I'm Laura. If I had to pick a yes or no for
whether or not I'm a hoarder, I would say no. I'm John. I'm Laura's boyfriend. Laura's definitely a hoarder. The house, it's a mess. Laura's got crap everywhere. I'm Angelina, and
Laura is my mom. In the house, there's
Tupperware, there's paperwork, there's clothes. It's like a giant mess. I'm Janet, and
I'm Laura sister. It's really hard to go
there and be comfortable. I love my sister, but
Laura cannot accept responsibility for the mess. The convoluted reasons that
she gives about the hoarding are just delusion. I am like a frustrated
perfectionist. I can't clean until
I can do it right, or do it all, in my timeframe. JOHN: I used to get upset on
a daily basis about the house, and it always resulted in
a screaming match, which wasn't doing anybody any good. I love him. I just don't like him very much. JOHN: I'm pretty much
living in the garage. I thought it was
better, you know. I've outfitted it with,
you know, cable and TV, so it's kind of half
man cave, half garage. And it's pretty much
one place in the house that's a clean,
semi-normal environment. I don't like that Laura and
Angelina have to share a room. Angelina should
have her own room. But I like her in there. I like her sleeping
in the bed, because I like to know she's there. I love my mom. I guess I'm a mommy's girl. JANET: Angelina's very
influenced by Laura. I think she would actually
like to have her own room, but when you grow up in
that type of an environment, it's her normal, and
that's what's sad. JOHN: I've said to Laura that I
will not live this way anymore. If it stays this
way, we're done. LAURA: I would be more
than happy to give him the clean,
perfect life he wants, but he doesn't compromise. I feel like he doesn't love
me and wants to control me. But he's her dad, and I want to
be able to look her in the eye and say, I tried
everything I could humanly, possibly do for us to be a
family like you should have. I just don't think there's
anything wrong with me. I just feel like
I'm just off-course. I just want to feel healed, you
know, not perfect, not fixed. That's the last thing I
want to feel is "fixed." DOROTHY: I need my junk team. Junkers, I need you over here. This is it. I'm Dorothy Breininger, and
I'm a professional organizing expert and I
specialize in hoarding. We are up against a house full
on the inside and outside. And then there's two
individuals who are at odds. But the most important thing
here is a 14-year-old girl. We're here for a reason. Angelina, at 14, you
deserve, at this age now, to have your own space-- yours and yours alone. So that's our mission, to
help you get that space. And I want to get
started, and we're going to start bringing it out. Justin, I want it to right here. We're going to hit the carport,
hit that backside of the house, bring it all forward and have
her start going through it. All of this stuff, just
start pulling it down. You're just going to lay it
all out so she can see it. LAURA: Just throw it out, yeah. DOROTHY: Everybody is
working on their assignments, and we're motoring through it. I wanted to go in the kitchen. Are you gonna be able
to see what he's done? OK. I'm done. I'm tired of him. You know, this was
supposed to be all about me so that I could feel safe with
the stuff that I have saved, that I wanted to have. MELVA: The only things
that have been released are the things
that were trashed. LAURA: No, that's not true. JOHN: Do you want to see what
I did in here, by the way? LAURA: No, I don't want to
see what you did in here. I don't want to
talk to you, I don't want to deal with you anymore. JOHN: Isn't this what you want?
- Not anymore, I don't! JOHN: Are you
telling me that you wanted it to be the way it was? LAURA: No, I wanted to take
all of my mugs and my cups to my cupboard. All of your mugs-- I kept out some ones I thought
you would use on a daily basis. That-- this box and
that box in there are all the rest of them for you
to go through and decide which ones you want to keep, OK? LAURA: I want you to
not touch my things, not think about me having
them and you using them! Go away! Go away! MELVA: Nope, nope, nope. Nope, nope, nope. You don't care about
anything of mine! JOHN: No, you don't care
about anybody but yourself. Let me have the space for
things that we use on a daily-- Fine, you can have the space-- No! On a daily basis! Take all my [muted] out. You don't need any of
my [muted] in here. JOHN: You could have done
that 10, 15 years ago. Yeah, I know. But you chose
to force me to not be able to put away everyday
items in the kitchen that need to be used. LAURA: Really, because when
I empty this bin, what would you put in there? JOHN: I want it to be a
functioning house, not-- LAURA: Well, I don't want
to be functioning with you. JOHN: Not--
LAURA: I'm done. It's your house. You're going to do what-- when they leave--
- I am going to do what I want. --you're gonna be you anyway-- Because you know
what, I [muted]---- --you're gonna do the same. --to be functioning. I'm not going to
do this anymore. LAURA: Whatever. OK. I want everybody to
take a deep breath. You're not going to fix this. This is not going to be better. MELVA: No, this is
not about fixing it. What I want is for
everyone to be clear. Because what I'm hearing is
some line drawing in the sand. What's the bottom line? Bottom line for
me is I'm not-- I'm not playing
this game anymore. MELVA: Laura, what
did you hear him say? It's all about him. It's always about him. What did you hear him say? JOHN: I got to get back to work. I'm not going to
let this opportunity slip through my fingers by
sitting here and arguing. (SOBBING) I can't
do this anymore. I'm tired of
getting rid of stuff that means something to me just
because I live in his house. I am so done. The more I throw away, the
more people throw away for me, and the clearer it gets,
this is not my home. I don't know about her, but
it's not my home anymore. You're not trapped. You're at a crossroad. OK. Boxing it all up, taking
it to your little, say, apartment or
something while you guys work on this relationship. This is not good for Angelina. It's not good. I know. DOROTHY: Yesterday,
Laura said I want to have everything boxed up. I want to have it
put in storage. This is the last day, and it
is important that all of us are on the same page. [sobbing] Talk to me. I know that's
really hard, and you know what, it's very
hard for all of us, because we do care about mom. But she needs to get
better, you know? I understand that, but I
just don't understand why you guys have to talk bad to her. Come here, give me a hug. I understand. I want to apologize to you. You all right? You know, and that's
kind of one of the problems that mom needs to work out. You know, you just don't know
how much she's kept us apart, you know? You and I don't get
to have, you know, a regular father-daughter
relationship. MELVA: Laura has a
tremendous amount of influence on Angelina. And John has identified
the bond as something that has been an impediment for
him developing a relationship with her, and it's something
that he's saying that he's ready to do something
about, that he's looking forward to building a
relationship, a deeper bond, with Angelina. ANGELINA: I just felt that he
understood how I was feeling this entire time a
little bit better, and it made me feel
better that he understood. So it's coming together. Huh? Yeah, it sure is. Yeah. Crazy. Bittersweet. What do you mean? JOHN: Because I have to be
firm about how things go from here with Laura, you know? I've got to follow through,
stick to my word, you know? Walking in and seeing
everything clean just underscores, you
know, the pain I feel for everything I've learned
and have to say to Laura. Hey.
- Hello. Hey. MELVA: John wanted to share
something with you about sort of the expectations
moving forward so that you are able to be very
clear about your next moves. OK? The process to-- you
know, took me to a new place I've never been before. The house is clean,
but there's-- there's more to it than that. I think that we are
just too volatile together at this
point, and I just can't see anything changing. And unfortunately, that
means for the sake of myself, the kids, and yourself
included, one, I agree to pay for the storage for two months. And the other thing is you
need to find another place to live within a month. I don't know what
else to say, you know? MELVA: This has been a big,
big, big step for John. Coming to the
realization of what he needs in terms of
his own boundaries and his own sense
of self-respect. Sometimes the hardest decisions
are the best decisions. Yeah. OK? And it may feel like it,
but this is not a failure. If you are able to give
yourselves what you need, you can give Angelina
what she needs. I agree. Oh my god, it's pink. MELVA: Angelina having her
own room is vital for her, in terms of learning
her own boundaries. This is your space. You do not have to share it. You have every right to be
selfish with your space. You know, if John and I
never come back together, she'll have a place here. She'll have a place with me,
and that will be up to her. JOHN: Angelina
having her own room is the best result of all this. LAURA: John's going to
do what he's going to do, and I gotta do what I gotta do. He gave me 30 days to
find another place. You know, I love him
and I care about him, but as much as he can't do
this anymore, I can't either.
