Hoarders: FLORIDA Hoarders - One-Hour Marathon | A&E

[Music] so [Music] i'm paul and i am a retired interior designer and i am an advent collector of a lot of things too many things but it's gotten way out of hand i don't mind if someone calls me a hoarder it's obviously a horde i just collect and collect and collect and collect and now it's eating me alive you know what i mean it's just not good as an interior designer i really like to collect artwork figurines sculptures planters and vases oil paintings watercolors antique frames lots of antique mirrors or if i find a frame i can put a mirror in it and make it a mirror and any kind of piece of furniture i love old bird baths every time i see one if it's a good deal i'll buy a bird bath and also i like to collect all kinds of materials because i love fabrics i mean i'm kind of a fabric or all kinds of hawaiian shirts i probably have 150 hawaiian shirts i've collected lamps i have so many lamps i'm a lamp guy and i have no idea how many lampshades i have but i do know that when i walk through the house that wow you have a lot of lampshades i'm colleen and i'm paul's sister paul is a hoarder absolutely no question a collector that turned into a hoarder when you fill up the house to the point that you have to put things in your backyard your side yard your front yard i think he's really over the top just can't help himself i pick up stuff that i see on the side of the road during the bulk pickup day i love old clay pots so a pot like this is between like a 25 and 35 dollars and it's got all the green stuff on it that i love that's gorgeous it's all about the prize with paul when he goes to the thrift store or garage sale or somebody's put out good junk on the side of the road that's endorphins that is like wow look at this you know how much this is worth digging for gold you know but he just can't part with stuff when i met skippy it was magical we had the exact same taste we were both photographers and so that's one of the things that really sort of balled us together and it was just wonderful i believe that what skip really liked about me is that i was outgoing because he was so shy i think he wanted to be more like me and i wanted to be more like him it was very detailed everything was clean all the time so the house was immaculate of course when i moved in i had a lot of stuff so i know we didn't like that but it was all in the garage then but i was able to put stuff upstairs so it worked out great i was able to do my interior design work up there and we just had a regular house but we had a great relationship so it was okay he put up with me actually one day i was out of the house skip had gone into the bedroom and there was a step out and he lost his balance and he fell by the time i got he was in the hospital and about eight days later he died it was so fast that it was just pretty bad i miss him so much paul was very distraught when he did pass away and he called me he could barely talk and even to this day if you say something about skip or there's a memory of skip he's very very emotional after skippy passed away the next couple years was not really good at all i had no one so i was just a wee clues in this house and just started collecting and collecting i just i guess i just didn't want to deal with the fact that he was gone skip's passing did make it more extreme i think he was filling a void and because he he could because kipp was no longer there to keep him from not i had this huge house and i thought well we got room for that we got room for that we got room for that i think i was just trying to replace what i lost the last time i was in paul's house was six years ago shortly after skip passed away i was surprised at how much he had collected it's just gotten worse and worse and worse it makes me really sad that i don't know where his ashes are um i mean come on paul you know that's not good you know how would you like it if you died and someone had your ashes and [Music] they lost you you know what i mean he would be so disappointed in what i have done so i really want to make amends with skip well good morning everybody good morning yeah look at this team of people here right ready to do some work for you right sounds good to me yeah i want to say thank you all for being here i usually go straight into what the plan is but before i do that i really want to show how this is going to be an uplifting experience for you okay all right yeah i know something that paul doesn't know and that is that alicia and her two children are here to see paul he's never even met these kids oh hey goldie let her come to you you say i don't understand [Music] hey george how's it going so paul what is it like to see them it means everything to me that they would take the time and want to do something like this because and how long has it been since you've seen them i've never seen george i've never seen goldie yeah right sweetheart just so everybody knows this is alicia paul's niece right and great nephew and great niece and i'm going to point over to casey for a moment he is the ceo and owner of stand up guys he's actually the husband of alicia and the dad to little goldie and georgie am i right about that yes you are and we're thrilled to have your whole stand-up team with us so yeah that's pretty cool and um paul the whole point of us clearing the space is to have experiences like this except more of them absolutely right that would be the just the best okay everybody it's time to get to work family members are you ready [Applause] gently we place paul in a perfect position so he can start deciding let that go give that away we're going to kind of hold things up okay and you're going to say oh no or yes i kind of want to know what your thinking is and just see how you start responding to what's coming okay out from under the piles right so i'm starting with this chair so those two victorian chairs can go okay in the dumpster yes the frame that's so nice um and that can go when i blew chair can go the microwave can go microwave goes the artwork yeah you can get rid of the dollars he's so far throwing 90 of everything away that can go that can go everything can go this goes that can go trish oh my gosh paul filled up one dumpster full and stuff stacked on top of it they took that one away brought in another dumpster and that one is already starting to get full plus there's another dumpster that's just scrap metal we had done the equivalent of one week's worth of work and it looks beautiful we have motored along for another hour and we've really cleared out the entire front yard so we're ready to start into the entryway of your home yeah yeah okay okay great what do you think of that awesome awesome [Music] the first thing we need to attack is to get into the living room and start bringing everything out i'd like the family to go inside the house they bring it out they put it in our drop zone and i'll have all the rest of my organizers putting all that stuff that the family's bringing out into the categories that we've set up boom ready to go hey family members yes ma'am while you're in here how do you feel about your progress because you don't know it's great because what you've been wanting to do yes uh-huh mom's got her hard hat on so she's ready to go well she needs a hard hat and i'll tell you that i know that there are hundreds and hundreds of paintings and so i feel it's necessary to start talking to paul about what we're going to do with the art all right so i'm going to be holding up paintings and you're going to say arch sell okay that's going to go into the u-box for selling sell sell wow okay grab it sell sell sell uh stays stays saves okay he's answering those questions making those decisions so quickly like four seconds five seconds per painting which is unheard of for someone who likes to hold on to stuff so so so so so uh keep let's keep okay colleen come on in here for a second and start doing what i've been doing you've been watching yes you just moved quickly so sell sell i think i'll keep that one you'll keep it i feel like the reason that the going through the artwork went so well is because paul wasn't saying get rid of paul was saying keep and sell so so if he's selling it it's still his until he sells it i don't feel like he did any letting go keep yeah that's a key keep herself can you keep no no it's a keep sell going through the paintings he kept a lot i mean he did a good job with that moving through them but it was so much sell and my concern is then if those items don't sell is he going to be able to part with them just be careful that was skipped so we're going to hold on to that let's take a moment yeah so he had that when we met i feel like sometimes paul uses that it was skips and that's his reason why i can't get rid of it but he knows that that gets everybody's heart he can't part with this because it was skips he was such a great photographer he was just like me and loved old barnes and stuff like that he did all that mm-hmm what do you want to do with these yeah so we're gonna hold on to those keep all these thank you okay it concerns me that this is just enabling the same problem that we're gonna just end up with a lot of stuff still it doesn't feel like we're doing what we came here to do paul is actually interested and excited about his art sale and we're taking all of the art and we're going to start presenting it to paul so he can make a decision i think you said that we're going to go low medium and high is that correct and it's like a big parade that we're going to design here and paul is making great decisions low low low that could be medium low low that could be medium high and medium low low low good job paul keep it up [Music] there is so much going on behind the scenes we've got such overgrowth in the backyard and just tons of stuff thrown into the side yard so i have to chop down weed whack pull out the weeds and just really try to beautify the space so we can have a backyard and that side yard is just jammed with furniture tools glass everything that you could imagine and the stand-up guys are just cleaning everything on that side yard [Music] and meanwhile the art sale is starting in the front of the house all the artwork is lined up beautifully we send out invitations to thousands of people on the internet we're ready for big numbers to show up and we wait for a customer i am concerned about what's going to be left over with the artwork there's absolutely no way any of that artwork could come back in the house there's not enough wall space hey there how's it going today this is all my stuff well i hope you can find some stuff okay great thank you the art sale didn't go so well i was hoping for a lot more people come by and a lot of stuff to leave the property but that didn't happen we had 10 customers we made 300 bucks with all that beautiful art i wouldn't call it an exact success one of colleen's biggest issues is what are we going to do with all of this stuff thankfully paul was ready he actually called a consignment person who had a big truck to load all of these art pieces furniture lamps shades paul did find somebody who was willing to come by and pick it all up take it off the property that was unfortunate that more things couldn't have gotten sold but oh well i mean and now it's in storage and it's out of his house so that's a good thing i think i know what that is dorothy and her team found this for you that's great that's great how does it feel to have skip in your very hands this feels the best ever i'm sorry i misplaced you i didn't mean to you have a lot of grief about what happened to the house right can you talk to skip right now and tell him whatever you feel you want to tell him yeah i'm so sorry that i did so much to the house that we kept so beautiful i apologize i didn't mean to but we're gonna have our house back this is a healing moment for you you meant so much to me maybe i didn't always express it but in my heart it's been so empty without you and it's all going to get better it's onward and upward now it is i just need a little break listen you want to stop you want me to take the family away okay okay honey this was an extraordinary horde we sent out five tons worth of stuff that's being thrown away we donated we cleaned every room in the house we achieved absolutely what i set out to achieve plus more it was fantastic ready to show the family [Music] oh my goodness good paul and family welcome to your home it's so fabulous great seeing it for the first time i think was a true shock to everybody actually having a kitchen actually having space to sit down oh my gosh [Music] oh my gosh it's a bedroom look at this [Music] that's great your sanctuary has been transformed into a true sanctuary very nice very nice thank you and here we've got cheryl with a bunch of tears oh happy tears yeah so happy for you is just i remember in the beginning and he would just be just curled up in one little section of his bed he would eat there he would read there he'd watch tv there and now you've got a whole house to live in yes it's absolutely wonderful [Music] it's just great it's just wonderful i didn't see paul getting overly excited about the kitchen i didn't see him getting overly excited about the living room but i did see paul really take a moment in the garden room wow he can already see the new urn that we've purchased for skips ashes well skippy i hope you're happy about happier now i got the house clean for you yeah i should show your family yeah this is skippy hey skip but truly the emotion comes when he goes outside to the garden oh my god oh wow look at this garden party going out in the backyard just made me think about paul's great niece and nephew for them to come and visit and be able to run around little kids playing in uncle paul's backyard i think you said you wanted to say a few words i i really would like the organizers and everybody you want everybody here you want the rest of the team here okay if it's a party let's make it a party [Applause] so i just would like to say from the bottom of my heart all of your people to come all over from all over the country you don't even know me in the outpouring of love from all of you and coming all the way here to help me i could never expect anything in the whole world and i just wanted to thank each and every one of you for being here and helping me to get my home back [Applause] [Laughter] that's great let's make it happen shall we i'm very optimistic about the future that i can have the home back just like i wanted and i could have my friends come and my family come being able to work through the grief is something that i probably knew i had to do but never took the time to do it and so this gave me the opportunity to express my grief and to be able to open myself up hey goldie goody i made you this little chair you want a set in it have a seat [Applause] [Music] paul has developed a lot of insight into why he was engaging in such extreme hoarding behaviors i've secured a therapist for paul who's going to help him to continue the grief and loss process so that he doesn't end up going back to acquisition to feel good cheers everybody cheers absolutely we love you paul [Applause] we all love you honey [Music] i'm carl i'm 77 years old i've been a hoarder all my life this house looks like a recycling place but it's my place in my style of living you see a lot of collection and the collection is historical preservation and recycling and sometimes you have to mix it together because you don't have the means to separate real well but if you throw it away you never go back and get it [Music] [Music] i love this place because my mom my dad and my brother raised me here and it's a historical place it was the first house to be built on the block and my family worked two jobs to pay for this place and that's why i want to keep it [Music] i'm michelle and i'm carl's neighbor i have known carl for probably seven going into eight years now i would say carl's a hoarder it's not just because of the accumulation of things it's his inability to part with the things i i'm just having a hard time understanding how he sees value in certain things that he has i just got to collect things because it's like a hobby but to me is it's not a game it is a like a job it may not have no value to other people but it's value to my heart because my family did it my brother and my family were so much historians they would save a piece of paper out of a garbage can if it mentions nothing about history and that's why i keep all that stuff i still have the original books my dad read [Music] he always said keep this keep that and that was my mom too and my brother [Music] it's hard for me to live without my mother my brother and my dad you hear him talk about his family and you can hear the sense that he misses them my dad's picture's in the other room and everything i feel that the accumulation and the addition of the fence in the front that to me felt symbolic for the emotional wall he built up after that he was very hurt from that i have the privacy fence for protection and privacy and i think everyone should have a choice of how they want to live i'm not hurting anyone [Music] i'm shawn and i'm an old friend and attorney of carl carl's hoarding it's been going on for almost 30 years or so as long as i've known carl and from anything i've heard from before it's been quite a problem because ordinance violations different things like that have occurred due to the accumulation and amassement of just massive amounts of items if carl doesn't successfully clean up his yard it it's gonna be bad uh unfortunately you know and i don't like to sugarcoat anything so you know i'll just be completely honest he's gonna go to jail probably he is essentially in direct violation of contempt orders he's in contempt of court for failing to clean up his property this is his last shot at really being able to help himself i mean carl always tells me he just wants to put this to rest he wants this issue to go away so he can move on well this is that opportunity so i hope he takes it good morning everybody thank you doctor i'm dr david tolin i'm a clinical psychologist and i specialize in the study and treatment of hoarding disorder carl are you appreciative of the fact that if you don't clean it up you are potentially facing jail time yes i know that you know that okay all right yeah so we want to keep you out of jail yes and the way that we're going to do that is by by cleaning this stuff out and you've got to be the one to do it yes okay yeah okay are you guys ready to get started yes we are all right let's do it all right [Music] all right carl we're gonna get started on your yard like we said we're gonna clean out this space right here so that we can set up a sorting area does that sound good yes sir all right and would you be willing to take off your hat so that it doesn't get damaged and we can do work with you yes all right sounds good perfect let's get someone to perfect run that over to a safe spot if they would michelle you want to grab it all right so let's just start through this pile okay these sticks for example yes sir what are they for i've been saving them for the neighbors when they want to use firewood and everything's during the year okay so i like helping people you know but but it's not helping you so is this something we could let go yeah perfect yeah i figured throw that away okay good see you're making good decisions already all this stuff yeah it definitely doesn't work it's probably short okay there you go go down away you're doing great carl you are doing great the first few things carl's touching he's making really good decisions on but as we get a little further into the process he's starting to get stuck on some obvious trash this concerns me a lot well these are instructions i have to keep but i had lost these words what is it for tell me if you still have that there's actually two well i just keep it's just now i got one i'll keep one throw that one no that's not that's not what we wanted to do i want you to look at it and tell me what it is why would you need it if it's been buried in your front yard is this something that you still own and need instructions for well no but it's history instruction remember there's the history so remember i'm going to push you on history carl this is not history this is an old set of instructions what do you think about the stuff in there so far did we make good decisions bad decisions well the top goes on the buckets that i told you some of the buckets i'm going to keep but i'll need some of the toss but i may not need all the tops okay well that kind of was where i was going with stuff we're not we're not letting go of quite enough stuff and now you're already taking stuff off the truck so michelle come on in here help us out in the shower carl you know i'm your friend right right you trust me you put it in there for a reason i always say trust your gut your gut said to throw this out i would like you to trust me okay go ahead finish what you want no no not what i want what you want and your gut said to throw this out initially what's going to cause you a lot of trouble is you're going to overthink every decision you make and every time you take a step in there you're going to look at every little piece no that's just one piece out of everything i know but this is gonna keep happening carl and what happens if this happens for four days i don't know how it's going with carl i was pretty optimistic this morning but pretty frustrated right now he's really really annoying me i know if i was about to lose everything i'd do whatever i could right he fix it and i i get the mental health aspect but he has a whole team of people here to help him hold his hand through it and still this is a funnel i have to keep it's a tool [Music] i don't know what it was why i tried to help him so much but i couldn't not do it he's lucky to have a friend like you i guess yeah it's it's really sad when somebody you care about is not just suffering but suffering in a way that you can see the solution and they won't do it that's really hard i think he gets it though like there's a part of me like you think he understands it i think he's just bullheaded i think it's important that carl see how michelle is reacting and that he hear how this is affecting her hey carl why don't you come in here and join us michelle's feeling some things i don't know if you understand what can happen here and i'm not trying to bully you i'm not from the minute i had any sort of lengthy conversation with you i knew what mattered to you and it was your family and this property and the thought of you losing it is it it makes me feel terrible and i don't know if you realize that i don't know if you understand the reality of it and i'm not trying to scare you and i'm not trying to be mean but i feel worse about it than you do in some way and it's weird but i want to see you get this place in shape i want to see the c word i'm not going to use the word off your back i'd love to see that for whatever time you have left on this property i would love to see that but it hurts me to know that i don't think you really want to see that and i'm not sure i just want to know because i want to know why i'm here just because i need to keep two or three things or something doesn't mean it's wrong i can count more than three soaps over there well yeah what's wrong with keeping so show me the law i can't keep how many soaps that's fine look at these bits that's fine i'm not throwing that soap away i'm keeping i want to see the law that says i can't buy soap and where how many is it i can't girl listen to me we're at the end of the road there's nowhere it's a war or is that a crime to keep that at this point it doesn't even matter it doesn't matter i'm not gonna throw that away okay well then i know where i'm at carl they're gonna find me for that i'm not talking about they're not gonna do that i'm not talking about fines i'm talking about where you're gonna end up carl you mean they're gonna tell me i'm a criminal for keeping that you're a criminal for keeping that in your and your yard hey it's not the soap it's how much you have carl carl what you're doing is against the law and you are in violation of the law and you have been fined and you are facing jail time you understand that the danger is that if we don't clean up carl is either going to go to jail he's going to be homeless or he's going to die in that yard surrounded by junk so does that look okay for us to close this up and take it off are you going carl what are you looking for there were some tools up there on that shelf oh i'm sure they kept any tools they have a box of tools over here actually too all right come here come here there was a bunch of tools here okay we have two bins full of tools set aside what happened to the stuff that was on this shelf we have bins set aside of things that we thought you'd want and we set them aside for you to look at all these batteries are recyclable they told me to put my batteries and uh what do you call those milk carts and i'm allowed to do that that is recyclable batteries okay where can that go with the metal or does it have to go just with batteries it has to go with batteries only okay and you're gonna take those to a recycling center yes when when you all get done all this wood here like this the boys in the blue shirts are in charge of it okay there's tools in here we saved the tools okay and this is a historical sign i'm not throwing this away so when is the next time you're gonna run an all-night laundry room all night laundry room is just a logo okay all right i don't want it thrown away done it won't get thrown away what happened to all the clothes hangers that were here we boxed them up and put it in for recycling i said leave those clothes hangers alone i definitely said that 4 000 times carl i'll get you some new ones they were covered with mildew they were they were no longer healthy i said leave these alone and i said that 4 000 times about this carl's freaking out about the hangers you know we're talking about a couple dollars worth of hangers and in the big picture i don't get it but he is pissed i have used natural resources to dry my clothes the damn neighbors hang their clothes out here with their natural stupid clothes hangers and everything on there carl what's got you so upset it's just that i had mentioned something 4 000 times do not throw this away this is why we have to throw this stuff away but when i say don't throw it away don't throw it away this is what all those hangers had all those hangers that were hanging on that tree did not have any clothes on it no i know they were empty but they were covered with mold and mildew you don't think you can wash them out with rainwater with all my jugs why are you getting so upset over some hangers the all the families from the cigar factories basically lived here they had to make do what they had to live with we were the last family on this damn neighborhood to have a damn washing machine when carl gets agitated he goes on these almost incoherent rants we were the last ones to have a damn tv in this damn neighborhood he starts screaming about his neighbors and about the government and about fidel castro that's our stupid fidel castro embargo this stupid country we got has done nothing about it to fix it to give more jobs in florida and the damn girl carl carl come here come here man what what's going on with you right now he's so wrapped up in other worries and other concerns that he can't keep his mind straight you seem to be really revved up take a breath take a breath at this point i really think that i have to call elder protective services this is not to punish carl it's not that he's in trouble i'm frankly concerned about his ability to care for himself and he needs somebody to help how's it going in here it's going good he is still keeping too much for sure um um i am trying to get him to get rid of eight for every ten we look at and he's at about five and five okay so getting there he's closer he better than yesterday so what's the rule what are we what rule are we following he's willing to get rid of all polos except the ones that say hcc right yeah or special logos and stuff and the good ones that i can still wear and he is getting rid of most coats um and sweatshirts that are terrible and something winter stuff i got to have some wonderful yeah no you do like this gray t-shirt great shape we should keep that yeah yeah these are no good but they're good rags to use and clean your hands yeah but you don't have the ability to keep that right now it's better to do yeah i don't think you want to be keeping a lot of rags no you really don't yeah this one yeah i gotta have that one but it's stained one once in a while we've got to have a bad one you have a few bad ones already in there carl i think this is okay okay throw it away yeah this is an example of hanging on to history though that's not really good that's fine okay let's keep going please let's keep going okay carl's rate of discarding seems to be getting better yesterday he was only discarding about 15 of the items that he and carolina were working on today he's up to 50 percent so that's progress hey michelle i just wanted to check in and see how you're doing i i got hit with a ton of just overwhelmed and to be honest like i get crossed out really easily and it's it's kind of a miracle that i didn't get to that point there's a lot here that can gross a personality oh yeah like when liquids are dripping down your legs from buckets and you don't know what it is like yeah i kind of maintained because i knew we had to get through it but like i'm getting to a point where it's a lot for me to handle and i'm just kind of trying to take a few breaks and not have a complete meltdown okay so just seeing the clutter is anxiety producing for you plus this is somebody you know so you're actually seeing him live this way too which i imagine that's got to be upsetting it's a lot for me to process and handle yeah it is it's taking a level of strength that i don't think many people understand if they're not struggling with that type of anxiety michelle is feeling a little overwhelmed and understandably so she's not used to being involved in this level of clutter so it's a bit uh shocking to her and sometimes she just needs to take a break and cool down well let me say carl's lucky to have you as a neighbor and a friend he really is thank you i'm glad that you're here [Music] hey carl what i want to do is make sure that you're safe and healthy and happy even after we leave you know the idea is to make sure that not only do we get a lot done here but that you can keep the progress going but i think you need more services than what we're able to provide just in these four days would you agree with that that you need more services and support yes yeah now the agency that's best equipped to do that is called adult protective services but i want to make sure that that it's clear to you that these are the experts in support and advocacy not people that are going to come and do something bad to you do you have questions about that carl if i have any concerns who do i call and contact i'm going to get you a number for adult protective services and i'm going to make the call to them ideally i'd like you to help me with that call would you do it with me yes so we can call together yes and we can talk i would like my attorney or someone can be around maybe or listen as a telephone i'll be there so let's just make the call and get the ball rolling all right thank you very much michelle i appreciate your help this is the department of children and families florida abuse hotline [Music] okay very good i appreciate it ultimately the aps worker that i spoke with said they're going to be sending somebody out to look at the house and to talk to carl all right you guys we made it yeah carl you did amazing i really did thank you for making it amazing yes well we couldn't have done any of this without you letting go we had some struggles but you made it through okay how are you feeling right now at the end of all this i feel better there's a place that uh that i lost and now you found it it's like columbus finding america well i'll accept that answer as something really positive in a car i'll kind of way i just want to address the crisis real quick okay the outside is not going to pass city code still they're going to be very pleased i will say that when they come back they're going to see a huge difference if we have to send a report to luke saying you know we got rid of 10 dumpsters which we did that's impressive to them they'll just want to keep seeing that progress yes okay it can't just stop here yes but we do have access now to get your water fixed yes we have access to the meter into the lines so they can come and do that now that makes this house a little more livable for you yes sir okay you have a lot of boxes as you can see that you're gonna have to go through yeah put all your important papers your books your clothing everything you wanted saved is here yes okay michelle how are you feeling after all this you kind of had the roller coaster ride yeah i did um i'm proud of you carl i know i was a little harder on you than i normally am but i'm glad you got rid of so much stuff you made some good moves and what i'd like is to see you keep it up see if you can do some of this on your own i do feel happy for carl but i also know he's got a long road ahead of him i don't know where he's gonna end up still if he can find a little bit of peace and happiness even for a short period of time great i'm proud of carl yeah i'm i need a break from him but i'm i'm proud of him thank you for allowing us to come in here and help you you did a great job you're welcome and thank you for making me trust you well you gave us that trust each day it got better and better you know we pushed in the beginning and we know it was hard for you but with each day you let go a little bit more the bedroom is something that we were able to tackle a place for you to rest and lay your head thank you you want to check it out yes ma'am all right what is this my god jump on it oh man that's the greatest thing i've had in over 35 years here it feels like i'm in the hoarders hyatt ethel tower my mom's cedar chest yes siree great everything wow i can see your room wow that's the comfort of the world now yes i feel like i'm living in a real world now i was at war with myself i was at war with society everything was negative and now i feel like there's a positive freedom here at this property that i can come to my new home [Music] thank you thank you thank you [Music] i'm anna and i work in healthcare i was born in guyana south america and i went to england when i was 11 years old my name is barbara i'm anna's sister we lived in england for about 20 years and then we moved to florida you know i never thought that we'd have a hoarder in the family but she disguised it very well i'm natasha and anna is my mom i come from a family that's pretty astute for them to deal with someone who has a hoarding issue is something that they would never want to deal with point by period natasha's been away for many years and she came back to florida with her three children needing some help i said my oldest daughter could knock on the door but she would not allow my daughter to come in when i opened the door and i saw them i automatically closed my door initially i tried to talk to my mom to get her to allow me into her home we got more and more suspicious and so it was a collaboration between myself and my niece we decided that we were going to go into her home i'm not going to implicate myself and say how but we did enter the house first thing that came to my mind was run oh my god everything was packed up to the ceiling it seemed like two mountains on each side and a little valley in the middle to walk so my neighbor called me while i was working she said there are people at your home i said call the police when we came back outside the police were already pulling up they didn't ask me if i know my sister i said no i don't know who she is said we're going to arrest her they're going to call aps or dps or some ps the authorities would come in and probably take anna out of her home she may lose the house bottom line threats don't help because i don't respond to threats my mom can be a pretty tough person she has a way of putting you in your place if you're crossing a line that she doesn't want you to cross she's a very smart woman she knows the psychological and mental games that you can play with an individual and she knows how to play good everyone thinks of me as someone that's very confident i think some of them even think i'm invincible i am invincible at times once it gets down to it there is a possibility that my mom might get hostile or even abusive my name is matt paxton i'm an extreme cleaning specialist i'm getting ready to take the family into the house are you willing to let the family go in and see it you got like 10 people standing on the outside ready to move junk out and you're not really able to do that my name is dr robin zazio i'm a licensed clinical psychologist and i specialize in compulsive hoarding you called us here because you didn't know what to do i'm not going to go back and forth your family needs to see what the whole picture looks like they don't anna refuses to let us into the house dr sally tried six seven different ways to say it and she was not gonna let us in if we wanted to come over here and enjoy a meal with her we couldn't period i resent her for that exactly what we're trying to say anna you can't walk away from this i need you over here i'm worried about the relationship between anna and natasha that sounds good i'm afraid this whole thing could fall apart her energy i can't take i will put my foot up her damn ass i gave birth to her and i will take her ass if i have to right here right today i would do it i will kick her ass i'm just very pissed off right now what do you think we can do at this point because you know we have a limited amount of time and we want to there's nothing we can do they can help me with the garage and then they can bloody well leave okay that's what we can do i really want to get everybody in the house but i know earning anna's respect is more important so he's letting us in the garage which is a big deal for her this old monitor you don't need do you dare it needs to go in the donation bag well that's not your decision i don't need her you never need me oh god i can't deal with you i can't deal with your ordering okay get the hell i can't deal with that okay well you're gonna have to deal with each other you all gotta grow up and deal with each other period get away from me right freaking now okay i've had it and i said i want her gone i know this is tough it's her only child and with my three kids that love their grandmother so much it makes me want to run and never ever want to come back right now there is no communication between natasha and her mom i'm going to have to stay very close to them i'm going to be the scapegoat for her to like abuse like just like i'm talking and i want to say like you know what show it keep we do have a lot of stuff outside but now we've actually done so much work today we just we need to get the house start working i'm hoping you'll just say yeah let's go make a plan for tomorrow and come back out and move on okay why don't you take it by the noise i think you should move so this your feet could be on the ground oh my gosh close that quick no she needs to just put it in the girl where do you put that natasha i'm just asking natasha up your ass actually natasha the fighting going on this family is really slowing the process down something's wrong with her clearly her whole thought process frustrates me look at this the roaches are buried up on the outing shovel all this and put it in the garbage oh my god we have problems well oh well maybe we won't have any if they take anna out and medicate her ass all this need to go and the freaking guys are shouting right here she want to keep them too the damn bugs matt and i are spending more time trying to put out fires than we are getting this house in order unbelievable anna do you want to keep this does this go in the key box you need to stop her for me no you are performing when you pitch her around her that's performing to me tiptoeing around her with this no i'm not gonna do it sorry so perform me you deserve an oscar natasha went ballistic she was screaming she was yelling she was completely out of control tell me about performing performances y'all been sitting around her doing for the last few years that's performing this right here is for real people need what they need to to cope but we're not going to have our guys around i agree it's just abusive everybody want to be so damn young people come out this house need a tent over it a damn t anybody in their right mind can see that can you please get natasha out of my house i don't need him get the camera off of me and you can take your mics off me too at this point it's going to take an act of god to get this house even close to being livable that's still got a garage sale to get on it why don't we just leave the price on it put in the garage sale save you some time anna really hustled today i like that the secret's gone she can have people in her home again let's dump this baby i want the stress ball everybody needs a stress ball trash what are your thoughts i think it's a miracle agency we have a maid service in here now we have painters here i would have never imagined that there will be so many helping hands toward fulfilling this goal we're looking at the whole picture we talk about the whole picture that includes you and that includes your mom talk to me about what you would like your relationship with your mom to be she's an important part of my life i'm hoping the two of you can start to talk from your hearts and share with one another how you feel i would like for us to have a better relationship i understand that you feel left out or pushed aside or whatever what do you want for your relationship with your daughter if we're going to move forward we can't be sarcastic and we can't be disrespectful really this is coming from the same person that was telling me yesterday that they're gonna put their right foot up my a okay but hang on okay right natasha but what she said was going forward we she didn't say you okay you've got one daughter you've got one mother embrace it i am hoping that they will follow through with aftercare so they can try to heal some of these wounds [Music] [Music] what do you see it's magnificent when your family knocks on the door or you can invite them in i'll invite them in even though they fought they came together and they hustled and they got it done oh wow it's cute [Music] the kids will be able to enjoy some quality family time with their grandmother now you can now come and stay with grandma with your sisters huh yeah are you excited yes i'm coral i'm 48 i have two jobs and i'm a mother found two today all right it's great i definitely would say i'm a hoarder i haven't been in two-thirds of the house in over five years i haven't been in the kitchen in years i haven't been in my dining room in almost two years i walk in the door go straight to the bedroom and i sit down on bed and that's it that's home i'm vernon and i'm coral's fiance vernon was my fiance when i was 17 and we broke up and then we never saw each other again until 31 years when i found her on facebook he's charming he's sweet he's considerate he's everything a woman wants i've never stopped loving her even during the 31 years she was always on my mind vernon left everything he had to come start a new life again with me she had told me a little bit about the problem uh that she was having getting the house cleaned before i got there i know he's killing me yeah i can imagine oh god well i figured that she'd have to go in and vacuum and wipe the counters down you know clean it up and then when i walked inside the door it's like oh no no no no this is impossible yeah this is a disaster there's no way i'll lay my head down and fall asleep in this house this place is a death trap and i said you haven't been staying here like this have you and she goes yeah i don't have anywhere else tuesday i said well you're not staying here anymore and that's when i pulled her out of it i can't live like that i've never lived like that i've already told coral i said look i don't want to leave you i love you but look at the situation we got to figure something out or else i'm not living in this trailer i don't want to lose vernon again and it's very clear he will not live here the way it is well good morning team good morning good morning i'm dorothy brenninger i'm a professional organizing expert and i specialize in hoarding you sir michael anything you want to say if you've got something to say to your mom by golly at some point you should try to say it i'm a little disappointed that it's taken this long i lived most of my life in there and it took vernon coming along for you to make this step it kind of hurts that you didn't want to do this until now it's almost like it wasn't worth it when i look at michael who says gee mom i've been asking you all my life to get rid of this stuff and you didn't and yet here comes in a boyfriend for three months and he says do it or else and you do i feel for him that's really an honest statement be open today because as we throw things out it makes room for a lot of love to come in there are feelings all the way around and they have to get to the core that's what's underneath this horde it's my understanding from coral the other day that she's ready to let go of how much percent wise at least 75 i'm concerned about that i want you to not just let it go but make some difficult decisions so you won't have a horde again right you know i was thinking all we got to do is get the boxes out vacuum the carpet yeah buy a new bed and come on in what's this have you ever experienced a boarding situation before i've never walked in a house like this never it's a pile of garbage you know even the trailer itself you know it's i'm sorry you know once you've got trash up here it never ever ever ever goes away it's always fair i'm feeling really good i'm feeling very optimistic the house looks incredible already coral is under the impression that this place is totally salvageable and it won't be any problem getting it all fixed up i do see a lot of problems though that are going to have to be addressed there's just so much stuff in there the owner coral would like to move back into the house but everybody around seems to think that this is not a place she can live in okay so i'm looking to you to give us the real answer don't sugarcoat it because we need to know the reality of it okay yes ma'am okay i have no idea what's going to happen if they say it's condemnable i just have not allowed my brain to even consider that possibility yet here we go oh wow my first impression of the house was in rough shape the ceilings are falling down the walls have water and mold in them the water heater was leaking so the water has rotted the floor out and uh really nasty the house could be salvageable but probably the cost would be more than it's worth a rough estimate we did was to tear all the drywall out all the insulation out repair all the bad wood on the outside new cabinets ac and plumbing we're somewhere around fifty thousand dollars wow yes it's not salvageable yeah not at that price tell me what this means to you i can't fathom it yet i went to college i gave up 26 months of his life so i could get a degree everybody has let me down hold on a second yeah yeah dallas is leaving i had to get out of there because you know she keeps saying everybody let me down but what about all these years that she let michael down he can be pissed off at me if he wants i don't care obviously he's done a lot for your son he cares for you a lot mom what are you talking about he was gonna take you in he offered you a bedroom and you're like no i want to sleep in a bed he loves the out of you seeing my brother snap on my mom was not something i was expecting do you not understand and appreciate that mom you make me so mad sometimes you know i care for you and he cares for you and everyone here cares for you and we're there for you i can't blame him for going off he he grew up in this i didn't i hear him i don't know what to say to you you don't hear anything man girl look at this you don't hear what is your problem what is wrong what the f do you think is wrong what do you think i gotta get you help it took a lot of courage for coral to do this a lot of courage and i think this is gonna be some closure for michael and he really needs it i'm hoping that we can come together and find a way to make this work for my mother and she can live happily i'm not going to leave coral i'm very proud of her i think she did a wonderful job of finally knuckling down and getting rid of this jump i may say that i'm not going to stick by my mom if she decides to stay here in this this hell hole but ultimately i'm always going to be here she's my mother and i'm her son and that bond is eternal [Music] i'm doug and i'm a survivor [Music] i wasn't an atv hit a tree sump in the ground it blew me up in the air 80 to 120 feet bam right on my head no helmet i'm amy doug's sister he was convulsing and he had blood coming out his ears and he had to get helicopter flown out of there they said he died in the air and they revived them it was not long after that that the hoarding started you walk into the house the first thing you see is trash beer cans soda cans any cans couches that are completely destroyed some of the things just don't even make sense my name is curtis and i am doug's uncle i think he just started collecting things it was his own type of therapy for himself my house right now looks like a cluttered up junkyard inside closed doors i'm frank doug's neighbor the house is like rat droppings everywhere you know and these are big boys he's like water rats and he'll let them scurry along i know he's seen him i tried to help him fix up the inside of the house tried to help him get the plumbing going in there and he won't let me work in that it's very depressing to see doug live the way he lives my main belief reason why i did do that was to bring up my memory for how it went before my accident [Music] the hoarding just really went rampant from that point it's when he stopped taking care of himself i feel real guilty i promised my dad before he died that we wouldn't lose the house and that doug would be taken care of but i don't feel like i've done my part he doesn't want to move he won't move he won't stay with me i don't know what to do my name is corey chalmers i'm an extreme cleaner specializing in biohazard and hoarding it's the morning spend the night in doug's house i'm very tired it was a long night a lot of noises in this house during the night you can just hear things crawling around this is just no way to live the plan is dr chabot is going to come here today let her meet doug let her make her own plan but then we're going to get this clean up going and hopefully make a huge change in this guy's life hello hi doug i'm dr chabot hello i'm doug how you doing i'm dr suzanne chabot and i'm a specialist in ocd and hoarding you ready i'm ready for it you can help me out all right oh don't run up all the way let them out when i looked in the fridge it was just terrible and i didn't realize exactly how bad it really really really was [Music] has anybody let somebody live like that last time i was here you can walk in here it's called the hell my brother he um he wanted to make sure that doug always had a a home a few times we remodeled this house before these kids were born you stuck it out with your brother trying to help him make things right for his family i think curtis and i both feel that we should have stepped up to the plate and done what my father would have wanted us to done a long time ago not just everything my brother did here and just going straight to hell so far we've filled up about three and a half dump trucks it's just squalor a lot of trash it could be good but it's trash first look at that wow who's that that picture i had a picture of me many years ago when i was about 12 years old so sweet and innocent unlike a lot of hoarders doug is brain damaged he needs objects to trigger his memory is this important to you back when the next door house just got built the greatest gift that we can give doug is getting him to realize that there are other ways to maintain memories tarp keeper got it cheaper that's the keeper trash no excuse man so amy and doug are in the shed right now working on getting it cleared out this shed holds a lot of significance there's a lot of emotional baggage in there because this is where they found their father passed away he passed out in prayer position leaned over the side of his bed died right and you don't remember any of that his father was very important to him he played a big role in his life and we're trying to draw some of that out of him see if he really does remember it i actually remember seeing my dad dead not talking to me checked him no pulse i knew it going [Music] i just know that he's smiling down at us right now i swear he let him go oh he's always with you yup no matter where i go [Music] it's nothing bad that's from don't go there this isn't one of those doctor things taking you somewhere this is me taking you somewhere his biggest fear is doctors taking him to a facility and i think that's kind of what's going through his head so i'm trying to calm him down and just tell him that's not what's happening this is something that can be good but it's your choice if you want to do it we are here at a hair studio and spa and they have offered to shave trim your hair if you want it let's make a new dug doug is completely nervous right now got this guy yanking on his face you know pulling him around you can see his hands just twitching relax take it easy you're not real comfortable huh he's a little apprehensive yeah he is not used to this at all all right this is extremely long so work with me here this is your decision our goal is this we're going to make a new bedroom for him we're going to make a memory and art room for him and we're going to get the kitchen and bathroom clean and functional again just really brighten it up it was so dull and dirty in there hopefully by making over these rooms it'll make him feel like he deserves to beat someone again this is an opportunity for doug getting beyond the harding and really learning that he's a person who's worth being with other people look at you all cleaned up god look at his hair doug just came out of the bathroom he has his hair cut he's clean-shaven he has all these new clothes on he looks like a completely different person and it's pretty awesome having a makeover is not essential but it sure does give people a way of feeling like life can be good again oh wow feel great awesome oh wow look how handsome you are duck awesome wonderful awesome man we've seen the new ham you guys are ready to see the new house yeah okay all right all right how wonderful is that the family is overjoyed this is more than they ever expected check it out oh yeah this is perfect you can see this matches that together wow this is a home where he can function where doug can have a normal life i'm already ahead of you doug you've got to see this oh yeah wow this is a memory this is your memory room things that you don't recall things that were really stolen from you from your accident you have a place to come and recollect all right that's what i'm talking about you heard mom you and dad you deserve every bit of this it's organized it's civilized like a normal house should be [Music] over the past few days we've removed five trucks that equaled about ten thousand pounds of literally trash out of his house pretty amazing that he let go of all that once we're gone this family has a lot of work to do you know this isn't just on doug this is on the family to come together so hopefully they've gotten the message and this will be a new life for all of them how do you feel about your house now i feel great that's what i want to hear thank you yeah i'm barbara and i'm totally disorganized i have almost a thousand books i have clothes i have shoes i've got lots of dishes lots of cans of vegetables and lots of cans of fruit and lots of cans of beans i'm rebecca and barbara is my mother my mom she spends a lot of money at the thrift stores but when that money is gone and she doesn't have money at that point she goes to the garbage and she collects stuff out of garbage it's incredible how easy it is to accumulate stuff she doesn't see that there's anything wrong with what she's doing and that's i think the hardest part for us because we know that there's something wrong i'm jerry and barbara is my older sister i just can't believe the conditions that she lives in i would feel like i'm in abu grave prison if i was in conditions like that i've closed myself off from the real world i really have i've been living in my own little funny world she can't take a shower in her home she can't sleep in her own bed she can't cook in her own kitchen if i don't accept help right now jerry said the authorities will come and i may be put away and i don't want that to happen it is just a crying shame that it would actually have to come to that but we're afraid for her own safety and well-being morning everybody good morning my name is matt paxton i'm an extreme cleaning specialist who is tired of this mess raise your hand okay are you tired of this mess your hands should be raised too i know you are the reality is that if we don't get this house cleaned the family is going to call the authorities they are done they have done all that they can do and they are emotionally and physically fed up you need to be present and responsible are you guys ready to roll yeah let's do this oh god i want to look through this and i'll probably throw it all away but i really would like to look i looked right now since we're going on i can't do it that fast i'm not a fast reader mom please don't dig through it no more look how nasty it is and dirty it is mom what is that they're buttons well i need my buttons you're putting uh rolling it out and you're not he said he's setting it well you listened to me for a minute putting it down you obviously didn't hear what i just told you i said i'm going to pull it out and set it back here so you enter back a computer you want a bend you don't want it right here i'll put it over here i wanted to clean that off we will i want to do right now i think my mom has to have her emotions or she's not going to fully get as much as she can out of this can we pull them okay you don't need to touch it okay just shut up okay she has to realize what's going on and she has to feel it or she's not going to change you getting overwhelmed tell harry to stop tell us i'm not overwhelmed i'm disgusted okay what are you disgusted with tell me about it clean it up so you don't have to be disgusted anymore yeah but uh your turn of voices letting me know that i belong in a nursing home no but that's what i'm fighting against mom i don't want to put you in a nursing home i asked for help and nobody had time because we kept trying and every time we would come down actually doing it you'd fight it we've tried to hope and you know you fight us whenever we start to help you this is what happens you fight it starting i was grateful i wasn't no i wasn't yourself i was donating it i'm dr scott hannan and i specialize in cognitive behavioral therapy for compulsive hoarding barbara needs to see that her family can support her and push her at the same time because that's when she'll keep herself from getting back to this place i think that you you let an idiot be an idiot too long you're not i need to calm down and the only person who ever has called you an idiot is you that's all you do is put yourself down and you wonder why you feel so bad i feel dead okay well we're trying to bring you back to life barbara's dealing with the emotion she's talking to her family she's even getting upset with her family the more she stays with and listens to it the better they're gonna be able to work together in the future all right let's go back in there and we'll go slower i promise all right please that's disgustingly dirty and it's missing eyes you have to laugh and make the decision harry he shot good job that was a good decision there any way you'd let me trash those books since they're all covered in rat pieces you can't donate them what do you think it's time goodbye whoa really wait with timeout really i want my family i don't need these damn books okay good she's letting me toss all these awesome she's letting me toss all of these books right here this whole wreck that's awesome yes good job mom look at this clothing mom look at this it's all ripped up no that's rat and posted that's the garbage do you want to donate this let me donate trashing it good job yay whoo that was awesome we're seeing a lot of improvement from everybody this family is learning that they can have a fight and actually still love each other and everything's okay i do this every week and i rarely have a family that works this well i feel sorry for you it's dead secret i don't hear that very often you're communicating period i just appreciate that you're communicating okay this is a great example of a family coming together putting their problems to the side and working as a real family we took a lot of trash out of there almost eight trucks about 10 tons believe it or not removing all the stuff actually made the house more dangerous oh mom mom mom watch your step oh god mom yeah it's rotted it's good and rotted it's starting to look now since we're getting down to the floors and stuff it's starting to look like the trailer's in a lot worse shape than i originally thought it was the floor joints are still good but all the flooring is gone this house is completely destroyed we might end up having to just replace the trailer itself but before we do that i want to be able to know that my mom knows where she made her mistakes and she'll be more cautious about getting the house cluttered like this again [Music] this is a family that has realized hoarding is not a one-person deal and now the family is committed to working together and solving this problem i think if i can get her out of the house and spend more time with her and show her that we are there that we love her regardless that maybe she'll keep the house clean mom come on barbara's got her family to work with her she's also going to need other professional support to keep her moving forward she's always dealt with emotions by avoiding she's got to learn a whole new way and that's going to take time [Music] i feel like i made a big change that's been a long time in the making [Music] i didn't want to deal with reality the the real the real hurt and this has helped me face it i'm not alone anymore i have my family i got a better future to look forward to and it's a good feeling 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

Views: 2,068,413

Keywords: a&e, aetv, a&e tv, ae, a&e television, a&e shows, a and e, a+e, a&e full episodes, hoarders, hoarders show, hoarders full episodes, hoarders clips, hoarders family secrets, watch hoarders, hoarding, addiction, intervention, hoarding intervention, before and after, before after, compulsive hoarding, hoarders scenes, hoarders episodes, hoarders episode clips, hoarders before and after, FLORIDA Hoarders - One-Hour Marathon, florida hoarders, one hour marathon, hoarders marathon

Id: YeOhP9tNiwg

Length: 92min 35sec (5555 seconds)

Published: Fri May 27 2022