Hi, everybody. I'm Dorothy the Organizer
from "Hoarders", of course. Are you ready for a
"Hoarders" marathon? We've put together some of
the top "Hoarders" episodes, and I'll be joining you
throughout those episodes to give you organizing tips. Why? Because so many of
our fans tell us they feel inspired
to get organized after they watch a show. So I hope I can give
you some inspiration, and I hope you enjoy the show. RICK: I'm surprised that she
hasn't burned down the place. So it's a miracle that
you are still alive today. I'm done trying. Good. Don't come back in. You was really mean to me. You need to change. [COUGHING] She's going to
die in this house. Oh my gosh. It was the same
as my nightmare. I pee in a bucket. You love your crap
more than you love us. That's how we feel. Stressed out so bad I
just can't take it anymore. There's no room in her
head to care about us. [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] [FAINT TELEVISION SOUNDS] I'm T'resa, and
I'm a mother, and I love almost every minute of it. I'm Jace, and
T'resa is my mom. I moved out when I was
approximately 15 years old. My relationship with my mom
just kind of severed there. I don't recall a time when there
wasn't clutter in the home. She always smoked in the
home, never smoked outside. I remember mouse
droppings, and you could hear mice underneath the couch. The fridge was always
just disgusting. I never had a stove or
an oven cooked meal. We ate out a lot
and had TV dinners. [MUSIC PLAYING] My house is filled, yes. But at least a third of
the stuff in my house is for crafting. But it's what I excel at. I'm good at what I do. A lot of people crochet, but
they don't make scrubbies. [MUSIC PLAYING] I make a lot of scrubbies. They'll clean anything. You can scrub your
dishes, scrub your tub. You can clean out your fridge. Anything that
needs to be cleaned can be cleaned
with the scrubbie. They won't scratch anything. I mean, they're the most
wonderful thing there ever was. [MUSIC PLAYING] I began to realize that it
was abnormal probably at the age where I wanted to
have friends over, and my mom would only let
friends come over if they came in through my window. We were not allowed to
go past my bedroom door, not even to use the restroom. So if they needed to use
the restroom, go home. [MUSIC PLAYING] I just said, look, the way that
this house looks, the way it smells, the way that we interact
with others is not normal, and I am not going to live in
this house one more second. And I called my dad
and he picked me up, and I never stepped foot
back in the house again. I'm Rick, and
T'resa's my sister. All she has is Jace. He's trying to be a
physician's assistant, and she just brags about that. I'm so proud of my son. She loves me. I know she is so proud of me
for going to graduate school. He is so smart. He's going to be
somebody, and he's not going to have to
go through the life that we had to go through. You know, I love
her, she loves me. I think he loves her. But the way that he grew up, I-- I don't know how he could
be as normal as he is. [MUSIC PLAYING] It wasn't a good marriage. He drank, he stepped out
on me, girlfriends started calling every night, and he
took my self-esteem from me, and I just fell to pieces. [MUSIC PLAYING] My sister said that
there's many times that she's burned her blankets
and the couch in her bed. I'm surprised that she
hasn't burned down the place. It-- it's amazing to
me that it hasn't. If my mom doesn't
clean the home, I will call Adult
Protective Services. It would be very difficult to
do, but I would make the call. She easily could die. [MUSIC PLAYING] My name is Doris. I retired in 2006. I think I'm a hoarder in a way. [MUSIC PLAYING] When I buy stuff,
I let it stack up, and then pretty soon the
junk gets to the ceiling. I have new dresses, storage
containers, luggage. I have a lot of
stuff that's good but it's covered up by junk. I'm Celeste, and
Doris is my grandmother. My grandmother's
daily life is affected very strongly by her hoarding. I cannot cook in my
kitchen at this time because it's all blocked off. My bathroom is not working. I don't go in there anymore. I'm Cynthia, and
Doris is my mother. My mother has been
saying that she's going to make a path to the
bathroom for about eight years, and there's still no path
so that it can get fixed. [MUSIC PLAYING] When my bathroom got stopped
up, I moved out to the patio. I try not to think
about my grandmother's daily living conditions,
because I know that it must be really hard. When I need to bathe,
I have a bucket out here. I heat water and I wash up. I pee in a bucket and I pour
it out by the back gate. When I have to do number
two, I do it in a bucket and put it in the trash can. I feel really terrible
about my mom living in this situation. For years, I offered to
help, get all the stuff out of the house so that I could
move in and be with her, but she gives me
a million excuses to keep me from helping her. [MUSIC PLAYING] I don't want to report her
to Adult Protective Services, but I'm just concerned for the
health risks for her living out there. I do think the
hoarding was caused by the loss of love,
the loss of dreams that she had in her life. Cynthia's father
was an alcoholic, and it was very, very
lonesome because he would go out and get drunk. So I'd go to garage
sales and bought a lot of things I didn't even need. She filled my
playhouse full of stuff so I never got to play in it. Then, she started filling
my room up with stuff, but I was still living in there. And it just kept
getting worse and worse. Our relationship was
so difficult because of the mess in the house. Just constant
fighting and fighting, and I just couldn't
take it anymore. [MUSIC PLAYING] After I moved out, my mother
filled it all up with stuff where she couldn't even open
the door to the bedrooms any longer, and she
was sleeping on top of piles of clothes and things. And then, 10 or 12
years ago, my mother sold the house that I grew
up in moved in the house that she's in now, and now
that house is full of hoard. [MUSIC PLAYING] I've never, ever been
in my grandmother's house my whole entire life. That hurts me, you know. I always wanted to just be able
to go to my grandma's house, and make her some dinner,
and put on some music, and we can dance
in the living room. I want her to experience
a true, beautiful life. [MUSIC PLAYING] [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm surprised that she
hasn't burned down the place. If she did, it
wouldn't be a shock. It'd be a sadness, but
it wouldn't be a shock. Hi, Rick. Hi. I'm glad you're here. I'm Dr. Suzanne Chabaud,
and I specialized in OCD and hoarding disorder. Hello, T'resa. This is Dr. Chabaud. Can I come in? OK. It's been hard to get
up off that sofa, huh? You're not getting up? Oh, come on, T'resa. Come on. It's been 25 years since
I've been in her house. [MUSIC PLAYING] When I walked in
and saw how it was, I'm surprised that
she's still alive. I just couldn't believe
how many burn holes was in that blanket and the couch. SUZANNE: Come on, T'resa. I'm showing you. I can lay down here. It's so interesting
to me that that's like your peaceful
place, and from-- T'RESA: It is. And from the outside, let
me tell you what it looks. Like it looks like a corpse. You're in an immovable place and
it's like you're dying there. This is my bed. T'resa's house is a
death ready to happen. I'm afraid you're going to burn
yourself up alive in that spot. I already-- T'RESA: I am not even smoking. I know, but she's
talking about all those burn holes in your-- in the couch, you know, and
on your blankets and stuff. That scares me. SUZANNE: You getting up? Yes, I am. You're getting pretty bossy. What do you want to see? [MUSIC PLAYING] I did him wrong
in a lot of ways. I wasn't the best mother. I allowed all this kind
of stuff to happen. Allowed what to happen? The house to get like this. But I-- I couldn't have
loved him any more. Every fiber in my body,
I hope it's a success and that this changes her life. But what I've seen, I
don't give her much chance. [MUSIC PLAYING] I have a hard time with
the whole hoarding issue. If I ask my mother, can
you throw something away, then she'll tell
me that she's sick. That's what I hear all the time. She just goes around in circles. It's impossible talking to her. [MUSIC PLAYING] Here we are. Your mom's living quarters. You ready? Yes My name is Mark Pfeffer. I'm a licensed psychotherapist
and specialist in the treatment of hoarding disorder. Hi. Hi, Grandma. Hi, Mom. Come on in. Doris has hoarded up her
home to the point where she has to sleep in the back
room because there's no other room for her. What are your thoughts about
walking into your mom's house today? I have to say it's
worse than I expected. It's just disgusting. I don't understand it and I
don't have any patience for it. Like many children
of hoarders, Cynthia is really very angry. She holds a grudge towards
her mom for many years of not taking action. [MUSIC PLAYING] Oh my gosh. I just don't understand. I don't. Like when you come
in here, Mom, and you see something like
this, why don't you just take it and throw it away? Because, Cynthia, I
have been very sick. OK, this is where
I'm going to get upset. Any time I say I'm
sick, she gets upset. Because, Mom, this is
what you do when I start calling you on your [BLEEP]. You say you're sick, and
I don't understand that. You can watch more "Hoarders"
episodes every single Sunday this month at 7:00 AM on A&E. [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] The hardest part
of the cleanup will be allowing
people into the home. She does not want
people to know. This is her dirty secret. This is the first step
to getting your life back. My name is Cory Chalmers. I'm an extreme cleaner
that specializes in biohazard and hoarding. The crisis for me
in you living here is the extreme fire danger. [MUSIC PLAYING] Well, how-- that was-- This speaks volumes. I've never seen anything
like this before. I really haven't. So it's a miracle that
you are still alive today. [SOBS] We have literally three
days, but in that three days you have all these
resources that are here that can completely
get this house back to a safe and
functional condition. So are you ready to start
touching your things and making those
difficult choices? You've got lots of help here. Yes, good answer. Good answer. Let's start. Let's do this. [MUSIC PLAYING] What we're doing is we're
trying to get this door open. OK. So we're really trying
to work from the top down. OK. And making decisions. I thought it
would be a good idea to get Jace to go
in with his mom and let him really experience
what it's like to work through this with his mother. Here is a trash bag. Here is the box for keep stuff. We're just showing her
items and asking her. Good luck. All right. Jace wants a mom face-to-face. He doesn't want objects taking
the place of him in her life. All of it's garbage. Yeah, it is to you. Nothing in here. Completely empty. Yeah, that's to
put my scrubbies in. Well, it looks like
you have plenty of them. What about this? For my cat. JACE: So can I throw it away? No. Can I throw this away? No. - Can I throw this away?
- No. Why? It's what I put crafts in? You use it, clearly,
here underneath all this mouse droppings? So can I throw it away? No. I don't understand
how she sees any value in something
that has been covered with mouse urine and feces. I-- I didn't know
it was this bad. It's sad. Jace was shocked
that she couldn't see beyond the tip of her nose. She can't see past the
objects and see her son. That's the basic reason
why he's so angry. T'RESA: Keep. Why? Because I get them for gifts. You're going to
give that to somebody? Well, that can be wiped off. That's mouse droppings. So what? I've got anti-bacterial stuff. Jace got to see firsthand
that you just don't get in and get rid of the stuff. He had to face the
painful reality that this is a disorder, and his mom can
never love him fully in the way that she should or could as
long as she counts on objects and doesn't count on people. I'm done trying for
a moment at least. Hi. [MUSIC PLAYING] We're here to help you. You're not helping anything. OK, so I'm going
to let him out, OK? - Yeah, please.
- OK. All right. Don't come back in. I probably won't. I hope they don't make me. Good. [MUSIC PLAYING] This is what you
do when I start calling you on your [BLEEP]. You say you're sick, and
I don't understand that. I'm sorry. I just want this whole
thing to be over with. I want the house
to be all clean. I don't want to have
to deal with this. - Are you OK?
- No. [MUSIC PLAYING] This would be the-- CYNTHIA: Oh my gosh, Celeste. --the dining room. The inside of the house-- oh my gosh --was the
same as my nightmare. There's even food in
the cabinet still. Oh. I don't want to touch anything. I'm never this tall where
I can reach the ceiling. OK, look at the whole ceiling
needs to be scrubbed, the walls and maybe scrubbed. First, we got to
get everything out. So as long as she's willing,
we can move forward. I'm ready. All right, let's do some work. [MUSIC PLAYING] OK, ladies. Good morning. I'm Dorothy Breininger. I'm a professional
organizing expert, and I specialize in hoarding. So what we're going
to do is the guys are going to bring it
all out and they're going to put it on this area. And then we sort it into
the boxes over there. Make sense? Yes. That's no good because
it's got stains on it. [MUSIC PLAYING] This is what we're finding. Can you see what that is? Is that a rat? This is a rat. We're finding lots of rats. In there? Right here among this stuff. [MUSIC PLAYING] You ready? Why couldn't I keep
something like that? Would you want
your granddaughter to drink out of a cup
that was sitting where it was cockroaches and rats? I don't think Doris is really
acknowledging the problem. It's really an infested house. Stuff has to be tossed. It's no good. It's not healthy. [MUSIC PLAYING] You've got three minutes
to go through this. Are those picture frames? No, they are,
but they're broken. Make a decision. I guess throw it away.
I didn't-- You throw it away. It's not my decision. You throw it away. I want you to throw it away. This is really
not my decision. MARK: The best way
to teach her to make some difficult decisions-- There's nothing in it, right? No. --is to make those decisions
at high levels of anxiety. I know this is hard, but I want
you to feel the difficulty. This is how you're going
to learn, Doris, to make sure this doesn't happen again. I'm sorry, I'm just-- OK. [INAUDIBLE]. I'm stressed out so bad. I just can't take it anymore. [MUSIC PLAYING] [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] Jace got to see firsthand
the painful reality that this is a disorder and
his mom's dying in this house. Hello there. Hi. That didn't work good. You and Jace working together? Yeah. OK, but my job is to get you
kind of back into the game. So what I'd like to do
is have you outside. I'll have the blue guys come and
get all this pile right here. T'RESA: OK. Lay it all out on that
blue tarp out there. You can walk through and
say keep, donate, whatever. Nothing's getting thrown away. It's all getting brought out
and then you can look at it. It better not get thrown away. Well, you're going
to be right there, so you'll see everything
coming out the front door. OK.
All right. [MUSIC PLAYING] You was really mean to me. I'm sorry, but us nicing
you to death is not working. You need to change. I hope that we can figure out
how to redirect her thoughts and her thinking, because the
thing that I yearn for most is to just have my mom. Can you let your son's
love for you count? Look at his face. He's holding back tears. He's here because he loves you. Can't you see the love? That's why we're here. I know. I want to become
my old self again. You got to help me
get there, but you got to let me do it my way. Jace needed to
realize that you don't bring the dump trucks in and
clear the house in two days and there's no pain. In fact, there's
so much pain, and that's why the house is full. T'resa, we're going to look
through this stuff right now, and my challenge to
you is to look at it through a new set of eyes. Not the T'resa that's lived
the last several years, but the new T'resa and what
she wants for her future. Try. Just try. [MUSIC PLAYING] I've got to have these. They're brand new. If you find something you want
and you decide to let it go. OK, this is new
and I'm keeping it. What is it? It's perfume,
and not one of you is going to tell me it's going. This is a new lipstick. No. Oh, don't make yourself
look like a clown. I'm not. I'm beautiful. Quite a disappointing day. There's so much to be done. But she wants to touch,
think about, look at, talk about every single thing. T'resa, it's the end
of the day for us. So I want you to look and
see how much stuff you have, how much needs to
be gone through, and we need some
fast decisions here. This is what I
kept my scrubbies in. This is-- Oh, and this I have to
keep because I'm getting my money back from the vet. This was a cat collar. At this point, I
don't have any hope really that we're going
to get this house cleaned. [MUSIC PLAYING] Let it-- let it all out, baby. It just deeply hurts me. It's like-- it's like cutting
a piece of my heart out of me. Yeah, because
it's [INAUDIBLE].. Yeah. Each item. This may have been the
first day of Doris's life where she had a lot of pressure
to make rational decisions. It's too hard. Just take a deep breath. And it was pressure that
she could not handle. So tomorrow is going
to be a challenge. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm sitting there like
a rock watching everybody take my stuff and throw it out. Yes. And all my stuff is
going to the dump truck. It doesn't seem right. No. Being that we're
bringing everything out, we're able to save
things that we might have never been able to
get if we weren't doing this. Even though Doris knows
we're trying to help her, she's suspect that
somehow we're going to discard some
of her possessions that mean so much to her. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm sitting there
watching everybody throw my stuff in the truck. All my stuff that I've
worked for for years. Each bag you take out
and throw in there, there goes another
piece of my heart. My mother is not dealing
with the situation. She thinks everybody's
out to get her. She tries to play the victim,
and I don't respond to that. Cynthia, you're not
happy with that comment. No. Can I say something now? Yeah, you can. Because you know what, Mom,
all this crap that you've been saving has been
put in space between me and you and you and
your grandchildren, and you love your crap
more than you love us. That's how we feel. So every time you say that we're
throwing a piece of your heart away, it's like
we're not even here. I am so sick of
hearing you say that, and you can be as mad
at me as you want. I don't even care anymore. You never have cared. Why don't you tell the truth? That's why I'm here. I moved back home from Hawaii
for you because I don't care? You think I would
like being back here? I don't. This is the way she
talks to me all the time. Because it's always about you. OK, I'm done. [THEME MUSIC] [COUGHING] T'resa, open the door. I'm worried about her. [MUSIC PLAYING] She's having such a hard
time breathing and coughing, she can't even get off the
couch to open the door. At this point, we have to
find a way in there so we can get her breathing treatment. We've got to step on all
this hoard right here. Hey, don't move. You need your nebulizer. You know, she was
really struggling. This is another sign of
how this critical house is going to kill her. You know, if we weren't here,
what would have happened? She couldn't get to a phone. She couldn't get to the door. I don't know how many things
she's going have to go through like this before
she realizes she's going to die in this house. Put the cigarette out. T'RESA: I will. CORY: Now.
T'RESA: I will. You can't take a breathing
treatment and have a cigarette. That's ridiculous. T'RESA: I know. OK, breathe that in. Come on. T'RESA: OK. Sheesh. T'RESA: Thank you. You're welcome. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm telling you, if you
don't take advantage of this, this is a death trap for you. We're throwing out
the rescue to you, and I'm saying you say,
please, rescue me from this. Please, rescue me from this. Will you let us do what
we need to do to rescue you? Yes. OK. We're going to get started. [MUSIC PLAYING] Take the bottom straight
back to the grass. [MUSIC PLAYING] You guys, you did this
to my sewing machine. It's not going. Mom, let's get out of here. My god, that's the only
cover to my sewing machine. Now, why do you need
a Tidy Cat container? I'm going to put some
of my yarns in that. You've got a bunch of
Tupperware containers to put your yarn in. I don't care. Mom, let's get
out of here, please. I'll be here all night
if you guys keep this up. I'm really frustrated. T'resa's given us permission
to go full gangbusters, and then she walks in and
says, stop everything. So we're just trying to
make progress when we can, because we know she's
going to come and shut it down within minutes. When was the last time you
used your sewing machine? I haven't been able to get
to it, but I'm going to use it. [MUSIC PLAYING] I just can't take it. It's like, so frustrating. I just have had it with her
saying that every time we throw her junk away, we're throwing
away a piece of her heart, because she's just saying
that all that stuff is more important than us. I'm mad at my mom right now. I don't even want
to talk to her. I want to stay
completely away from her. [MUSIC PLAYING] 53 suitcases that
came out of the hallway, living room, and bedroom. You want to know why you don't
have space in the house, babe? Here you go. Here you go. This is a great visual
example for you to see, and it'd be a great
opportunity for you to practice making hard decisions. We're going to start over here. This is all dirty clothes. Really stinky, stinky,
stinky, stinky. I don't know what's in there. Is that jewelry?
- No. No. It's all used and
rubbish already. Celeste stepped up
in a very big way. She could be firm with her
grandmother like no one else. Do you have a
deadbolt lock there? I have two. Does it work? Yes. - Do you need this one?
- No. OK. Ooh. Tough love. Doris does not trust
any human being, but she trusts
her granddaughter. I'm making this
choice for you. Do you trust me, Grandma? OK. Well done. It's getting easier for you. Yeah, you got it. [MUSIC PLAYING] It started raining seriously. Everything was getting wet. We had to scramble. We put it under the tent. It's a flood zone here. [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] It's not going. I'll be here all night
if you guys keep this up. Mom, please just choose
me over this stuff, please. Mom, it can all be replaced. Please. Choose me over this stuff. Please. OK. If you choose me, will
you please step out of the garbage can and
let all these people finish what they came to do? [MUSIC PLAYING] I know you've lived on
this couch for a long time with all the dead mice we have
found right around this area. This couch is really gross. The cushions are
completely flat and there's holes everywhere
in it, and I know there's rodent activity in it. I want to beg you
to let us remove it. Yeah. OK. [MUSIC PLAYING] I am so happy and impressed. I feel as of today, I feel that
our relationship has grown. So just as long as you're doing
good, that's all that matters. All right. I love you so much, honey. I love you too. [MUSIC PLAYING] We've removed most
of the fire danger just by removing the
clutter from this house. And we've made medical boxes for
her to have one in each room. It has all of her medicines,
her breathing treatments, so she doesn't have any
problem reaching them. I think all the crises have
been addressed at this point. [MUSIC PLAYING] T'resa, everyone here did a
lot of work, including you. You guys ready to see it? Yes, we are. Oh my goodness. Oh my. This is so awesome, T'resa. I could not leave you
on that couch, T'resa. You know that. Oh, thank you,
God, and everybody. Are you ready to
go see your kitchen? T'RESA: I am. All right. Oh, you guys. I'm going to cook
you guys something. So many children,
of course, wish that they could save
their mom or dad's life, and this time it happened. Jace stepped up to the plate
and said, I want my mom to live. Oh, my bed. I am so happy with
the final result. There has been more growth and
healing over the past 24 hours than there have been
in the last 13 years. I didn't think I'd be thrilled
at all, but I am so thrilled. I already feel my
life coming back. My heart is just swelling. Thank you, Cory. You're welcome. [MUSIC PLAYING] It's practically
flooding here, but the rain will not deter us. [MUSIC PLAYING] Here we are. I want to give you guys
the opportunity to share what you're really feeling. My mom is so
full of the hoard, there's no room in her
head to care about us. And that has been the basis
of most of your anger, I think, over--
- Yes, it is. MARK: Over the years. That's it right there. Your daughter needs
to know that you're concerned not just about
your health and your hoard but about them. That's what they're
pleading with you for. The thing is, we've
got to forget the past and start today as
the rest of your life. Yes. And love each other and
try to get along better. Thanks, Grandma. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm glad that I
told her how I felt. I don't think it did
any good, but at least I said what I needed to say. Tell me what you think. It's a big comforter,
but smell it. I'm letting you
make the decision. Your daughter has
enough confidence in you to make a good
decision to show that to you. I don't think it'll
ever come clean. That smell's going to
be in there forever. OK, good decision. OK. I honestly think my mom
is pretty right on today. Today is the first day she's
ever thrown away anything. Trash. I love what you're saying. [MUSIC PLAYING] All right, well, listen let's
go inside and take a look. Let's feel good about, you know,
what we've done as a group. Let's go. I can hardly wait. All right. CYNTHIA: Wow. DORIS: Oh my goodness. CYNTHIA: Wow. Look at this. When I walked in my front
door today, I was amazed. Oh my goodness. I could not
believe what I saw. Everything looks wonderful. And these cabinets. You can see the
possibility again. I'm hoping that
this is the beginning of a new chapter of our lives. Without you, I
probably would have went on thinking, this is the end. I can't go any further. But with encouragement,
this is what I've got. I don't feel like now
I have to report her to Adult Protective Services. That is lifted off my shoulders. I'm so happy. Do you want to do
a dance, Celeste? I would love to do a
dance for you, Grandma. All right. [VOCALIZING] Today went wonderful. We were as a family
inside her home together, which I've never
experienced in my entire life. So that's more than
I could ever ask for. CYNTHIA: Bravo, Celeste. [APPLAUSE] Beautiful. Love you, honey. [MUSIC PLAYING] Sometimes I really have to
marvel at what my clients say to me on the "Hoarders" show. In this case, Doris is
trying to explain to me why she can't use her kitchen. She tells me that
there's this barrier, and she can't get in to use
the kitchen or eat in there. And I'm thinking
to myself, Doris, did somebody actually
come in and build a blockade that you couldn't
get into your own kitchen? It's always interesting
to see how clients never want to take the responsibility
for the hoard, when it seems so obvious to the rest of us. I do remember Dr. Pfeffer
flying in from Chicago for this particular show. And we met on that back
porch where Doris was living. She hoarded out the complete
entirety of her house. And so she was sleeping and
living on this back porch. Well, like most hoards,
I opened the front door, and the odor always hits
me smack in the face. It's just awful. And I always seem to
have two thoughts. The first thought is, how
am I ever going to do this? And the second
thought is, Dorothy, take a deep long breath. You do this every time, and
you always have success. You can do it. Now, it's not uncommon for us
to find critters, of course, inside the home, and
Doris was no exception. And we found rats galore. So I decided to present
a dead carcass to Doris. It's always my hope that
when I present a dead animal to the client, that
they are suddenly going to make the correlation
that their hoard created this family of rats
or mice in their home. And they might get
a little agitated, and then they might be
able to make decisions more easily, in terms of getting
rid of the rat-infested stuff. It doesn't always work,
but I always give it a try. I have the-- I have to say, I am always
happy to film in California. It's where I live,
and the weather is always great, except when
I'm filming a "Hoarders" show. In this case, the rain
came in from nowhere, midsummer, Southern California. It was a complete downpour. And it always makes our work
10 times harder on the show, and it causes such upset
for the client as well. But despite all these
upsets for the weather and for Doris and her family, I
always get a shot of adrenaline when I see the client
turning the corner and actually becoming
willing to let the stuff go, so they can bring in a new life. And Doris was able to watch
her lovely granddaughter dance a Hawaiian dance in
the living room, like they'd always hoped would happen. It was a great show. You know what? Almost all of them
are great shows. Who's the hoarder
in the family? Both of you. I don't think I've
ever seen anything like this before in my life. You put me in this position. ROBIN ZASIO: Gerri is
slowing up the process. You need to come
to some reality here. You haven't used this
stuff in 20-some years. If we pick through
it like this, you will lose your
house tomorrow. ROBIN ZASIO: Are we going to
move forward, or do we walk? Wow, there's a lot
of Christmas here. I love this room. I can't even stand
in this hall at all. Keep, keep, keep. I give up. Fighting a useless battle. I could end up getting
gangrene and losing my foot. Can you just tell
us what's going on? No. I just want a private moment. [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] My name is Gerri,
and this is my house. [BIRDS CHIRPING] [MUSIC PLAYING] People throw away a lot
of things, but I don't. I got everything in there. Oh yeah, I'm a hoarder. I'm Rodger Stank, and I've
been living in this house for over 50 years. I didn't think that
I was a hoarder, but apparently, I must be. If you look around, you see
all this stuff along here. Yes, I guess you
could say I must have been a hoarder of some kind. But most of the stuff
that's inside the house more than likely will
be my wife's stuff. GERRI: Josh is more of
a hoarder than I am. He brings his stuff, but
he doesn't bring it in. He leaves it outside. My wife has problems
picking things up. She seems to more or less leave
it, leave it wherever it is. And I have to kind of stumble
over it, and all that stuff. I'm Jay, and Rodger
and Gerri are my parents. For as long as I can
remember, my parents have had quite a bit of things. I've helped them
clean many times, but the minute I left,
a week or two later, it was all back, just different. It just kept coming back. It's almost like-- it's almost
like standing on a beach and trying to hold back a wave. [MUSIC PLAYING] My name is Eric. I'm an inspector with the
city of Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services. At my first inspection
of the property, I noted that the yard was
filled to a height of between 6 and 10 feet with material. When I looked at
the house closer, I could see second floor and
first floor windows completely filled with material. And that gave me the idea
the inside of the house might be as full
as the yard was. RODGER: My wife received
of a courtesy phone call from someone that
works for the city, that they're going to come
with the police department, and they were going
to come in the house. They had the police department
in the house, the building inspection department
traipsing through and knocking things down. ERIC: Only three rooms in the
house were accessible to me. The others were completely
filled with debris, including the bathroom and the kitchen. These are basic
necessities in a home, and they need to be accessible. I declared the property
to be uninhabitable. GERRI: This here building
inspector is a real hard ass. He is my god now. [MUSIC PLAYING] You get things. You put them away. It ends up on a pile. And sometimes, the
stuff in the pile, I don't even remember I had it. And I go buy something else. Go in dumpsters, too, because
you never know what you're going to find in this dumpster. Sometimes, you can
eat pretty good. Otherwise, I can give it
to the church, to the kids, and the daycare school
of the churches. When I moved out, the change
of structure of the family just gave them more time and
more room to accumulate things. It just gradually got
worse and got worse. And then it became
what it is now. RODGER: My son is definitely
angry about the condition of the house. He hollered a lot at me. Well, what kind of dinner
did you want here, my dear? Surprise me. JAY: It's frustrating. It's like standing on a beach
and holding a one grain of sand and arguing this
grain of sand out, when you know you've got to
address every other grain of sand on that beach. You can get used
to anything really. I mean, when you think
about it, and you get used to not thinking about it. It's almost like a
feeling of hopelessness trying to get out
of the situation. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm Ann, and I
really love Christmas. It's just a lot of fun. People come over, and they
ooh and awe over your trees. And you take joy and pride
in knowing that you did that. It's a creative thing. But we don't have people
over for Christmas anymore. We can't, because we
have so much stuff. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm Scott, and Ann is my wife. This house is
absolutely a disaster. It honestly looks
like Christmas just threw up all over the house. I haven't taken down
the decorations myself for I'd say roughly
seven or eight years now. I can't get to them because
of all the other stuff that is in the way. The kitchen is completely
covered in boxes, and mail, and just debris. You can't use the
bathroom downstairs. There's a path that goes
through all the stuff that she's purchased
in the house. It's horrible, and
it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm Charles, and
Ann is my daughter. It's just clutter. It's just-- [INAUDIBLE] --2 pounds of [BLEEP]
in a 1 pound bag. I would guess that the
vast majority of it is shower gels, and lotions,
and the types of things that Ann would have purchased in
the stores that she worked in. [MUSIC PLAYING] ANN (VOICEOVER):
I love shopping. Working at the
mall, you're there. You don't have to drive
anywhere to go shopping. You're already at the mall. And it just builds up. That's why it's so messy. A hoarder working in a
retail store in the mall is basically like an
alcoholic working in a bar. She can't control herself. She's spent roughly
$60,000, $70,000 easily on bath products and purses
that are just sitting there in bags around the house. [MUSIC PLAYING] She just gets hysterical
whenever I throw things out. She would go and get
them out of the trash and bring them back in. I do want to get it
cleared out to a point. But I want to make
sure that I keep what I want to at the same
time, because it is my stuff. It is my house. SCOTT: I feel like
she's prioritizing her stuff over my
health, that I should just watch where I'm going. [MUSIC PLAYING] I got up one night to
go to the restroom, and I end up stubbing
my foot on her junk. And my foot hurt
for over a week. With diabetes, you
have poor circulation in all of your extremities,
below the knee, especially, which makes it very
difficult to heal. If you get cut, it
could potentially cause gangrene to set
in, and at that point, you would have to end up
having your foot amputated. And I told her that
that's a potential hazard, but she just left the stuff. I've cleared paths
all down the stairs and into the hallways. And then, he's falling. And he's supposed
to be wearing socks, and he walks around
barefoot a lot, and he's not even supposed
to in a clean house. He's supposed to
be wearing socks. So he's not doing what
he's supposed to be doing. So he's putting himself at risk. After I ended up stabbing
my foot on her stuff, that was the final straw. I told Ann that if she
didn't start cleaning up, that I was going to leave her. I can't live in that any longer. I can't take it anymore. [MUSIC PLAYING] [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] What happened here? Oh dear, I don't know
how to get in here. I'm exhausted. Hello. GERRI: Hi. Hi, Gerri. Hi. Dr. Zasio. Nice to meet you. Rodger. Hello. I'm Dr. Robin Zasio. I'm a licensed
clinical psychologist, and I specialize in OCD
and hoarding disorder. When I look around,
this is not a matter of organizing and cleaning up. There's way too much stuff. [MUSIC PLAYING] Who's the order in the family? Both of us. Both of you. This is a little bit of
an unusual situation. More commonly, I'm
working with one person in a home
that's struggling with hoarding disorder. In this case, I've
got two hoarders. Do you access this stuff? It's completely
covered up and doesn't seem like you can get to it. There happen to be
two cars right here. There's two cars here? RODGER: Yes. So, Rodger, am I
hearing you say that this is mainly your stuff out here? I would probably say
the majority of the stuff will be mine, yes. It appears as though
Roger is the outside hoarder and Gerri is the inside hoarder. So at this point, Gerri, can
you take me into the house? Yes. - OK, great.
- Sure. Come on. Oh, Gerri, you weren't kidding
when you said this was full. Their house is one of the most
extreme cases I've ever seen. It had the most narrow
pathways of any home I have ever walked through. Wow, Gerri, I don't think
I've ever seen anything like this before in my life. I don't know what
you're stepping on, and I don't want it wrecked. We should have cleaned it
up and put it in that room there so you could walk. Listen, I know
this is hard for you. Yeah, it's doubly hard. This is the problem, is that
coming in here to try to get this in order, it's
likely that some things are going to get damaged. Are we able to get
into the kitchen area? Be my guest. I'm going to squeeze by you. I'll be very careful. Oh. [MUSIC PLAYING] Wow! GERRI: You guys are
making me look really bad. You really are. Gerri got very emotional
when we were in the kitchen. She was starting to feel
shameful, embarrassed. But, Gerri, all of
this stuff in here, no one else put this in here. You put this in here. I know I put it in here. I don't know what. I don't know what anymore. I just don't know. This is your one
and only chance. You realize that, right? Yes, I realize it. OK. [INAUDIBLE] ROBIN (VOICEOVER): Our biggest
struggle in the cleanup is going to be with Gerri. I'm really worried about
her ability to handle this process emotionally. [MUSIC PLAYING] SCOTT: I told Ann
that if she was not going to clean up,
that I was going to end up just leaving her. I'm at my wit's end. I can't take it anymore. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm Dr. Michael Tompkins, and
I specialize in the treatment of hoarding disorder. Scott?
Hi. Hi. I'm Dr. Michael Tompkins. - Nice to meet you.
- Ann? Hi. Hi, I'm Dr. Michael Tompkins. It's very nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. You, too. This is our family room. [MUSIC PLAYING] This is the living room
and dining room combo. MICHAEL TOMPKINS: Wow, there's
a lot of Christmas here. ANN: Yes. SCOTT: Yes. ANN: This is one of my
more pride and joys. Scott, anything
else about this room? I love this room. MICHAEL TOMPKINS:
You love this room. ANN: I do. And Scott, do
you love this room? Not anymore. It's just a large headache. He just sees bags
and Christmas-- Yeah--
ANN: --pretty much. Yeah, well that's-- ANN: That's all he sees. MICHAEL TOMPKINS: When I start
a conversation with Scott, Ann quickly comes in. She monopolizes the
conversational space, where it's very difficult
for Scott to assert himself. What's it like for you? I've given up. MICHAEL TOMPKINS:
You've just given up. It's hopeless. It is. ANN: For Scott, when he's home,
he looks at it as he shouldn't have to do anything time. And so, when I would
do stuff after work, he wouldn't always
want to participate. He wants to go play
on his computer. Listen to what I'm saying. When I talk about
what the feelings are that are going on here,
you kind of do the other side. What I'd like you to do
is just to listen to this. I've gone with the
flow really well so far. I want you to know that. MICHAEL TOMPKINS:
You're doing great. It's so difficult for me to
actually have a conversation with Scott when Ann is there. So I thought it made sense
for me to talk with him alone. So we went up to
his computer room. So sorry I'm stepping on things. SCOTT: Oh, that's all right. Wow. You're in shorts, and I'm
noticing, like, some bruises and things like that. Right. I just have to watch
where I'm going and keep something on my feet so
that I don't step on anything. Because that could just be
catastrophic to a diabetic. Scott is type I diabetic. The risk for him is
not the injury itself. The risk for him is
that it won't heal, and he could lose a limb. If we can't solve this
problem, I'm really, really concerned about Scott's safety. [MUSIC PLAYING] [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] JAY: My hopes are that
the house goes back to a livable condition
and at the very least, what I recall from growing up. [MUSIC PLAYING] All right, good
morning, everybody. Good morning. My name is Matt Paxton. I'm an extreme
cleaning specialist. I mean, I've done over 2,000
houses now in my career. And this is top five most
full houses I've ever seen. This is from the city. It is our directive of
what we have to clean up, all right, item by item. My ultimate goal is to
get the yard cleaned, and then get in the
house, and have a 3 foot pathway from door to door. That is the bare minimum
standard of living that the city will approve. OK, fine. All right,
everybody here ready? Yeah. All right, let's do it. [MUSIC PLAYING] MATT PAXTON: So far,
it's going very well. We have filled an entire
dumpster in the first hour. Look at that. 50 years of acquiring of
stuff suddenly in a dumpster on its way to be thrown away-- what do you think about that? Amazing how they
can do all that work. Roger is willing to
do everything he needs to to get back into this home. Gerri, on the other hand-- I don't know. Wait, honey. --is slowing up the process. I'm gonna keep that. I got to put that on my bed. Yeah, looks like I got all
kinds of things in here. She's picking up
every single item. I'll keep this. I'll keep this. But I need to tell you, pretty
much 99% of that needs to go. Remember, this whole thing
has to be swept clean for you to keep this house,
like everything. [MUSIC PLAYING] Here, we can get rid of this. Here, [MUMBLING]. Gerri, can we throw this away? No, a different bag. What's this? It's wet, and it has
rat droppings on it. It doesn't have rat droppings. It's just moldy. Now it has mold on it,
and you're touching it-- Yeah, you noticed that, yeah. --with your bare hands. Yeah. OK, so let's put the
garbage in the bag. This is pretty cool. ROBIN ZASIO: Gerri, we
can't go at this pace. There's no way. She still could not grasp
that if she doesn't pick up the pace, there's
no way we are going to get through the side yard. Can this bucket go? I didn't look in the bottom. I don't know what the
hell is in the bottom. OK, so what happens when
you lose the house on Tuesday? I hope I don't. But I'm telling
you you're going to. ROBIN ZASIO: At this
rate, you're going to. Do what you want to do. I don't care. Gerri, we know
this is hard for you. No, you don't. Yes, we do. But we're trying to
develop a system that's going to get your house back. As gentle as I was with her-- A lot of knitting, a lot
of other things in here. I'm not getting anywhere. Yeah, I'm hurrying
through them. You need to come
to some reality here. You haven't used this
stuff in 20-some years. You don't know it was there. If you had you not seen it,
you wouldn't even missed it. And you think you're
going to live to be 150. I just feel like
walking away right now. That's what I feel. I'm to that point. [MUSIC PLAYING] SCOTT: I cut myself
on the clutter a lot. And it's very scary,
because that could just be catastrophic to a diabetic. If we can't solve
this problem for you, are you going to stay
in this environment? No. I'll probably end up moving out. I'm absolutely tired of it. Well, hopefully,
we're going to make the house safer for you. I sure hope so. [MUSIC PLAYING] Good morning, everyone. I'm Standolyn
Robertson, a certified professional organizer. I'd like to start in this room. Tell me what I'm going to find. Purses and beauty products
and the Christmas, obviously. OK. The harder you work, the
more we can get done. ANN: OK. OK, let's go. [MUSIC PLAYING] STANDOLYN ROBERTSON: What I'm
seeing is a compulsive shopper. I mean, to have
a house so filled with perfume, lotions,
makeup, clothes, that's all impulsiveness. None of this is stuff that
you even need to survive. This is all luxury. So why don't you
just start making decisions of what
can have new homes to make someone else happy. Keep. Keep, keep, a keep. I thought the
plan was you were going to tell me what could go. OK, um, keep, keep, keep. Just tell me the
ones that are going. Donate that. How do the donates feel? Does it feel good? No. Why does it feel hard? Because it's brand
new product, and I spent my hard-earned money to buy it. Is it fair to say, when you
bought it, you didn't need it? I still like it, and
it might be a good deal. Is it a good deal? If you can't walk in your
house, is it still a good deal? Well, no, not if
you put it like that. Well, that's the way
I want you to think. Is it a good deal if it
smells sweet and looks good, but it's in the middle
of my relationship? Yeah. If you don't absolutely
love it, it can't stay. What's unique about this job,
it's so many little things. We're talking about
thousands of bottles. It would take her years
to go through that. Unless she turns over
some of the decisions, we won't get this done. Keep, keep. It's a keep. Keep. You can watch more "Hoarders"
episodes every Sunday morning this month, starting
at 7:00 AM, mm, on A&E. [THEME MUSIC] Reality is setting in
and I'm to the point-- RODGER: I'm not sure. I don't think we're
going to ever do any more knitting in our lifetime. I don't care. You don't tell me
what I'm going to do. Oh, I'm not trying
to tell you what to do. [MUSIC PLAYING] Want your tape, Rodge? Gerri's primary defense
mechanism is to blame Rodger for her current situation. You put me in this position. I don't give a [BLEEP] any more. Not necessarily did I
put you in this position. We could not continue
to live the way we've been doing anyhow. Really? You finally realize that? Yeah. Really? Well, congratulations, buddy. 50-year marriage gone
to hell, and now I got to go through this [BLEEP]. ROBIN ZASIO (VOICEOVER): Gerri's
in a lot of pain right now. This [BLEEP] house-- I feel like just giving it up. Honest to God, I do. ROBIN ZASIO: Based on
what happened today, I have a really bad
feeling about what's going to happen tomorrow. [MUSIC PLAYING] MATT PAXTON: All right,
beginning of day two, we're on track outside. Inside, we need to get
through the hallway, through the kitchen,
to the family room, by end of day today day. [MUSIC PLAYING] There's 4,000 more of
these boxes in there. And I'm not-- if I go
through it like this, I'm not going to be able
to clean your house out. That's an antique--
MAN: We'll take that, Rodger. Don't worry. --believe it or not. Gerri, look at me. If we pick through it
like this one-on-one, we will not finish your house. It's not possible. You will lose your
house tomorrow. I'm telling you right now. Yeah, I'm hearing you. [MUSIC PLAYING] You all need to
make a decision. Do you want to let us take over,
and some stuff that you like is absolutely going
to get thrown away? That's absolutely
what's going to happen, but we'll have a chance
to save the house. You have to let me throw
stuff away that you're not even going to see. You're going to have
to trust that I'm pulling this stuff out. Here's the deal. We've got to stop picking
and start tossing. That's where we're at. It is your choice. I can do my job
or not do my job. If I'm not going to do my job,
I'm going to pull my crew. Have them go ahead
and do their job. The decision is here. Are we going to move forward,
let Matt's crew do their job, or do we walk? [MUSIC PLAYING] I want all of this stuff
just gone, all of it. I-- STANDOLYN ROBERTSON
(VOICEOVER): OK. This is a nightmare-- STANDOLYN ROBERTSON
(VOICEOVER): OK. --absolute nightmare. No kicking or throwing. Let's do it. [MUSIC PLAYING] I can't even stand in
this hall at all, not without standing on something. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON
(VOICEOVER): Scott's been a lot more emotional today. He was so angry, he
was, like, shaking. One of the things
that became really clear through this process
is how dangerous this house is for Scott. This is the
bathroom that you use? Yeah, this is
what I deal with. It's dangerous. And what does an
injury mean to you, because of the type I diabetes? If I cut my foot, I
could end up getting gangrene and losing my foot. And I'd have to have
my foot amputated. Does Ann know that? She knows. But she just has so much stuff. I mean, it's such a waste,
a $30 bottle of lotion. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON
(VOICEOVER): Wow. And there's one, two, three,
four of them, right, just five of them right there. I mean-- That whole rack had thousands
and thousands of dollars. SCOTT: Oh, easily. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON
(VOICEOVER): OK, I have someone all lined up to take it, OK? SCOTT: OK, all right. Be really careful. - I got it.
- You got it? Yeah. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON
(VOICEOVER): They have so much stuff
in their house, that it is sucking the
life out of the family. In order to pull off a
project of this magnitude, we need Ann to give us decisions
we can make without her. We have to get this done. Ann, I need you to help me
figure out what that strategy. What's our plan? The tubs that
are upstairs that's filled with the old stuff
that we emptied out-- STANDOLYN: Right. SCOTT: --we're
dumping all of it. Once she fills those up, all
the other stuff just goes. With the bath stuff, yeah,
candles don't go there. She's gonna get
one box of candles. And then, once that
box is full, done. I want to be able to
walk in front of my bed, and I want the
Christmas trees gone. ANN: OK. I want them gone. And you're OK with filling
the box and being done with it? Can you just give
me a minute, please? Please. Can you just tell
us what's going on? No. I just want a private
moment, please? OK? [MUSIC PLAYING] [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] Let Matt do his job, so that
we can save your house for you. This is real, Ann. Like, this is--
this is not a joke. You've taken this
as far as it can go. This is the last chance. Do what you want to do. I don't give a [BLEEP]. OK, Roger? Yeah, it's fine with me. OK, we'll take that
as a yes on both fronts. Yes, give it a shot. MATT PAXTON: All right,
let's do it, guys. I'm going to do what I got
to do to save your house now. [MUSIC PLAYING] Oh, wait a minute. I've seen something. [MUSIC PLAYING] Here's some of the
jewelry on the floor underneath the papers, guys. I don't know how it got there,
but it's there, and walked on and stepped on and-- She keeps bending
over, picking things up. There's jewelry on the
floor that we stepped on, all kinds of stuff
like that stepped on. She's just all over the
place, totally distracted. Oh, boy, we got
lots of goodies here. ROBIN ZASIO (VOICEOVER):
She's slowing up the process. What she's not
grasping is we have lost countless valuable hours. Look at how far we
have to go, Gerri. And at the pace
we're going, that's why we've been trying
to explain that we're kind of behind the
eight ball right now. Yeah. OK? So now you know why we're
pushing you, is because we want to get some success. OK, another antiques. We're really only about
8 feet into the house. There's just so much more to do. Tomorrow, I'm just
going to have to push her and get her
to the point where she has to make the decision. Either I let Matt do
everything, or I lose the house. And this was clean when
I left here last night. No, it wasn't. Come on. You're good now. All right. [MUSIC PLAYING] If I leave here and
you now have hope, then we're good, all right? I'm trying to get in your
head that, hey, you actually could have a happy life. OK. And you see that
bottle right there? Don't. Stop. Are you listening
to what I'm saying? Oh, they're shoveling
it in the bags. No. Yes, they are. WOMAN: We're sifting
it for someone. You all just keep
doing what you're doing. You got to let them work. [MUSIC PLAYING] We gave this every
ounce of energy we had. You know, we honestly didn't
get a lot done inside the house. We got about 15 feet
into the kitchen. I got fought with
constantly by Gerri. We just-- we did what we could. Is it enough to keep this house? I don't know. [MUSIC PLAYING] Can I get a private
minute, please? Can you just tell
us what's going on? No. I just want a private
moment, please? OK? SCOTT: Ann. [MUSIC PLAYING] This is one of
the main goals-- Yes. --of this project is
to get the trees down. Yes, ma'am. What will that mean to you? Freedom from Christmas. [MUSIC - "THE NUTCRACKER SUITE"] Taking down the Christmas tree
was absolutely phenomenal. Ah, I'm so glad to see the
house without Christmas. It feels like an
actual house again. This is staying. That's a Nutcracker candle. I bought it to go with
that candle holder. [MUSIC PLAYING] SCOTT: Ann, no more candles. No, that's for decor. It's Nutcracker. SCOTT (VOICEOVER):
I'm very aggravated. I set her guidelines. You get one box of
candles, and now she's saying that she wants to
keep other candles, which is just defeating the purpose. I want that. Are you upset? Yeah, it's very aggravating. So that's a snapshot
of what you're going to be experiencing. This is an opportunity,
with our support, for you to practice
asserting yourself and insisting she let it go. Yeah. All right? OK. The candle, it needs to go. No, that candle is staying. I gave up the other candles
that were sitting there. No. No. SCOTT: I give up,
fighting a useless battle. It's OK. You did OK. At this point,
I'd like to throw the candle across the room.
But-- Look. Uh-huh? The other thing you could
do is you could say, look, this isn't about the candle. This is about our relationship. And if you care about
our relationship, you'll let go of that candle. OK. All right. OK, here he comes, asking
about the candle again. Maybe the two
of you cannot talk about the thing a little bit. Maybe the two of you can
talk about what's going on in between the two of you. I mean, how are you feeling
about Ann's choices? It does affect
our relationship. It does, with all the stuff. That's been said. So I don't think one can-- I think you're getting
hung up on something. OK. All right. - Are we agreed?
- We're agreed. - OK.
- OK. MICHAEL TOMPKINS: I'm
trying to get Scott to actually assert himself. And he just couldn't do it. If he's not able to set
limits around her stuff, he's not going to
be able to manage his safety in that house. [MUSIC PLAYING] [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] Hi.
I'm Eric. Good to meet you, man. Thanks for coming. RODGER: [INAUDIBLE] All right, let's check it. All right, take a look. [MUSIC PLAYING] MATT PAXTON (VOICEOVER):
And I'm going to walk him through the
area that we cleaned first. I want to make the
biggest impact that I can. I want him to see, hey, man,
we really have taken 20,000 pounds out of this property. This was all wood and-- Sure.
It was. MATT PAXTON (VOICEOVER):
--stuff under tarps. ERIC: A very narrow pathway
that one could barely walk on. Yeah, I think it was here,
was where the pathway was. Sure. MATT PAXTON: So we're cleared
all the way to the fence now. Good. We also did-- It is so much more
than what it was. MATT PAXTON: Let's
head in there, and we'll check out the kitchen. Oh, it's a lot more
paper than I remembered. MATT PAXTON (VOICEOVER): I know
Eric sees the work we've done. But you get rid of
the trash, and now you see the damage that the
trash has done to the property. ERIC: All the rat
feces that you've uncovered in here floors me. Just to put it in perspective,
this is a very big rat. ERIC: Yes. I mean, none of this was
actually apparent when I was through the first time. It is actually worse now. Did we pass
anything code-wise? Unsanitary conditions--
still unsanitary. Restoring the means of egress-- although we can get
to the back door, the front door is
still an issue. Still have an incredible
amount of combustible waste. Clearly uninhabitable by humans. I wouldn't want an
animal living in here. I wouldn't let pet-- exactly.
I wouldn't let my pet in here. Right. No, this is horrible. MATT PAXTON (VOICEOVER):
It's now time for me to sit with the
family and let them know what their options are. [MUSIC PLAYING] MATT PAXTON: The bad news is
every single thing on the code, we failed. What? MATT PAXTON: The entire
inside of the house is full. ROBIN ZASIO (VOICEOVER): This
situation is incredibly tragic. We're going to provide
aftercare for this family. They can go together, and
they can go separately to work on their own
hoarding behaviors and what's contributing to it. JAY: My hopes for my mom and
dad are that we can get them into a good place, where
they can live a normal life and don't have to worry
about any inspector issues, and pretty much
take it from there. Staying at this house
should not be an option. You guys need to be
out of your, period. MATT PAXTON
(VOICEOVER): This family needs to strategically stop,
pivot, and do something new. The plan of trying to
out-clean and get ahead of the city, that
will never work here. MATT PAXTON: I'm
sorry for you, but I do want you in a better place. And this is not a better place. GERRI (VOICEOVER): I want
to continue cleaning it out. I still have to live here. It's my house. [MUSIC PLAYING] I want that. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON
(VOICEOVER): I thought we were taking Christmas down? Yeah. Is this what I think it is? No. I thought we were going to-- Yeah, it is. It's a candle. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON
(VOICEOVER): Things are not going as we expected,
so Dr. Tompkins and I really need to come up
with a plan B for Scott. I want to give you your
own room, your own bed, that's safe, with a clear path. We want to give you
a place to defend. SCOTT: OK.
- OK? - Sounds great.
- From this the stuff. - That sounds great.
- OK. I love that idea. All right, all right. So it's really important for
you to stand your ground. You're not asking
for a lot here. I'm not. That's not too much to ask,
to be able to have a space. Right. Bust a move. MICHAEL TOMPKINS: All right. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON: OK. MICHAEL TOMPKINS: Let's do it. MICHAEL TOMPKINS
(VOICEOVER): We're going to give him his own room. At least he'll be safe there. But the battle for him is going
to be the relentless protection of that room from Ann's stuff. His life depends
upon him asserting himself and protecting
himself in this home. [MUSIC PLAYING] We're at the end of the day. Our team has done a pretty good
job of clearing some space. Yes. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON:
So right now, just having the freedom to
walk through the house, that's the luxury that you have now. I think it looks great. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON:
It looks great now. Right now, yeah. There's only one concern,
and that is the amount of stuff that's out on the lawn. This is stuff
that I either need to go through in my own
time or I want to keep. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON: So is
the plan that we'll just have paths on the first floor? It may be. Rome wasn't built in a day. Enjoy this for a few
minutes, and then I will bring in a team to fill it back up. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON (VOICEOVER):
At the end of the day, it wasn't a total success. But I feel like we've
created some space for Scott. If he feels empowered to
be in charge of that space, who knows what will
happen in the future as he gets his voice? SCOTT: I'm very disappointed
to see the stuff that went outside coming back in. But I'm going to stay. I feel safe in the house now. There is actually
a clear path for me to be able to go
to the bathroom, for me to be able to go to
bed, and get up in the morning without hitting anything
or stepping on her junk. And I won't let her
take over the house like she has done before. She will not do this again. [MUSIC PLAYING] One comment that I hear
from my clients all the time is, Dorothy, I don't have
enough time to get organized. And, well, even
though most of us do have some time to
get organized right now, maybe we're still
not wanting to do it. And where there's one flame,
there's usually another one right around the corner. And what I mean is if you don't
have time to get organized, you may also not have
time to exercise. You may not have time to
make a dental appointment, pay your bills, grab
lunch, things like that. So usually if we're
screaming out, I don't have time
to get organized, it could mean that
something else is going on. So before we even begin to
search for minutes and moments to get organized, we need to see
whether or not might we, you, might be overcommitted. And that usually means
not being able to say no. Or you may be working
too many hours. And that could mean you're not
using your voice to speak up and you wish you could. Or you might be losing time
to escapist activities, like reading, playing video
games, or binge watching-- never mind. No marathons going here. [LAUGHS] So where do we begin when you
don't have a spare minute? I say start by waving
your magic wand, which, in case
you've misplaced it, is located near or
at your calendar because you alone have all the
power of Glenda the Good Witch. And it's up to you
to review your day and create some spare minutes. You've got a couple
of ways to do this. One is the organize
as you go approach. And the other one is the
single priority approach. So let's start with the
organize as you go approach. Wherever you are,
you can task yourself with what's kind of disorderly
or disorganized around you. For example, if you're waiting
to pick up your husband or wife from work, you can reach over
to the glove compartment, pull everything out,
sort like with like, pull out the pens and
the papers that shouldn't belong or should be tossed. And bang, you suddenly
have organized your glove compartment in the car. Another example is
maybe you're brushing your teeth in the morning. I hope so. But you're brushing your teeth
and you put the toothpaste right on your toothbrush. And before you start
the actual brushing, you might want to unload
one little drawer, part of a drawer, or part
of a shelf, and just take the things
that don't belong and run them to the rooms
where they do belong. And that way you're organizing. You get that done. And you finish
brushing your teeth. You kind of tuck it
in between the whole brushing your teeth experience. And your bathroom
just got organized. The other approach is the
single priority approach. How do you do this one? Well, you decide exactly
on one organizing task that you want to accomplish. And you set an
appointment for it-- yeah, actually, in your calendar. And decide the amount of time
you want to allot yourself. And set a timer too. [ROOSTER CROWING] You see if you've-- [ROOSTER CROWING] You see if you've-- [ROOSTER CROWING] [SIGH] You see, if you've got 17
minutes before you leave for dinner with your
daughters or your spouse, then you have 17 minutes to do
some little bit of organizing. And here are some
things you could do. You could eliminate
outdated coupons from your phone or
envelope in your purse, review nail polishes. You can survey and
organize the spice rack. And you can also head to
the tool bench in the garage and start organizing
your tools there. Take whatever amount of time
you have and just get started. Good luck. SCOTT: There's too much stuff. What' the hell's
wrong with that? PATTI: Oh my God. How the hell did she
get all this in here? I just wanted my
family back together. We've been broken for years. And it's just falling apart. You have little grandbabies
waiting to come in Nani's. You're broken. You're broken, Ma. There's a lot of secrets,
a lot that's not being said. I had a boyfriend that
ran off with my daughter. I was the other woman. Dee. I'm done. I asked you a question. Can we-- If he don't care what he's
throwing away, I'm done. [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] [CHICKENS CLUCKING] OK, here I come. Meow. Meow. I'm Ruthann. And I'm me. And I like me. No. Get back. I got something for you. I enjoy my pets. I enjoy my life. And I enjoy the things
I do at my house. I would say that I have
hoarding tendencies that have gone overboard. [MUSIC PLAYING] Is the house a mess? It's ridiculous. It's a sad, sad thing. My name is Tamara. And my mother is Ruthann. My mom is definitely a hoarder. And she is every
kind of a hoarder-- animal, good stuff, bad
stuff, trash, everything. She's kind of like the
hamster in her own home because there's just a
trail through the house. She has more stuff
than anybody I know. She doesn't use them. My whole house is
full of treasures. They're good. All my stuff is good. I just gather it up. I don't know how it gets here. And when I do anything, I do
it, I think, in a big way, sometimes a little bit too big. As you can see,
more ways than one. I think that she will
always be that way. It's in her. It is her. I'm Heather. And Ruthann is my mother-in-law. When you walk into
the living room, there's just stuff
stacked on stuff, like almost to the ceiling. You can't get into the rooms. Cobwebs are hanging
from everywhere. TAMARA: Everybody calls
it the Monster House because it's scary looking. HEATHER: You're thinking
stuff's crawling on you as you're walking
through the house. It's terrible. I have antiques in my
house, had them over 40 years. TAMARA: They get
destroyed by the animals that are in the house. HEATHER: There's dogs
loose going to the bathroom all over the floor in there. There's a lot of
cages with cats. Some of them don't
look so healthy. My name is Brian. And my mother-in-law is Ruthann. This is out of control. The smell is indescribable. It's a mixture of death
and feces and cat urine. Makes your eyes burn. It's just hazardous. HEATHER: Her hoarding has
impacted her whole family. The conditions in the house
are so terrible that nobody's able to go visit her. We can't take the
kids over there. It's not safe. So she doesn't see them. She hasn't even seen
her great-grandchildren. I'm Scott. Ruthann's my mom. I've tried to help her
on getting rid of things, throwing things away. And it was difficult. TAMARA: Nobody throws
her things away. She yells at people so much. A lot of fighting, a lot
of arguing because it's frustrating for family too. They want to help her. They want her just
to get rid of things. And she gets resistant to it. It's my stuff. I can't let someone just
touch it and throw it away. TAMARA: She's
always acted like we never knew the difference
between trash and something valuable. I need to be able to
go through it to see what they're throwing away. Now, to me, that's
using something. That's not hoarding something. HEATHER: If Ruthann doesn't
get this house cleaned up, I'm going to have
to report it to APS. She can't live there. I've got in trouble a couple
of times with the county for it being messy. TAMARA: They were going
to take her house away. There was a court date. They fined her. They were charging
her $1,000 a day I believe until she
got it all done. Otherwise, she was
going to lose the house. So we cleaned everything
out on the outside. SCOTT: We filled up rolloff
dumpsters clear full. And it still didn't touch it. And it's just twice as bad now. TAMARA: I do have a
lot of resentment, more than I even want to admit. She doesn't want
anything to do with us. It's about us coming there
and doing stuff for her in the house. So yeah, I do hate the house. It's taken everything from her. [MUSIC PLAYING] SCOTT: That house in its
day was a beautiful house. She has made it
the way it is right now because of her hoarding. I'm Patti. And I'm a cousin to Ruthann. I'm disgusted on what Ruthann
has done to this home. My mom and dad purchased that
house, I believe, around 1966. I was born and
raised in that home. It was gorgeous, beautiful. It has white oak throughout. You know, it's 3,700 square
feet, 4 huge bedrooms. I think it sits on an acre lot. It's a gorgeous house. And it's something that
none of us in our lifetime will ever see replicated. You can't build
a home like that. Ruthann had approached my
mother and asked her if she was interested in selling. And Ruthann assured her that
she would take care of the home and make it a bed and breakfast. RUTHANN: I had hopes
and dreams and schemes. The house was intended to
touch people's lives when they came through the gate. PATTI: I don't think she had
any intentions of turning that into a bed and breakfast. It makes me angry because I
feel like she blatantly lied. RUTHANN: The bigger the dream,
the further it was to reach. That's when I lost
control of it. TAMARA: It was strange. My mom's hoarding
got out of hand when she moved to that house. PATTI: I would say within a
matter of a year you could start seeing things
piling up, probably two or three years that
it really became apparent that she had a problem. You couldn't see
the front porch. You couldn't see the driveway. It became a big mess-- breaks my heart. I get very emotional,
very emotional. It's more than just a house. It's not just four walls. It has life. It had connection. It's sad. I feel like it's
almost like a death. And my mom died
mourning that house. I mean, mourning it. It would kill her to see it. There's nothing
wrong with the house. It's the person that
ended up being in it. That's what the problem was. I feel like I
disrespected it putting all this trash around it. But that doesn't mean
that the house is broken. I was the broken one
because a normal person doesn't live like this. PATTI: What the hell happened? What happened to you? What happened here? I mean, we all know hoarding
is something that's mental. I mean, it comes from
some kind of tragedy. [MUSIC PLAYING] RUTHANN: Many years before I
ever moved into this house, there was a tragedy, as
far as I had a boyfriend that ran off with my daughter. My daughter was
seven when I met him. She ran off when she was 15. And he ran off with her. I could shoot him for it. You know, that's not right. When they first met
and she was seven, she's supposed to sit
on Daddy's lap, right? You don't think much of it. [MUSIC PLAYING] TAMARA: I can
remember conversations about what he was doing to me. RUTHANN: One of the
major stepping stones was when she was in
eighth grade and would have a little boyfriend. And he showed jealousy
to my daughter. You know, he didn't like
her having male friends from the eighth grade. Well, that's not normal. [MUSIC PLAYING] When this came out, she ended
up being a ward of the court. TAMARA: I was placed into a
foster home because of being molested by my mom's boyfriend. I ran away from the foster home,
falsified a birth certificate, got married to my
mom's boyfriend, had three kids with him. I loved him. I love him now. And then he just
passed, February. RUTHANN: He was 10
years older than I was. But that made him 30
years older than her. [MUSIC PLAYING] TAMARA: I do think that she
was hurt by what had happened. My mom always made me feel
like I was the other woman. RUTHANN: Imagine living
with someone for 10 years and being deceived and
something so major. That is a tragedy in my
life that ended up adding to being broken as a person. That's why I can't my
things, my belongings. They don't leave me, even if a
failed relationship comes along or a man that you
lived with for 10 years runs off with your daughter. TAMARA: It was really
kind of strange how-- how it all worked and
stuff, very strange. My mom tries to say that
what happened between me and her boyfriend
when I was little is what caused her
to become a hoarder. I just feel like she's
using that as an excuse. BRIAN: That house is not
doing her any justice. It's a trap for her. PATTI: The county should
have intervened years back. It's a fire hazard. HEATHER: I had no
idea how bad it had gotten over
the last five years because we don't go in there. If she doesn't allow
us to help her now, someone's just going to find
Ruthann dead in that house. [MUSIC PLAYING] [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] BRIAN: Ruthann's
hoarding has impacted everybody in the family-- her son, her daughter. It's just ridiculous. She needs to be
part of the family instead of part of a problem. TAMARA: She hoards
a certain way. She definitely holds
on to the past. It could be because of
just emotional tragedy. SCOTT: If my mom doesn't
get this cleaned up, my wife and I are going
to have to call APS. [MUSIC PLAYING] - Hi.
- Hi. How are you? I'm great. I'm Dr. Greene. Hi. Come on in. Thank you for coming. I'm Dr. Melva Green, a
psychiatrist specializing in hoarding behaviors. So tell me about what's
going on in here. These are all my treasures. Your treasures. OK. For Ruthann, everything in
that space is a treasure. You've got a big
Christmas tree here. RUTHANN: Yes. You just never
took it down or-- No. It's supposed to be
Christmas in July. OK. Every single square foot
is filled with something. What else is in there? Antiques that are
very special to me. It's a hodgepodge of stuff. It's tchotchkes. It's antiques. It's boxes. It's baby stuff. There's no real rhyme or reason. There's food. There's a dog kennel. RUTHANN: Of course,
that dog kennel doesn't need to necessarily be here. It's to contain the animals
if-- if someone comes or I don't want them outside. But overall, the furniture is
placed where it needs to go and, you know, has
a pattern to it. But it's just the
excess on top, really. You know.
- OK. Show me the rest. OK. So this takes us
in from the living room in through the kitchen. MELVA GREEN: Do you
come in here much? There's so many cobwebs. RUTHANN: Well, there's my
stove with a kitty cat on top. Yeah, what does that tell you? MELVA GREEN: In the
kitchen is when we started to really get a sense of
some of the underpinnings of Ruthann's hoarding. So what's in here? I see lots of-- Christmas, see. There's boxes of lights and-- You like Christmas. I guess. It used to be-- it must have
been a good thing in my life at one point. It was a moment where
she got really emotional. Those are the times
that we moved on. They have their family now. MELVA GREEN: You
can cry, Ruthann. You can cry. It's OK. Ruthann is working overtime
at keeping her emotions under lock and key. She does not want to go there. So what else did
you want to ask? Don't rush past this moment. You know, seriously. That's how this got like
this, because you've pushed certain things aside. It's very obvious that she's
gotten into this situation by being avoidant of some
deeply painful life events. You and your daughter have
what kind of relationship would you say? RUTHANN: Well, we have issues
that go way back as a child. Would you desire a
better relationship with your daughter? It's not that she doesn't
want to or I don't want to or that we don't get along. It's that she has
consequences to even pay. We both know how we both
feel about each other. Were you OK with the
father of your grandchildren? Well, there was
issues there too. Yes. There's a lot of secrets. There's a lot of things
that have not been said. And the absence of the emotional
connection to her children, to her animals is concerning. I have-- that used
to be a monkey cage. And these are my--
my sweet babies. And then over there
there's some more. MELVA GREEN: How many
do you have total? Oh, there's a half a
dozen, maybe a few more. It is disturbing
that they're in cages and why they're in cages. So clearly, there is some
disconnect about the safety of her animals. MELVA GREEN: When
I was coming up, I smelled something
really strong. And I looked in the recycle bin. And-- One of them got
hit the other day. A little gal was here
helping with him. And it had just got hit. MELVA GREEN: I was
a little struck by it being in the trash can. In asking Ruthann about
the cat in the trash, there seemed to be no
emotional connection. Well, at the time,
that's where I put it. This ground is like hard rock. There's no way I could have
done anything more to it. It was just basic facts. The cat was dead. It had been a couple of days. But there was no emotion there,
even though she said she'd had the cat since it was a kitten. I don't know what you
can see at this point. It's been two or three days. Ruthann is extremely guarded. Looking for the motivations
for her to let things go-- for example, like,
wanting to spend time with her children
or her grandchildren, the happy Christmases. Maybe she deeply
desires it but is not going to let that
be known because she doesn't want to be
disappointed in the event that it doesn't happen. So in your dream, when
this is all said and done, what will it be? It's over. I'm done. There is no more dream here. MELVA GREEN: I want
to give Ruthann every opportunity to succeed. I'm just really not sure how far
we're going to be able to get. [MUSIC PLAYING] [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] It's unclear at this particular
point what it's going to take to get through to Ruthann. She's got so many walls. And so, if she's going to begin
to let go of any of this stuff, she's got to begin
to get in touch with what started all of this. [MUSIC PLAYING] Good morning, everyone. Good morning. My name is Corey Chalmers. I'm an extreme cleaner
that specializes in biohazard and hoarding. Ruthann, we are all
here with one goal, to help you out of this mess. Thank you. COREY CHALMERS: Ruthann is
just a very active acquirer. I mean this is an old
historical, beautiful house that she is
completely destroyed. The goal is to get your
house functional and safe for you so you don't
burn up and die in there. OK. COREY CHALMERS: OK, so we
all have the common goal. It's how we get there that's
going to be the struggle. Just from talking to
you, I know there's going to be some struggle. Oh yeah. I don't think Ruthann is
going to handle the cleanup process very well at all. I think all the things in
the house have value to her to the point where she's not
willing to let go of them. There is no easy way
to get from where we're at now to functional and safe. So there's going to
be some challenges. MELVA GREEN: This is
going to be difficult. She's held on to
a lot of things, and not just the physical things
but a lot of things emotionally that are going to come up. OK? COREY CHALMERS: Is
everyone good with that? Yes.
COREY CHALMERS: OK. Another thing that we
really need to address is the animals, OK? We want to get them checked,
make sure they're healthy. [MUSIC PLAYING] ANIMAL EXPERT: Do these
cats live in these crates? No, they're in here because-- They look like they
live in these crates. RUTHANN: They're in
there because there's a chance that they're going
to get out of the house and get lost. And that's when they go in one. For how long? Well, yesterday they
were in there all day and the day before. ANIMAL EXPERT: You think
that's fair to them? RUTHANN: No. But that's kept them from out
of the road or losing them. ANIMAL EXPERT: This is
the one I'm worried about. Oh my God. You going to be all right? Patti was totally distraught. I mean, obviously this was
really emotional for her. She hasn't seen the house
since she was a kid. Are you sure you want to go in? That's all I'm saying.
- Yes. Yes. This is-- oh my God. COREY CHALMERS:
She grew up in it. You know, no one else
has the recollection that she does of what this
house was in its prime. So it's going to be
really interesting to see what her thoughts are. Go on in. Oh, [BLEEP]. What in the hell? Oh my God. Oh my God. When I first walked into
that house, I was in shock. It's awful. It's terrible. How the hell did she
get all this here? I can't even describe the pain. It feels like my
family member has died. That used to be a music
room when I was growing up. It had my mom's piano. This was our formal living room. There's something not right. There's something broken
in her to live like this. Oh my God. Is that [BLEEP] on the floor. COREY CHALMERS: Yes, it is. Uh-uh. I'm done. Let's go-- let's go outside. Let's talk to her,
get some fresh air. I got to go. I've got to get out. Oh my God, that was-- oh, that's too much. I knew it was going to be bad,
but dog feces on the floor? There's some illness
going on, obviously. My God, she needs help. Oh. COREY CHALMERS: You
want to talk to her? Yeah. As far as I know, she
doesn't know you're here. So this may be a shock to her. We brought Ruthann
to talk to Patti, you know, to discuss
how she was feeling. And Ruthann just
kind of shut down. Ruthann, what has happened? What the hell is wrong with you? You're a [BLEEP] mother. You have kids. You have grandkids in this town. People pass this house. What's wrong with you? Well, are you
talking about the house or are you talking about people? COREY CHALMERS: It
didn't mean anything to her you know that Patti
was crying and obviously distraught, which was
difficult for Patti to understand I think. You cannot live
like this, Ruthann. What happened? I don't know. I don't have an answer for that. You're more upset than I am. COREY CHALMERS: This
is what she does. Ruthann puts up walls. And she can turn off all
emotion as much as she wants to. They're going to condemn this. They're not going to just
let it stay this way. Well-- HEATHER: I don't know
if we're ever going to get to the root cause of it. I don't know if Ruthann is at
a point where she can do that. [LAUGHS] COREY CHALMERS: Ruthann,
this is a serious moment. You can't joke your
way through this. OK? Look at, she's crushed right now
of seeing her childhood home. Well, of course. Listen.
Listen. It's just-- it's a serious time. I know-- Do you remember what
you initially told my mom? You wanted to make it
a bed and breakfast. What happened? Well, I don't know. My heart's broken. It's broken. Well, I'm sorry. Maybe that will change. She needs therapy. But she has to be willing
to come to terms with that. And I don't know if she is. Sometimes seeing the pain
that it's causing other people, maybe that will help
motivate you a little bit. We have to address
the animals now. OK. Heart and lungs sound good. My name is Dr. Jan Breech. I work with Valley SPCA as their
shelter and spay neuter vet. We saw 14 cats, two
dogs, and four kittens. They had a multitude
of problems. We were dealing with some
upper respiratory infections, some old abscesses, some
wounds, a broken tail. Ruthann wants to keep that cat. And it makes me
very uncomfortable. ANIMAL EXPERT: One
of the cats that you want to keep him inside has
some medical issues, OK? It's to the point where
if you don't take it to the vet within a
certain amount of time, then that's considered animal
abuse or animal neglect. I'd like to know which
cat you're talking. We'd love to show you. Well, all right. JAN BREECH: This is the one that
had the abscess in the armpit that asked me to look at. So he's got a
temperature of 103. So he's running a fever. You can tell he's got
discharged from his left eye. RUTHANN: And he's
have that for a while. JAN BREECH: OK. He's got a broken tail. So I'm wondering if he
accidentally got his tail stuck as you were putting him in
and out of a crate or a cage or something because the
tail is broken in a couple of different places. Would you consider signing
this cat over to us? Only if I was going
to get him back. Otherwise, I'll
take care of him. And your vet is? ANIMAL EXPERT: As a pet owner,
you're responsible for taking care of your pets. RUTHANN: Then, leave him here. And I'll take care of it. OK. I am a mandated reporter. And as such, because I've seen
what I consider to be neglect in this area, if she doesn't
comply and fix those areas then I am mandated to turn
her into the Tulare County Animal control. [MUSIC PLAYING] You're not going to put
me on the spot anymore. I'm going to-- I'll quit
right now, as simple as that. You can watch more "Hoarders"
episodes every single Sunday this month at 7:00 AM on A&E. [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] MELVA GREEN: Just
into the cleanup, Ruthann completely fell apart. I think she's coming to realize
that this is a lot harder than she may have suspected. This is what I've
been talking about. This is the hard part. So everything that's been here
with me as my security blanket or whatever-- TAMARA: Are you
secure right now? Ruthie?
RUTHANN: No, no. Ruth. TAMARA: No, you're not secure. You're broken. You're broken, Ma. If you want them to
be able to help you, you've got to identify
someone that you can trust, OK, to throw out the trash. OK? HEATHER: Can Scott
start outside? SCOTT: Yeah, can we just
start getting trash out here. HEATHER: Trash and
things outside? Anything out
front, everything. Just let's get it going. Let's get the trucks loaded. All right. OK, so you're OK with
them doing the outside? Because that'll keep
a lot of people busy. All right.
COREY CHALMERS: That's OK? Yeah.
COREY CHALMERS: OK? Good job. Yes. Right on. [MUSIC PLAYING] COREY CHALMERS: So Ruthann
gave Scott the green light to go fill up the
truck with anything he wanted from the front
yard, which he did. Ruthann, I need to borrow
you just for a minute. I want you to see
outside and make sure that you're OK with
everything going on there. RUTHANN: I already
seen some things. I mean, you're throwing
away everything. Why? Why the-- now, that
yellow thing, Scott. Now, what about the--
the metal thing? COREY CHALMERS: And, of
course, when I invited to come out and make sure that
the truck is good, ready to go, she finds things
like a wheelbarrow with flattened tires
that she must have. RUTHANN: It is a wheelbarrow
that you pick up like that. And you tip it like that. And it tips up and dumps itself. COREY CHALMERS: But do use it? Do you need it? Do you know that's
a $200 wheelbarrow? COREY CHALMERS: No, it's not. Right now it's a $0 wheelbarrow. TAMARA: But if you don't
use it, Ma, then it ain't worth nothing. COREY CHALMERS: It's
taking up space. [MUSIC PLAYING] CHEYENNE: She just
doesn't want to let it go. It's hard to see her go through
this because more than anything I just want her
to be happy again and be able to have her
family here with her. RUTHANN: OK, once again, we're
back to throwing away something that could have value. That does not have value. TAMARA: Don't we have value? You threw us away? It felt like it. I'm going back inside. MELVA GREEN: Did you hear
what your daughter just said? Come talk to your mama because
this is how this started. Both Tamara and Ruthann have
a lot of unspoken truths. There's a lot of hurt,
a lot of secrets, a lot that's not being said. TAMARA: You threw us away. You're worried about throwing
this stuff away more than us. Your heart is so shattered
that there's no reason to even, like, care about anything. What are they saying to you? I don't know. Ruthann, again, just closed up. Ask why I got
disengaged from them. COREY CHALMERS: I understand
it's a broken family. There is a lot of
dynamics that are off. RUTHANN: Yeah, it's a very
bad burned broken family. Ruthann is short
circuiting so badly. I'm concerned that you haven't
made a huge amount of progress. [MUSIC PLAYING] COREY CHALMERS: So there's a lot
to do just in this downstairs. So you mentioned
baby stuff, right? Yes. And that can go to-- It's nothing that's
going to be throwed away. It would be-- COREY CHALMERS: Let's
stop right there. Why is nothing going
to be thrown away? Because everything, if you
ask me, pretty much is valuable. So that's why it's-- Right, and that's why
your house looks like this. But that doesn't mean it gets
thrown away into the garbage. We need to talk about that. Well, I'm telling you,
I'm not your normal hoarder. Most of my stuff is
materialistic, valuable stuff. So let's start backwards. OK. Give me something or some
items that can go in the trash. I don't know off
the top of my head. COREY CHALMERS: No, look. Just try to find something. Well, we can go with this. You picked it up. OK, perfect. RUTHANN: You know, I
mean, I wouldn't have done that because something like
that would go in my craft room, you know. It would. If we don't change the
reason you hang on to stuff and see value and
use for everything, nothing's going to change. I can't stress that enough. And I don't want
to stress you out. I'm not here to make
your-- your day terrible. I'm just saying we
can't make a difference if we can't remove
stuff from the house that's going to stay out. I'm going to get a family
member in here to help, OK? RUTHANN: Yeah, Heather. [MUSIC PLAYING] HEATHER: Are you ready for me? RUTHANN: Yes,
because I need you. Are you OK? RUTHANN: You know. OK. All right. I need to come in and
just have a family talk. Help because I
can't do it alone. OK. Well, we just started
cleaning up the living room. And Ruthann is not happy,
not a happy camper. [CRYING] It's just that
it's stuff that's valuable. HEATHER: Ruthann is
having a meltdown because she's realizing that
she has to get rid of things. She thinks everything
is worth something. So I said, OK, let's
start backwards. And just give me stuff
that you know is trash. And she can't even do that. I don't think we're going to
make any progress because she doesn't want to change. You're attached to
all these little things. We know that. We get that. OK? It's OK. I'm talking with Ruthann
in the living room. And I'm telling her how
important she is to us. And I'm telling her how my
children want to be with her, and they want to
see her, but they can't because of these things. And these things
are not important. You have little grandbabies
and little great-grandbabies waiting to come in Nani's. They want to be with you. They don't understand this. You will be so
much happier when you can walk around, we
can come through that door with the grandbabies. We can come and visit
you without clutter. HEATHER: I'm done. I'm done because all
the conversations, all the things that we
were trying to show her, none of it mattered. It's just not safe
for her the way it is. You have to do this. [CRYING] [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] COREY CHALMERS: How would you
like to start this morning? How about that? We have 20 people
standing around. How would you like to start? You tell me. I'm telling you
when you want to throw everything away not even knowing
what you're throwing away-- MELVA GREEN: You know
what, you keep saying that. I told you my plan. I want to box all this
stuff in the room, label it, put it outside until
we can get this room cleaned. Well-- COREY CHALMERS: Can we do that? Yes. Can I get a trash bag? Yeah. Here. Right here. There we go. COREY CHALMERS: What
are we doing with this? Trash or keep? Or what is it? No. I would cut it up for
my bulletin board. COREY CHALMERS: I'm beyond
frustrated right now. As soon as we think we're
making a little bit of progress, we go right back to their way. SCOTT: Mom, you
really want this? Shoe rack all bent up and like-- Scott, that's what the
problem is, when we make a decision and then
everybody wants to stop and nitpick every item. SCOTT: There's too much stuff. And you got to get rid of it. Or you're going to
have it forever. And it's going to be
piled up in your way. What difference does
it make right now? This is ridiculous,
[BLEEP] like this. You can't even use the stove. You guys want to
complain instead of listen. SCOTT: You know what,
we're getting nowhere. This is what we should do. We should just fill a truck
up within like 20 minutes with this stuff right here. [MUSIC PLAYING] She's always just moved it
from one place to another. And she just think that
everything can have a place. But it's just not possible. TAMARA: (SINGING) Way too long. MELVA GREEN: I'm
upstairs on the landing. And I think I smell marijuana. Tamara? [KNOCKING] TAMARA: Yeah? MELVA GREEN: When I
ask her, she fesses up. It smells like pot in there? I was smoking pot. MELVA GREEN: Tamara in
the bathroom getting high is just a clear indication
of wanting to check out. Are you feeling anxious? [MUSIC PLAYING] I feel like-- that I
was the one that did it. MELVA GREEN: I was struck
by her taking responsibility that she was the reason
that her mother's boyfriend made these choices. She drops this bombshell. It was me and him,
not me being abused. In other words, I
was the other woman. MELVA GREEN: This is a
family with some deep issues and some really severe
avoidant behavior. They said when you're
broken, you hang on to things. And your things don't run off. How did you get broken? I don't know. HEATHER: They look
at each other. And you can see they both know. But they're not expressing it. It's just swept under the rug. Do you think this has anything
to do with your relationship with your daughter? Probably everything. MELVA GREEN:
Probably everything. CHEYENNE: It's been
bad for my whole life. It's just that we
never dealt with it. You know, my dad just passed
away, like, not even a month ago. So it's been really, really
hard for me because they're all I have left. It is what it is. RUTHANN: Well, yeah. And you can't change
what already happened. MELVA GREEN: Neither of them
is really ready to go there. This is tough. [MUSIC PLAYING] We're just stuck. We're landlocked
because there's nowhere to go with any of this stuff.
- You tell me-- Where do you
want it to go now? I'm telling you guys. If nobody wanted to listen. Ruthann's plan
is to go and empty this 40 foot cargo container
full of tons of stuff. And she said, just go empty it. And we'll use that for storage. Can I back that dump
truck up right now and load all this onto it
and take it to the landfill? Without looking at what it is? No.
I'm looking at it right now. That's my point. I'm done. No, the stuff
that you can see. No, I'm done.
I'm done. I asked you a question. Can we-- Because he don't care what
he's throwing away, I'm done. What are we going to do now? We're going to have to call
Adult Protective Services. They're going to have to
come in and remove her. [MUSIC PLAYING] [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] MELVA GREEN: This
has been a tough one. Ruthann has a very
severe problem. She is not ready to create
any reasonable change. So it remains to be
seen what will happen. COREY CHALMERS: OK, so this
box that's getting filled up. What's going to happen to it? It's going to go over here
in the corner and not outside. She just wants to shuffle
the things out of the way. But she's really not ready
to let go of anything. COREY CHALMERS: I can't get
rid of empty boxes either? RUTHANN: Wait, I hear
stuff in them, dear. Look, it's just the
directions and stuff. You don't need these. RUTHANN: Wait, wait, wait, wait. For what? Broken pieces of ceramics? You're going to keep that? What? What was broken? Everything in
your hand is broken. OK, it's nails. Is a nail worth
saving at this point? That's a crooked nail. COREY CHALMERS: Ruthann,
we're going backwards here. MELVA GREEN: Great. Look, you can't
hold on to trash. OK? That's trash. How do you know it was trash? MELVA GREEN: She's not
letting go of a crooked nail. It's not going to happen. But what's most
important is clearly the family is now recognizing
that it's not going to happen. This can probably
go with trash too. I don't know. It's heartbreaking. The whole thing
is heartbreaking. I really thought we were
going to be able to do more. I don't know if I'm going
to have to report her to APS or not. I don't know what
I'm going to do yet. Like this? Can this be thrown away? What can you use this for? You can't put anything in here. It's going to the trash. We want her to keep what's
valuable and special to her. But at the same, time,
we want her to let it go. See this basket that I
pulled this spoon out of? You can't hold on to
little stuff like this. HEATHER: Cheyenne was
trying to tell her, can't we throw it away? No. She won't let us
throw away a thing. None of that stuff in there
goes outside, basically. She just gets so
worked up over stuff. And she's just rude. She just wants to start
yelling at people. RUTHANN: Because I don't
want to get rid of it. What the hell's wrong with that? OK. You know, what if
there was a fire? That is not what it is about. It hurts me when
she started yelling. It really hurts me because
it's just out of control. [MUSIC PLAYING] Cheyenne kind
of had a breakdown because she's, I think,
coming to the realization that this is not
going to be fixed. I just want my
family back together. We've been broken for years. And it's just falling apart. I want to fix my family. But I don't think
it will happen. This hasn't really been about
Ruthann and her letting go and clearing out the space. This has been more about
the family coming to terms with the reality that Ruthann
has a very severe condition and that she is not
ready to let go. [MUSIC PLAYING] SCOTT: Everybody needs to
pull stuff off the porch, load the truck, take
stuff to the back. All right, you guys. We're all done. Might not have been the exact
ending we were looking for. But can we at least
say we've learned a lot through this process? - Yes.
- Yes. Yes. COREY CHALMERS: We learned
a lot about each other, for one, and what
our limitations are. MELVA GREEN: It's very difficult
for both Ruthann and Tamara to say certain things. But they're beginning to
speak about what happened and so many hurt,
so much deception that by bringing
this to light, this is an opportunity for Ruthann
to really step on the path to healing. COREY CHALMERS: If
you guys continue to work on the family stuff,
I think this house will continue to get better too. HEATHER: This was a great start,
I'll call it-- a great start. Yeah. [MUSIC PLAYING] I feel like even though
Ruthann couldn't let go of a lot of her
things, we still did the most
important thing, was to make an area livable
and clean and safe for her. I feel like as long
as it stays that way, I don't think we'll need
to report her to APS. I don't think I will. Ruthann, is this
something that you can continue once we leave? Yes. [MUSIC PLAYING] Oh! We're doing some
kitchen organizing. Sorry about that. You know, the kitchen is the
hub of the house because that's where we do a lot
of our socializing, bill paying, studying,
and food prep. And the key to
conquering the clutter is to create a home or a space
designated for specific items. Let's break down some of
those kitchen zones, shall we? And remember, you don't have
to do all of this at one time. So let's talk about
the countertops. Kitchen counters seem to be
the drop zone for most folks, leaving little room for
that precious food prep. The first step is to create
a designated area or zone, that you can agree on
with the whole family, that you keep clear
just for food prep. And the secret to conquering
clutter in the kitchen is not so much what
you put on the counter but rather how
often you clear it. So I want you to be
sure to calendar, even on your phone with a reminder,
every week to kind of clear that counter. And you can stay
ahead of the game. What about the pantry? Now, if you're
lucky enough to even have a pantry in
your kitchen, I want you to utilize these four tips
to help you out with space. Number one, empty
the pantry out so that you can take an inventory
of everything that you have. That means clear
out all the shelves, and get everything
out onto a table. The second thing is to group
like items with like items so that you can consolidate,
throw things out, even check expiration dates. And you know we do this all the
time on the "Hoarders" show. Number three, once things
are grouped like with like, and if you want to be able to
see some of your food items, you can use a simple
glass jar like this. Or hunt around the house
and find something else. I actually use my own stained
depression glass for lots of food items in my pantry. Number four, you can use an
over the door shoe organizer. Whoa! That is if you have a door
and you have space to do this. But these shoe
organizers actually have some plastic, clear
pockets so that you can put food items in there. And you can see everything
that you've got. Plus, your family knows
where to put things away when it's kind of empty. So it's a great little
tool to save space. And if you don't want
to use it for food, you can also use it for
cleansers and things like that. Now, I'll finish with
a couple of other tips for space saving
in your kitchen. And I like to use this
cardboard magazine holder. I use it for everything
all over the house. In this case, I took
the magazines out, and I put the Saran wrap,
the tin foil, the baggies in. And it holds
everything up straight. It's super neat. Everybody can find it. You don't have to pull
one off of the other. And it stores easily on a shelf. The other thing that I like
to do is use a lazy Susan. You know how you put spices
on a spinning spice rack? Well, it's called a
lazy Susan, and you can use that in the fridge. That way when someone's
saying, hey, honey, I don't see the
mustard in here, you can say, just spin
the lazy Susan, and you'll be able to find it. So here's to an organized
kitchen, and good luck. It actually drives
me a little nuts when things are too
clean and organized. DOROTHY: This is
where you sleep? Yup. I was a failure as a mother. I just love her so much. I think this plan of
action is retarded. Oh, really? DOROTHY: Gets your
mom's attention. No, it doesn't matter. No one listens to me. I am too sentimental. You also have a
son that is paralyzed that is moving into that room. If the stuff doesn't
go, I can't go home. Hey! Major issue is
Lydia's emotional state. It's killing me. [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] ANDREW: My name is Andrew,
and I'm 19 years old. Good morning, Freckles. I don't think my brain is wired
for me to be neat and tidy. It actually drives
me a little nuts when things are too
clean and organized. For me, walking through
this house is natural. I know how to balance myself. I know where to
step, where to go. So it's not really a problem. I've always been in this
type of environment, and I learned the
hoarding from my mom. I don't know how else to live. I'm Jeanne, and
I'm Andrew's mom. I haven't made a great
deal about his hoarding because I do the same thing. He's learned it from me. It has become ingrained
in him, as well as in me. [MUSIC PLAYING] ANDREW: I think the
fact that both of us are participating in it
makes it a vicious cycle. [MUSIC PLAYING] My name is Chris. I'm 25, and I'm
Andrew's brother. My brother, he's 19. Andrew, love him. He is stuck in that house. When I saw my brother's bedroom,
the first thing I thought of was my mother's bedroom. I couldn't believe it that he
had taken on the same traits that my mother did. I hesitate to blame
my mom, but I mean, it's just the situation we're in. She led me to disorganization. I cannot say that
he shouldn't blame me, because he should blame me. I am responsible for it. [MUSIC PLAYING] I was too young to
know what was going on. I never remember my
dad being around. My father-- best way of
saying, he was a bastard coated bastard with bastard filling. I mean, he was not the best guy. When I went
through my divorce, it was a very, very
painful thing for me. That was totally
out of my control. I had no recourse. I couldn't say, no, you know,
I don't want the divorce. [MUSIC PLAYING] As my life became
more unmanageable, I seemed to try to keep
more and more things. I would buy things in case
someday I would need them. And so things just piled up. [MUSIC PLAYING] When my mom was drinking,
she pretty much just stayed in her room, isolated herself. When she was done for the
day, she'd just go in there and watch TV or read
some romance novels and kill a box of wine. JEANNE: They had to
make their own meals. They had to dress themselves. They had to wash
their own clothes. They had to do all these things
that a traditional mother would do. I tried to get away from
that house as much as I could. I would spend all of my
time at my friend's house. I would spend time just
walking around the city. I was a failure as a mother. [MUSIC PLAYING] I left him behind. I didn't see any way
of taking him with me. I didn't-- I didn't know
what I could do for him. I have regrets about
leaving Andrew all the time. I feel like growing
up in the hoard had robbed me of my chance of
having a standard childhood. I do resent my mom, but I think
she did the best she could with the situation she was in. [MUSIC PLAYING] This is an emotional problem. This is deep-seated. I think they feel
that their lives have some sort of emptiness
without the clutter. They need to have stuff. Andrew has had 15 years
to watch me hoard things. While it's only been 15 years
for me, and I'm over 50 now, it has been his whole life. It's his way of coping
since he was four years old. ANDREW: It scares me to think
that I'll be a hoarder forever, and I'll never be able
to live any other way. [MUSIC PLAYING] I am Lydia. I am a homemaker. I grew up in Puerto
Rico up to 16, 17, and I came to New Jersey. And I've been here
all these years. My name is Michael,
and Lydia is my mom. [MUSIC PLAYING] My mom keeps everything. You know, it could be a screw,
it could be a pin, it could be, you know, a box, a bag. Angels, figurines,
knickknacks, ornaments, little birds, little dollies, flowers. Forget it, I go bananas. [MUSIC PLAYING] My name is Anthony,
and Lydia is my mom. I know she keeps family
photos, childhood arts and crafts that we've created. All my childhood stuff is there. I am too sentimental. Maybe that's no good. I don't know. MICHAEL: The house
wasn't cluttered when I was little-- you
know, when I was a kid. You know, there was space. We had the sofas,
the living room, we could run around the house. But it was after me
and my two brothers started leaving that all this
stuff just started adding up, adding up, adding up. I think she's got that
empty nest syndrome or something like that. [BABY TALK] MICHAEL: It doesn't matter
how you are or whatever, but your mother doesn't
stop loving you. You know, she'll always
want to take care of you. And, you know, I'm pretty
sure she's gonna be there now. You know? [MUSIC PLAYING] I was walking out of
the house, and I just lost all complete
feeling in my legs. I called my mom. I said, mom, I can't-- you know, I can't feel my legs. I can't walk. LYDIA: I took him to
the emergency room, and they said he has an
infection on his leg, but went up to his neck. And from there, now
he cannot move at all. [MUSIC PLAYING] He has to come here! He has nobody else! I'm Greg Frank, and
I am the occupational therapist/ contractor. It's my job to let the medical
team know whether or not the condition is safe. Michael can't go home right now. First of all, he can't
get in the front door or the back door. There are obstacles
inside the doorways. There's pieces of furniture. There are boxes, things that
are going to make it so that you and I could walk through there,
but you can't take a wheelchair that has a 25-inch
span and propel it through there without
running into an obstacle. MICHAEL: If they don't let me
go home, they would, you know, want me to go, like, a
nursing home facility. Now, unfortunately,
there aren't facilities for people his age. And if they put him in one of
those old people nursing homes, then he's not
gonna have the care that he's getting living here. No, I don't want to
go to a nursing home. No. I'm too young for--
you know, nursing homes are for older people. And I'm just going
to be bored out of my mind in a nursing home,
go stir crazy or whatever. He is depressed. MICHAEL: There are days that
you get aggravated, frustrated, and you just want to blow up. I don't want him to
go to a nursing home. He's gonna be more depressed. [MUSIC PLAYING] I am a nervous wreck. My nerve has been no good. [MUSIC PLAYING] MICHAEL: My mom, she's
having a tough time, you know, what she wants to get
rid of and once she, you know, wants to keep. But she knows that
if the stuff doesn't go that I can't go home. LYDIA: How does
that make me feel? Heartbroken. I only got three kids. My babies. [MUSIC PLAYING] [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] Andrew, I love him so much. And the fact that I brought
a lot of this on to him is something that I'll
have to live with. ANDREW: I'm afraid that if I
continue to hoard as an adult, there won't be
anyone to help me. I'll be all by myself. [MUSIC PLAYING] [KNOCKING] Hello. I'm Dr. Chabaud. Hi. I'm Suzanne Chabaud. I'm a clinical
psychologist, and I specialize in
obsessive compulsive disorders and hoarding. Jeanne nice to meet you. And Andrew. Nice to meet you. Andrew and Jeanne both hoard. The sad thing here is
that, for many, many years, hoarding has had a dramatic
impact on this family's lives. There's been a sense
of helplessness here to correct the problem. When did you guys
start saying, you know, I don't even care where-- where the trash goes anymore? When did that happen? I think it's definitely
been going on for years. JEANNE: Years. [MUSIC PLAYING] DR. CHABAUD: Does it feel
like a home to you guys? I mean, for you, it's
like this is our place. It feels safe. It feels comfortable. It's your protection
from the world. What is it-- what is
this place for you? This is a place
where I come to sleep. Sometimes I eat, but it's not-- it's not homey. It's not, you know, someplace
I would invite anyone in. I don't mind the house. I feel comfortable in it. Um, I don't terribly mind
bringing friends here. Is this part of who you
are, the way the house is, at this point in your life? You know, the clutter
the number of objects? Yeah. It is part of-- an extension
of your own identity? It's one of the
things about you? Yeah, it is. Andrew's problem is
serious in the sense that he's seen this
happen his entire life. But it's a life
that's been paralyzed. It's a life that's been
kept from developing. Ooh, careful. Whoa! Uh-oh. I'm not gonna do that. So this is your palace? Yes, it is. DR. CHABAUD: This is
your comfort spot. ANDREW: Yep. DR. CHABAUD: And this
is where you like to be? This is where you sleep? Yup, I sleep there. DR. CHABAUD: Do you like it? I do, very much so. It's just very
cozy and personal. Andrew doesn't know how
to define a personal space. He just lets it happen. And he also continues
to feed it with stuff. Do you ever wish that your mom
didn't pass this on to you, either through genetics
or by showing you? I guess my life would be
better if I didn't hoard. But it's-- it's just part
of what makes me who I am. Mm-hmm. Would you like him to not
feel like this is normal? Yes. I think that would be great
if he could get past this. I don't think you want him
to live the rest of his life as a hoarder. No. DR. CHABAUD: Do you? No. If Andrew doesn't do
anything about this problem, if he doesn't move
forward, he will be like every other hoarder
who doesn't get help. They start dying inside
and living in depression. [MUSIC PLAYING] MICHAEL: I couldn't be in the
house with all the clutter. There's no way. You know, like
this, I couldn't be. I'd have to grin and bear it
and go to the nursing home. [MUSIC PLAYING] [KNOCKING] Hello. Hi, Lydia. I'm Dr. Hannan. My name is Dr.
Scott Hannan, and I specialize in cognitive
behavioral therapy for compulsive hoarding. Tell me about this room. Going through
Lydia's home, you'll notice that there is a lot of
material that has accumulated. There's a box of
trophies over here. Can you tell me about these? LYDIA: A friend of mine
gave me because she says, I know you like trophies. Do you mind if I give you some? What makes them important to
you is that a friend of yours-- Yes.
DR. HANNAN: --gave those to you. What's gonna be tough
for her is going to be letting go things that
somebody might have given her. And now she sort of feels
like the keeper of that item, and it would be almost insulting
to let go of that item. How difficult would it be
for you to let go of those? You know, she's
always in my heart. She went to all my
kids' graduations. They love her like she
was their grandmother. You take your friendships
extremely seriously, don't you? When someone's close to
you, they're like a member of your family, aren't they? Yes. For her, there is such
a high degree of emotion to let go of that
stuff She thinks she's doing something wrong. OK. So Lydia, tell me
about this room. LYDIA: Well, this is going to
be Mikey's room from now on. DR. HANNAN: How do you feel
about changing this room around and getting it ready for him? Because I imagine
there's probably a lot of emotional
stuff coming up for you having him come back home. It's gonna be tough. How has that affected you, to
see your son go through this? This is a major change to his
life and to his family's life. It's killing me. Yeah. (CRYING) You know, the
thing that worries me is that he don't walk no more. He is a really active person. There's part of
you that really wants him to be home with you so
that you can take care of him. (CRYING) He's my baby. A major issue that
we may face as we're cleaning through the home
is Lydia's emotional state. So I think what we're
going to look at is, can we start
clearing up the space so that others can make
a good determination of, is this a place that we can
get him home and functioning? We're gonna have to watch her
and be respectful of how she's doing and check in with her to
make sure that things are going at a pace that's appropriate. [MUSIC PLAYING] (CRYING) So it's killing me. It's killing me. [MUSIC PLAYING] [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] DR. CHABAUD: Not all
hoarders live in filth. But if you hoard long
enough, your home usually will become
dirty and you will have a collection of trash. Andrew knows that there is
a difference between what he treasures and what is trash. But he doesn't feel that
he can organize himself to deal with all of this. [MUSIC PLAYING] DOROTHY: Good
morning, everybody. ALL: Good morning. Thank you for being here. I am Dorothy Breininger. I'm a professional
organizing expert, and I specialize in hoarding. Why are we here? Why do you want all of us here? Why? So we can have a clean house. DOROTHY: In this case,
Andrew is 19 years old. He is the youngest self-admitted
hoarder that I've met. This is going to be new for me. I'll be whispering
in your ear, but I'd like for you to manage
the crew some of the time and actually help
them and your mom get this house up and running. OK. DOROTHY: OK? Teaching organizational skills
to Andrew will be a key. This is not like we're taking
a hoarder who is 40, or 50, or 60, and having them
undo these bad habits that they've had for years. We can actually affect
a change and teach him now the kinds of skills
that he can use going forward. OK, so we're going to get going. But actually, I'd like
you to give the direction, so please tell the
crew, let's get going. Let's head into the house
and start on the living room. OK. Let's get going. Start in the living room. Let's go. Perfect! Yes! [MUSIC PLAYING] Let's maybe get the
things behind the door so we can actually open
the door all the way. You got leadership on
my very right-hand side. I love it! [MUSIC PLAYING] If the two of you are
coexisting in this house, how will you share
cleaning chores? I can tell you
what's gonna happen. She's gonna not do anything,
and I'm going to clean up after, whether she likes it or not. So he has some predictable
thoughts about you, Jeanne. Yes. Is he right? Is this really the case? He has nothing, as far
as I know, to base that on. I think when she
was drinking, she'd often blind herself to
the situation in the house and to how her kids were living. Underneath the
clutter are feelings. Yes. Right? Yes. And your son is
kind of ticked off. He's had to be the
responsible adult. What do you have
to say about that? He is entitled to his opinion. [MUSIC PLAYING] DR. CHABAUD: This
is Andrew's moment. It's his time to say,
I need to be seen. I need to be visible. You leave the house
and my existence disappears from your mind. Oh. And then, you come home,
and you go on the computer and take a nap. And I've been at home
by myself all day. And someone's finally here, and
then you ignore me for a couple of hours while you sleep. And that-- that really makes me
feel so important in your life. [MUSIC PLAYING] What is it that you think you
need, or needed, that your mom was not able to give to you? She was just like, go away. And that's what she
did when she came home. She just stayed in her room and
she checked out as a parent. [MUSIC PLAYING] I really always looked
to my grandmother. When my mom couldn't take
care of something, she would. What did it feel like to have
your grandmother in your life? And what are you going to miss? [MUSIC PLAYING] I really miss just
walking into her house and feeling like I was home. I'd walk in the
front door, and she'd be there with a warm smile. The warm smile
said to you what? What did it say to you? It said that she
was happy I was there. She was glad to see me. Every child should have that. To know that someone's
happy that they're there. [MUSIC PLAYING] Now, I just feel like
I don't have anybody. [MUSIC PLAYING] MICHAEL: I'm hoping to
get the space, you know, that I need to get in
and out of the house. But it's gonna be hard for my
mom to get rid of that stuff. But I don't want her upset. My mother comes before anything. Good morning. Morning. Good morning. My name is Matt Paxton. I'm an extreme
cleaning specialist. We're here for one reason,
and one reason only. We want to get Michael
back into this house. Lydia's son is still
at the hospital. He's supposed to be
released within the week. Unfortunately, they cannot
release him to this house because there's no way
that a wheelchair can get in and out of any of the doors. You're probably really
nervous, very anxious. I know you're feeling
very protective today of your mother. ANTHONY: The hardest part for
me is seeing my mother get emotional, or getting
upset, or crying because of what's going on in the home. Those are all good feelings. OK? Oh, here's Mikey. Oh, look at that! Very cool. [MUSIC PLAYING] I think my mom was crying
because she misses me, you know? She wants me home. She's-- I don't know-- excited and worried, I guess,
about what's going on today. [MUSIC PLAYING] OK, so this is the room
that's gonna be Michael's. Here are trophies. Now, these are the trophies that
your friend had given to you. I can put this
out in the garage. No, hold on. We need to make some tough
decisions here to save space. What would happen
if you let this go? [MUSIC PLAYING] It will hurt me. DR. HANNAN: Why? Because those are
sentimental to me. Your love for her, her love
for you, is not in these items. They are up here in your head. That will never go away. I think it's more than
just these trophies and her connections to her friends. She gets stuck to even think
about parting with things that she has a
sentimental attachment to. The challenge here is
there's this box of trophies that you're very attached to. The conflict is we also
have this situation where what's so important to
you is having your son at home. And the two things wind up
in conflict with each other. Your friend, if we
said to her, listen, one of the things
we'd have to do is get rid of this box of
old trophies for Michael to come home. We need to make room. Do you think she would be
happy with that decision or supportive of that decision? I don't know, because
she was like me. She was very sentimental. Did she like
those trophies more, or did she like Michael more? [MUSIC PLAYING] Well, I know she
loved Michael, um-- That shouldn't
be a hard question. LYDIA: --and my kids. Yeah. LYDIA: But you know. MATT: I mean, this-- this house
is a perfect storm of emotions. This is a wonderful
family, a loving family. So for us, we're gonna
need to find a balance. [MUSIC PLAYING] If it is that you need that
space to put your stuff so it doesn't go outside, then
just put my bed in the front, in the living room area. You know, it's not like I
need a lot of space anyway. You're sure? Don't worry about it. Is that what you want, Lydia? ANTHONY: Yeah. DR. HANNAN: So we're
saying living room? MATT: This is a family that
really loves each other, and they protect each other. Michael was willing to
live in the living room just so his mother
could keep more stuff. When the family doesn't push the
other one to let go of things, they actually make
the hoarding worse. [MUSIC PLAYING] You can watch more
"Hoarders" episodes every Sunday morning
this month starting at (YAWN) 7:00 AM on A&E. [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] Really old cake? How is-- is it really old? Well-- If it has-- if you go like this and feel
dust on it, just toss it. Pen/calculator? JEANNE: Ooh! Can be helpful. I need an office
supplies area, huh? ANDREW: Yeah. I'm feeling a little
frustrated right now because I look
at it like they're going through a
treasure hunt right now. They're looking
for buried treasure that they haven't seen. And see, most of
the stuff I would just end up tossing altogether. They're picking through
the treasure instead of tossing out the sand. Mom, popcorn tin? JEANNE: Is it empty? Yeah. Can it be used for,
like, cookies and stuff? I guess. CHRIS: They know that there's
only a certain amount of time left, and they won't be
able to get it all done if they keep this up. [MUSIC PLAYING] We're gonna go left to right. And let's get to
it, because we're gonna clear this
out, and then get right on to the middle room, and
then move on to Andrew's room. We're gonna each
take a bag and start clearing the cans and bottles. JEANNE: OK. Would you? I-- I-- Would you help? Why are we saving
my room for last? Because we can't
do two at once. ANDREW: We can't? So-- OK. All right? But we better get to it. CHRIS: It will get-- Oh, really? I mean, if my room is the
one that doesn't get clean because we run out of
time, you have no idea how angry I'm gonna get. Really? I'm challenging you to
help your mom right now, OK, and to do the very best
that you can to help her. ANDREW: Mm-hmm. When you know that what you
want is a priority to you. I mean, I really, really think
I should be working on my room. But we've been working
on the rest of the house this whole time. DR. CHABAUD: We can look at the
surface and go, god this kid, he doesn't know how to work. He's oppositional, and
he doesn't want to work. The truth is Andrew
doesn't know how to give a voice in a healthy
way to what's inside of him. Well, I mean, if
I'm gonna be literally given no other options-- No, I mean, you could
say, to heck with it. I'm gonna go do my room. But you have to let
everybody know that you're not gonna cooperate and why. Well, I'm not going to
cooperate with this plan. Tell them, not me. No, they're not
listening to me. Well, get them
to listen to you. (SHOUTING) No,
it doesn't matter! They never listen to me. No one listens to me. No one values what
I have to say. Well, you get them to. You get them to value
what you have to say. [MUSIC PLAYING] Just get your moms attention. Tell her to turn
around and look at you. (SHOUTING) Well, I
don't have a problem with what my mom's doing! Dorothy is making me-- making us work here first. Got it. So I'm here. OK, you tell her. Tell me. I think this plan
of action is retarded. DOROTHY: Yes. If we work on two
rooms that my mom has been hoarding forever, then
we aren't gonna get to my room. I'd love for you to join us. If you'd rather do
your own room, I-- You know, at this point, I-- I can't do either of that. I need-- OK. [MUSIC PLAYING] Just make it in
the living room. We make it in the
living room because it's gonna be ultimately easier-- you know, easier for
you, easier for me. [MUSIC PLAYING] You know, the windows we can-- the windows, you can bring
down the blinds if you moved all the flowers and stuff. I'll live in the living room. LYDIA: Your back pain? No, I'm getting the spasms
in my legs, and they get tight and they hurt. [MUSIC PLAYING] I love you. [SPANISH] OK, take it easy, OK? I can't stay any longer. My brother left, too, so I
think she's taking it rough. You know, I think she's more
scared than anything else, you know, of doing it on her own. Be careful, papi. [SOFT MUSIC] Let's go back over there. Let's get away from everything. [SOBBING] [MUSIC PLAYING] This is a typical mom problem,
and you're a good, loving mom. And what sons do is they leave
their stuff at their mother's house, all around the country. They say, oh, I'll
just leave it at mom's. I'll get it later. And what happens is mom's
house looks like this. Mom's house is not
a storage unit. Mom's house is not a place
you just leave all your stuff. So one thing I want
you to learn is to be able to say,
no, which is very hard to do for a loving mother. Very hard for a mother
to tell her son no. See, I've only
got my three boys. I know. And I have no
sisters, no brothers. But he's gonna love
you when you say, take this junk home to your house. Anthony has a ton of
stuff in this house, and most of it's big cabinets. So the guys right
now are taking all the cabinets out of the house
and freeing up some space, finally. DR. HANNAN: I mean, emotionally,
it got easier for Lydia in the afternoon. But she's still really
having a tough time on the smaller things. I need two plants that
can come out of the house and just go with soil. But I need you to
tell me which two. Aye, yay, yay. I know this is hard. Let me see if this-- Not this one. I have to replant this one. She still have one piece of ice. MATT: Let's look over
to your right if we can. And any of those can go. And what about the thing
underneath it, this? That's-- that's my stereo. I would love to
donate that somewhere. Could we do that? Well, where am I going
to play my records? We have to pass on the record. We're gonna have
to not have a place to play your records right now. DR. HANNAN: Yeah, I think you've
already established that you're not playing records as it is. It's been 10 years, so-- They are records from
my godmother's son. MATT: We're kind of
in a time crunch now. Michael's coming
home next week, and there's still stuff everywhere. I'm standing around, you know,
probably two tons of trash. We've taken one 50 gallon bag
of trash out, and that's it. [MUSIC PLAYING] [THEME MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm not gonna talk about
whose room should be done first. I want to find out what's
really going on here. There's a-- there's a person
inside of you that's, you know, really hurting and upset. I just don't know what value
the relationship with my mom has when these things are
gone, when we don't have hoarding in common anymore. DR. CHABAUD: The
hoarding gave you what? Hoarding with your mom
gave you what, really? A bond. Yeah. And that's what you really want. I feel like she's just
gonna go to work every day and forget I exist. At 19, it's the
time in Andrew's life to say, I'm moving forward. It's not the time
for him to make up for losses in his childhood. He can only say, I'm sad and
angry about what I didn't get. Your mom has lots to learn. And if she-- we don't
know if she'll ever learn, and that's what
you're facing, huh? You don't know if
she'll ever get it, and you might have
to just accept that. Hmm? [MUSIC PLAYING] Can I ask you to put
the bag right here? OK. Thank you. I think Andrew is doing
a really good job getting rid of the stuff in his room. He really is sticking with it,
and he is throwing things out. And there's not going to
be much left in his room. We took a lot out of this house. I figured we would, because
there was just so much trash. Really, by far and away,
this is the most trash I've ever extracted from a house. We took out seven tons of
trash, and one ton of that was donation. I think the most
important thing I took away from
this whole process is hoarding isn't
any way to live. And you absolutely need to
create the best situations for you because you can't expect
other people to do it for you. [MUSIC PLAYING] Andrew is a wonderful
candidate for therapy. I think Andrew
needs somebody who can really hear his feelings
and help him become a man. ANDREW: I think I definitely
have a greater chance of success than my mom does. It's very possible
she'll just continue the way she's been living. If, and I think this is a big
if, I go back to the hoarding, he can move on. He could go live somewhere
else, and I'd be OK with that. On the other hand,
I don't want to let him go because he is my baby. ANDREW: My future is bright. However, I don't know-- I don't know
whether I'm gonna be able to include my mom in that. I just love her so much, and I
don't want to leave her behind. [MUSIC PLAYING] MATT: What? This guy's gonna
have a heart attack! What did you just say to Matt? [MUSIC PLAYING] Sounds like you are
thinking about letting those trophies go. But-- They're gonna go bye bye. DR. HANNAN: How bye bye? Are we talking on the
property, out of the house? Are we talking on the truck? On the truck. MATT: Really? I think it's fantastic. MATT: But this is good. This means you're letting-- you're taking the better
good of the family above your own personal knickknacks. DR. HANNAN: Yeah. You're taking control
back of your home. MATT: That's a good thing. That was good. [MUSIC PLAYING] MATT: Keep this or let it go? Take it. Good job. Donate it. - That big piece can go?
- Yes. Yes, that piece.
- Wonderful. Put it in trash? That's it. Thank you. DR. HANNAN: Very nice work. [GLASS BREAKING] Hey!
What happened? It broke? [THEME MUSIC] All that in the-- That what we're doing. We're taking everything
out of there. Unfortunately, because
there's so much glass, things are gonna get broke. When something breaks
during a cleanup, it becomes an immediate item
that you can really focus all the anger and all the blame on. It really has nothing
to do with the item. I said, I have a
lot of knickknacks. And you're right. You do have a lot
of knickknacks. You also have a son that
is paralyzed that is moving into that room very soon. There's no way to get
around that anymore. We have to empty that room
for him to come home, period. [MUSIC PLAYING] Is this trash? Yes, it's trash. [BACKUP ALARM BEEPING] 1, 2, 3. That's all we got. Dude-- a lot of space! How are you? Está bien? I never thought those
trophies would leave. That was amazing. You know, it's a big change. You got rid of the stuff,
and you got me here. [LAUGHS] It's a good trade off. MATT: Check out to your right. That whole room
is empty now, too. Wow, that's a lot of space. MATT: So you won't
be just stuck here. Wow! She did it. She got rid of
the stuff that she was holding onto for
a long time, years, to get me in the house. I didn't think, to tell you
the truth, it was possible. But she did. She did-- you know,
she did real good. You guys did a tremendous job. [MUSIC PLAYING] We're sorry about your vase. [SOBBING] Thank you for letting
us in your home. Sorry about that vase. [MUSIC PLAYING] DR. HANNAN: This is
just a first step. Lydia still needs to
clean up that bedroom. Michael needs his own space. And hopefully, she will
follow through with aftercare and start cleaning out
those other spaces. But I think we got done what
was essential at this point in time. Thank you, mama. I love you. [MUSIC PLAYING] I never really get to use
a lot of my organizing tips on the "Hoarders" show,
because we're usually busy repairing the plumbing,
replacing a toilet, or fixing the shower. So I thought we should
talk about organizing tips for the bathroom, and
you know, the bathroom has a big time waster in there. It's not what you think. It's actually the mirror,
because, you know, we're trying to find all
of our imperfections. And we're looking for sorts of
hair products and cosmetics, so that we can improve. And, well, talking
about imperfections, you'll actually see on many
of these "Hoarders" episodes that I'm always
wearing a face mask, and I'm getting rained on. And my hair is blowing,
and I'm perspiring. And my perfections, or
rather, imperfections, are just a little too obvious. However, in my bathroom, I
am able to maintain optimum organization, and you can too. The process really starts
with thinking about what's most important for
you in that room, because organization
is really personal and should accommodate
your lifestyle. So, for example, if you don't
use, what is it, cotton balls, when you take off
your makeup, why do you have a decorative
jar with cotton balls next to the sink? If you don't use
wash cloths every day when you shower or take a bath,
why keep them on the shelf? So eliminate that
kind of clutter, and then think about
brand allegiance. If you can stay devoted
to just one or two brands in terms of your
hair products and cosmetics, you will have fewer choices
to make when getting ready, and you'll have fewer
half-empty containers hanging around in your cabinets. So by switching brands,
you are taking the risk of trying a new product
and not liking it, and then it hangs around
for a really long time. Why? Because, well, you've
invested money in it. It was expensive. And number two, there's still
so much left in the bottle or in the tube. So you're not going
to throw it away, but you're not really
using it either. So you can minimize these
miss purchases by having what I call brand allegiance. Now, if you have a small
bathroom or small space in the bathroom, and you've
got multiple people using that bathroom, I like to
suggest that you use, like, a college tote that students
use to go back and forth in the dorm to the bathrooms. And everybody brings in
their own toiletries, and you pack it back
out when you're done. Another great idea is one
of these organizing bins. I'll show it to you here. It's got several
drawers, and you can keep it under the bathroom sink. And all you have to do is
pull out one of the drawers and then keep it with
you, while you get ready. This one happens to have
a bunch of toothpaste, and dental floss, and
things like that in it. And then, when you're
done, you just put it back underneath the sink,
so it keeps things stored really easily for you. There you are. These are clutter
free solutions, and I truly hope
that you will be able to get organized quickly. So you can get out
the door faster. Good luck. This must be how you want it. I'm freaking out. No living creature
should be in there. I'm really grossed out. I got to go. I was at overload. I'm giving it away. Back for more punishment, huh? Holy smokes. I was feeling good, but
I sloped back too fast. Oh, Betty. How do you feel
about going to jail? I have a lot of
flashbacks being here. And it's got a date on it. It's just fine. JILL: I think Jill
can rationalize an elephant in her living room. The date dies
when you praise it. Your bedroom supposed
to be your sanctuary. It's not supposed to be a pit. Dear God, when will this end? [THEME MUSIC] BETTY: Having the stigma
of being exposed nationally on television as
a hoarder, I said, I was going to put a sign
out front that read driving by and gawking, $1.00,
stopping and staring, $5, and autographs, $25. That's what you
get with notoriety. I am Betty. I'm 68 years old. I was the garbage
man's daughter. I would not classify
myself as a hoarder. I consider myself
more of a saver. MICHELLE: I'm Michelle,
and I'm Betty's daughter. If my mother is not
defined as the hoarder, I don't know who would be. Adult Protective Services
has become involved. The conditions are such that
my father given his health is not able to be in the home. [MUSIC PLAYING] TRIEST: I'm like my mom. I've got the bug now. If I didn't have it before,
I've got it now, I think. Could you pick out
five items that you would consider letting go of? I am Dorothy Breininger, and
I'm an expert on hoarding. I know that Betty and Charlie
have had a history that has been very
difficult, and here it is, court ordered that she's
got to clean up the house so that she can bring her
husband home, and I wonder, does she want to? STAN: I'm Stan. I'm Betty's son. Dad can't live there. Mom shouldn't live there. Trieste shouldn't live there. The animals shouldn't be
forced to live there-- [CAT MEOW] --in the condition that it's in. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm already worried about
how it's going to be handled, because two or three
trucks would carry out everything I've got in a house. This one's broke, so
can I get rid of it? No, I don't use this
side, and this side is only broke in half. And I can use either half of it. Have this one. They're different powers. OK. I have suffered
more than you can imagine in dealing
with my mother and this chronic, horrible condition. And I'm done suffering. [MUSIC PLAYING] I need to hear from
my mom, I choose you. I don't choose the stuff. I choose you. Your family members are
committing to not helping you with this stuff anymore. If they choose not to come
back because I've kept stuff, that's going to
be their problem. I've got along without you
before I met you, going to get along without you now. That's pretty steep. It would hurt my feelings
if you were my mom. But they're not
here every day. OK. And my stuff is. [MUSIC PLAYING] When you left last year,
I felt like there was hope. Michelle came in and
rescued my parents from some pretty
grave things that were going to be happening. Honestly, I thought
there was going to be a lot more throwing away. It didn't bother me, because
I knew I could undo it. [MUSIC PLAYING] Well, hi there. Back for more punishment, huh? Oh, well, yes. You didn't get
enough the first time. Oh, Betty, and I'm not going
to be shortchanged this time. Either am? Definitely not. My initial reaction,
when I walked in and saw the
state of the house, was exactly what I expected. [MUSIC PLAYING] OK, so how long did it take
to get back just like this? I was here a year ago,
so it took a year? Or did it happen just
a month, five months? No, it was longer
than a month. It took longer than a month? Yeah. When I went to my mom's
house a few weeks later and saw things starting
to get piled up, I kind of laid into her,
like, what are you thinking? What are you doing? You know, 20 excuses
about why this was here, why that was there came up. Call me greedy,
but I wanted more. I mean, nobody had time
to help me with it. I haven't had money
to do anything. Trieste started going
through the boxes, and she started
dragging it back out. OK, so pretty much,
was it Trieste's fault? Not totally. Everything had to
do with somebody else. It had nothing to do with Betty. So my question is, a year
ago, I left this as, you know, dining room, and it
seems to be a closet. Pretty much. And I want to know,
who's closet is this? Well, mine. She likes living in this way. It's comfort clutter. She'd go nuts in a clean house. Trieste calls Betty's
hoarding comfort clutter. Why not? That's really what it is. I call it a great big hug. There's a few of
Charlie's things, and that pile there is a
lot of stuff for Stanley. Speaking of
Charlie, where is he? Over at our sons. Why isn't he here? BETTY: Because he's
not allowed to be here. Why isn't he
allowed to be here? We did all this work,
so he could be here. Adult Protective
Services found out that the home was in
really poor shape, again, and they told my
mom that my father couldn't live there anymore. And so, my mom moved my dad
over to my brother's house. I was asked, can your
father stay here a while? Naturally, I said yes. They don't have the
money for a hotel. Where are they going to go? What are they going to do? So why were we here last year? I really want to ask some
hard questions because we came in here on an emergency
cleanup last year, and we got you squared away,
so that you didn't have to have your house taken away. And your husband
really could come home. Did you want him to come home? Yeah. Really? Time after time after
time, we've cleaned it up, and it keeps happening,
wherever you live. Why did it happen at Stanley's? He had his kids taken away. [MUSIC PLAYING] My mom has continued her
hoarding over at my brother's house to the point,
where the children, they were removed from the home. It was circumstances. There was laundry
sitting by the door, and the Christmas tree was there
still, still not taken down. So it was just a circumstance? Yeah, pretty much. Even though,
repeatedly, people had come into the apartment,
seen the condition, and said, hey, this is not good? You know, you've
been cited here. You have a letter, again,
that you must clear this out by such and
such a date, again, or you could go to jail. How do you feel
about going to jail? Not very happy, but-- Would you do it? Well, how would
you get out of it? Some people would do anything
to get out of going to jail. They would just do anything. I've got six months to-- well,
there's not six months left. But I've got six months to get
this in here under control. OK, think you can
do it on your own? I could. You could. There have been more than 240
people who have been supporting this family in the
state or city of Ohio, and I'm just talking
the last 15 years. We have mayors. We have Adult
Protective Services. We've got caseworkers. We've got counselors,
police, judges, prosecuting attorneys,
foster care, psychologists, hospitals, guardians. What does that cost? It's upward of half a million
dollars just for the people to support one hoarder. Dear God, when will this end? How many times are
we going to get rid of some of the stuff, all of
the stuff, move the stuff, store the stuff? Well, you've got your answer. Don't you? Yeah. What's the answer, Michelle? It's not going to end. It's not going to end,
unless you get some help. So it can end. You chose not to. That's all I have to say. [MUSIC PLAYING] I guess I'll probably
never leave her, but I just am not
going to help her and enable her to do
whatever she wants in the way that I was before. I just don't want to give up. [MUSIC PLAYING] [THEME MUSIC] PAUL HAMMOND: Since
this program's come out and I realize that hoarding is
the reason I collected stuff. So you know on TV
makes me realize there's other people out there. But as far as what I'm
doing, I'm by myself. [BIRDS CHIRPING] [MUSIC PLAYING] My name is Paul Hammond,
and I'm 56 years old. I've been collecting
junk for quite a while. My problem is I've
got to the point that I've collected so much
that it's become a problem. I'm Paul Hammond
Jr. I'm Paul's son. He doesn't want to go through
and throw anything away. He wants to try to with
what he does have is make a profit off as much as he can. Clearly you have no
limits on appliances. [MUSIC PLAYING] Name is Matt Paxton. I'm the owner of
Clutter Cleaner. Tell me what the legal
ramifications are. Oh. Well, in the state of
Alabama, he's charged with criminal littering. And that carries a fine of up
to $250 or 90 days in jail. My name is Ginger Parker,
and I represent Paul Hammond in his criminal littering case. MATT PAXTON: Is this the kind of
thing they're looking for Paul is to let go of these items? Yes, I would say that
in order to make the judge and the county happy that
about 90% of this stuff. [MUSIC PLAYING] MATT PAXTON: He will go
to jail next Tuesday if he does not finish this cleanup. I guess that's kind of got
me to the point I'm at now. [MUSIC PLAYING] MATT PAXTON: We've got
about four different crews all around the yard. It's just a lot of-- lot
of work to do with not a whole lot of time to do it. The rotted wood can go. The rest of it I need to
hang on to at this stage. Those big white
buckets there can stay. MATT PAXTON: Into the scrap. [MUSIC PLAYING] That's aluminum and copper. The rest of it's
metal just about. MATT PAXTON: Well,
I guess what I'm saying is we've got to start
throwing metal away now. Because if we don't
clear this space out, you're going to jail. That's the reality. PAUL HAMMOND: I wish
you'd lose that term. I can't help it.
PAUL HAMMOND: Well-- I know-- I know
it sucks, but-- PAUL HAMMOND: --I know
that's my alternative, but-- MATT PAXTON: I know. PAUL HAMMOND: --I don't
want to keep hearing it. MATT PAXTON: He's not
going to let it go. I mean, he's going to jail. He doesn't get it. PAUL HAMMOND JR.: If we
don't get this cleaned up, you go to jail for 90 days, OK? At minimum, you lost that, 90
days of your life for minimum. No, just give it all the
[EXPLETIVE] away and go blow my [EXPLETIVE] brains out. No. No, you-- The hell with all of it. Paul. [MUSIC PLAYING] PAUL HAMMOND JR.: I just
want to see him happy. I don't want him in trouble. I mean, to me, that would be
worth it, keep him out of jail. [MUSIC PLAYING] PAUL HAMMOND: I
ain't giving it away. That [EXPLETIVE] judge can
kill me if he wants to, but I ain't giving it away. MATT PAXTON: The
only reason he keeps this stuff is for his grandkids
and for their life savings. PAUL HAMMOND: It's
hard to explain. [MUSIC PLAYING] MATT PAXTON: Whatever
doesn't get done today just is not going to get done. [MUSIC PLAYING] After y'all left and Paul had
to go back into court several different times, we were able
to keep him out of jail each and every one of those times. He was relieved that
he had part of his yard clean, that he'd gotten
rid of a lot of stuff, was able to enjoy
that couple of days. But in all realities,
there's still a lot left. [MUSIC PLAYING] PAUL HAMMOND: Well,
after the crew left, I continued working you know. It wasn't as much,
but you know I had a couple of
people that still come and helped a little bit. But as the days went
on, they quit coming. And it just got to the point
where nobody was showing up. I lost a lot of my motivation. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hey, brother. Good to see you, man. Yeah, it's good
to see you too. Very good to see you. I was expecting that I would
be able to get into the yard. I mean, right away I
was really surprised. You really have kept
the right of way-- Right of way is clear. And this whole line of
sight is-- with the exception of that huge trailer-- there was three or four items
that were new, and that was it. Let's talk about the o-- [LAUGHTER] --the obvious. Yeah, the trailers
are ridiculous, and I told Paul that. I mean, he's got these
two massive trailers, thinking that he's going
to pack them up and move. But as far as hoarding
goes, not only did he not add to the
junk, he had actually done a little more work. So I-- I was pleased and
pleasantly surprised. I have not collected
anything since you left. I'm looking for it. So I mean, I'm--
- Very little. I mean--
- --coming to it-- through it. You're right. You haven't done much. A refrigerator
and two trailers. [LAUGHTER] Due to the fact that he's
getting out there and doing something, it's a lot. I mean, it's just it's so much
that the little bit that he's doing, it's hard to see. MATT PAXTON: It's
still 75% full. I mean, there's,
you know, 18 trucks. There's thousands and
thousands of aluminum cans. There's a house full
of aluminum cans. And there's appliances,
there's old car parts. I mean, it's full. So is life better or worse
since we were here last? I was feeling good, but
I slumped back too fast. [MUSIC PLAYING] There's still a lot left to go,
and being able to continue it by myself has been
real difficult. That's definitely
caused the court systems to see that nothing's
getting done or not much and
not enough for them to be happy is getting done. MATT PAXTON: Is it what needs
to be done for the courts to be pleased? Absolutely not. I mean, not even close. This is it. These are all new? Well, let me see. 29th, my Christmas present,
late Christmas present. Merry Christmas. I read the citations, and,
to me, they're pretty clear. It says everything that you have
on your yard, you can't have. And we're in the same
place we were a year ago. The only issue is the
stakes are higher now. Before, he was only
looking at jail time. Now, he's looking at
losing the whole property. [MUSIC PLAYING] GINGER PARKER: Paul has
decided that he wants to go into court alone, which
is basically like walking into a fight with both
hands tied around your back because the county will have
lawyers there representing them who've gone to law school and
know the rules of evidence and the rules of procedure. And Paul does not. So he's really going
in there handicapped. PAUL HAMMOND: What did you find? Huh? Everything I've ever worked
for, they can take it away. [MUSIC PLAYING] If he keeps procrastinating
like he's doing, he's going to lose everything. The county state's going
to do what they have to, and they're going to
take everything he's got. PAUL HAMMOND: At this point,
I don't know what to do. I'm just going to go buy me
a gun and blow my head off, forget about it all. [MUSIC PLAYING] You can watch more "Hoarders"
episodes every single Sunday this month at 7:00 AM on A&E. [THEME MUSIC] JILL MADIGAN: I got
myself into this project, putting myself in
the public eye, to make myself accountable. And to make the changes that
I need to make in my life. I'm not sure just how far that
is, but I'm not there now. [MUSIC PLAYING] My name is Jill, and
I'm 60 years old. I've been a messy
person all my life. I hoard food. I feel guilty about
wasting something that somebody could be using. My name is Cathy, and
Jill is my older sister. Food in Jill's house
is just really scary. It's because it's everywhere. She still doesn't believe
that the food is bad. JILL MADIGAN: --good color. You know, that it's unsafe. BRENDEN MCDANIEL: It's expired. JILL MADIGAN: It probably
isn't expired because I haven't been buying it that long. BRENDEN MCDANIEL: Well,
it's green inside. I'm Brendan McDaniel. I'm a professional organizer. It's hard seeing someone
living in these conditions and not having a
problem with that. AIDAN MADIGAN: My
name is Aidan Madigan. I'm Jill Madigan's son. She gets pumpkins from
the church sometimes. So that she can
make pumpkin pies. I'm a good cook. AIDAN MADIGAN: She's a
damn good cook, but, uh-- [MUSIC PLAYING] What's going on in here? JILL MADIGAN: I don't care about
the dates if it's not puffy and if it looks
OK and smells OK. So I would start-- It expired six months ago. My name is Dr. David Tolin. I'm a clinical psychologist. I'm noticing a strong
smell, and I'm also noticing there are flies buzzing-- Yeah. --around the room. JILL MADIGAN: Yeah,
there are flies. DR. DAVID TOLIN: Do
you have any sense of what that might be about? It is really
completely disgusting. I expect there'll
be a certain amount of kicking and screaming along
the way, but I need help now. [MUSIC PLAYING] You're all set. You're about ready
to do the pumpkin. Yeah, we'll just-- JILL MADIGAN: Well, it was
a beauty when it was alive. I enjoyed you while
you were here. Thank you. Goodbye. This is probably the worst
house that I've done, period. JILL MADIGAN: Let
me just look and see if there are any
seeds in here so we can try to get a few of these-- Whoa, looks like more
apples, some lettuce, some other stuff
that turned black. Delicious. Jill, how about the freezer? Can we get rid of
everything in the freezer? Let me look through
it, if you don't mind. OK. BRENDEN MCDANIEL: Oh,
what's going on in there? JILL MADIGAN: This is all gone. BRENDEN MCDANIEL:
Here we go Oh, boy. JILL MADIGAN: Ugh. [LAUGHTER] I'm sorry. I'm really grossed out. Please. [RETCHING] JILL MADIGAN: Do we have-- it looks like something-- [LAUGHTER] BRENDEN MCDANIEL: I got to go. JILL MADIGAN: Something
out of a bad dream. I'm sorry. [LAUGHTER] [MUSIC PLAYING] BRENDEN MCDANIEL:
Oh, holy smokes. [MUSIC PLAYING] JILL MADIGAN: I did not plan
to let it get this bad either. It was so disgusting. I just-- My God. And there's stuff that was
in that drawer that she's-- That she's examining. --still saving. [MUSIC PLAYING] DR. DAVID TOLIN:
Something is off here. Your old way of doing things-- Right. DR. DAVID TOLIN: --your old
way of thinking about things, it is self-destructive as hell. [MUSIC PLAYING] So Jill, the-- Can you-- can you let me
add it before you start? There's nothing here
that I want to save, but you're ready to
jump on me for it, OK? That's fine. I just tried to [INAUDIBLE] All right. [MUSIC PLAYING] BRENDEN MCDANIEL: She
felt very violated looking in the freezer
seeing it empty, seeing certain
canned goods gone. You know, to her, it felt like
you removed layers of skin. JILL MADIGAN: What's the
matter with my chocolate chips? I conceded on a number of issues
in particular in the arguments that we had over
expiration dates, which are fairly meaningless. She was completely exhausted
from the whole situation, mentally and
physically exhausted. But on the good side, Jill
really wanted to change. I thought, maybe
we'll get somewhere. [MUSIC PLAYING] [KNOCKING AT THE DOOR] JILL MADIGAN: Hello. Hi, Jill. JILL MADIGAN: Welcome. Come on in. Well, thank you. [MUSIC PLAYING] BRENDEN MCDANIEL:
Jill, it really looks great that we can walk here-- Yeah, I like having
the wood available. The cat loves it. You could see floors,
and you could see tabletops and there were places
for people to sit down. She could have had
people in the house. And that, she hasn't been able
to do that for many years. JILL MADIGAN: --side down. BRENDEN MCDANIEL: To
an untrained eye-- over the course of
the past few months, we've been working
with her slowly. She really, really
wants to show progress, but she also doesn't want us to
see things that weren't quite the way it should have been. [MUSIC PLAYING] Wow, it looks like
we've got the pumpkin-- Yes, the remaining-- --from last year
still in the-- The remaining-- the remaining
pumpkin is still here. It's in a prominent place. The reigning pumpkin. BRENDEN MCDANIEL: That we
have the rotting pumpkin that we cleaned up last
year, and that pumpkin is like a trophy now
on her coffee table. JILL MADIGAN: I'm hoping
that it'll hold its color, and that it will look
as pretty as it is now. I love the filigree
pattern on it. BRENDEN MCDANIEL:
You know, some people want two-year-old
pumpkins in their houses and some people don't. [MUSIC PLAYING] Some of these are still
from when we were-- No, actually-- --here, but it-- --there's been some turnover. I just buy the same brands. Oh, OK. She's still buying
more food than one person could possibly eat. BRENDEN MCDANIEL:
Oh, look at this. JILL MADIGAN: I use that. BRENDEN MCDANIEL:
What is this, garlic? JILL MADIGAN: No those are-- these look bad, but these
are-- no, that's shallots. BRENDEN MCDANIEL: Shallots?
JILL MADIGAN: Those are-- Yeah, sure.
JILL MADIGAN: Those are gone. This one looks pretty bad too. JILL MADIGAN: Yeah. I don't know that Jill's
view's changed on keeping old food have changed at all. JILL MADIGAN:
Everything was staying nice and fresh during the winter
because it was cold in here. It was a refrigerator. The whole house
was a refrigerator. It was very interesting
how she rationalized the heat not being
turned on, that the house would be a refrigerator. I think Jill could
rationalize anything. She could rationalize an
elephant in her living room. Wow. OK, it's a full fridge. JILL MADIGAN: Right. It expired November 3 of '09. JILL MADIGAN: Yeah. So it expired a
few months ago-- JILL MADIGAN: I'll check it.
- --but it's still-- JILL MADIGAN: I will check it. It's been frozen consistently,
so I will check it. It's not puffy. JILL MADIGAN: No,
it's not puffy. I know that there are
microscopic issues. I am an engineer. I look at things
rather scientifically, and I don't intend
to eat anything that's going to make me ill. BRENDEN MCDANIEL: No,
why do you feel insulted? I'm just going to ask this. This expired, you know-- JILL MADIGAN: January 7th --earlier this month. I will check it. I'm not going to
dogmatically follow the dates that are on something. I'm going to use my mind
because I've got a mind. BRENDEN MCDANIEL: Holy smokes. This is--
JILL MADIGAN: That is-- --in the freezer-- JILL MADIGAN: And
it is just fine. BRENDEN MCDANIEL:
It's a struggle. Sometimes like a
mental game of chess when you're dealing with Jill. [MUSIC PLAYING] I think Jill will not succeed
without the support of someone like Brendan in her life. And I don't think, from a
mental health standpoint, she can do it without therapy JILL MADIGAN: I want to
have the things that work, and I don't want
to be encumbered by the things that don't. And I want to be
able to learn to tell the difference because that's
where the crux of the problem is. I don't know how to
tell the difference yet. [MUSIC PLAYING] [THEME MUSIC] I initially agreed
to do the show. We went for process rather
than a complete clean out. I think I've come a long
way in the last year I've got a long way to go. [MUSIC PLAYING] My name is Bill. I'm 66 and semi-retired. [MUSIC PLAYING] If I woke up tomorrow
and everything was gone, I would probably freak out. My name is Lorelei. I've been partners with
Bill for 25, maybe 26 years. The level of disarray
that Bill seems to either enjoy or succumb
to is crazy making for me. I truly hate it. My name's Amelia,
and Bill's my father. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm not comfortable in my house. I kind of had my
sanctuary of my bedroom that I walk directly to. I think by me having
my room the way it is, I think he thinks
that's OK and that's enough. Well, so, Bill, show
me what's in here. This area right here
is pretty much a library. It's mostly-- it's all
books and magazines. DR. DAVID TOLIN: OK. Excessive, you
think, or just right? To me, just right. [MUSIC PLAYING] DR. DAVID TOLIN: Do you
get a sense that this poses any kind of a hazard? It does. I ended up having an accident. She fell down the
stairs, broke her arm. [MUSIC PLAYING] DR. DAVID TOLIN: So
after she broke her arm, did you clear off the stairs? Uh, no, not really. [MUSIC PLAYING] I refuse to feel like
this is normal anymore. I can live with Bill, but I
can't live with this stuff. And if it doesn't get separated,
then I've got no choice. He's going to have to move. [MUSIC PLAYING] DR. DAVID TOLIN: So
where are we starting? Dining room. This is a keep. It's a bag of keys. This is an electrical tool. DR. DAVID TOLIN: Mm-hmm. Another electrical instrument. DR. DAVID TOLIN: Mm-hmm. Back brace. Amelia was getting
frustrated with me again. You're not going to have
newspapers on the stairs that mom is going to trip on Yeah, that's correct. They don't belong
in the house. Where the hell are you going to
put them, in the storage shed? It's so frustrating. DR. DAVID TOLIN: At what point,
Bill, do you just say, enough. I'm feeling
resentment, anger, um, and that's shutting me down. So I am shutting down. I'm not going to deal with it. I was done with the process. I was at overload. I almost walked away
and didn't come back. DR. DAVID TOLIN: It's going
to take Bill and the family a long time to get rid of this. This stuff didn't
happen overnight, and it's not going
to leave overnight. It's just not going to change. I can't live this way. I can't do this. [MUSIC PLAYING] Immediately after
everyone had left, there was a feeling
of accomplishment, at least on my part. I think it was a failure. I was hoping for the
whole house to be cleaned I thought that's
what was going to happen. It was a very long and
emotionally exhausting event. [MUSIC PLAYING] Lorelei's having a heart
attack was definitely seen as a turning point. I needed to refocus and
make the house more livable. [MUSIC PLAYING] I really needed to
feel like my house was a place of safety
and hospitality, and I hadn't felt that
way in a long time. [KNOCKING AT THE DOOR] Yo. Hello? Hi, how are you? Oh. My name is Rita. I'm a longtime friend
of Bill and Lorelei's. I was really excited
to invite my friend, Rita over and see her today. Oh, pretty, pretty, pretty. It was so nice
to see her reaction because she's seen that house
in the worst of situations. Would you like to enjoy a
cup of coffee in the kitchen-- Sure.
I'd love a cup of coffee. And sit down? Absolutely. [LAUGHTER] Come on. To walk in and
to be able to see the countertops in the
kitchen and the table is just remarkable. I can see that he's been working
really, really hard at trying to get all this under control. We are maintaining the
common spaces a lot better than we used to. [MUSIC PLAYING] The last time we
were on these stairs was to show people where I
fell when I broke my arm. You have not let
these stairs get dirty once, which is amazing. I need that same tenacity
in the rest of the house. We're getting there. We'll take this
as a win moment. [MUSIC PLAYING] This is supposed to
be our 20x40 porch, three-season porch. And right now, it's
a storage shed still. I still see that cycle of
things going from room to room or things moving around. You have a closet, two closet,
and then a whole entire like wardrobe closet over there. This is ridiculous to live
like this in your bedroom. Your bedroom's supposed
to be your sanctuary. It's not supposed to be a pit. This is gross. Yep. [MUSIC PLAYING] Right now, there's
quite a degree of uncertainty as to where
the future's going to take us. If we could get the apartment
that's located on the top level of our house finished,
it would allow us to have an income
to counter a chunk of what I've lost in my salary. But sometimes Bill
moving is like trying to turn a battleship
with a dinghy, and I don't know that it
can happen fast enough. Worse comes to
worst and we have to find another place to live,
then I guess we'll do that. But hopefully,
that won't happen. I don't see any way
this is going to pan out [MUSIC PLAYING] [THEME MUSIC] The exposure from being
seen by millions of people, it was an exposure that I
couldn't screw up once I did it because I had no choice. [LAUGHTER] So it
was forced therapy. [MUSIC PLAYING] My name is Jake. I'm 21, and I'm unemployed. Pretty much whatever comes
in my house doesn't leave. [MUSIC PLAYING] My name's Terry. I'm Jake's dad. It's hard for me
to just say this, but Jake and I live pretty
much in a garbage dump. [MUSIC PLAYING] Your dad sleeps there? It almost looks like a dog bed. Um. I'm Dr. Tara Fields. I'm a licensed psychotherapist. Are those all liquor bottles? There were hundreds
of bottles on the floor, and that's just from six months. But I've been piling
them up for years. The reason there's so
much dog hair in the house is because I feel
like if I throw away the dog hair that I'm going
to speed up my dog's aging. I feel like I'm killing
her by doing it. [MUSIC PLAYING] DR. TARA FIELDS: Wow. I-- I-- it was physically
painful to breathe. It wasn't just that the
stench is so overwhelming, but it already started sort
of eating out my throat. My name is Franklin,
and I am Jake's boyfriend. It smells like mildew meets
dog barf meets human barf. It's just really,
really putrid smell. DR. TARA FIELDS: No living
creature should be in there. No living creature. I'm willing to change
because I'm going to kill myself if I don't. [MUSIC PLAYING] My anxiety is pretty
high right now. It's a interesting
situation, to say the least. DR. TARA FIELDS: I hear
you want to talk to me. I'm Tara. I'll be quite honest,
I don't trust you guys. DR. TARA FIELDS: I can
smell you've been drinking. OK, you don't like the smell. You know what?
DR. TARA FIELDS: I don't. I don't care what you like. She's here--
- The same-- --for you.
She's-- - That's right.
- --not here for me. That's right. Oh, my God. [MUSIC PLAYING] Are you [EXPLETIVE]
kidding me? [MUSIC PLAYING] This is so [EXPLETIVE] obscene. It's like evidence of
what he's done to himself. [MUSIC PLAYING] I want to know
what's going on. I'm freaking out. Yeah, come on. I told you that would be
the room that was hard for me, and then just-- OK, where are you right now? [INAUDIBLE] stop.
- I'm so-- An eight? I just-- OK. OK, you're an eight.
Wait. Wait.
You want a hug? Yeah. OK, you're at an eight. You're at an eight. You've been at eight before. So this is the final hurdle. You are so close. If you can do this, clear
this up, that's graduation. [MUSIC PLAYING] This is helping her breathing. This is helping my breathing. Oh, my God. You're right. This is all bull [EXPLETIVE]. This is all total
bull [EXPLETIVE].. You are amazing. This is all such
bull [EXPLETIVE].. I can't even--
this isn't my dog. This is dead--
This is dead hair. It's nothing. I am so down for
doing this right now. I am so OK right now. I'm so OK right now. [MUSIC PLAYING] I just sort of like sat
and like looked around. I didn't really
know how to react. I had such a daunting
task ahead of me. And then, once it was over
with, I was like, OK, now what? [MUSIC PLAYING] My dad completely ignored the
fact that it even happened. My dog was really scared. She didn't like it. I mean, she missed
all the garbage. You know, OCD doesn't
just like disappear. It was a really, really,
really hard time for me. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hey. Hi. DR. TARA FIELDS: How are you? I was really, really excited
about coming back to the house. Oh, my gosh. Here's couches now. [LAUGHTER] This is amazing. This is a real living room. Mm-hmm. DR. TARA FIELDS: Not
only had he maintained a level of cleanliness, but
it looked like a living room, like you could sit down, and
you could visit with him. I mean, this is really-- I have a lot of
flashbacks, being here. [LAUGHTER] [MUSIC PLAYING] Everything was stuffed
with liquor bottles. I remember. I didn't even know it was there. I know that. I was like, "What?" [LAUGHTER] DR. TARA FIELDS: If his dad
didn't get into recovery, I was really concerned
that Jake wouldn't maintain his own recovery. Can I look in there? Totally. OK. Let's open it. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. DR. TARA FIELDS: I was actually
really pleasantly surprised that his dad, on
his own, had stopped drinking, for the most part. Certainly the show
showed me that I was pretty much at rock bottom. You are just sitting on the
grass and drinking all day. And do you know--
do you know what it's like to see someone
you care about doing that to themselves? Do you have any clue? [MUSIC PLAYING] I let my drinking
get way out of hand. Oh. Yeah, it hits you like that. I quit drinking wine
altogether, and I drink one or two beers a day. DR. TARA FIELDS: Not a
single liquor bottle. And he doesn't know that, but I
sneaked a peek in a few closets just to see. I wanted to make sure they
weren't just shoving things away. This is incredible. They were empty. The stairs have stayed clean. It's not piled with
Skyler's dog fur. No. So you don't have any of those
fears of throwing his fur out? [MUSIC PLAYING] The dog hair was hard for me. Mostly because when your brain's
just barraging you with, Oh, yeah. If you do this, your dog
is going to die tomorrow. [MUSIC PLAYING] [SOBBING] My dog came into my
life when I was 12. She's just-- she's been
there for me for everything. She sat there and watched
me suffer for 10 years. And I just-- I realized I owed it to
my dog to actually do the right thing for her sake. [MUSIC PLAYING] So that's gone? You can just pick up the fur? Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. That's amazing. OK, let's keep going. [MUSIC PLAYING] There was a
point in time where I was like there's no
way in hell I'm ever going to have a normal life. And it's just weird that like I
was able to prove myself wrong. [MUSIC PLAYING] His whole outlook
is really positive. I mean, you know, he's
going to college now. He's writing a book
about his experiences with OCD and hoarding. And I think that,
you know, just being able to get through
that experience and be all the better for
it, he can do anything that he puts his mind to. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm really excited
to go back to school. If there's one thing that
I've ever been so [EXPLETIVE] damn determined
about in my life is that I'm going to be an author. I feel like that's
what I'm meant to do. I have no doubt in my mind. DR. TARA FIELDS:
The real message is, are you willing to do the work? Are you willing
to face the pain? Are you willing to
face the anxiety? Are you literally willing to
have a showdown, you know, with that voice? So it takes courage. I had no direction in
my life, and now I do. [MUSIC PLAYING] DOROTHY BREININGER:
So what'd you think? I hope you enjoyed
today's marathon, and thank you so
much for watching. And yes, we are at the
end of our marathon today, but don't worry. You can watch more "Hoarders"
episodes this month every Sunday morning starting
at 7:00 AM Eastern time on A&E. See you later.
