own before I ever-- Why do you think? Because the house is full of [bleep].. This needs to be put over there to be washed since you dumped my grapes. Yeah, I dumped your grapes. Well, like I said, the possum loves them. What is this for? Tell me why you need this. No, you need more? I got 50 of them at home. Take them out to the greenhouse for under my plants. You have stuff for under your plants, grandma. I need you to honestly think about why you're keeping something and think if you already have it. Because I have a use for it, and I don't have-- But you're not using it. You may have a use-- no, listen, listen. I just moved the plants-- Grandma, look at me. Are you OK living in this? If you're OK living in this, why are we here? What's the point of us being here? That's cause Dwayne called. No, no, because all of us called. I am throwing stuff away, OK? What about it makes you happy? What about this box and this stuff makes you happy, happier than having your family over for a Sunday night dinner? It doesn't make me happier, but-- Well, that's what it is, because we can't come over, grandma. We can't come over for a Sunday night dinner because you're holding on to this stuff. It is painful realizing that she would rather hold on to her stuff and not get rid of it than for us to come over for family dinners. None of that is purposeful. It's frustrating. I just don't understand why her things matter more to her than we do. OK, you know what? I'm out. I'm out. I love you. I love you. I really do. But I can't help you if you don't help yourself. Going into day three, we are going to have to totally shake this up. Start in the hallway, go straight to the living room, get everything, all the furniture, everything. And try to outmaneuver one of the best manipulators I've ever seen. We're going to take 100% of this room out. We're not going to trash anything in here, we're not going to anything, we're going to bring 100% of this room to the tables outside. And then we'll sort everything out there. We'll sweep it up, clean it up, sanitize it as quickly as possible. And then we'll bring in the stuff that you want. Just going to do it a different way so we visually see everything that is in this room. Because it's really hard for you to make a decision on an item that's at the bottom of that pile. And we'll never-- we proved yesterday. We will never even get through this pile today if we do it that way, if we handpick it. The hard part will be do we fill it right back up with the stuff we took out or do we decide to let go some of it out there and keep this room cleaned. And that's on y'all. We're ready. MATT: Let's do it. OK. BETHEL: We don't need that. Put that back! Let's try to get rid of some of that stuff, OK? Whatever. It's not whatever. You can do this. Try to not say whatever, OK? Fine. I'll rephrase it as to I'll go along with it. That's the problem. Don't go along with it because it's not the change in the mindset. I want you to try to change the mind, if possible, OK? And I know it's not-- Take steps. It's not going to be overnight, but you've got to be willing to start. All right, we've got a lot of stuff to do here. Let's get back at it. All right. All right. We don't need that. You don't need that, grandma. Quit digging through it. There are things like my quilt books and all that that will stay. Let's try to pare down the quilt books, OK? I'm not giving in, guys. ROBIN: All of this is just from your living room only, not from any other part of the house. The reality is you haven't accessed this stuff probably in 10, 15 years. Wrong. The very first box, they decide they're going to keep the whole thing. The second box is office supplies which we have boxes and boxes of already. This whole thing is pointless we're wasting all these people's time. My KitchenAid book stays. OK, I'm done. No, I'm not hushing. Hey, you've already said-- Margie, easy. Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Margie. No. Zero productive is how that is. Absolutely [bleep] zero. Please listen to me. Whether you know it or not, it's killing you, and it's killing him. And it's killing all of us watching it kill you. - We're not trying to control. - Yes, you are. No, mom. Mom, we are not. We love you and we want to see you around. The fact that I would like you to be ready for graduation, in the current situation with this house, you won't make it. I promise. No. He didn't know me anyway. He wouldn't miss me. Everybody is tired of the piss attitude you have every time you come around. And you know why you have the attitude? It's because of this place, because you're always upset being in this. Just because it hasn't killed you yet doesn't mean it won't. That's like riding around in a car without a seat belt on. Yeah, it hadn't killed you yet. You haven't died in car wreck yet, but you put your belt on. This is the same thing. You're my mother. I love you. I have never ever not loved you. But when I can't come see you, it breaks my heart. We've been shut out. Even if I walk out of this house, when we're done with this and I never come back, I'll still love her. That'll never stop. This behavior is your mom's disorder. We have tried in multiple ways, more ways than I have with anyone I've ever worked with who's struggling with hoarding disorder, and we haven't had any breakthroughs. And I had to be honest with the family about this. I'm doing everything that we can and I will keep trying. MATT: Plan today is a little risky. I want Bethel to see that he can have a space that he can live in. So we've taken everything out of that room, I'm setting up a big nice TV, we've gotten him a nice couch, maids are coming in, they're going to clean the room. It's going to be nice. It's going to be the nicest that Bethel's seen this house in 20 plus years. [laughs] Oh my. I've never seen this room this clean, ever. Let's talk about safety really quick. Is this house safe? No, it's absolutely not. And I don't want to sugarcoat it for you guys, OK? It's still an extreme fire hazard, it's an extreme weather hazard, it's an extreme trip hazard. If this room stays empty, we've got a place that I feel comfortable with a medical bed coming in. We have a space that you can recover in, OK? I've still got 100 boxes in the front yard got to go somewhere. Yeah. And I can fit about 20 in the sewing room. Is that stuff going back in here or is it going in a dumpster? You've got about 10 minutes to tell me. Matt and I are going to let you guys talk as a family and figure out where you're headed because your future is in your hands right now. You all figure it out. We'll be outside. So we left and left it up to family to discuss. They needed to make that decision together. So you're OK with giving us permission to help-- Not OK, no. Being OK-- Willing to let them make the decisions to be able to keep this, to be able to keep the family in one room. I hope I don't regret it for the rest of my life. But yeah. OK. Get rid-- yeah. MATT: Margie did everything we asked. Was it enough? Not to finish the whole house. But I don't think that's what mattered. She just straight up she showed the family that she was going to get out of her comfort zone and she tried and she let us throw some things away. That's effort. Go ahead and take all those boxes in. They're ready to go. Being the last day, I've got some mixed emotions. The living room is actually a living room you can live in it. Just a few things that have kind of slowed me down seeing how much actually got back into that one room. She still brought so much back in. It didn't go in that room, but it still came back in the house. Six dumpsters, 20,000 pounds. Those are figures that I like to give. We didn't do that here. We got about 1,000 pounds of trash out of this whole house. We worked really hard for 20 square feet. Normally, with the same amount of effort, we would have cleaned a mansion. But we cleared one room. We plan on doing the aftercare as a couple because it's a situation that affects both people. What I saw in Bethel's eyes, I haven't seen in a long time. He does have hope. And as long as someone has that, you're never out of the fight. BETHEL: I think Margie has made some big steps in allowing things to be released from her grab. And I think that's a big accomplishment for her. I'm Meryl, and I'm a hoarder, a saver, a squanderer. I've overdone it a little bit. Now it's overtaking my life. I'm Kevin. I'm Meryl's husband. The inside of my house is a mess. [laughs] I've tried to clean it up a couple of times, and I got more flack than I wanted to deal with. So I just basically-- OK. Some people would say, how can you deal with her. I love her, I really do. And I want to spend the rest of my life with her. But she has to throw stuff out. There's no if or buts about it. She has to throw stuff out. I woke up one morning to reality and said, I better get some help in here. It didn't hurt that we had some people asking us to get rid of the hoard as well. If we don't clean the house, the code enforcements, they can evict us out of our own home and they can have us pay for the clean out. This hoard has really precluded us from doing a lot, and I don't wish this on anyone. I'm Sharon. I'm Meryl's sister-in-law. Meryl is a hoarder. This really, I think, started after her mother died. And I think that was the impetus that really made her feel like both her parents were gone now, and she had hold on to this stuff to keep that part of her alive. Great. Now that doesn't fit in there. 90% of her stuff is down in my basement including paperwork, lyrics that she wrote because she was a singer, all kinds of things. I have everything. And I will admit, I'll be the first to admit, I could not bear to part with many of those things. Even her hair curlers, I would smell them and it smelt like her. And I didn't want to get rid of them. We could still function up here on the first floor. And then slowly but surely, I have lymphedema. It started to get bad. And before I knew it, I wasn't able to climb stuff anymore. I wasn't able to put things away anywhere. I wasn't able to do stuff. In 2008, I needed to sit every 15 minutes, every two hours. And the trial court said, no, you have to be in totally good health to do this job. So bye. I must say, I hoard clothes. I have mounds and mounds and mounds and piles of clothes. I'd come home with bags and bags. And how did I feel when I get home with that? I felt like Christmas had come. I felt snuggly-wuggly. And it was really good. It was sort of a high. It was like a high that chocolate gives you. But it doesn't last. $100,000. That's not including the mortgage on the house and a second mortgage on the house. We live paycheck to paycheck. If I was out of work for two weeks, we would just be like a funnel, just go straight down the tubes. Over the years, we have, my husband and I, tried to step in and help them out financially. A considerable amount of money at different points. The second mortgage, lovely. Oh, and it's late. And it sort of became where we realized it was not helping their situation. It wasn't changing it. Meryl called me desperate. It was like Thanksgiving and it was really cold and her heat didn't work. And so she wanted a pretty considerable lump sum. That she told me she had found a de-hoarding agency and she was going to hire them. MERYL: I said, I got to get rid of this hoard because they're trying to kick our asses out of the house. I need 15 grand. Can you at least just give us that? SHARON: And so we gave them that money and come to find out she didn't use that money to de-hoard the house. My brother and I had a big blowout on text. We went back and forth and things were sad and things weren't sad. My brother and I have been estranged now for about three years. We haven't talked, we haven't seen each other. I had a long talk with Meryl about a week ago. And when she was starting to tell me about things she's hoping to find and then keep, the list was getting a little long. And I was pretty adamant with her that you this is your chance. This is your last chance, Meryl. If you don't take this and really clear that out, you're done. CORY: Good morning, everyone. ALL: Good morning. I'm Cory Chalmers, an extreme cleaner that specializes in biohazard and hoarding. Meryl, how are you doing so far? I'm still upright. [laughter] CORY: That's good. Little anxious, little excited. Good. That's to be expected. If you weren't, I would say something's wrong. Our goal is not to get rid of everything. Right. ROBIN: It's to get rid of all of the extraneous stuff that is making your house unlivable. We're going to be pushing you pretty hard. But at the end of the day, it's because we want you to have a safer house, your family wants you to have a safer house. What we don't want is for code enforcement to come in, decide what they're going to take, put a lien on the house, throw you guys out. And then you've got a whole other problem on your hands. Yes. I'm concerned we only have a short window and this week, she's turning 60 and it's the beginning of a new decade. But it's a new life. I feel like it's a fortuitous moment. And I really want to remind her and I'm blunt and going to be the pusher saying we want you to focus on us the relationship, the memories. We have pictures at our house we can give you that maybe-- - Not of the memories I have. - Well-- Sorry. I want you to focus on the relationship that you and Kevin can have when you can sit down together. Our family can be together in your house-- I know. That has nothing to do with that though. [laughs] A couple of VHSes ain't going to do anything of that. Don't worry about it. Just a couple. I'm just a little concerned about us moving forward. I would add on to that because, Meryl, I know I can sense the tension that's coming up in your voice. I understand. And I want you to know we're leading with compassion of, like my mom was saying, the difference between things and the difference between things that truly embody who you want to be moving forward. Yes. But you have to understand it's OK to have some things. I don't want to have nothing. I want to have a few memories that I can hand and hold. And those few memories are not going to take up a lot of space. It'll probably take up a box. So we're off to a great start because we're all on the same page. Cory, what's our plan? We're going to bring things out under the tents and stuff for right now to start sorting, start learning what you think of things, how you make decisions so that we can kind of build off that to make a bigger game plan. Any other questions? - Nope. CORY: All right. Well, let's get started. - OK. - All right. What's the percentage that you and Dr. Zasio talked about earlier? A very large percent. Very high, like 96-ish, 7-ish. 90-- yeah. You pick the middle number, 95 to 97. But I'm happy with 96. OK. So think about that. 96 out of 100 items that are going to come across this table, you need to say-- Get rid of it. MERYL: Yes. My husband says, yes. I'm not really crazy about it. OK. That we can get rid of. CORY: Oh, perfect. Trash. What are you doing with this? This was my mother's. So this is going to be a little tough. I just-- I don't need it. I just want say goodbye, that's all. OK? Have you said goodbye to your mom? And I'll never be able to say goodbye to her completely. I'll always miss her, always. Well, of course. Of course. Just wish she was still here. We know that there are a lot of Meryl's mom's items in the home. So there's a lot more to come. There are going to be some difficult decisions to make. I'm really worried the process may slow down. If this is something that you feel connects you to her, it's OK to keep it. You're doing really good. Isn't she doing good? - She is, yes. - Yes. All right. I'm glad you took a moment, and I'm glad that you could get real with this-- I'm glad I-- --and feel what you needed to feel. I'm good. Your kitchen feels pretty open, by the way, I must say. Does it really? Without that in it it really does. You want to see it real quick? Yeah. This can do one of two things. It can make a hoarder feel very exposed and scared, but it can also make them feel very happy. And we need to see where she's at in this process. Holy crap! Oh, my god! Oh. But I'm feeling really proud that we've made so-- that Meryl has made so much progress and that there's space. But at the same time, it really makes me refocus what was underneath everything. And now it's dirty, and I don't want people I love living-- MERYL: Well, they're very good. They do clean-- they do the best they can at-- You're missing the point. Listen to what she's saying. She's referencing what you were living in. Right. I'm very uncomfortable being in here by the dirt. And I don't want you living that way. MERYL: I know. I know you don't. So I want you to live in a clean place because you deserve that. - And I know. I should. You're right. I am very proud of my wife, what she did today. I'm just seeing what the repercussions is tonight when everything settles in her mind and see what tomorrow brings, if she's the same high spirited person as she was today. I'm hoping or praying that she is. Oh, that's the one. Oh! What? What? The yellow one, the yellow one. What is it? This is the first picture when I went out with Kevin on a date, you guys. Kevin took this of me. CORY: You guys, let's stop. She's having a hard time breathing. So let's not kick up any more dust. Unfortunately, keeping Meryl in the middle of everything where she feels like she's in more control ended up being a detriment because she breathed in a lot of the dust that we were kicking up and she started to have a hard time breathing. Yep. Why don't we do that, then? So we had to take a break, get our set medic on it and give her some oxygen. Tomorrow, we're going to have to be a little more careful. So we're going to check in with her first thing and see how she's feeling. We have to be very mindful that she is in poor health. SHARON: Meryl, I found something really important. - Oh, god. - Look at this. Who's this that? Oh, my god. It's your dad's that we don't want underneath piles of junk, right? No. He served our country. So I'm glad I found that one. Thank you. That one's important. It is very important. What does this mean to you, Meryl? My poor dad, he died so young at 48. He never got to enjoy his grandchildren. Never got to enjoy anything. But I'm so glad that we have this is at least something. Yeah. This is very nice because I forgot. That's right, daddy-- daddy served, all right. Yes, he did. Yeah. Wow. For the past few days since I've been here, it's been all about laughs and smiles and hugs and support. And I'm curious, Sharon, how you feel about the financial investment that did not go the direction that it was supposed to. Frustrated. And I was shocked when I pulled out the folder and it was 2 and 1/2 years that we paid their mortgage. And then we finally said-- Enough is enough. SHARON: Yeah. You were given money that was going to the cleanup. What about that piece? She gave us a big check. She gave us a $12,000 check or whatever it was. She did. We intended to use it just for that. And then they were saying, it was going to cost even beyond that. And I said, oh, my god. So-- $12,000 to filling up your house. Yeah, but it was already full at that point. It wasn't really-- we didn't spend it on any more hoarding stuff. Sharon, I'm watching your body language, and I can actually hear your breathing get harder. And I can see you getting really tense. I'm getting uncomfortable talking about all this, and I'd like to stop. ROBIN: Sharon wants to fix things. She doesn't want to dwell on things. And she just wants to move on once they're fixed. Emotionally, there was a lot going on for her. I still don't think she really gets the message. There is an excuse for everything. MERYL: Oh, my god! That's worth money. That's worth money. OK, I feel like we're back at day one. Yeah, I know. And I don't like-- well, that's because I'm getting inundated. It's not working for me. Would you rather people not give you stuff to sift, because I feel like right now, it's looking like the two other bedrooms are going to stay hoarded by the end of the day tomorrow. That seems to be the update around here. Well, the way I'm looking at it right now is it doesn't matter. I'm not going to be able to use a lot of it anymore. And I'm not going to be able to do much anymore. I don't think we're going to get through them all anyway. CORY: Tomorrow, we have a big check off list. So we need to finish the master bedroom, we need to rip all the carpeting out of the living room and get that wood floor exposed. We need to get down into the laundry room, make that functional. And we need to clean up the den, which is where her cable access and things are that she really needs to get in. So there's a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. So first time ever in 21 years have I seen and heard of somebody in the middle of the night get up and box things up and throw them in the dumpster. Yes, I did. So that is quite impressive. Very nice. Never have I heard of anybody actually initiate, which is such a good sign because when we leave, that's what you're going to have to continue to do depending on what's left over. Yeah, I know. So we're ready to move forward. OK. - I say we get at it. - Yes. - OK? - Let's do it. Let's go. MAN: Yeah, I like that. WOMAN: Well, there you go. Home sweet home. Ooh. Holy moly. It's a real kitchen. Look at these counters. Wow. Walking into the house, I just visualized all this weight coming off of Meryl's shoulders. I'm free. Magnificent. I was excited for them. I was just really excited. Oh, my god. [gasps] Oh, my god. Oh my. Wow. Oh, Meryl, look at it. Oh my god, look at it look beautiful whoa Oh my god, that's so wonderful so inviting, So that's a new bed for you, Meryl. Oh, thank you. You're welcome. So do you want to know a number on what we got rid of? Yes, I do. So because you were so good at letting us remove stuff, you let go of 15 tons. So think about that. That is unbelievable. You guys are going to be a little disoriented for a while, OK? So we have aftercare lined up as you know. I have an appointment already scheduled for you. And our aftercare coordinator will be working on an organizer so that you can get the rooms that have not been completed completed. Wonderful. My husband wasn't with us, but he was in spirit. And he sent you this birthday card. And he wants you to know how incredibly proud he is of you. And he can't wait to come and see the house and be here in the home with you. Thank you. I'm glad. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's wonderful. Thank you, Sally. Thank you, thank you. "Dear Meryl, it's a new day, a new year, and the possibilities are endless. Hope it's as amazing as you. Happy birthday. Congrats on emptying out the place. I'm proud of you taking this on. Love, Marshall." I love my brother. I'm hoping that this mends all the fences a little bit and that we can start moving forward. And it's going to be like a brand new day. I'm Kate. I'm a former realtor, I'm a mother of four, and I love collecting things that have meaning or connection to me. I love my antique wardrobes, crystal china, linen, glassware, silver. The hallway is lined with boxes. Living rooms got boxes you can barely walk in. There's stacked up boxes by the front door. I use the side door to get into the house. It's clearer entrance. It's a storage building basically, the house, at this point. I'm Andrew, I'm Kate's middle son. Currently, the house is 100% not livable. It is covered from wall to wall, about head heights to me, in furniture, random things, knickknacks. It's completely unlivable. I'm Steven, I'm Kate's youngest son. Mom recently started living in the basement. I worry about the moisture. It's musty, it's moldy. It's like there's no air to breathe. I feel more protected hidden there. I feel like it's my safe place. I could not imagine spending a night there. I couldn't imagine having hope for the future in that sort of environment. I'm Eva, and I'm Kate's daughter. So I haven't been into the house in a few years. Last time I came into town, I drove up to the driveway, and I noticed that there were things piled up out to basically right to the rim of the driveway. And so that was immediately alarming. My mom really identifies with possession, and I think property is one of her favorite words. It gives her some feeling of status and worth to be able to have things. Took a while before I wanted to get married again. But he was such a gentleman. Patient and he was easy to fall in love with. Herb was a chemical engineer. He was very meticulous. And when they met, he had this very minimal house that had nothing in it. And so the two of them together were like total opposites. STEVEN: Herb was incredibly supportive. All he wanted was her to be happy. We appreciated him for that. But at the same time, he wasn't able to say no to new things being brought into the house and the effect that it would have over time. EVA: He was solely responsible and carrying the weight of keeping tabs on mom and having to fight with her over having a livable space. As her kids, we were kind of blind and unaware just how dire their financial situation had gotten as sort of a result of overspending. And we were able to live a solid, I don't know, about 10 years without having the weight of this on us because he managed it. I'm incredibly grateful that he did that. And I can't imagine how much pressure it was. There is no way that that amount of stress wasn't, in some way, impacting his health. [sobs] He's the love of my life. ANDREW: When I first walked up to the house after Herb had passed, I hadn't really seen it in a while. When I saw it, it struck me right through the heart, and I didn't know how to process it. I don't know what to do after that because I can't keep driving by, wondering if my mom is covered and buried and suffocating in her basement under a bunch of stuff. That's not acceptable. I don't know what to do. Good morning, everyone. ALL: Morning. I'm Brandon Bronaugh, transition expert and cleanup expert. We are here to do this big project today for Kate. This project is going to take a lot out of everyone. We have the family here today to support. The mission today, we're going to tackle the driveway, working our way on the deck to gain entry into the home. If anything is moving too quick, please let us know. This is all going to depend on you, Kate, giving us the ability, authorizing us to be able to make those decisions and move effectively is going to be crucial. So now that we've covered all the bases, why don't we get going, guys? All right. Let's do it. I'm Dr. David Tolan. I'm a clinical psychologist, and I specialize in the study and treatment of hoarding disorder. OK. So Kate, this is the stuff that needs to get dealt with first because obviously, this is blocking the entrance to everything. So I'd like you to kind of go through and tell me if there's anything here that you really feel needs to be saved or whether this could all come out. Let's pull up and see. You want to pull up and take a look? - Yeah. - Sure. Looks like we got some cardboard boxes-- There's water coming. --and a chair. - Yeah. - Yeah. I don't think that's the color it's supposed to be. Yeah. They can go. They can go. OK, great. How was that to make the decision-- - It's easy. - That's easy. OK. And what made it easy for you? - They're dirty. - They're dirty. OK. So maybe that's a rule of thumb that we can look at if something's-- OK, so if something is dirty and if it doesn't function well, they can go? OK, excellent. I think it's old and gone. Gone. So Kate, this is a piece that you had said you wanted to look at before we make a decision about it. So now that we've gotten to it and you have a chance to see it, what do you think about it? We find this massive cabinet. It's very large, it's very damaged. And yet she is saying, it was special, somebody made it for her. Are you just hanging on to it for kind of sentimental reasons? Yeah, it's just the people who made it and did it for me and-- I know. And it's solid. I know. I'm learning where her blind spots are. One of her blind spots is things that have potential. This could be used by somebody. Another one that I'm learning now is things that it would be a shame to put into a landfill. Everything is going to the dump. I thought there was going to be more recycling stuff and there's not. Yeah. So it's discouraging and it's shame. A shame. Her use of the word shame is interesting to me. I don't know if that really means I would feel shame if I let go of this. What I suspect is happening is that fundamentally, she doesn't want to let go of things. And she's finding justifications to hang onto those things that may or may not make sense. You kind of hang onto things because it's a shame for it to go into a landfill. Yeah. But I'm looking at this and it seems very large and very damaged. If somebody were into reclaiming old furniture, they would find it in the landfill. They would go get it. I hear what you're saying. One person would paint it, one person would oil it, dark oil. You know what, it's too big for a small house. Yeah, it is. It is. - Let go. - OK. It's a shame. I wish somebody would take it. Hey, one of the kids-- I think we're going to see some fireworks tomorrow. This was the easy stuff, the stuff that she was willing to let sit out in the rain because she didn't care about it that much. But the things inside the house-- well, that she cares about. Today, we have a new mission is to tackle the inside of the home. Finish up the bedrooms, get the kitchen going, get the dining room complete. We had a good start yesterday as you can see. This took a family that cares about you to get to this point. Well, I'm really curious, Kate, to get a sense of how you feel when you look around this space now. It does feel good, and to have so much support and family and people coming from different places. I get tingles because there's a lot of great energy and love. Absolutely. Well, your family's here because they love you and they want to support you. Now as I think about today, we're going to get into a couple of rooms that I think might be even more meaningful to you. How about when we get into the bedroom? What's going to happen there? I haven't been in there a long time. That has been kind of the center of your avoidance, I think, hasn't it? I mean, you've just shut that off. It's too hard, yeah. So in the spirit of what we've been talking about, right, today, we're not going to avoid. Today, we're going to approach. And that's going to stir up some feelings for you. And that's OK. That's perfectly normal. Is there anything else here that you can see that might be something you could let go of? I like it. I was hoping to see sets of chairs that are alike. So what about this wicker chair? Can we get rid of that chair? Hey, Eva. Welcome. Thanks for joining us. Mm-hmm. Let's just pause here, and I'd like to kind of check in with with Eva. Eva, what do you think about all the stuff that's here? These were things from outside yesterday. I know. And they were covered. So you got to let go. I know it's hard, but you have to let go. Steven doesn't have the time to fix things. I'm not asking anyone to fix things. I do want to have my choices and pick my favorites. I want to make my own choices. I really do. And I am not going to go overboard. But at the same time, remember, a big piece of what we're trying to do is get you to learn how to not have this problem anymore. And the best way to learn how to not have this problem anymore is to actually go through the process and talk it through and make the really hard decisions and cope with the emotions that that brings up. There's going to be some-- Can we talk a little bit about these doors, that window? How does that play a role with reconstructing things here? What do we need to build out of that? We're not building homes-- If you could show me something in this house that you have had repaired-- We had things repaired constantly. We're talking about-- DAVID: Can you find something around you that's been repaired? You know what? I'm not comfortable with this. We're here, stretching our comfort zone pretty maximally. It's important to recognize, Kate, that what you're comfortable with led to the problem. EVA: Right. So we're going to have to have some discomfort here. A more simple way of saying that is I want you to do what feels bad. What are you feeling right now, Kate? Like I have no choice. I mean, it's like I either play nice and not be true to myself. I'm an adult. I get to make my own decisions. DAVID: Of course. And I've made hard decisions, and I don't like being pressured. I know-- KATE: There has to be an acknowledgment. This is a freaking huge-- Massive acknowledgment. Massive acknowledgment. We've stayed sort of in your comfort zone though, you know. ANDREW: Yeah, we're getting down to the real antique-- We're getting down to the real stuff. And I feel like I could run through this real quick logically and help you make decisions. If it's broken, if the top's worn off, it's done. Good, good, good. Rest needs to go. There's a top for this piece somewhere. Somewhere? Here, here. That and the other one had a top that went for it. Hey, guys. Let's bring it back in one more time. Run it back in. So here's the thing-- can we agree to get rid of everything? That moldy chair, everything else with the exception of those doors. The unused rack, I would use in a pantry. And it's not even out of the box. OK. That is the one thing I'd want. BRANDON: But everything else? Everything. Everything else? Not this. This is what I put together to save. And it has a top. You can see where-- - So we got four-- There's a top. So Kate, we have a total of five items. 1, 2-- 3, 4, and these two doors. And there's two French doors. How many doors are you keeping, ma? What do you need those for? You got those doors. KATE: We need it. DAVID: Eva, I'm noticing your facial expression. Tell me what you're thinking right now. There's a really big disconnect between rational and emotional here. DAVID: Yeah, you think so? And I don't know how to resolve that. I'm not asking for very much. I just don't think it's unreasonable. If we cannot get rid of this, then everything will come back. And you will be in the same place in two years. That's how fast it happens. We'll see. We'll see. We won't. I won't. I've made it clear. I've made it clear. I get to choose. And I want a little balcony with a couple of chairs. And those French doors mean something to me. So I really want to stand on that. I really do. So what we need you to say is that everything else that you haven't already identified can go. And that's-- Well, when I said everything, then everything was wiped out, and I-- so I'm not trusting-- We're talking about this row. OK, that row. That row. And we said this mirror-- --every single thing that you've said, we've heard. OK. And we're trying to talk about the rest of your life. Not the things that could be something , the things that are something. Including us, you know. This hurts on a deep level because you're putting a barrier between you and your family. So where's the happiness there? We need some sacrifices from you. Kate. So what's going on? It's just hard. Yeah. So what are you responding to right now? The pressure. DAVID: Mm-hmm. It feels like people are pressuring you. And they are a bit. It just hits some buttons. Yes, yes, it will hit buttons. And to some extent, we need to hit those buttons. And I'm glad that you're not avoiding. I'm glad that you're willing to experience these emotions and go through this process because we are trying to be different. And that hurts sometimes. Can you feel from your family that all that challenging is coming from a place of love? Yes, I do. DAVID: Yeah, they really care about you. And I think they're really worried about you. They're really worried that you're not functioning well. I worry about you, too. I worry about the condition that this home was in, and I worry about you doing it again. It feels like poking. But I know they can see it from a different perspective. Yeah. I have enough. Mm-hmm. I have sufficient. Yeah, you do have enough. I am so grateful for this opportunity. And I'm trying to not stop the progress. There's something there that I got to work on. What do you think it is? The angst with my daughter. It's really hard. It was-- The two of you just at odds. I get a sense she's really concerned. She is. And that comes from love. But I know she doesn't like seeing you live like this and it really bugs her. I know. That's why we're doing it. DAVID: Yeah. KATE: Do we take Herb's clothes out yet? DAVID: I don't think they've even gotten into the master bedroom yet. I just think that would be cathartic. DAVID: To get rid of those? Yeah. It's hard to let go. And I guess in some ways, you never really do let go. What would help you right now? What do you feel like you need to-- I'm just going to wash my face with cold water and start again. OK. Sounds good. All right. The fact that Kate is willing to talk about how she's feeling, talk about why she's feeling that way, and think about things hopefully in a different way strikes me as a good sign. KATE: It's awful. I think I just have to feel it and go through it. DAVID: I think that we're opening something up in Kate. There is insight there. Now she understands that her behavior has become a problem. And it is a serious problem. It's the beginning of the day, and we have one last day to finish the final three things that need to be addressed. We have to get the basement done, we have to finish Kate's main bedroom. But the first thing we need to do is we need to have Kate do a final pass on the items in the front of the lawn that Kate hasn't quite made a decision on. All right, Kate. We're going to go through each section. We have to be very quick. What about this piece here? Go. All right. What about this chair here? That chair can go. It's sloppy. What about this mirror? It's plastic. I mean, it's the mirror's mirror. But I don't need it. - So we can donate? - Yep. - All right. Thank you. You're doing great, Kate. Thanks. It's garbage. - OK. Great. I'm ready to go! I think I have enough mirrors. I can let go of a project. Great. All right. Today, I can see some real changes in Kate. It used to be that her reflex was to hang onto every single thing. You know what? I have ironing boards, don't I? [laughs] Now I see her making a lot more critical decisions. BRANDON: Everything's going great. I'm excited. We got a good pace. Andrew and Steven are working their way through the garage, working their way through the double doors to gain access into the basement. Ivana and Caitlyn are working in Kate's main bedroom so that we can bring items to Kate who's located underneath the tent. Well, table ain't got no legs. Gone. BRANDON: The Molly Maids are cleaning the kitchen, the bathroom, most importantly cleaning the basement floor that's full of mud, right down to the final touches. We might actually be able to get this job done. Oh, my gosh. It's so big. It's so big. Just walking into feeling space. The dining room, living room, it's just-- it's so much bigger than I remember. Guys, this is gorgeous. Thank you. Ah, it's cold down here. Kate, out of the entire process, the biggest challenge was down here. It was really, really dense. But it was all trash because all had been ruined because there was so much of it. I remember when you and I first came down to this room, we had to practice gymnastics just to get-- I twirled down. DAVID: --into the room. You also slept down here. In fact, this was actually your sleeping area. So how do you feel about what you see now? Space. I am going to sleep so much better knowing that she is sleeping better and not in that dingy old basement anymore. Here we are. This is an area for family. It's beautiful. It's not often that we're able to do an entire house. We did the entire house. I'm a lucky girl. BRANDON: You are very lucky. That's because of these guys. You've got a really nice family here. This is a family with a lot of love who all came together to help you. And I think that the state of this house is a clear testament to their love for you and their willingness to support you. I think a lot of the success of this cleanup can be attributed to the solid family relationships that Kate has. They're smart enough to see what's going on and insightful enough to recognize what the problem is. And they're also big hearted and loving enough to want to do something about it. I think this is the part where Brand and I leave you and we leave you to enjoy the home. So it's been a pleasure to work with all of you. [interposing voices] It truly has been. I see the future as surprising my kids. That's my goal is to have them shocked at what this has done for me and projecting the future. I'm going to surprise my family. I can do better. I'm Debbie, and I'm a hoarder. I like to collect clothing, antiques, shoes, anything that I think is a little bit unique and different. I've lived in this house for 37 years. My house is a full two-story house with a basement. The rooms are big, the ceilings are high, and it's 100 years old. Walking into the house through the back door is very distressing because I see the entire hoard. From there, I have to walk through the house in order to get upstairs to my bedroom. And everything along the way is a hoard and it's difficult. It's very, very difficult. Oh, God. Help me. I'm Bethany, and Debbie is my mom. Walking into my mom's house, because of the piles of stuff, everything's a challenge to get to. The whole house isn't functional. It's horrible. It's just awful. My mother qualified for a loan modification on her mortgage. However, that loan modification was only temporary and her mortgage will be going back up. She's on a fixed income, and that is a great concern of mine financially for her. I'm Tom, and Debbie is my girlfriend. I do love you so much. And it's easy. Tom is very understanding. I do love him. We've had a tough time because here we are, 68 years old, we can't come here. TOM: The relationship has definitely been challenging due to her situation with her hoarding. If I don't clean up, it will continue to be a hardship on Tom and me. I'm getting too old for hardships. I worry about her all the time if she's eating, is the house cold. I am afraid that she will fall and get hurt in her house. I worry about her all the time, and I think about her all the time. I don't think she thinks that, but I do. My dad died 2 and 1/2 years ago, and my sister died very recently. My aunt was a hoarder, and she stayed in her house all the time. And she passed away in her house, in her hoard. Her son, who doesn't live with her, found her. She had been gone several days. I felt tortured because I didn't know if she had been crying out for help, if there's something that I could have done, got her to a hospital or something. And it bothered me tremendously that she died alone like that. Debbie's sister passed away in her house because of her hoarding and being alone. And I do not want to see that happen to Debbie. I worry about her safety all the time. If I don't clean up now, I'll continue to live this life. And I don't think that I can stand this life much longer. I would feel no hope or see any light at the end of the tunnel. There would be nothing to look forward to. Good morning, everyone. ALL: Good morning. Welcome. I'm Brandon Bronaugh, professional cleanup expert. Today, we are here to help Debbie get her home back. We've got a number of people here at your disposal. We've got the cleanup team, we got the professional organizers, and you have your family. We are all here to support Debbie. Debbie, you are going to get the most attention you've gotten in your life, and it's going to come to us. You are probably right. [laughter] So Josh, you haven't been in the home yet. No, I haven't. What are your worries and concerns? I'm worried that it's gotten a lot worse since the years passed when I saw it. And I'm worried for my grandmother's safety because I know it's not a safe environment. And I know a lot of that stuff-- it can be used, but there's just so much that nothing can be used. Brandon, I don't know if we need you. Man, he's-- I'll tell what, boy. You might be out of a job. I am impressed. I'm definitely impressed. Are we ready to get going? Yeah! All right. That's what I like to hear. Debbie, are you ready? I'm never going to be able to get through all this by the end of the day. That is why we want other people to help you make decisions. Brandon just said we're going to do 30 more minutes of taking stuff out of the house. But then everything else, we're going to address. What's going on? All this is brought out. I understand the process. I think some should be brought out. A lot can be brought out. They're making some good momentum, which is great. We're getting through the process, which is what we expected. We're getting through your process. I don't want my stuff outside overnight, covered up. Debbie, I can assure you that every day when we leave, your stuff will be secure. I know it all has to come out eventually. That's fine. Too much was brought out today. If we can keep the process moving along, we can keep you warm, get you back over so that you can continue sorting. Dr. Zasio is here to support you, encourage you. I'm here. We understand your concerns. And we're going to figure out a way to overcome whatever obstacle comes our way. Makes sense? - Mm-hmm. All right, Debbie. Keep it up. Let's go. We took things from the kitchen, we took things from the eating area adjacent to the kitchen. We basically took out enough things to fill two dumpsters. The unfortunate thing is none of those things are going into the dumpster. ROBIN: We get to the house and where's Debbie? We can't find her anywhere. We're looking around and we come to find out that she's in the house. And it seems like she might be stalling a little bit. Yesterday, she was a little upset because she didn't get as much done as she wanted to. So it seems a little surprising that we're all here, ready to go, and she's not. Good morning, ladies. Good morning, doctor. ROBIN: How are you doing today? I'm OK. I'm in a lot of pain. I have arthritis and the cold don't get along. ROBIN: Yep. We're going to be pulling things out of the storage today so that you can make some decisions. And we're hoping-- --out of this storage-- BRANDON: Out of the storages that we're in front of right now. And we're going to hope that you're going to make those decisions quicker. But what I'm going to encourage upon you today is to delegate more, OK? All right. - All right, ready to go? - Yes. Let's go. Let's do it. Boom, boom, boom. I want. You want all three of these? Yeah, and I want these too. - Debbie. - What? Can we stop real quick? Can we make eye contact? Look at me, OK? You have a box there of shoes, three there. I'm on the fifth tote of shoes. You got to get rid of more. There's 365 days in a year, and you probably already have enough shoes for every single day. You can do this. Debbie tells me that she has built a closet specifically for her shoes. So I decide I'm going to go and see what that closet looks like. Look at all the shoes she has in there still. Oh, my gosh. So she's already saved like five bins of shoes. I don't know what we're going to do. I've got to go talk to her. Ms. Debbie, I'm finding multiples of tennis shoes, brand new tennis shoes that haven't even been worn yet. We have five bins of shoes that you're saving, we have an entire closet filled with shoes. What if we benefit a local organization by donating all the ones that are in boxes? No! Absolutely not. Donate the ones that are in the boxes? Yes, and bless an organization with those shoes. No. No. No. You already have five bins out here of shoes that are not in boxes. That you've decided to keep. If you kept all those shoes, you're at 300 pairs of shoes, Debbie. You can't keep that many pairs of shoes and have a house that's cleared out. DEBBIE: Wow. I don't remember it being this cluttered. We need to go in, baby, so we can see everything. Because when I was little, I remember the house being little cluttered, but I never remembered the room having anything in it other than my stuff. So she used to get rid of stuff that's not as important and keep what's very important. That way she can actually use it. So what do you think, hon? You want to start to try to go through some things and get this room ready for you to come and stay and hang out in? Yeah. Let's do it. This is garbage. That can go. This is just a pile of random stuff I found. Trash. Trash. We're going to get in trouble. ROBIN: Come on in. How is this looking to you? It's disturbing to me. I'm upset about it. I'm upset about it because I did not want this worked on. My closet is much more important to me. Right now, I don't have any interest in here. I don't. So Debbie, I have to tell you-- I am a little concerned because you have told me how important it is to get Josh back in this room. You know, the hoard also has just robbed me of so much time that I could have spent with my grandson, time and opportunity for him to come and stay in the room that I got ready for him. And so I'm thrown off by saying that this room is an important to you. Doctor, I did say that it was important to me to set this room up for Josh when he was smaller. I was very shocked and a little upset when she did say that she didn't think I would be staying there and it wasn't a priority. If I'm going to work on this, which I'm not going to, I don't get what I want done in my closet. I have to prioritize what is most important to me in my house. We got the van ready to go to take all the donations away. What's in the black bags? And it happened. The whole process is back at square one again. This is awful. Let's grab a second bag. You want to go through this? So you want to go through all this and pick out the things that you want? I don't want to go through all of it. No, I don't. So then why can't we let it go and put it in the van and donate it? Carolina, it's already been decided. OK. That's what we were doing. And we can't keep trying to talk her out of something that she doesn't want to do. BETHANY: Mom? DEBBIE: Yes. BETHANY: Hi. DEBBIE: Hi, hon. Yeah. BETHANY: I know that you've been really adamant about things not coming out of the house. Nothing more can come out of the rooms until this stuff is taken care of. There are good clothes of mine in both of these and there are good clothes of mine in there. But we can take those things out so we can clear this so Brandon's team can come and help you. Please, we're running out of time. And I know you're feeling that, and I'm feeling that. When this is done, I want you to have a nice, clean bathroom and a nice, clean, comfortable bedroom. I'm starting to get concerned about the number of keep items that we have in the U boxes. It looks like over 100 containers. So I'm thinking, where are we going to put them. All the items that are coming out of the U box that are labeled keep are either going to have to go in here, the little that can go in here based on the limited amount of space that we have, or in the basement. Are you OK with that plan? No, not quite. There's no room in here. There's absolutely no room in here. If things don't go well enough to get the U box empty, then I will rent my own U box. Debbie is rejecting all of Brandon's suggestions as to what we can do with the keep items. We've got the upstairs bedroom, we've got the basement, we've got areas downstairs. And she's basically saying, they're not coming in and she's adamant. At this point, I realize we're just circling the wagons. You'll have to probably get three U boxes to be able to store that-- She's going to have to get about four to five because we're still accumulating things-- OK, that's going to be really costly because it's going to take a long time to go through those boxes. OK, so even though we were supposed to be going in here, we've totally switched gears. Let's go downstairs, I'll look out-- let me look in the U boxes. BRANDON: Debbie, that's not what I'm saying is that-- ROBIN: Debbie, listen-- If I'm up here and you're talking about taking stuff out of the U boxes that I'm keeping-- Debbie plans to get her own storage unit and request that we load all of her keep bins into these other storage units. The bottom line is we've never done this before and we've never agreed to do this before because that doesn't make any sense. I'm not feeling good about any of this. But at this point, we've got to go with what she says so we can keep moving forward. It's the solution that I want to do that is not going to break my back after you guys leave. Oh, my god! Oh, honey, look at this. Look at this. All my stuff is gone. Look at this, baby. Oh, my gosh. Oh, somebody hung mama's kitchen. I know. Mama's kitchen. Oh, my god. Oh, my god! Look at that. You can walk. DEBBIE: Oh, my god. This was a communal effort. And the one thing that I want to say, Debbie, is it's important for you to go forward and to maintain it like this because you deserve to live with dignity and respect. And your life in this house had really deteriorated significantly. DEBBIE: Yeah, it did. Here I am, 68 years old, feeling more excited about life and looking forward to life more than I ever, ever have before. But there's more to the house. So let's head into the dining room. BETHANY: To see the things gone, to see the things that were kept organized, how clean everything is, I forgot how beautiful her home is. It's awesome. It's out of sight. I mean, we have the first floor all covered. I'm pleased to say that we were able to get one of the bathrooms fully functional again. DEBBIE: Thank you. But unfortunately, we weren't able to tackle the upstairs like we had initially planned. We weren't able to tackle the other bathroom. And unfortunately, Josh, we weren't able to get to your room together. Now Debbie, your room is going to be something that's going to be an ongoing project. And we believe that that's going to be a task that the family is going to be able to tackle together. I would have the family tackle this here and use the organizing services that are going to be offered for the stuff out there because every day that those U boxes are out there is one more dollar out of your pocket. OK, so it has been an honor and a pleasure working with all of you. There's one more surprise. Tom, I'm going to turn it over to you. Thank you, doctor. Debbie, have a seat over here. - Here. - Yes, sure. Would you sit down? Sure. Honey, I fell in love with you 50 years ago. And we've reconnected three years ago and been together for three years now. But I want to show you my total commitment with you. Oh, my god. Will you marry me? Oh, my Lord. Oh, Tom. Yes. You'd make the most happiest man in the world, Debbie, if you said yes. OK. Well, if you want to drive-- I'll drive. I'll ride right along with you. OK, Debbie. I love you. I love you, too. [cheering] This clean up had an actual beautiful ending for me because I got the woman of my dreams found for the rest of my life. Thank you, dear. I love you so much. Hi!

Channel: A&E

Views: 2,688,073

Keywords: aetv, a&e, a&e tv, ae, a&e television, a&e shows, a and e, a+e, hoarders, hoarders show, hoarders full episodes, hoarders family secrets, watch hoarders, hoarding, addiction, intervention, hoarding intervention, season 10, hoarders clips, before and after, before after, compulsive hoarding, hoarders scenes, hoarders episodes, hoarders episode clips, hoarders before and after, Fan FAVORITES - One-Hour Marathon - Part 2, hoarders marathon, hoarders compilation, mega-marathon

Id: il4zmCdRYbA

Length: 122min 4sec (7324 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 14 2022