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. [MUSIC PLAYING] I love toys. This is almost
up to the ceiling. A lot of your things
are not worth much. I just give up. This is not your show. This is the Billy Bob show. I ain't going to put up
with that man threatening you. You're excused. You can go home. If I go, they go with me. Goodbye. [SCREAMS] Everybody seems to think
that the mess is mine. That's a fire trap
in Sabrina's room. I hate all this junk. Just look, do something
that you want to get rid of. We're going to be going
through about 40 craft boxes. I don't care. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm Billy Bob. And I-- I'm a retired
creative director. This is so fun. I was born to shop. I used to be just happy
with a few things, but the more neat things
I got, the happier I got. And the happier I got, then
I wanted to be more happier. Here's Barbra Streisand,
looks just like her too. I love toys. They're funny, you know? They do all kinds of things. They're neat. And as soon as I get
done with this today, I'm probably going to
go collect some more. Want to go with me? [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm June. I'm Billy Bob's wife. I don't let him bring it in. I'm working all day, and
he just goes rummaging and shopping by himself. [MUSIC PLAYING] Well, quite frankly, I snuck
it in on her a little bit at a time. Every time she would come in
and I would have something new and I'd sit there, she'd
go, where did you have that? I'd say, oh, I had
it out in the garage. Something's on
sale, whether he needs it or he doesn't, he'll buy it. Any bargain he can get. Billy Bob loves bargains. My name is April, and
Billy Bob is my dad. I am very uncomfortable
with the life that my dad is
leading right now. His arthritis is
so bad in his legs that he really
can't walk very far. Just getting around, when--
when all you have is pathways. I mean, you can't get
through the house. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm one of these kind
of guys that I can't turn sideways, because
I'm the same size sideways as I am forward. I'm a big man who
cuts a wide path. He's fallen down
a couple of times, which is really hard
for me because I can't pick Billy Bob up. It's an absolute necessity. He needs to be able to get
in and out of the house, to be able to move around,
to be normal in his home. I'm Cory. Billy Bob is my stepfather. He gives me anything
and everything Scooby Doo from, boxer shorts,
salt and pepper shakers, pancake griddle. You know each of our family
members have, like per se, a character. I think April was Tweety. I don't know. Do I get Tweet? I don't even know anymore. She's a tweety bird, and June
is Minnie, because I'm Mickey. Actually, in reality, I'm
GI Joe, and she's Barbie. You're just a
big kid at heart. My dad's always
been very childlike. More Hot Wheels. Sort of like Peter Pan,
never really wanted to grow up. God, I love those things. [MUSIC PLAYING] We didn't have a good childhood,
necessarily, growing up. Well, my mother was always
cleaning everything, and everything had to go. My grandmother would
definitely throw away his toys. He's still trying to
recapture his childhood, and-- and so having the toys now
kind of makes up for it. Those were my toys. Now I get to keep
them as long as I want to, rather than
somebody else telling me when I got to get rid of them. When I was a young
child, he bought things that we could use, and
they were high quality things. Thank God, I never had to
deal with this as a child. Growing up, it
was kind of cool. You know we had a TV for Super
Nintendo, a TV for Nintendo, a TV for Atari, a
TV for ColecoVision in each one of the dresser
drawers had every game. Back then, it was all right,
but now it's too much. [MUSIC PLAYING] Three times in
the last few years, I have come down with my
husband, and even my children, and we have spent a weekend
organizing, cleaning things up, and hauling things away. And every time I
cleared out a space and made things functional,
it filled right back up. Quite frankly, all she did
was make more room for me. Besides that, she
broke my cookie jar. Whenever he feels
uncomfortable or sad, that's when Billy
Bob tells a joke, or turns things to comedy. When you never really ever
deal with those things, those things just get pushed
down deeper, and deeper, and-- and deeper,
and become a problem. You have to eventually
deal with them. I want all my rooms where
you can walk through them. I want to put up
a Christmas tree. I want to have family over. I want to have friends over. I want to have a life. I get real lonely sometimes. [CRYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] I don't want to cry. Well, he never listens to me,
so what difference does it make? I suggested that
my mom should leave. I can't. Do I think my
mom will leave him? No. She'll stay right there. Because I love him. It's very frustrating. I can't live like this anymore. I need to step out of here. I'm Jean, and I am retired. Beverly Hills is
considered fairly wealthy. The house from the
street, looks pretty good. It does bother me that
the inside and the outside don't match. [MUSIC PLAYING] I look around, and I
see all this stuff, and I think, it breeds in the
dark when we're not looking. My name is Marty, and
I'm married to Jean. This home is where I
spent my childhood. The house, when I was a
kid, was as neat as a pin. It was just wonderful. But then when we
took over the house, Jean wanted to move
all of the stuff. Starting at that point, the
house was then a messy house, and then it got messier
as time went on. When I want to go
into my office, I feel like I need a
shoehorn to get in there. Problem is that there was
no room for the rest of us. [MUSIC PLAYING] My name is Sabrina, and
I am eight years old. I live with my grandma,
my grandpa, and my mom. My house, well, it's
messy and crammed up. [MUSIC PLAYING] There's only one little
path in the whole house. I'm Carina. I'm Jean's daughter
and Sabrina's mom. I'm a single mom, so you know
I really need the extra help. [MUSIC PLAYING] Happy birthday. My name's Betty,
and I'm Jean's sister. Jean and Marty are the primary
caretakers for Sabrina. Here is a promise
for the best-- They're the most functional
people in her life. And so, we then
pick up the slack so that Sabrina can have
a good chance at life. Hope that your
birthday is a happy one. Love, grandpa. I worry that Sabrina hasn't
learned some basic life skills. [MUSIC PLAYING] I just don't like to clean up. It's just boring to me. It's the horriblest thing
ever that could happen to me. I feel strongly that as
a family, the rest of us have a responsibility
to see that she gets to have a normal childhood. [MUSIC PLAYING] I don't want to cause big
problems, but I would. For Sabrina's sake,
I would cause rifts. Oh, look. I. Do feel like I've
got more responsibility with Sabrina's raising than
I probably should right now. And the family seem to feel it's
my job to clean everything up. They leave a lot of messes,
particularly the granddaughter, she seems to feel
that it's my job. I don't clean up my messes. I just got tired of my grandma
not cleaning up her messes. She's just a hoarder. She loves to stack
up lots of things. We asked Sabrina,
could you please keep your room clean and organized? And then Sabrina just looks
around and can say, why? [MUSIC PLAYING] I do worry that if somebody
were to come in and see the house they might
not feel that it was an appropriate place
for Sabrina to be living in. If something were to
happen because of that I would be devastated. If we were told, if this
house doesn't get cleaned up Sabrina could well
be removed, I would have to just throw stuff out,
even if I have to do it myself. How do we give her that will
to feel like Sabrina's welfare and her own health are worth
more than all that stuff? [MUSIC PLAYING] Now is a good time to
get rid of this stuff because I'm getting older. I can't get around. Stuff is falling
down all the time. But yet I still bring in more. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hello. Oh, dear. I'm assuming you're Billy Bob. Oh, my gosh. My name is Dr. Robin Zasio. I'm a licensed
clinical psychologist, and I specialize in--
Hi. How are you? --compulsive hoarding and OCD. He answered the door like this. I wasn't quite sure I
was in the right place. But it looks like I am. All right, you got a lot of
stuff here, a lot of toys. Tell me what these
toys mean to you guys? Happiness. Jean, do you ever feel
angry about the amount of stuff that's in your house? Yeah. Do you guys have frequent
arguments, or have you just sort of resolved,
this is the way life is going to be for us? It just-- I just give up. There is no doubt in my mind
that Billy Bob is struggling with compulsive hoarding. And it's really affected
his relationship with his wife June, their
intimacy, their ability to spend time with their
family, their ability to cook and clean, and to
freely walk through the house. So I have a feeling
there's a lot more to see. - Yes, there is.
- OK. All right. June you're going to stay here. Billy Bob can you take
me into the house? Wow, Billy Bob, this is
almost up to the ceiling. How much of the toys
do you think can go? Well, outside
of the stuff that June and I are going to
continue to collect, 80- 90%. Actually you
just said something that worries me a little bit. You said you're going
to continue to collect. So it sounds like the
problem of collecting, actually, which
has led to us being here is going to continue? It is, but it isn't. We're going to be selective
about our collecting. You are going to have to make
some really tough decisions about letting go of this stuff,
because you've had difficulty letting go, which
is why this problem has led to-- to this degree. So I-- I don't have a
problem letting it go. Do you think that
you are suffering from some compulsive
hoarding behaviors? Some what? What do you think? No, I think I'm fine. The reason why I believe
that Billy Bob is struggling with compulsive hoarding
is because there's no rhyme or reason to his collection. It's going to be
interesting to see what happens over the next few days. He says he's not
going to feel a thing, that there's going
to be no anxiety. I'm afraid that he may
end up really getting emotional and,
perhaps, even pulling the plug on the whole process. Everybody seems to think
that because I don't clean up after them that most of the mess
is mine, and I don't think so. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hi. - I'm Dr. Hanna.
- I'm Jean. Good to see you. Well, would you like to
come in and see the house? That'd be great. OK. My name is Dr.
Scott Hannan, and I specialize in cognitive
behavioral therapy for compulsive hoarding. I guess first I'll
show you the dining room. OK. We haven't eaten
in here for a while. Jean and her
family live in a very nice area of Beverly Hills. You look at the
outside of the home, the lawn is kept up really
well, the outside of the home is kept up. It's a very beautiful room. It is. The ceilings, there's
the clocks over here. The dining room has
a dining room table. I can't get access to it. How do you feel about
these really nice things like the antiques
being set off behind, not being able to
really see and use them. I don't like it. It's a beautiful set. She's not able to
use her house the way that she would like to. This is Sabrina's room. OK. The other side of
the problem here is Jean has her granddaughter
living in the home. Right now the state of the
home is not an acceptable place for Sabrina. So how do you feel
like she's impacted by the clutter in the home? Well, I think
she's impacted a lot. She does not clean
up after herself because nobody else does. Sabrina is learning
from others in the house that, pull things out, you
just put them back wherever. You make a good point
here, you can't really expect her to do
a lot of cleaning when nobody else is really-- That's everybody's attitude. Why should I? Nobody else does. For Sabrina, the
older she gets the more she's going to want to
socialize with other kids and have them over to her home. I heard you want her to be able
to have friends in her home so that she can
interact with them, but you also want it
to be in a healthy way. Right. And here is the kitchen. What's going on
health-wise for you? Well, I've had a transplant 10
years ago, a liver transplant. One of the triggers for
Jean's problem with hoarding was when she was diagnosed
with a liver disease. She started living her life,
that each day may be her last. Is this environment
helping you stay healthy? This isn't normally like this. I'm very careful
with with the food. There's certain requirements
where she can't be around mold, but she has a home that
is a potential breeding ground for mold. [MUSIC PLAYING] The current crisis for
Jean and her family is they need to
clean up the home so that everybody can
live in a healthy way. Right now the state of the home
is it's not an acceptable place for Sabrina, and my
fear is that it's only going to get
worse if she doesn't take the help she has now. You can watch more "Hoarders"
episodes every single Sunday this month, at 7:00 AM on A&E. [MUSIC PLAYING] This is it. This is my final attempt
to mend the relationship and to get him the
help that he needs. I'm not going to do it again. [MUSIC PLAYING] Good morning, everyone. Good morning. We are here this morning to
help Billy Bob and his family restore functionality
to his home. I'm Darnita L. Payden. I'm a life management
specialist. We have the 1-800-GOT-JUNK
crew and some professional organizers
here to help us today. We also have Billy,
an online auctioneer, who's going to help Billy
Bob sell some of his things. So Bill if you can tell us a
little bit about that process. Sure. Billy Bob, you
know our goal here is to get you the
maximum amount of money by exposing it to a
worldwide audience and get you some
extra cash so you can use it for some great things. So Billy Bob, how
are you feeling? I feel good. You don't have any
concerns at all about making hundreds and
hundreds of decisions over the next couple of days? No. Is everybody ready
to get started? Yes. OK, let's go. You think this one is
worth anything, Billy Bob? I don't know. I think you just put all
the games in one pile and let Bill decide how he's
going to group them together and sell all that kind of stuff.
- OK. I think that's a great idea. There are a handful of items
that look like they could have some decent collectible value. I can't say that
we've had a wow moment where we've pulled something
out of a box and gone, holy cow! I want to keep that. This is a talking mirror. Will you use it
and talk to it? I can talk to myself. OK, how about Mr. M&M? It's M&M, I want to keep that. Paul Bunyan? I want to keep that. Book on ghosts? Yeah. How about the rest
of the stuff in here? Can it go? This goes to a game. Will we ever be
able to find the game? This goes to a game. Hey, now, Cory, come
here for a second. Want me to hold your key? What do you think about your
dad keeping a talking mirror and a Fisher-Price flashlight? I really don't think
there's a need for it. I'm just trying to keep my cool
and not let everything boil. I'm keeping it. Why? It's Hot Wheel. It's mine. Tell me what you're
thinking, Cory. Just frustration. I mean, it's just we're
working to get this stuff out. Keep it. You know, it's-- it's-- I'm cool. I'm cool for a minute. Cory, what's
going on with you? This is where your
mom is living. [MUSIC PLAYING] I just feel like I
should have been here more. Do you think you
could have stopped it? No. Sorry. It's all right. You deserve to live
out the rest of your life in a clean, healthy, safe home. It's got to go. Every bit of it. It's got to get out of here. You've got to push Billy
Bob, this is not acceptable. I can't breathe. We've got to get
rid of this stuff. Huh? We've got to get
rid of this stuff. We're going to get
rid of it, honey, but we're going to
do it the best way. Bill is deciding what
he's going to take. Everything else
I'm going to sell. He changed the entire plan. Initially he said 90% would go. And then he said, well,
I didn't mean it would go in these next few days. I meant it would go
some time in the future. I mean, I don't want
to hurt your feelings, but a lot of your things
are not worth much. We said we were going
to get the stuff out there and then we were
going to sort it. Like he thinks there's
value to every single thing. There's stuff he's
pulling out of boxes, he don't even know what it is. I don't understand it. I don't understand
this mentality, and I'm very, very frustrated. We're going to get rid of stuff. I'm sorry, but you can be mad,
but you're just going to-- I don't think
I recommend that, but you can do what you want. What do you mean,
you don't recommend it? Exactly what I
said, did I stutter? Hey. Don't look at me in that tone. [BLEEP] that man. Can you talk to me? Leave me the [BLEEP]
alone for 10 minutes. OK. You know how badly this
is hurting your children. You have to know this. You have to know this
is killing them inside to see their mother
living like this. I ain't going to put up
with him threatening mom. Hm? I ain't going to put up
with that man threatening you. Honey-- I know that's
what you're upset about, but he's not going
to do anything. He just talks. Been with him a long time,
and I've never been afraid. Now you're totally
pissing me off, now. Now we're at that point. Now we've reached it. You know what? No. [BLEEP] that fat [BLEEP] We could probably
ignore this for a while longer, but maybe not. It's getting to me too. But Sabrina, I think for
her, you know she's ready. She needs it. [MUSIC PLAYING] OK. Good morning, everybody. Morning. I'm Dorothy Breininger. I'm a professional
organizing expert, and I specialize in hoarding. Today is the day where we're
going to save this family and make sure that you can
stay safely in this house. Jean has a crisis. Sister Betty wants to call
Child Protective Services and have Sabrina
the granddaughter removed from the house. What kind of concerns
do you have for today? If I can keep up with you. Sabrina, is there anything
that you're concerned about, worried about as we get going? No. No. I just want to
let all of it go. You want to let all of it go? OK, so are you ready, group? Yes. Then off we go. So lead on, family. Let's go. Don't take out the piano. This blue chair
gets thrown away. Oh, that's sewing. Well, it's a really
important thing, is keeping the
communication open. The main purpose
of us being here is to get the home cleared
so Sabrina can grow up in an environment that
allow her to live the life that we expect for her. Think this is
your old clothes. And she can run around the
house, get her homework done, and we want her to
start learning how to keep a home clear, as well. Baby. Baby. Baby clothes. Sabrina is doing good. Clothes that don't
fit, Sabrina, we're going to give away to
Goodwill, to some little child who will love them. She is giving things away. It does not fit me. I would just want all the
junk to get out of here, because I hate all this junk. [MUSIC PLAYING] Oh, that's for mom. You don't build up
this amount of stuff without having some difficulty
letting go of things. They are having a drive at
the school for jeans for kids. Oh, and you've got the
Cabbage Patch dolls. My antique rocks. I'm going to think about those. What would you feel about just
letting some of that stuff go? Because we've got a
bigger thing here-- Well, these, are
immediate family-- --we want to make sure-- --though, so that's-- That's OK. Because what do you think
the immediate family wants? You think they want the
stuff, or do you think they want your home clear? Just look through something
that you want to get rid of. So you think she should
just let it all go? Yes. But it's not that-- I would like to invite lots
of friends over to play games, but the most thing I want is
spending time with my family. She was excited
about doing this, but I think the individual
things that she sees, she doesn't want to give up. Yeah, these are
books on tape that I'm going to be listening to. OK, this is something I use. That's a birthday present. Jeanie, remember, we
got to get it clean. I just got the flannel shirt. This is something-- I'm a little frustrated
because Jeanie still wants to hold on to everything. You're not going to
have room for all this. I have to sort through. It's loose boxes. All that needs to be done is
sorted through, separated. But remember the goal
was to get rid of what? 75%-- 5% of stuff. 75. I only get to keep 25? Yep. She wants to keep everything. There's like a limit to how
much one human being needs. I don't know what I can
say that will change that. And once you go over
that limit, you're in somebody else's territory. [MUSIC PLAYING] There comes a time
in a person's life when he's got to make
certain decisions, and some of those decisions
aren't necessarily popular for everyone. [MUSIC PLAYING] You guys made a mistake. The answer is not get the
thing done in two days by throwing everything away. I did not throw
anything away that didn't need to be thrown away. I think that your thought
process as to what is valuable and what isn't valuable
is a little bit demented. I don't care if my perspective
seems demented to other people. I have a plan. I have a goal. The way that this is
going to come down is the first thing that
I need somebody to do is to go upstairs and staple the
insulation back up on the roof. After that I need the stuff
that's in the middle aisle to be hauled out of there. Then I need the area swept. I'm not sure we're
here to sweep your attic. Would you let me speak? When we get done with that-- you guys ain't
going to like this-- but the stuff that
I'm going to keep is going back upstairs
in the middle aisle. I don't care what any of
you got to say about it. This is not your show. This is the Billy Bob
show, and that's the way it's going to be from now on. We only have a couple days
to get this house in order. So when Billy Bob changes
the entire plan, which is basically sabotaging
what we're here to do, it's really upsetting. June, where's your
voice in this? Because I'm not hearing
that you have a voice. We just need to
back off for a while and take things a
little more slowly. But he is going
to get rid of it. I'm doing what I
said I'm going to do. Those that don't want to follow
the plan, you are excused. We can't have
the Billy Bob show. We have a set plan. That's setting him
up for failure. We can't do that. Goodbye. [MUSIC PLAYING] Right now, he's not
ready to listen to anybody. We have to be heard. And we have to be respected too. I agree. It's a two way street. Well, the reality is, is his
plan hasn't worked out today. And our goal is
still the same. We want him to be able to
move around in his home. Yeah. If he could have done
it he would have done it. He's always in control,
and if he's not in control he freaks out. He thinks he's in control. In his mind-- Today he's not
going to have that. We can't allow it. OK, where's Benita? Darnita. Whatever. CORY: Better watch out for that. The 800 guys
are coming with me upstairs to remove
the junk that's in the middle of the aisle. No, they're not. You're excused. You can go home. I don't need you anymore. When Billy Bob feels
that he's losing control, he likes to bark at people
and control everything. That's fine, but
they're under what I do. Get off my property.
Goodbye. Guys-- Goodbye. --don't. So he barks and he
expects us to acquiesce, and that's not how we do things. Goodbye. That's fine. If I go, they go with me. Go. Fellas. Being mean doesn't get
your house cleaned. [MUSIC PLAYING] How much longer are you
going to put 'with [BLEEP] I know. Cory, I'll take care of it. He's absolutely
positive he's getting rid of [BLEEP] this time. June, I've been
doing this a long time, and I see this all the time. This is a chemical
imbalance in the brain. I know. OK? And he's trying to sort of
will his way through this. He's got an entire team
here to help him out, and suddenly he
can't do it today, but he's going to be able to
do it on his own tomorrow? He is sabotaging this plan. And that's exactly why
Cory is so upset right now. It's because he knows
what he's doing. Yeah, I know you don't
particularly like this, Cory, but you know what? You're excused also. [BLEEP] you. Cory. Yeah.
Me too. Cory. Goodbye. Mom, I love you. Good luck in life. [MUSIC PLAYING] [SCREAMS] [MUSIC PLAYING] Oh, we've cleaned Jean's
house so many times. Oh, this is so dirty. I'm a little
frustrated and just see it like this again,
when we've gone over, and over, and over it. We're still not making
nearly enough progress. OK, a piano is uncovered. This is great. Holy moly. I don't know what
to do about Sabrina. I think maybe she needs
to get out of here. You can see the piano now. But I don't think I
can talk them into it. This is clean, but
then on the other hand, I look at how much I
see there that's left. All kinds of treasures,
pens and pencils safe. She just has to learn that
she can live with far less and live a lot happier. Oh. [MUSIC PLAYING] How long do you
think it took for us to do the living room just now? A long time. There were 11 of us doing
it for two hours, that's 22 hours, that's
half a week that it took us to do the living room. Now, we've got to
move faster in here. We do. We have the whole
rest of the house to go. We have to clear out this
room in about an hour. [GASPS] OK, this is sewing. I want to keep that
a little separate. One of the things that
we found in the home was a Christmas tree. Sabrina wanted to have
Christmas in her bedroom, so we had it all cleaned up. This was Christmas,
decorated, lighted. That stuff needs to be
cleared out right away. It goes back to the
procrastination. We can't just let
these things linger. It's not a good environment
for anybody to be in. I know we didn't have
time to take it down, although normally I'll leave
things up a little while. Can you see how brittle it is? Oh, yeah. That's a fire trap
in Sabrina's room. No one noticed
that Christmas tree and realized what a hazard
that was in her room. No one. That's endangering her. Yeah, I guess
that's the point. That should never
happen, ever, that-- a child should not be
put at that kind of risk. If Betty's the
person who wanted to call Child
Protective Services this is a good reason to do it. The whole house is a fire trap. I agree. But this is the
kindling that starts it. At this point,
it's really hard to tell whether or
not this is going to be a healthy
environment for Sabrina. I really wish it could be,
and I hope it will be, but-- Oh-- --I am still nervous. --I've got other fabric
that goes with this. I was going to make
a dress for Sabrina. [MUSIC PLAYING] My question to you
is about artwork. I am not going to get
rid of any of the artwork. [MUSIC PLAYING] Is it reasonable to keep
this many pieces of art? Could any of this go? You know this is family, I
have to keep it in the family. [MUSIC PLAYING] I absolutely feel
overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that's left. OK, this I keep. Oh, headpins. Are these your beads? These are some of them. This is jewelry that we're
going through right now. There are several areas where
Jean is really attached. Well, I'll bet you're going
to keep everything in here, so maybe this isn't--
- No. I bet I'm not. This isn't the best
use of your time today. No? OK, well. When we got to
the craft boxes she couldn't get rid of any of it. We're going to be going
through about 40 craft boxes. We've done one in 10 minutes. That's what I'm saying. So for us to do
it you need to-- I'm almost done. Yeah, I'm almost done here. I'm going to finish this. She has these projects
that she wants to do, and they're filling up her
space, her time, her energy with things that aren't Sabrina. We call this-- Oh, a scrapbook. That's all-- don't pull it out. That's all scrapbooking stuff. To me there's just
this really clear divide, you take care of Sabrina. You recognize
emotionally what needs to be going on in her
life, rather than worrying about sewing, or
beading, or whatever it is that she wants to do. The projects are fine if
she were single or married and not having
someone else to raise. But the truth of the
matter is she has Sabrina, and Jean also has her
health to take care of. I've already started this one. When did you start
it, and where is-- Before the transplant. It's in the cabinet, in-- That was 10 years ago. --the back of the box. I don't care. [MUSIC PLAYING] We're going to just go around. We removed 10 tons
of trash for donations. [MUSIC PLAYING] We also used about 125 boxes. Those boxes, they're
out on the back porch, in the garage, in a new little
storage area called the craft room, or in their bedroom. [MUSIC PLAYING] Jean kept an
awful lot of stuff and I hope that
somehow she convinces herself to get rid of it. But Meanwhile Sabrina's got
a clean room, and she's-- she's so excited about it. I'd feel awesome about
having friends over, and I would want to
invite my best friends. It's so nice like this. This house will never
get back to that. I will not let it. [MUSIC PLAYING] If it goes back to being
a hoarder's place again, it would not be a safe
or a healthy environment for Sabrina. But I don't think it will. I really don't. I'm very optimistic. So we'll just kind of
stand around and wait and see if he changes his mind
and allows us back on, and if he does we get back in. We work the plan. If not, we just wait. I don't want it to
all be for nothing, and I feel like right
now, at this point, if we stop it's for nothing. He can't come waving
his cane telling us what we are and are
not going to do. Right. No, I understand that. If he wants to welcome
us back onto the property he'll make the decisions,
but we have a plan laid out that we have to work within. We've got an entire
tent full of stuff that their house can't hold. So it has to come back in
if a decision is not made. Let me go talk to him and
then tell him that, all right? - Works for me.
- All right. All right. OK. You need to go downstairs
and talk to them. We cannot run the show. Our goal has never changed. We want to make sure
that you can walk freely, roll freely through your home. So are you going
to work with us? Let's get this stuff going. After being banished
from the property, Billy Bob and I had our
come-to-Jesus moment, everything's back on track. Sorry. Where's Billy Bob? I think he's in his room. CORY (ON PHONE): Hello. Hi, Cory. CORY (ON PHONE): Yes. I'm just wondering if
you'd be willing to come back and just be working with
your mom and to support her? CORY (ON PHONE): I'm not
going to come back there and get around
that [BLEEP] again. I'm done-- I'm done
with Billy Bob. He loves and adores his mom. He wants to be here to
support her, but he's angry. He's angry that his
mother has been living in hoard for 20-plus years. June, look who I found. Hi, sweetie. You know it just
hit me, I can't leave my mom's place like this. I can't be running out. I'll do what's needed. I could work with
Billy Bob, somewhat. This stuff wasn't in that box. I know. You know if he
ain't going to like me he's going to put up with me. [MUSIC PLAYING] Excuse me. [CHATTER] Anybody get along
with their father 100%? No. You have disagreements,
then it's over with. What's in there? Empty. This one goes. He gave it away. What is that? That's a bobblehead. You can let-- you
can part with this. I don't if we can. Yes you can. Yeah, let's have
him look at them. Gone. Gone. Bye-bye. What was this? A Pez dispenser from
the '50s, when they first started to produce them. Those are pretty collectible. It's probably $1,000 to
$1,200 worth of stuff packed into the van,
that we felt like we could really take and sell. I actually want to keep that. But dad, you've
got so many stools. Seriously, please? Please let it go. Whatever. OK, go. Take it.
Thank you. Don't bother me. I'm trying to work here. Thank you. I feel really good
about the progress. It's out of here. And he's promised me also that
no more is coming in the house. So I got to leave, OK? But I am really proud of you. OK, you too. You've done amazing. There's no question
that Billy Bob has made hundreds and
hundreds of decisions once he was able to
sit down and work. Hopefully going forward,
he will see the need to continue on with therapy
and understand that it truly is a mental health condition. [MUSIC PLAYING] We can eat at the
dining room table, and she's been looking forward
to having that space opened up. Now I can have
room to do something, instead of trying to
maneuver around and go through a little goat path. [MUSIC PLAYING] I know I can proceed with
the ramp going up the side and get the
wheelchair in and out. I needed to do what
I did, and we did it. Cut. Bye. [MUSIC PLAYING] You know one thing that really
gets me hot under the collar is when kids are
exposed to a hoard, even when it's in Beverly Hills. In this episode, Jean and Marty
do most of their parenting for their granddaughter,
which I really appreciate. But when I found
that Jean just had a liver transplant
before this project, my eyes completely bugged out. It's super dangerous
for her to live in a hoard like this with a
health complication like that. So here we are emptying
the contents of the house into the front
yard, and it seems like that every hoard
that I do people think we're having a yard sale. So I have to say,
no, it's not, and get into a polite conversation. And I try to assign
one of my team members to just cordon off the area
so that people don't come in. But they just wander right
in and say, how much is this? I mean, it's so weird. And we wind up having a
whole 'nother conversation, and tell them it's
not a yard sale, but they still want to
know what's going on. It's just really hard to keep
the show under wraps sometimes. Meanwhile, Jean's
sister Betty, she says, I have cleaned out this
hoard so many times, and I'm tired of doing it. So I do want to say that
resentment is a common emotion for most of the family
members on "Hoarders," and they want so much to help,
and they know they can't fix the problem, but they
keep doing it anyway, and they still resent
them more, and it just keeps going on and on. So I suggested Co-dependence
Anonymous to Jean's sister. It's a 12-step program,
but it really can help. By the way, am I
the only one who noticed that I was 75 pounds
heavier in this episode than in all the other ones? I did. Wow, can't be hard on myself. It is part of life, but I
spent years going up and down the scale and realized while
I was on the show "Hoarders" that I was hoarding sugar
and flour on my body the same way these clients
were hoarding things and stuff in their own homes. So I have to say
beyond just the success that we had in Betty's
house and the success that we have with so many
of our clients on the show, I really have a lot
to be thankful for, in terms of being associated
with the "Hoarders" show. I don't want you down
there in that stuff. Just feces all
over the ground. She's not well. She needs to have
a sterile space. This is as
dangerous as you get. That's bull. I have just bought this stuff. Everyone's wanting to
throw my [BLEEP] weight. That's good too. The items come
from Georgie bringing something home every day
for the last 20 years. Dad, you're keeping a lot. I see it as junk. I think they're
being real pig headed. Right now, you're
being pig headed. [MUSIC PLAYING] My name is Tami. I'm 51 years old, and
I'm on disability. Approximately a
year and a half ago, I was diagnosed with
non-Hodgkin's level four lymphoma. [MUSIC PLAYING] I, most definitely,
am a hoarder. I always had a difficult
time letting go of things that had special meaning to me. But other than that,
I never was before. Things have changed, obviously. Chemotherapy,
basically, strips you of all of your immune
system and everything, so it's going to take a few
months for my immune system to get built back up
to where it should be. So this is really good
for me now, you know? My name is Stephanie. I'm 31, and I'm Tami's daughter. I would say her house is just
deplorable living conditions. Last time that I came
to see my mother, we had to stay in
a friend's home because it just
wasn't clean enough for my children to be in. [MUSIC PLAYING] She's sick, and she
needs to be somewhere where it's clean, sanitary. My name is Caylor. I'm 16, and Tami's my mom. Her place is just
disgusting, and I think it's just overwhelming
her and taking so much stress on her and stuff. I was no longer
able to function. I was crying all
the time, and just I couldn't live a daily life like
a normal person any longer. I remember when I would go
into her room to get her up to take us to school
and all, and she just wouldn't get up for nothing. And I'm like, mom, what's wrong? And she would just be crying. I'm like, what's wrong? She's like-- she's like,
nothing, I'm just-- I'm just tired. It's like I broke. All of a sudden I just-- I gave in. [MUSIC PLAYING] I traded in my
depression for hoarding, but the downside is
the hoarding made me depressed because the
way I ended up living. Like a vicious cycle. My name is Dylan. I'm 17 years old, and
Tami is my mother. My mom, she used to
always say all the stuff is worth something, like
she could get money for it, and she didn't want to
throw it away, because she didn't have any money. But I told her it was
wasn't worth anything. [MUSIC PLAYING] I had some buyers and
got bigger and bigger to where, various
times I'd have anywhere between one, two, three,
up to 300 rats at a time. And before I knew it, the
whole room was full of them stacked on top of each other. Then the next room. Then outside in the shed, and
it just got out of control. It was disgusting. She had like hundreds of them,
and they would always get out, so the house became
infested with them. I knew it was unsafe for me
just being around all that, and all the toxins that
must have been in the air from the rats, and just all
the dust and nastiness of it. I always thought my mom was
really selfish about all of her stuff, because
it seemed like it was so much more important than us. And she needed to
just clean the house. There was no reason
for this at all. They didn't really
understand it. And so it caused
a lot of tension. [MUSIC PLAYING] I absolutely hated
living in the house. I couldn't wait to move out. The second that I found
out that I was moving out, I was jumping with joy. When my brother and
sister moved away, it just got worse and worse. Just kept on piling up. It was just her. She didn't have to worry about
what other people were going to think, as long as
she kept her door shut and was just in there. No one knew. [MUSIC PLAYING] The cancer's already
really, really bad, so it's going to take a
toll on her soon enough. But I just don't want this
to speed it up anymore. [MUSIC PLAYING] And I'm just afraid that-- that it's-- that it is going
to kill her before she has a chance to really be happy. Actually just be
happy with her life. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm very scared. My mom's going to die. Yeah. [MUSIC PLAYING] My name is George. I'm 63 years old. I'm a registered nurse. The house itself is
clean and normal, but we have a couple
of rooms that are just pretty much filled with stuff. I would guess that
there's probably between five and 10 tons worth
of miscellaneous everything there. My name is Debbie. I'm 54, and I'm George's wife. The items come from
George bringing something home, probably,
almost every day for the last 20 years. George is collecting
projects, but yet he doesn't work on them. And he has so many
projects that I don't know if he knows where to start at. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm Richard Martin. I'm a chief zoning inspector. A number of years ago
we received a complaint about a residence that
had a very large amount of debris, trash, and
some dismantled vehicles on the property. It invites a lot of vermin,
and it creates, really, a public health problem. Most recently, we got
another complaint. We went to the residence,
found that once again the same situation. And so at this point we issued
another zoning violation. [MUSIC PLAYING] Kind of devastating
to me, especially, because it was a yard,
and none of it was mine. I mean, I just felt like I never
even contributed to any of it, but because my name
was on the house I would have to go to court. The problem is-- is,
again, the officials wanting this to happen, or else. [MUSIC PLAYING] My name is Tracey. I'm 31, and I'm Georgia's
youngest daughter. Everything in it my parents
handmade, built-ins, my mother stenciled, and everything
was made with pride, and with care, and with love. And you look at it now and
you're like, what happened? Thinking about it it could
even be like a loss of control in that situation, and you
over control in another way. And I think that may be part
of what hoarding is about, just you can control what you
have, but you really don't. [LAUGHING] He was a little
messy in the beginning, I mean, like a guy thing. The first couple
of years everything was just the way
it had been before. There was a time when he had
10 projects, and it was OK. And then he built a
garage, and he had a couple of hundred projects. And then he filled the basement
and his own four-car garage, and he had a couple
hundred more projects. And all of a sudden it was
like, where do you look where you don't have projects? And how can you possibly in one
lifetime complete any of those? [MUSIC PLAYING] I don't know
what people think, that I just woke up one
morning and I just said, I'm sick of living in this nice
house with beautiful things and having it clean. I think I'm going to
become a slob, and a pig, and just trash my house. It's not-- I don't think anybody
would choose to live like this. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hi. Hi, Tami. I'm Dr. Michael Tompkins. Very nice to meet you. You too. My name is Dr.
Michael Tompkins. I'm a licensed
psychologist, and I specialize in
treating, specifically, hoarding behavior. [INAUDIBLE] Well, tell me a little
bit about the living room. Oh-- What do you got in here? Well, everything. When I walked
through the home, I saw the carpet was badly
damaged and stained and-- and-- and smelly. Why the empty boxes? To pack all this stuff
up and to get rid of it. Then, of course, I
probably brought stuff in with those do boxes too. I'm very concerned about
Tami for a couple of reasons. One is, if she had a medical
crisis it's not clear to me that emergency medical
technicians could get into her home quickly
with the equipment they would need to save her. And you have some-- some
toilets and some appliances. Yeah, my both my toilets I
have various problems with, and they need to be replaced. But nobody I know
knows how to do it and, of course, I can't let
anybody in to do it, so-- And also, it's not
clear where Tammy is going with regard to
palliative care, hospice care. And if it's going to
happen in her home, it would be very difficult
for that to happen in her home right now. Do you do you cook much? Yes, I do cook. I just can't use this,
because there's a gas leak. OK. I want to be able to help her
understand some of the thinking that influences her
decisions about what to keep and what not to keep and why. Well, tell me about
the rocks though. I see a lot of rocks here. Well, I like rocks. I love rocks. I think that basically started
when I was in depression. I found that being out in
the middle of the desert away from everything kind
of cleared my mind a lot. Oh. It's like a
peaceful place for me. Of all the things
that she was absolutely adamant she was not going to
let go of, it's the rocks. [QUIET MUSIC PLAYING] My biggest fear
is that I become my own worst enemy
by not allowing a lot of this stuff to go out. The loss of letting go
these people feel profoundly and deeply,
comparable to the way I would feel the
death of my spouse or the death of my child, and
that is not an exaggeration. That is a fact. Any desire I might have to
live, this takes it all the way because it keeps me from living. [MUSIC PLAYING] GEORGE: I do find it hard
to get rid of something if I put a lot of effort
or money or time into it. This is too much
stuff, and you know, the Bible says what you
have on Earth means nothing. You can't take it with you
to heaven, so why consume and keep all of these things? That's not healthy. It doesn't bring you happiness. There's something wrong
that he cannot change, and he needs help. Hi, George. I'm George. My name is Dr.
Elizabeth Moore. I'm a clinical
psychologist specializing in anxiety disorders
and compulsive hoarding. I understand one of your
most treasured projects is in this garage. Yes, that's true. This is my 1932 Chevy truck. How long have you had this? Since 1971. Wow, so it is a
long overdue project. For George, his possessions
are his identity. He really loves being prepared. He loves always
having what he needs. He loves being able
to fix things up, and that's really,
really important to him. This is my main garage
that I started in 1995. My father and I worked on
it, and when he got sick we kind of stopped on it. And I haven't really gotten
back to finishing the thing off. How many projects do you think
you got started in here George? Oh, there's probably
about 15 or 20 projects. ELIZABETH MOORE: The problem is
he has a ton of ideas and a lot of emphasis on getting
things started, but he doesn't tend to follow
through on these projects. OK, so the barn itself
is an unfinished project. Right. Uh-huh. That's one project in itself. OK. If something really stalls
the project, like a part I can't find, or too much money
to spend to finish it off, sometimes I'll just
stop on that one and move on to the next project. ELIZABETH MOORE
(VOICEOVER): This is going to be an emotional
process for George, not only with regard to
the projects that he's started and has found
a lot of meaning in, but also because a lot
of these projects he started with his
father who passed away in a year and a half ago. So there is a
sentimental attachment to some of these items. I have a pair of his boots
down here in the basement that I've worn a few times. There's holes in
them, so they're not as useful as
they need to be, and they need to be thrown out. But it's just when I look
at them I think of him and all the time we spent
together on the farm. During the cleanup
it's going to be important that we
minimize the amount of conflict that happens. There's a lot of
frustration towards George, especially from Tracy. I see it as junk. I mean, of course one person's
junk is another person's treasure, but you know,
he's made a promise and he understands that
it's for his own benefit and for his health. We will see when things are
being taken off the property, because I will tell you he
does get angry and upset, and it's difficult. [MUSIC PLAYING] My mom's cancer
is in stage four. It's not ever going to go away. TAMI: The best that I can hope
for is to get it in remission. I was told the average for what
I have is two years remission, but so far that hasn't
been my luck, you know. I know how miserable
and unhappy my mother is. I talk to her every day. It's not a choice. Nobody would choose
to live like that. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] Good morning. Good morning. Give me your hand. How are you? Fine so far. I'm Dorothy Breininger, and
I'm a professional organizing expert with a
specialization in hoarding. So here's the plan, we're going
to start off in the living room because it's the closest
and we need to clear a path. She's not well. She needs to have
a sterile space. I really, really want to make
sure that that is something I can deliver to her. So today I would love to see if
we can do living room, dining room, family room, carport. So we want to as a group,
so we're ready to go, right? Let's do it. All right, let's go and I'm
going to hug you first, right. Let's go. Dylan, your mother is
throwing the first thing away. All right. That's the symbolic piece for
her that more is going to go, so support is really
required and necessary. So whoo! Yay! [CHEERING] Yeah, good. Can I get a back massage? Don't I deserve it? That was rough. It is becoming a family thing. Even though kids
don't live here, they are here to
support their mom. I'm proud, you know,
it's good to see. Go figure, your
kids are proud. There you go. [MUSIC PLAYING] Get rid of it. Just let it go.
- Are you sure? - Go.
- Positive? That's a nice job. Let it go. Here's your next thing. Goes. Just a-- It can go. I think she's doing
amazing, and it's really interesting with
Tami, because a lot of people with this problem would be
incredibly anxious, even at this point. I think the phase that
we're watching for now is how she handles the
actual letting go of things. How anxious or upset,
or angry, or frustrated she's going to become
during those moments. Set it aside
and see if you can talk me into it a little later. That sounds like a great plan. We're ahead of schedule. We're doing good. We're ahead of schedule,
this is beautiful. All right. So we're going to be
moving into the dining room as soon as just the
rest of this is done. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] Let's come in here. This is bad. MICHAEL TOMPKINS:
This is bad, Tami. Oh, I know. The floor was disgusting. It was really dirty,
covered in feces, very sad. This is where they-- here and there is where
they mostly, you know, because we couldn't get to them. So this is where they
pretty much lived. I lost one of my rings
probably a few years back, it disappeared. There's a good
possibility that a rat may have carried off
this ring and taken it anywhere in this house. So the real issue is that
your ring may be in there. - It could--
- How likely-- There's a possibility,
because they could have taken it anywhere. I don't know. Who's they, by the way? The rats. The rats. There may be something
in there that you want. On the other side,
this is probably as dangerous as you get. It's a public
health hazard, OK. It's very, very unsafe, and
it was a choice for Tami, her health or getting
down on the floor and looking for that gold ring. These rings out of anything
in that house, these rings mean more to me than anything. For me, it was worth
the risk, actually. What do you want
to say about this? I don't want you down
there in that stuff. I understand that,
but I want my ring. I know. So here's the
decision for you. Let it go or go through
it and risk your health. Now, you know what
I'm going to suggest. Right. All right. It's like gut wrenching
that it's so dirty, and then on top of
that, she's so sick. And it's just sad,
it breaks my heart. [CRYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] GEORGE: The thing
I have to make sure is that something else
doesn't just replace it. You know, I don't
really want to do that. I want to resolve whatever the
issues are and be done with it. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. My name is Matt Paxton. I'm an extreme
cleaning specialist. George, everyone's here
today because they love you. We want to help you out. As the day gets tough
and gets challenging, remember we're all here
because we love you. George is a classic hoarder. We see it all the time. We call it the fixin' tos. He's fixing to do this,
he's fixing to do that. In any hoarding
situation it really starts with good intention. Pastor Randy, will
you lead us in prayer? I sure will. OK, thank you. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day. This weekend we
have the very good fortune of having
about 40 volunteers from the local church. All right, we ready
to go everybody? Yes. All right, let's do it. [CHEERING] Watch that hole. We're giving him that top
barn at the top of the property. That's his limits. If it fits in there,
he can keep it. It doesn't fit in
there, he can't keep it. I don't care if he
fills it with chickens. He can do whatever
he wants to do. But that's the space and
the limits that he has. Tools over here. Well, I'm feeling a
little bit overwhelmed, but so far it's
going pretty good. We're clearing a
lot of stuff out, so things are seemingly
going pretty well. 45 minutes and
we cleaned a barn. [CHEERING] Good. That's pretty awesome. That is pretty amazing. George started
out really strong. I think we were all impressed
at the decisions he was making. He was getting rid of
some really big items. Things got a bit harder when
we moved into the garage. Don't throw it away, honey. But I'm asking you,
what does it go to? A plastic post. Which you have where? I don't have right now. You have to say goodbye
to some stuff, dad. You're keeping a lot. We have made a commitment
to the family as a whole not to hoard anywhere else,
not to touch anywhere else. We're staying on a one
acre plot of land which is his to make decisions on. OK. I didn't consider
taking stuff down and putting it in a trailer to
be in use of their property. We promised not to touch
any other property at all, just stay on our
one acre, right? That doesn't sound like
a great option to me. The only option
you're willing to do is the option that
we're not allowed to do. That's the only option
you're willing to do? That doesn't sound
like compromise at all. It's the only one
that makes sense to me. Are you confused
about why you're not permitted to use the other
properties at this point or? Yeah, I think
they're being real pigheaded about something
that would really simplify how this could be. Right now, you're
being pigheaded. I'm sorry, you are. Imagine if I came in
here and I told you I'm going to park
my car here, dad, and you're never going
to use your garage, ever. Because I'm going to
keep my cars here. And I know you're my father,
so I'm going to do it. And you're going to
like it, and you're going to be OK with
it, for 60 years, and you're going
to be OK with it. You would say absolutely
not, there's no way in hell. Get your car and put
it in your own garage. Do you agree? Well, if you have
to put the stuff back in the room or whatever,
but I just don't think it's a good way to do it. OK. The whole weekend
was about helping him and us loving him
and supporting him. And the one thing, the one only
guideline he had to stick by he couldn't do it. You can watch more
"Hoarders" episodes every Sunday morning this month
starting at 7:00 AM, on A&E. Dump it, get it
out of the way. RANDY: Here's what I know
about change, change is hard, it really is. And lasting change
is even harder to do. Family's at church, we've
got about three hours. Everything is happening
very quickly this morning. All the landscaping
is going right now, car's getting picked up. Couple of guys
up in the front. If I didn't accept
people's advice, if I didn't listen to people
who love me and who said, hey, Randy, guess what,
you've got some blind spots, I would never grow. Two, three. RANDY: You see, change begins
to show only when your faith is turned into action. Luke 9:25, Jesus said this,
"For what prophet is it to a man if he gains the whole world and
himself is destroyed or lost?" How was the service? - Oh, awesome.
- Good? - Wonderful.
- As always. All right, you're going to
see here in the next few minutes why I wasn't there. We got a lot done this morning. If you look around,
the grass is all cut. GEORGE: Yes. MATT PAXTON: We got-- look at your front hedges,
they're all trimmed back. Whoa. You can see the house. Yeah. Tami and George just
got back from church, so I was able to walk
them around the property. And they were both
really excited. They're really starting to
see, after all this hard work, they're seeing things
follow through. You have a backyard now. Good heavens. That does look different. That's so awesome. What do you think? Yes. Now, here's the issue,
your barn is almost full and we still got to go through
the basement and the garage. So we've still got some
hard decisions to make. GEORGE: Keep. Keep? Oh, that should go in
the little playhouse. Even though it's broken? Yeah, we'll get it fixed. Wheel? Keep, keep, and
same with these. Keep. And when we got
to his dad's water boots he told me that
he had thrown them away, and then I found them
tucked up in the shelf. So these are your dad's boots. These have been used
and they're leaking, but they were my dad's. I kept them. You don't keep your dad's
boots because they fit. You keep them because
you love your dad. Yes. George did get a
little emotional today in the basement, which was good. I wanted to see
him have some type of emotion other than happy. He finally started to let go. They have served
as a memory for me. At this point in
time, I think I'll let other things serve as a memory. That was the thing that
was needed for this. There had to be a
change in my feeling and attitude towards
all this in order for it to go in the first place. There we go. You kind of feel
yourself going with them, but I know there's
other memories. And we had a lot
of time together. The memories are still there. I'm proud of you. That's a big deal. You've come a long
way in four days, man. Still thinking of my
dad at the time, though. Make room for
grandkids' memories and I have one grandson
that looks just like my dad. And I think that's
a better memory. Sorry. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] I'm so overwhelmed. Just feces all over the ground,
and urine, just everything, it was just
absolutely disgusting. It would be easy to
conclude that Tami doesn't care about her children. I don't think that's
necessarily true, but when it comes to the
decision about the welfare of her children versus
her possessions, that's when her thinking
gets really clouded. I don't know, I mean. How are you feeling
about going through it and being able to
take a look at it all? I'm happy. DOROTHY BREININGER: OK, good. MICHAEL TOMPKINS: And I think
that the decisions that she makes are really hard
for people to understand, including her children. I don't usually
push my mom too much for these
because of the reason that it's kind of pointless. I mean, she just
thinks that, you know, I'm just inconsiderate and
just I don't understand. I thought I saw
something gold. I don't know what it was, but. I mean, I understand the
ring is important to her, but to go through all that
stuff just to find it, I just don't think she should. It's unhealthy, and
it's just breathing in that it's just not worth it. OK. I brought him
here, I really did. Because I collect skeletons
and heads, skulls. So I found him somewhere
and I brought him here. OK. OK. The thing that
I found more odd is that she found a dead
animal, brought it home, and then kept it in the house. So you have a
skull collection. And he has a great skull. Is it a cat? No, we don't know what it is. I just think that my mom
having an actual animal carcass in her house, that
is just, I had no idea. Oh, wow. I know that looks
really heinous, OK. I got it. But seriously, it's
something that she's always done, even before she was sick. It's very southwestern. Yes, exactly,
that's exactly it. I understand. So it's not something
that makes her look-- I mean, I don't want it
to portray her as crazy or something wrong with
her, or that that's weird, because I totally understand
what that's about. OK. Got it. But see how we can
go from it being a horror to it being a hobby. It wasn't really a
repulsing thing for me, just because I know
that that's something that my mom does do as a hobby. But you know, I still
don't think it's-- it just doesn't look good. He can go.
DOROTHY BREININGER: He can go? Yeah. DOROTHY BREININGER:
You're not going to boil the head this time? No, I guess not. But I don't know, I like him. Mom. Tami is doing fantastic. She's stoic, and she's
keeping it together, and she's ready to
power through it. She's going to do it. Now, whether she has her
game face on, I'm not sure. This is how she is. I know, I know. It's hard for her
to like show emotion. - What we--
- So this is what she does. No it's not. Yes it is. This is what you do. Did I have a problem
yesterday showing emotion? No, she cried all day. Well, you know what I mean. When I'm OK, I'm OK. My sense of Tami and
the way she's coping, she really kind of
pushes through things. And when we pressure,
when we push people like that, what happens
is their anxiety goes up. Well, I mean, a lot of this
stuff it got mixed in with junk that wasn't in with junk. We'll spread it out. I mean, that pisses me off. I'm sorry. Well, the situation in which
some new things that Tami had recently purchased were
mixed in by the cleaning crew with garbage. All of these brand new
food items were thrown in with a bunch of rat [BLEEP]. OK, I just bought these. This was mixed in with
boxes that did have feces. I'm sorry. OK. - Yes.
- It's OK. - But don't yell--
- I'm sorry. No, it's OK. They pulled a bag,
and guess what? And it happened to
have a lot of ashes and cigarettes and
trash, and four items that shouldn't be in there. And that's what
Tami was all about. She finally had
her own flare up. That's bull. I have, I just
bought this stuff. I'm sorry. You know, everyone's
wanting to throw my [BLEEP] away that's good too. Yeah. This I can-- may I talk to you
about this one, if you want? Well, like I said. It's not just that. It's that earlier. She was really feeling
that idea of feeling really pushed and pressured. And in fact, imagine
yourself standing on a ledge. It takes very little to
move them into striking out and becoming angry. OK. I am so mad right now. OK. [MUSIC PLAYING] You don't just take garbage
and mix it with good stuff. Come on they're
really helping us. FEMALE: Don't tell them to get-- Not worrying about them. TAMI: It's OK with
you that they just-- It's not OK. TAMI: My [BLEEP] gets trashed. FEMALE: No, but you just
explain it to them about that. You don't tell them to leave. Obviously, the garbage
can was dumped in there. Why was this and my
garbage thrown together? When she's angry she wants
to talk to you about it, and she came and
talked to me about it. You're upset, and we did
something wrong then. We made a mistake. And I talked to her in
the beginning, I said, we're going to make mistakes. I already got
enough of my items ruined and trash and
mixed in with crap. I don't need things
that weren't-- Nope. --even more ruined and
having to get rid of even more stuff of mine because of it. I understand. That's not right. I thought you were
in the conversation, but if not it was
me and Stephanie, that we wanted to get everything
out so it could be cleaned. But I wouldn't have
said that had I known it was going to result in that. Of course not, of course not. That's not what I meant. I didn't mean OK, just trash
everything and throw it in. No. But we will make-- That's not what I meant. The very first day I
said, we will make mistakes, and I've made them. Because I'm responsible
for my crew. In the end, everybody is
still going for that goal. So she had her flare
up and it was really the only major one that she had
with us in terms of organizing. I think that's pretty
good for a hoarder. Thanks. [MUSIC PLAYING] Perfect. This is the cleanest already
this house has been in forever. Good. I feel much better that the
house is cleaned, obviously. It's like a huge weight lifted
off of my chest, my heart. We have cleared
out the entire house. It's clean, sanitary,
that's a big deal. We never did find the ring
that we were looking for, but there's still so much to go
through, so there's still hope. I do think that we will
find the ring though. I really do, I'm determined. I wasn't sure actually at
all how she was going to do. I really didn't have
any expectations. But I thought she
did pretty well. I mean, she got rid
of a lot of the stuff. I think she was going
through too much trouble for a few materialistic
things that she's holding on to instead of just getting
rid of everything really fast and efficiently. I am afraid that when we
finally left her to deal with, you know, to be by herself
with a nice clean house, that things are going to
be so much harder on her. I think it's going to be
really hard because, you know, I haven't had a lot of people
around me in a long time. And once everybody
leaves I know I'm going to feel so empty and lonely. And in response to that
emptiness that I fear Tami is going to feel, my main concern
is to make sure that Tami will accept some ongoing monitoring
and support when her family leaves, and we leave. Now that my home
was clean, it's going to be a big
turning point for me to where I'm going to start
having the desire to want to-- for my life to continue on. Because I for once feel that
maybe there is a possibility things will start
getting better and going back uphill again for me. I'm starting to care a little
bit more whether I live or die. [MUSIC PLAYING] I think George has discovered
that he's been a bit too liberal in what he's taken on. He's now identified
and prioritized a few main projects. I had a total of about four
projects we discussed about, and first and primary one was
getting the truck out, getting going on it, which
a lot of these parts have been collected for
years and years and years. George really likes that
truck, and he was excited. I mean, he's excited to
get going on that project and we got all the parts to it. I just found my
plate for the truck. It's a 1932 plate. So I have to clean
it up, repaint it. It's great seeing this thing. I haven't sat in it in quite
a while, in many years, probably about 15 years. That's a big part of what this
whole thing was about too. That's like the saving
grace of it all. I hope he stays
focused on that truck, if that's the one
project he focuses on. I think that'll keep him
busy for a year or two. All right, so we got to
pull this thing out today, and we got an hour to do it. OK. It's been more than
20 years since I actually saw the complete truck
or could get in the door to it. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm leaving in 30 minutes. Let's go. There is a garage here. I love you. Oh, that looks good. The most shocking
thing that's happened is my dad's happiness is back. I mean, I can see the
fire in him again. I can see him smiling
and laughing and really enjoying himself,
and he hasn't been like that in a very long time. You can park your
car in the garage. I could open the door
and not hit something? You can get in the house. Should I try it? You can find everything, dad. It's something to be able to
see the corners of the garage again and to be able
to pull two cars in. That was a good feeling. It's about time they were-- that's what the garage
was designed for. Outside citations, I
think we've hit them all. The officers are
going to come in and they're going to
see that the family did every single thing
they could, and I think he's going to get
at least an extension, if not fully passing. Dave. We had a lot of fun. Yes. And we got a lot of metal out. And we actually have a check
for over $1,000 in metal money that you can put
towards restoring that, or whatever you want. Thank you. Wow, you guys, I'll tell you,
you guys were a lifesaver. He got $1,000 from
some of the scrap metal. We probably out another
$1,000 coming tomorrow. And George is going to make
some money off of this. I think he's getting excited. He's starting to
see the light now, and he's very pleased
with what's happening. This is great. I do think it's
crucial that George gets treatment moving forward. If he doesn't, I'm afraid we
just gave him a whole bunch of space to fill up again. The real question is,
when we're all gone and he's on his
way home from work and he can make that
turn into the junkyard, is he going to do it? It was time to get
rid of some stuff and just go on the memories,
and I have a lot of them. [MUSIC PLAYING] I know, I know, some
of you are used to seeing me in a hazmat suit, right? Actually, I do have a closet,
and I wear normal clothes. But I wanted to start
talking about closets, because it's where
you launch your day. And it's how you can set the
mood for the rest of your day. I used to have a regular
face off with my clothes and my wardrobe all the
time, and you'll you'll see in some of these
"Hoarders" episodes that sometimes I'm
bigger, and sometimes I'm in a right-sized
body, and this may be the case for you too. Maybe you have this situation,
or you might have too much clutter in your closet, too many
clothes, or maybe some of you just have no motivation
to get organized, but you secretly do want to. So here are some tips that I
have that can get you started and give you a feeling
of accomplishment. So the first thing is to be
clear about what you want. Is it fewer clothing? Do you want better lighting? Do you want better
access to your shelves? Number two, set an
appointment with yourself. It can be a marathon
organizing session, or you can do it in
10 minute increments. You just tackle one
category at a time. Do the pants today, and
do the shirts tomorrow. And number three, get started
by checking on the dust level on the shoulders
of your clothing. That is a big clue that
you haven't worn that piece of clothing in a very
long time, and you can probably get rid of it. Next, try pulling
out the clothes that you never seem to wear. There's a reason
for this, right? So try them on, wait, get
this, not only try them on, but wear them all day long. And I promise you,
by the end of the day it will be clear why you
don't wear that item anymore. Maybe the collar
rides up on you, or the pants are too short,
the outfit is ill fitting. But you'll certainly
discover and then probably want to discard. Number five, get those hangers
hanging in the same direction. It makes it aesthetically
much more beautiful. And if you can, try get all
the same hangers matching. Number six, for those
shoes, it's OK to keep them on the floor if you want to. But what I'm asking is
to pick up everything else from the floor, whether
it's the paperwork, or toys, or extra clothes, things
that are just floating around on the floor and
can be dangerous, and makes it difficult
to get into the closet. Now, one word on shoes,
I have a great storage tip that I like to use, and
that is for flats and sandals. See this? House slippers, this
is a magazine holder, and it just is perfect for
these flat kinds of shoes. You can get three or
four pair in them. It looks decorative, and then
it goes nicely on the shelf. What do you think of that? The next thing is
keep in mind that not everybody is a hanger upper. Some people just
throw it on the floor. One way to help them get
the stuff off of the floor and into the closet
is by using hooks. So smaller hooks for kids,
larger hooks for adults. They can be decorative. But you can use those hooks
for hoodies and pajamas and robes and sweatpants,
things like that. And if you're shorter like
me, I want you to always keep a little step stool
inside the closet setup so that whenever you want to put
something away it's a breeze, and you don't have an excuse of
not putting these clothes away. So finally, think about the
happiness you might have when you experience wearing
clothes that fit and support who you really are. Can you see why I love
organizing so much? Good luck. I don't have a choice to
clean this or not clean it. The smell is extremely strong. It has to get
done or I will die. Did you go through this? Julie is getting
increasingly anxious. So here's a cloth. I don't know if
she's hit bottom, but I don't want to find out. [CRYING] I never thought
that people would consider it a dangerous
environment for the children. So when CPS
knocked on that door, it was surreal really that
it was actually happening. If I go to foster care
I'm most likely to run away or do something stupid. [MUSIC PLAYING] All right, absolutely
have to eat something or you're not going to school. Fine. So there's your fruit. My name is Julie. You guys, we have 10 minutes. I am 45 years old, and I'm
a mom and a photographer. Put your seatbelt on. I had never heard the word
hoarder until two days ago. Do I believe I am now? Yes. I am disgusted. It almost makes me
want to throw up. I mean, it's sickening. My name is Jennifer,
and I'm 26 years old, and I am Julie's
oldest daughter. The house is, the best word
that I would use is chaotic. When I was there I
was very, very lost. And I was wrapped
up in her world and enabling her to
continue to live like that. And I was drowning in her chaos. This is horrible. It's embarrassing,
and the fact that I try to do something about
it and I can't makes me feel worse about myself. My name is Mark. I'm 48 years old, and
Julie is my ex-wife. Things really started
going downhill fairly early in our relationship. We definitely would
fight about the mess, definitely led to some
pretty severe arguments. When you're a single parent
of four kids with no job, all of a sudden everything
you have becomes important. It becomes what you
have and all you have. And so it's very hard to let go. I feel in my heart that the
one that is hurt the most is Jason, my son. I'm Jason. I'm 17, and Julie's my mom. I moved out because
I didn't have a room since it was so messed up. It's just a bad situation. For like a couple of years she
said every day that she would clean my room and
then she's been saying that for like a year,
and it hasn't been cleaned. Over time it started
saying, well, you need to stay with your dad for
a week so I can clean your room. And then he would call
me crying and saying, I want to come home, but
I couldn't get it done. It's just sad
because I love her and I hate seeing her like this. If it were up to
me the kids would not be staying there now in the
condition that the house is in. I mean, they're fantastic kids. I just think their lives would
be a lot better if they didn't have to live in that mess. My name is Taylor,
I'm 14 years old, and I am Julie's daughter. I don't think that I
would be able to leave my mom and my little sister. My little sister, she is
too little to be taken away. It's just, I don't
know what I would do. I am a sexual abuse survivor. I did not have a lot of
memories of my childhood, and I don't have a
lot of happy memories. How healthy can any person
be to keep that inside? That kind of pain
and grief, I mean, how could you live a normal
life carrying that around? My name is Carol and
I'm Julie's mother. There has been
trauma in her life, and each person, I'm sure, deals
with trauma in different ways. And this is part of
her way of dealing with the trauma, which goes much
deeper than the mess itself, obviously. You're looking at my
pain, and I have a lot of pain that's unresolved. She has so much to offer,
but she's not doing anything except living in her
selfish, destructive world, and if that continues I
will not be a part of it. I'm overwhelmed. I am Shannon, I'm 39. I have four children. I'm Matt, I'm 14 years
old, and Shannon is my mom. I'm Brooke, and I'm 13 years
old, and my mom is Shannon. Next is Dakota, and he is 11. Then there's Sierra, she's nine. I wouldn't want people to
judge me and say, you know, you're a disgusting person
for the way you live. But is the way I keep my home? Yeah, it's not right. When we first got the house
it was pretty clean and decent. And then over the years
it's just been forgotten. SHANNON: Things have
just gotten out of hand. We've got too many
things, too many animals. It's just gotten out of hand. My name is Rhonda and I am
Shannon's youngest sister. Shannon has been going slowly
downhill in her attempts to clean it up or
to care if anything was done around the house. It just seems the
last year or two she's just completely given up,
and that's what concerned me. She just doesn't care anymore. I would stay at
friends' houses for two or three days
to just escape from home and be in a cleaner environment. My room out in the
shed was a little more difficult to keep clean. I asked for help to
clean it, because it was very dirty before
I moved in there, and nobody would really help me. I can't clean up
everything in there. I'm Tim, I'm
Shannon's husband. We've been married for 15 years. A lot of times within hours of
the paycheck hitting the bank we have no more money. My mom, she likes
money, and she'll go out and get us
something new every time she goes to the store. I would call my
mom a hoarder, yeah. She will hoard anything
she can pay for. I love the dogs. My dog, Scout, we've had
him since I was born. I remember playing
with him as a kid, and he's just my favorite dog. [MUSIC PLAYING] The animal thing was kind of
a, you know, big signal there that she was getting
way over her head, with the animal feces and
everything everywhere. Your kids shouldn't be in that. You know, who lets
their house get like that? It's just not right. You don't do that. And knowing that I had
to do something about it, and looking at
the mess around me and wondering how
am I going to do it? I can't do this, I can't. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] It was surreal really that
it was actually happening. As much as you think it
might happen, to actually see it happen, it was really hard. So when CPS knocked on
that door it was just a very, very crazy, crazy day. It was absolutely devastating. I was angry. I just can't explain how
angry and hurt that I was that this had happened. I don't know what
exactly happened inside, but my mom was talking
to the cop or whatever and he said something. And I don't think we should
deserve to be taken away. I knew it would only
be a matter of time before CPS came out. And if they came out
and saw it like that, this is what was
going to happen. [MUSIC PLAYING] She tries, she cleans for
hours and hours and hours, and it gets nowhere. I stay up all night, because
the whole house is going to be done when they wake
up so when they wake up they're so excited. And so I stay up all night, and
it doesn't look any different. [MUSIC PLAYING] My greatest fear is
that she doesn't get help, and that the kids are
ultimately taken away from her because that
would devastate her, because that's what she is. She's a mom. Hi, Julie. Hi. How are you? Good. My name is Dr. Robin Zasio. I am a licensed
clinical psychologist, and I specialize in
compulsive hoarding. OK, well let me get it over
with, and show you around. That sounds good, OK. JULIE: This is the living room. OK. It looks like you've
got a lot of clothes. They're probably
not newly acquired. ROBIN ZASIO: OK. They are just that I
haven't thrown anything away. OK. Julie is undoubtedly a hoarder. On a scale of zero to 10, I
would say Julie is probably about a seven or an eight. The fact that she is at risk
of losing her children I think makes this more of
an extreme case. OK, this is Taylor
and Kylie's room. This room is generally
clean, clean. This is not a problem. This is not a problem? No, their room
is always clean. Always. But not right now? No, so their room, I
would say, 98% of the time is actually immaculate. I know it takes
a lot of denial, a lot of denial to
continue to live in this. In fact, when I
left, these were-- I don't understand. Let's be clear-- I've seen her at her best,
and I've seen her at her worst, and she hasn't been at
her best in a long time. And it just continues
to get worse. I just don't want to get
bogged down in sadness. I know. Because this is very sad. I know. But you know what,
this is why we're here doing this, because it is sad. I don't know if
she's hit bottom, but I don't want to find out. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] [CRYING] Julie. Julie, Julie, do me a favor. Julie, OK. [GASPING] , Julie remember earlier
I talked about how you didn't think that these
emotions would come up, and you can't just bulldoze over them. If you don't, then you're going
to kind of crash and burn, which is a little bit about
what's happening right now. It's all coming up. I can't talk about the
sex or stuff anymore. Hey, hey, Julie, Julie. OK. Yeah, that's not
what we're here for. I know. Right? So so what we want to do-- OK. --is focus on
what we're here for. OK. I'm in agreement. I don't think that we should
be talking about that. She kept bringing up
emotional issues from the past and was correlating
it to her hoarding. To me, being able
to clean this up is part of me being
able to get healthy. I know. But, Julie, this is-- I think we need to
have some ground rules. And I don't think we should
be talking about that stuff anymore. I know. OK, right now we
have a job to do, which is to get
this house in order. And it's going to be really
important that she follow up to help her deal with all of
these unresolved issues that in her mind is causing
the compulsive hoarding. So I want that to be off limits,
because it's way too painful and way too emotional for you. OK. So are we in agreement on that? OK, good. My predictions for the next
couple of days are chaos. I predict her to probably
have several meltdowns. I know that she's going
to break down, I know it. We didn't really
think they were going to take the kids that day. We figured they would give her
an ultimatum, because you know, clean it up or else. I never thought
that people would consider it a dangerous
environment for the children. They said that we were
going to have to go to child services, or they were
going to talk about us going with our aunt and uncle. And I'm praying
that they're going to let us go with them, because
I have family down in Oregon that I'd rather live with
than a foster parent. And if I go to foster care,
I'm most likely to run away or do something stupid. You know, obviously
when somebody says they're taking her kids,
I automatically just said well, can I have them? You know, because
I'm not letting them go into foster care
when they have family. It's just not right. So I just want all
of us to stay together. I'm angry, because I
don't know who did it. I would really like
to know who did it. I mean, I know it's gross. It is gross. And I don't know what to do. I just want them back. I don't think I stopped
crying until it was Sunday evening that I
finally, you know, realized that I couldn't
do anything about it. I don't see a reason for
me to be angry with CPS for doing their jobs. It's not their fault that the
kids are in this situation. I understand what
caused the problem and why they did what they did. I felt like the worst
parent in the world. I miss them. I want them to come home. [KNOCKING] Hello. Hi. I'm Dr. Chabaud. I'm Shannon. Nice to meet you, Shannon. Nice to meet you. Come on in. I'm Suzanne Chabaud. I'm a clinical psychologist
who specializes in OCD, including hoarding. Shannon is a sensitive,
kind, and loving person. You're not a strict
parent, are you? No. Making decisions for a person
like Shannon is very difficult. Do you ever run the dishwasher? Yes. OK. She likes to spend money
that she doesn't have. This will go. Yeah. OK, so now we got it. Shannon needs
company, and if she doesn't have the
company of people she wants the
company of animals. For her, the joy that she
got out of the animals far compensated for
any kind of problem that they caused in the house. Well, I'm going to go. OK. And I'll be back. - Promise?
- I promise. OK. OK. Thank you so much. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] [DOG BARKING] [MUSIC PLAYING] I've been bracing myself
for this for a long time. I cleaned the house once before,
and and when she returned she didn't speak to me for a week. It's not even a choice. I don't have a choice to
clean this or not clean it, it has to get done,
or I will die. Hello, everyone. How are we today? Good. Good, glad to hear it. My name is Sara
Bereika, and I am a certified
professional organizer. Dr. Zasio is going
to work with Julie. And I also want to emphasize
the respect that we need to have for the items
that we are going to be moving in the house. These belong to
Julie and the girls, and I don't want anybody
to disrespect these items. Thank you, and there's a
lot of valuables in junk. Yes. Absolutely. I apologize for that,
but that's the way it is. Yes, exactly. Ready? Yeah. All right, let's do it. Thanks, everybody. This is sick. OK. Absolutely sick. So the white couch goes? All that, I mean,
obviously it's gross. It has to go, so it's going. Look. You want these? Mom, no, I just need
to go through it though. The bag is disintegrated. That's why I have them. I know, but I just feel
good if I go through it. You know what, Carol,
it's fine to bring it up and she can go through it.
That's a great idea. - That's what I did.
- Thank you very much. Super. I'm just not very
good at like letting people do things for me. Right. Right, and you know
what, that's why this process is so
important for you, because you can't do it all. Are they not able
to start in there because Sara and I haven't
gone through the front? No, people are
getting started. That's where all
the valuable stuff-- I would die if some
of that stuff broke. So let's shift and
let's go in the front. I'm sorry. That's where all
the breakable stuff is in the pile, the clothes
so that it wouldn't break. I'm taking them
out one by one. Is everybody? I don't know. OK. OK, now I have anxiety. - OK.
- OK. OK. This is not OK. This is not-- this is
where I hid all this stuff. All right, no-- JULIE: I have like video
cameras and like glass and breakable stuff. SARA BEREIKA: All right. And I didn't
want it to break-- I just want her to get
a glimpse of the room, OK. So I mixed it in
with the clothes. OK. OK. Just take a second. Take a second, right. My $6,000 lenses
were in the piles of clothes that are out there. OK, so that's why I'm
freaking out, sorry. OK. What do you have in
your hands right now? Are these things that-- The most valuable thing to me. OK, don't we-- why don't you hand them to me? I feel badly for her,
but I know that this is what needs to happen. But at the same
time, I feel it too. I feel really overwhelmed
at the same time. Do you want to have a seat? No, I just want them out of
my living room for a second until I can find
my wedding ring. Is that OK?
- OK, I'll do that. I'll take care of that. OK, sorry. Hey, guys. Come on out. OK. JENNIFER: Mom?
[KNOCKING] JULIE: What? Can I-- will you open it? Do you want me to
do that in there? Yeah? I'll go through it-- JULIE: I'm really upset. Everything's fine. I'll go through everything. You don't even
know what's in there. You know I'll go
through everything. I mean, my cameras
were on the floor. My lenses are in there. Jen, OK-- so what's going on? Well, I thought we were-- I said, we needed to
go through that stuff, because my wedding
ring is in there. OK. And my $6,000 photo lenses
and my cameras are in there. ROBIN ZASIO: OK, who's in
the living room right now? JULIE: Everyone was. Every single person that is
here was in there, picking up my piles that my stuff was in. ROBIN ZASIO: OK. JULIE: So I put it in clothing
so that it wouldn't get broken. OK. Julie, come here. [BREATHING DEEPLY]
I'm so upset. I know. Come here, though. I don't know where my lens is. OK. Julie is getting
increasingly anxious. She's overwhelmed. She is getting very,
very distracted by a lot of emotional
issues that she's having. In here. ROBIN ZASIO: OK, so here's
a box that we can use. You know, for the
first hour, I got an A, and right now, I'm getting an F. JENNIFER: No, you're
at a D minus right now. JULIE: Oh. ROBIN ZASIO: Everybody
hold up for a second. JULIE: No, it's OK.
Just-- ROBIN ZASIO: Everybody stop. JULIE: Can you imagine what
these people think of me? (WHISPERING) I want to die. I know this is very
difficult for you. But you know what? Do you remember what we
talked about yesterday? There's only one option,
and that is to move forward. Huh? Right? You know-- you knew it was
going to be overwhelming. (CRYING) No, I didn't. You didn't? No. This is what I wanted. Why am I upset? I absolutely hate who I am. She's getting extremely
overwhelmed with the shame, with the guilt, and she's
starting to talk about old tapes in her head
that are overwhelming her about her self-esteem. JULIE: This is the first time
in my life I've wanted to die. SHANNON: I was just
mortified that I could have let it get to that point. You know, I didn't feel
that they had the right to come in here and tell
me, oh, your house is not appropriate for children. They're not their children. They're-- they're mine. Right now, I'm faced with trying
to get the kids to come home. [KNOCKING ON DOOR] [DOGS BARKING] Hey, Shannon. Well, can we come
in and take a look, and maybe show us
around a little bit? And we'll just talk. We'll take it easy and
see what we need to do-- Come on in. --to get you some help, OK? SHANNON: OK. AGENT: The amount of
animals she had here wasn't near as many as
we found in other cases. But I can tell you that
within the last several weeks, she had about 20
more additional cats that she had placed elsewhere. So this is a really typical
scenario for what we see for people that hoard animals. AGENT 2: Let's get your
priorities straight. We've got to get your kids back. Your priority
should be your kids. Right. It's gotta to be a
lot of work for you, between kids and animals-- and expensive. So you wanted to
see the other ones? Yeah, if you could-- OK. I'll let you lead the way. SHANNON: Then, we
have one mama in here. AGENT (VOICEOVER): The living
conditions in which the animals are in are not ideal. They're certainly not ideal
for people to live in either. But you're not going to take
all of them today, are you? Let's get through
this, and you know, we'll see what you're thinking,
and we'll come up with a plan. OK? OK. AGENT 2: He's got
huge infections. OK. AGENT 2: It needs something,
because otherwise, what happens is the bugs take over. SHANNON: We'll probably
go ahead and take him in and put him down. AGENT: And if you want
to have that done, we can take him today and
help facilitate that, OK? I want to be there. I just don't want him
to be alone, because-- SHANNON'S SON: We realized
he's getting really old. It's going to be hard to put
him down, but he's a good dog, and I just hope he
goes peacefully. AGENT: So we talked about
Rascal, Princess, Maggie. SHANNON: Moose and the cats. AGENT: Yeah. AGENT 2: You can keep five. But let me ask you this. Do you really need five? We're trying to get you focused
on getting your kids back. SHANNON: Kids back. And you're not going
to get everything under control if you have a
house full of critters still. SHANNON (VOICEOVER):
As traumatic as it was losing the children,
I know where they're at. I know that they get to
come home eventually. I don't with the dogs. I'll never see 'em again. Well, let me start
calling some of the rescues, and we'll get a
plan from there, OK? Can I go back
in the house now? I have to get rid of
some of my animals, because I have too many. I don't like it. I don't think it's fair. And I don't know who to choose,
because I love them all. I'm sorry. You can watch more "Hoarders"
episodes every single Sunday this month at 7:00 AM on A&E. JENNIFER: This is it. This is the opportunity that
I've been praying for for her and for my family. I need a clean home. And I believe that this is it. JASON: My greatest fear is
that she'll just completely break down and just quit. JULIE: There's a few friendly
neighborhood spiders. ROBIN ZASIO: OK, we highly
recommend to use masks. The smell, I can smell
it through my mask. It's extremely strong. JENNIFER: The garage
smells really, really bad. I mean, it's full of
poop, whatever else it is that I'm sure we'll find. It smells really bad. Really bad. JULIE: That is the most
disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life, ever. This is why I hate cats. We don't have cats,
but they came in here. I'm speechless about how
much stuff is in there. And I knew that it was, so I was
just paralyzed with absolute-- I was overwhelmed, completely. I'm trying to take care
of four kids and a house. I couldn't do it. And I felt like a failure. ROBIN ZASIO: Oh, you
found your wedding video? JULIE: Yeah.
ROBIN ZASIO: OK. Good. JULIE: Ready? I mean, I think I need
to let go of it all. It's the only way to get better. I had a shopping
addiction, absolutely. I recognized it, and
I sought help for it, and I haven't been to
the mall in six years. So how often does
your mom go shopping? It's like monthly. She just shops when she
gets her child support, and then we're stuck at
the end of the month, and she's, like, frantic. You just find all the
receipts and all the clothes, and take them-- ROBIN ZASIO: Oh,
to return them-- To return them, yeah. ROBIN ZASIO: Gotcha. And it's like she-- I don't feel like
she comprehends that when she's buying
all the clothes, because it happens a lot. JENNIFER: My mom is in denial. She is in denial. I mean, you have to be in
denial to get this bad. Oh, my goodness. That's the man that wanted
to buy you for 12 cows. Jennifer, this is taking every
ounce of trust I have in you. I know, and I-- JULIE: You know that, right? Jennifer. Jennifer? Jennifer! Did you go through this? Yeah. Are you sure? Just let me get through this. No, it's fine, Mom. This is not from
the garage, right? It is from the garage!
What are you talking about? No, this is from Jason's room. I just started
doing the garage! Yes! I swear to god, on my life. JENNIFER: This is--
JULIE: Here, just give it to me. That's my underwear! TAYLOR: This is
from first grade. JULIE: No, it's not,
Taylor, and this is-- that's my stuff. JENNIFER: This is the
stuff in the garage. No, it's not. JENNIFER: I put this here. That is not! JENNIFER: Those underwear--
- --are mine. JENNIFER: --were in
the box in the garage. No, they're not. Yes, they were.
They're striped underwear. This is the most
embarrassing conversation I've ever had in my life,
and I'm ready to leave. So let's go. It's fine! I promise you, I
wouldn't lie to you. JULIE: Get down now. I want to leave. And I wish someone would respect
what I'm saying at the moment! JENNIFER: I can understand
that you're upset, and I-- No, you can't. JENNIFER: No, I can see that
you are physically upset. I understand that you are upset. JULIE: Then don't argue with
me when I say something. JENNIFER: I'm not-- I'm not arguing with you.
I-- JULIE: It's just that I've
been so good about letting go of everything. ROBIN ZASIO: You've
been awesome. JULIE: --everything. And I say one thing
and I get this? ROBIN ZASIO: No,
you've been incredible. You've got all your family
and friends to support you. JULIE: I don't want my family
right now, because they're the ones that embarrass me. ROBIN ZASIO: You get that
wasn't intentional, right? JULIE: I am so humiliated
and embarrassed-- Look, it's your babies! With all the cats
and dogs there, I knew she was in over her head. When you have so many, you
don't even know where they are or what they're doing, you're
not being the best pet owner that you can be either. The animals need to come first. And if you know you're not
giving them the proper care and whatnot that they
need, then it's time for them to find a new home. SHANNON: (CRYING) It's not fair. I know it's not fair. They're my dogs. They're my puppies. Yes, but that's also how you
get overwhelmed, too, Shannon. The important thing's to
get the dogs out of here, get this house clean,
and get your kids back. It's not about the puppies. You know, the kids
had to leave you, and you didn't throw a fit. It's because I knew
where they were going, and I know they're coming back. Animal control
is, of course, not my favorite group of people. I've always thought it was kind
of stupid to have that kind of limit on your pets. They were well taken care of. They had everything they needed. They didn't let me
make that decision. That was something that
they decided for themselves, and I don't think it was right. MATT PAXTON: All
right, good morning. SHANNON: Good morning. MATT PAXTON: Weather
is holding out. Fingers crossed. You may notice we've
got a bunch of guys here to help you
clean out your home. I am Matt Paxton, a
hoarding cleanup specialist. We just want to make sure
we make it very clear. What is our goal today? Goal is to clean up the house
so we can get the kids home. OK, plain and simple. We're cleaning out the house. We want the kids back. Yes. MATT PAXTON: So we need to go. We're going to
get OK'd out here. OK. MATT PAXTON: Verify
everything, and we're going to go inside and do
a quick sweep of everything that's automatic trash. OK. MATT PAXTON: I think by
lunch, believe it or not, we will probably have 30% to
40% of this house cleaned out already.
- Yay! MATT PAXTON: That
first three hours. We want her to see the
immediate benefit of cleaning. SHANNON: OK.
MATT PAXTON: You ready? I'm ready. MATT PAXTON: All
right, let's do it. OK.
Let's do it. MATT PAXTON: All right. Outside, pretty simple. If it's on the
ground, it's trash. Let's go. This house, you walk in, you
think, oh, it's in the bag. We can knock this out in a day. This would be pretty easy,
especially because most of this house is trash. But as you start to kind
of get into the home and talk to her more,
we call it an iceberg. It's what's below the
water, what's really scary. How did your
mom run her house? She didn't really run it. No? I don't remember
her running it. Cleaning this house,
we can clean it. There's a lot of dog feces. There's a lot of cat feces. There's horrible gross
things in the home, but volume-wise, it's
just not that bad. But the house itself,
physically, is destroyed. I mean, this house will
not pass an inspection. Because of the hoarding,
the home's gotten this bad, and because of the
hoarding, they're not going to have the
income or the ability, mentally, to fix this problem. JULIE: I look like
an absolute fool! JENNIFER: Mom. Mom. You were-- JULIE: Jennifer! ROBIN ZASIO: Please listen
to what she has to say. JULIE: OK. ROBIN ZASIO: But just
please listen, OK? JULIE: OK. JENNIFER: I'm sorry
you were upset. JULIE: The fact that she argued
with me about my underwear in front of 10
men was incredibly embarrassing and humiliating. JENNIFER: I've been doing
the best that I can, trying to keep track
of everything for you, but I'm one person. JULIE: I'm not questioning you
at all or what you're doing. I'm questioning what happened
when I said something. It wasn't that my
underwear was in the truck or my stuff was in the truck. It wasn't that it
was thrown away. It's that no one trusted
me enough to believe me. You know what I would love? Is if I came over here,
and you're like, right, if my mom says that that's
not from the garage, then she knows it's not. Because I do know. JENNIFER: I was really
nervous that she was going to walk away, because
we were so close, and we've worked so hard. And I understand where she's
coming from, but I was scared. Do you want those? Give them to me? Here. [INAUDIBLE] ROBIN ZASIO: Part of the problem
is just relocating stuff, which we don't want to do. Have you walked
through here yet? JULIE: No. I don't want to
right now, though, because I won't appreciate it
as much as I really want to. OK. Because I'm just in a very
bad place at the moment. OK, let's keep working in
here with the time we have left. There is a lot of garbage
that we forgot on the side. We're gonna go. Can we get it out? Just go. OK, thank you.
OK. ROBIN ZASIO: OK. Good. TAYLOR: My mom wanted things
that she didn't want anybody to touch in here,
and it was just her safe room to keep stuff. I feel like your room is the
one room that's been neglected. It's up to you,
but I want to know if you want us to go
over, or you to go over, and to tell her, Mom, it's
time to work on my room, and I'd like you
to focus on that. JULIE: Jennifer begged me to
do this really fast, and then I will, OK? Right after this-- This is all garbage. No, it's not. Can you not-- I need you to not come in here
and start directing things, OK? I need you to just
let me do this. So you're not gonna-- Because it's
important to Jennifer. Yes, I am going to do your room. ROBIN ZASIO: So Taylor, how
are you feeling about Mom saying that she's just
going to go ahead and take care of that on her own? Um, well, she
has to promise me that she's actually going to
do it and get all of her stuff out.
- --trust or not. If you don't, tell me
now, and we'll go do it. Let me tell you what my
concern is-- is that yesterday, you said you were going
to take care of it, and nothing happened. You know why? Because I decided
I needed to sleep, because I hadn't been
to bed for three days. So I thought they'll understand
that I can do it today. ROBIN ZASIO: OK. Will you be confident
that I really will do that? TAYLOR: My mom promised me
that she was going to clean it, so it's going to
get cleaned just like the rest of the house. ROBIN ZASIO: My concern about
Taylor, Jason, and Kylie is that they're really
hoping that this is going to be the end,
and we're not at the end. Certainly, we made
remarkable progress, but there's a long ways to go. I haven't seen the
closet a long time. I'm just looking. Sorry. There's a closet here, huh? [LAUGHTER] JASON: I'm really
happy with my room. I was surprised by
that, because I've never seen my room
clean in three years, and it's all set up. And yeah, I'd be
happy to stay here. JENNIFER: Hopefully, she's
taken something from this, and we could move
forward with it. But I know that-- I mean, nothing-- no one is
going to change in two days. JULIE: I don't have any
question at all about my being able to keep it clean. I mean, that's not
an issue for me. What the issue is, is the
emotions that this brought out, I have to get help for. ROBIN ZASIO: My
final role with Julie will be to ensure that
she continues to follow up with aftercare with a specialist
in compulsive hoarding, but also to work in conjunction
with a personal organizer to keep her house in order. JULIE: Dr. Zasio very
effectively removed the block. But removing the block also
removed all those emotions that came with it. And so right now,
those are right here, and that's what I have
to, from this day forward, seek help for. I don't need a maid. I need a psychiatrist. [LAUGHS] SHANNON: All right. Now, I'm feeling excited. This is day two. We're going to get done
today, and it's closer to bringing the kids home. I don't know what's missing,
what's gone, so that's OK. SUZANNE CHABAUD:
This is not just a house that was falling apart. This is a family
that's falling apart. Today is going to
be so interesting, because when all of
this is taken away, we're going to have
the family left. And they might be
in different places, but we're going to bring
them together and find out where their treasures are. What can they bring
to this family to help this family survive? SHANNON: All right. So that one's done. MATT PAXTON: A lot of
things have happened in the last couple of days. She's lost her kids,
she's lost her pets. I'm concerned that she thinks,
we clean the house up today, kids get back tomorrow. That's not real. It's not going to happen. [CHATTER] SHANNON'S DAUGHTER: When I
first walked in, I felt amazed. It was just like a new house. I thought, this
cannot be my bedroom. It was so clean. I like my new bed. It's very comfortable. I think my parents did a good
job, and they're great parents. SHANNON'S SON: When I walked in
the house, I was just amazed. I went from being nervous
to just a big smile. SHANNON: I think we've
got an amazing amount of stuff accomplished. It didn't get all finished,
but it's 99% done, and I think I can
finish the 1% on my own. I think I'm motivated
enough to do that. I saw some very positive
things happen in the family. These are people who
are really committed. They just don't know
how to do the job yet. MATT PAXTON: I got
a call about Scout. Turns out, he is not as
sick as they thought, and they were able to to get
him some medical attention. And they're actually
going to keep him there, and he's going to
get to live out his days in a very healthy way. Oh, awesome! SHANNON (VOICEOVER): Hearing
about Scout made me tear up. I'm just so glad I didn't
have to have him put down. SHANNON'S SON: News
about Scout just made me feel the
best I could be, and I hope he's
happy where he is. Since we're watching
"Hoaders" episodes, I only thought it
was appropriate that we touch on the subject
of hoarding tendencies. You know, I have clients who
have a lot of money who hoard, and people who have none. I have clients who
are surgeons, and I have clients who are homeless. Money doesn't matter,
but the ability to pay for the storage of the
hoard actually does matter. Because people who can't
pay for their hoard, they actually attract the
attention of the authorities. So if you happen to hide
your stuff or your purchases in that attic, or basement,
extra bedroom, or storage unit, that might be a clue that
you have a tendency to hoard. And if you're worried, I've got
some questions you might want to ask yourself or
even a loved one to help shine the light on
whether or not you or they have hoarding tendencies. If the answer is yes to a
bunch of these questions, you may want to take steps
to get help early on. So the first question
is, do you keep things that no longer are
useful to you and you know you'll never use them? I say, look for collections of
things that are dirty, broken, or ignored. And that includes things
like unopened mail, outdated electronic equipment
like VCRs, and old computers, or even piles of dirty laundry,
or new laundry and clothes that still have tags on them. Number two, are any of the
visitors barred from entering rooms in the house? I have beautiful,
well-heeled clients who have gorgeous
homes, and they won't allow guests
into certain rooms because they are
completely hoarded. Sometimes they have what
I call happy hoards, which are valuable items
and collections, but they simply haven't
been attended to. But they are still hoards. On the other end
of the spectrum, there are people who can't
let friends or family in, because the doors and
windows are obstructed, and it's either too embarrassing
or unsafe to let them in. On one "Hoarders"
episode, I remember I had to enter a five-story
walk-up in New York City and enter in through the
fire escape through a window down on the other side,
and then through a tunnel to get to the front door. And if I remember
correctly, the cameraman who was going through
the tunnel actually had the tunnel collapse on him. No kidding. I think it was one
of the more dangerous hoards I've ever been in. Question number three. Can you eat at your
dining room table, or can you shower in your tub? People who hoard
tend to pile things on top of or below the dining
room table to such an extent that they can't even sit there
and use the dining room table as a dining room table to eat. They also sometimes use their
showers or bathtub for storage. Number four, are your
windows covered up to hide junk on the other
side of the window or wall? You can sometimes
tell if someone hoards from the outside of
a house or garage, because the windows are
covered with blankets or towels or blacked-out curtains. Also sometimes, if
you have the curtain and you see that there are boxes
pushing against the curtain, you can see the curtain kind
of crumple up in the window. That's another clue that
there may be a hoard inside. Question number five, has your
gas, electricity, or cable been shut off more than once? People who hoard tend
to lose their bills in the piles of stuff, and then
they forget to pay the bill. And then, when the
stuff gets shut off or the utilities
get shut off, they don't want to have any of
the reps come into the house, so they move along
in their lives without the benefit of
utilities in the house. Number six, are you reluctant
to have repairmen come in to fix things inside your home? People who hoard tend to put off
calling any sorts of appliance repair people or
plumbers, because they have a fear of
technicians coming in and they will be found out. Number seven, do you have
a major mouse problem? If I could touch
my nose, I would, and have those little
whiskers go up and down. But if there are mouse
droppings all over the house-- I mean, we all have
seen them here or there at one time or another. But to have lots and
lots of mouse droppings, and not be able to
get to those droppings because they fall
in through the hoard or fallen through and
underneath the hoard, that's a sign you
could be hoarding. Number eight, have your
sleep patterns changed? People who hoard tend to stay
up most of the night churning through their stuff, thinking
that they're organizing it, and then they sleep by day. So if you drop by
Grandma's house, and you're ready to
pick her up for lunch, and she's still in her pajamas
and doesn't want to invite you in, that might be
a time where you want to call a professional. So whether you say
yes to some of these, or you know somebody who might
say yes to these tendencies, you can always call for help. In fact, I encourage
you to do so. Call a friend, call an
adult child of a parent, call the county
office, see if they have some services to help. You can even reach
out to our show. So you take care
and try to avoid any of those hoarding
tendencies and help anybody who may have them. Big, germ-free hugs to you. OK? Oh my god! I use that for my
fortune-telling. ROBIN ZASIO: Have
you fortune-told how this was going to play out? I feel nothing. Oh my gosh. Dorothy! You won't be able to
live in your house anymore. LEZA: If you're gonna throw it
out, just [BLEEP] throw it out. I feel like I just
destroyed my own life. That's all. Oh, that's disgusting! The fridge is full
of stuff that expired. The countertop is
stacked up with food. With Dad having a new heart,
he can't go home to this. A transplant patient
and a hoarded home to not go together. [MUSIC PLAYING] That's good. LEZA (VOICEOVER): I'm Leza. CASHIER: All set? All right. We'll get a sage. And I'm a fortuneteller. There are energies
all around us. And some people are more
inclined to understand what that energy is than others. Put the moonstone down on the
path you'd like to know about. I don't know how
to explain that. It's just sometimes I know
things I shouldn't know. And this is from now
till the first full moon of the new year. I have lots of feng shui
books and zen things. I appreciate the donation. But for some
reason, I can't seem to get it right in this house. I am Mary Jane. I've been a friend of
Leza's for over 20 years. The last time I was in the
house, it was overwhelming. It's like an avalanche that's
really, really overtaken her. She has two bathrooms
in the house. And one, she does not use,
and the other one just isn't safe or healthy at all. LEZA: I'm doing
pretty good at wiping out the roaches in my bathroom. One roach at a time. Next time you have
Jasmine rice and one of the little microwave cups,
fill it with soapy water so they all drown. And guess what? It works. Oh! [BLEEP] See, this
is what happens when you [BLEEP] with them. Ugh! I'm Gene. I've known Leza 24 years. I haven't been in her home
in years, because she stopped allowing people to come in. I had a feeling that
she was a hoarder from the stuff out in the yard. And I asked her one day. I said, are you a hoarder? She says, no. This is reusable stuff
for her business, and her artwork, and her
jewelry that she does. LEZA: I'm an
award-winning artist. I make handmade books, and
now I make my own tarot cards. With the charlatans of nowadays,
they can tell you this card means anything, and you
wouldn't know different, because it's a picture. So I came up with a deck of
cards that has words on it. Anybody can read
the deck and go, OK, I understand what that means. Then, they come back and say,
you were right on the mark! And I'm going, oh, yeah, I know. You know, I hear
that all the time. My dad worked at
State Fair of Texas as a barker of the freak show. And I grew up with
a lot of the people that work there, like Cee-Lo,
and Lobster Boy, and Stretch. And the fortuneteller
lady took care of me when my dad was working,
and she would teach me how to read the cards, and
tell me about the secrets of being a good fortuneteller. And she was like, you know,
this girl, she's got the talent! You cannot ignore it no more! [LAUGHS] One of my dad's
favorite things to do is hypnotism. And I saw my dad
hypnotize a lot of people when I was growing up. He could just look at
you, and you were gone. You're hypnotized,
you're done with. I knew I couldn't lie to my dad. He would just hypnotize me. Or maybe he already
hypnotized me. I never knew. My mother was manic-depressive,
and she was very violent. When I was little, my
dad could deal with it. But it got to a point
where my mother got really bad that he started drinking. And after the age of 12, my
father became an alcoholic. One day, they had a big fight. And the next thing I know, I'm
in the middle of the fight. And my dad hit me in the face
and sent me across the room, so my nose was broken. And it was the last
time I was there. I moved out the next day when
they thought I was at school. GENE: She called me to
tell me the police has got a court order come in my home. I said, OK, I'm on my way. And sure enough, the police
department city code guy was there. They condemned her house. And when they opened that
door and I saw the inside, I just wanted to hit the floor. I just could not believe
what I was seeing. It's just a tiny, tiny little
path, and she's disabled. Well, how are you going to
get out in case of fire, and this and this and that? How did this happen? [COUGHING] LEZA: I have COPD, three bad
heart valves, thoracic outlet syndrome, neural syncope. I have balance disorder. I've had four strokes
and two heart attacks. I'm not a hoarder,
I'm just sick. I'm really sick. And my house is reflecting
how sick I am, because I'm not physically able to fix it. I'm Deena Stewart-Hitzke. I'm with Administration
of Resources and Choices, Elder Services. We put her in a hotel,
but we exhausted our funding in having
to keep her in a hotel for this long of a stay. She has three more days before
she's going to be homeless. LEZA: I can't be
in this situation. I know that if I don't have this
home, I have no place to live. And I will die on the streets. LINDA: I'm Linda. I'm retired, and I'm a hoarder. My children would probably
describe the house as a mess. I'm Jennifer,
and Linda's my mom. The smell in that
house is not pleasant. I'm not sure what the smell
is, but it's not good. I'm Curtis, and
my mom is Linda. My mom's bedroom is full of
purses and shoes and makeup. JENNIFER: The room at the end
of the hallway is my old room, and stuff is stacked to,
literally, the ceiling in that room. CURTIS: The shower
is not usable at all. I don't know, honestly,
how they get bathing done. JENNIFER: And then, go into
the kitchen around the corner, and the countertop is stacked
up with food in every angle. There's no place to even make
a sandwich in the kitchen, because every countertop is
just stacked up with stuff. CURTIS: The cabinets
are full of stuff, and the fridge is full
of stuff that expired. LINDA: Well, if it's expired,
I leave it on the shelf. Because things aren't
always available, and you buy them when you can. And then, when you need
them, you have them. JENNIFER: There's food
stacked up on shelves that's probably 20 years old. LINDA: I don't check my
old canned goods, because I buy new ones, you know. I go to the grocery store, and
I see 10 for 10, I'll buy 'em. JENNIFER: How do you clean a
house that's that cluttered? You know, I think
it's almost impossible to clean it at this point. I'm Dave, and I'm
Linda's husband. I don't feel very well about
the clutter in the house. The hallways got to where I had
to actually hold on the walls to move down the hallway. And then, my health
got to a point that I really couldn't go up
and down the stairs anymore. So I ended up moving to a couch,
and that's basically where I slept the last couple of years. I had congestive heart failure,
and I've been on the list for a heart transplant. And two weeks ago, I
got my heart transplant, and I'm hoping to go home soon. LINDA: I'm looking
forward to my husband coming home with a new heart,
and it's very emotional. Yeah. JENNIFER: If Dad came home to
the house in his current state, I know for a fact, from
talking to a social worker, they would not let him stay. I'm Dr. Randall Starling. I'm the Director of the
Heart Transplant Program at the Cleveland Clinic. Can I see your chest here? You can see anything
you want, Doc. RANDALL STARLING: Dave is
more prone to infections, even infections that you or I
would never have a problem from, such as something
in drinking water, or something from foods that
weren't properly cleaned-- could result in an infection
in a transplant patient. It could be life-threatening. JENNIFER: You know, Dad
was given a wonderful gift. And if he came into the house
and got some kind of infection or something because
of the house, you know, it's almost like
not appreciating the gift that you were given. DAVE: I got married
to Linda in 1969. We got that house the
same year, and we've lived in it ever since. And that's 46 years. Over a period of
that years, if you don't get rid of
what's coming in, you're going to have clutter. And once you get
a lot of clutter, cleaning is almost
impossible, and that's basically what happened. I mean, I'm worried about
his health, obviously. I mean, I'm worried
that, you know, he's going to come home
and get an infection, and end up back
in there or worse. You know, this is a huge thing. I mean, they replaced his heart. We cannot do this on our own. It would take months, and
Dad doesn't have months. MARY JANE: This is kind
of a last chance for Lisa. The city could evict her if she
doesn't get this taken care of. Leza! Hi. ROBIN ZASIO: Good morning! Hi. I'm Dr. Robin Zasio. I'm a licensed
clinical psychologist, and I specialize in OCD
and hoarding disorder. Well, I understand we have a
really big job on our hands. Yeah, it's a pain
in the ass, really. Well, can we walk
right in and get started? LEZA: Sure. OK. Whoa! Wow. That's an interesting
welcome we have there. It's my art studio. OK. This is your art studio? LEZA: Yeah. OK! Leza's stuff is literally coming
out of the seams of the house. There are just walls of stuff
making it dangerous for anyone to be there. Talk to me about this room. What is this stuff? This is my business,
believe it or not. And normally, I'm a
very organized person. And since it's not organized,
it's driving me nuts. But 90% of this is stuff
I use for my business. ROBIN ZASIO: I'm
interpreting that as, you want to keep 90% of this. LEZA: Yeah. But first, you've
got to realize, there's three
couches under here. OK. [LAUGHS] So when you
take out the huge couch that's underneath there,
then there's a whole lot less here than you think. Right now, she doesn't
have a lot of insight into the amount of
stuff that needs to go for her house to be usable. While she acknowledges
it's in disarray, she's not taking responsibility
for all the stuff that she's brought in. It's getting more and
more narrow as we go. For you, that's a problem. For me, it's being able to
hold on to stuff to get there so I don't fall and get hurt. But as you can see,
I am semi-organized. Mmm. These are all the
stuff I use all the time, and I can hold on, and I can
reach them, and then use them, and get 'em out. (SIGHING) All right. So this is my-- [COUGH] --bathroom. ROBIN ZASIO: OK. So a couple of questions--
do we have running water? Running water. Toilet works? LEZA: Kinda. ROBIN ZASIO: So how
do you use the toilet? And that's where
the roaches are. Right there is where
the roaches are. ROBIN ZASIO: I can see 'em. But how do you use the toilet? Well, I just fill that with
water, and pour it in just as if I was flushing it from the
back, and it flushes fine. ROBIN ZASIO: OK, let's
see the last room. OK. So Leza, this appears
to be the only place to sit in your house. Is this where, essentially,
your office has-- Mitigated to. ROBIN ZASIO: Mitigate to--
OK. What do you do for a living? What is your business? LEZA: Well, I write and
illustrate children's books. But to pay for that,
I do fortune-telling. Have you fortune-told
how this whole thing is going to play out? No, I can't read my own. ROBIN ZASIO: Ah. Well, look, I am really
excited to work with you, but you've got some really
tough decisions to make. That being said, Leza,
are you ready to start? I am ready. Let's go. All right. She has more stuff than she
can take care of and contain, and it's actually
destroying her life. And if she doesn't
get a hold of it, she is going to lose her home,
and potentially be homeless. Two weeks ago, I got
my heart transplant, and I'm hoping to go home soon. With having a new
heart, you know, he can't be around dirt that
could cause an infection. I said, Daddy, if we
can't get this cleaned up, you cannot go home to this. Linda? Yes. Hi, I'm Dr. Michael Tompkins. Oh, nice to meet you. I'm Dr. Michael Tompkins. I'm a psychologist, and I
specialize in the treatment of hoarding disorder. I know your husband's at
the hospital right now. Was he sleeping in this
room at some point? Actually, he was--
he's been sleeping on the couch in the last
year or so because of his heart condition. They had this pump
that was pumping medication into his body. Was that something that
he would have to keep clean? Oh, yeah.
Yes. Yeah. OK. OK. Her husband would not be
safe to return to the home in the condition that it's in. LINDA: Let's go this way. MICHAEL TOMPKINS: All right. When was the last
time this kitchen received a real deep cleaning? Oh, it's been a while. Years, probably. You're not concerned about
the safety of the food you prepare here for you and Dave? No. OK. The home is not suitable for
her husband to return and live safely, much less comfortably. I'm concerned about
the hygiene, but you're not so concerned about it. No, not really. OK. OK. I think Linda is ambivalent,
so it's going to make it harder for her to let go of things. [MUSIC PLAYING] Oh, my gosh! Dorothy! Holy cow! I need to talk to you. I'm Dorothy Breininger. I'm a professional
organizing expert, and I specialize in hoarding. There's been an emergency
alert on all the phones. It's a monsoon. The streets are
completely flooding. I'm going to need to
bring 15 crew members in to work on the inside. I know there's nowhere to
stand, but I have to do it. OK. DOROTHY BREININGER: We
only have two days, and-- If anybody can do it, you can. OK, hon. Thank you. This is a nightmare. We can't work outside. I have no idea how
I'm going to do this. I'm truly in a panic. Everybody, come in. It's going to be tough,
but find a spot to stand. We've never done it
like this before, but we're going to do it. We're just packing
everything up, getting it out into the carport to create a
space inside the living room for us to work. Is this a keep or not? LEZA: That's a keep. I use the fortune-telling
top on top of that. DOROTHY BREININGER:
What about these? Are these trash or keep? LEZA: Oh, no. I use those in my business. That's all business. DOROTHY BREININGER: Styrofoam. Trash!
- Oh, no! Those aren't trash! Those are really important. DOROTHY BREININGER:
Oh, man, honey. LEZA: Like when I do
a photographic print and I don't put it between
the styrofoam, it gets ruined, and you'll find a
lot of ruined prints because they weren't
between the styrofoam. Got it. This is going to be a hard
person to break through. In her mind, she
could potentially use everything in there. It's all business-related. Ah! Whoa, whoa, whoa! DOROTHY BREININGER:
But she's got too much, and she can't keep it all. Here. This is business, too. That's it. That's business. I want you to head
over here, sweetheart. Oh, my game board! Hey. Oh, my! That black thing! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! DOROTHY BREININGER: I'll get it! LEZA: Oh my god! I'll get it. LEZA: Oh my god! I use that for my
fortune-telling! There's actually two of them! I got it! Oh my god! They're throwing out the
bottles with the necks! Yep, don't throw them
out, because those are my kachinas for this
year's project for All Souls. Well, you saw the
kachinas in my bedroom? What size-- DOROTHY BREININGER:
You don't have space for this kind of thing. That stays out in the carport. DOROTHY BREININGER: Oh, honey. Now you're talking about
throwing away my stuff that I have a business
plan for, that I've been saving for two years to
have enough of them to do this! I know you don't
feel like you hoard, but we're looking to find you! And you're hidden under
the dirty empty bottles! If you throw that out, I
have no projects for All Souls to make money on this year. Fine. So where will this typically go? Normally, this is in one
of those brown PVC cabinets. DOROTHY BREININGER: OK.
Got it. But it's very valuable. GENE: Hey, sweetheart. How are you doing? So good to see you. Oh, somebody-- Hey, hey, hey, hey. I'm right here.
I'm right here. What's up? That's Gene. He needs leave. He needs to leave now. Sweetheart, I am your
friend, and I love you. ROBIN ZASIO: Use your words. Somebody call the police. My god! With what he just went
through with the transplant, my dad really can't
come back home. It is a dirty house. There's no way that
he could possibly come back there without
there being a real chance he could get an infection. Good morning. ALL: Good morning. Good. So is everyone ready
to get started? Yes. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON: Good. I'm Standolyn
Robertson, certified professional organizer. Imagine that precious
new heart that's trying to adjust to its new home-- this new home,
and this new home. This new home. I know what Dave and
Linda are going through. My mother's kidneys were
working at 9% when I was brought in for the donation. From my personal
experience, I know how clear this house has to be. We're going to ask you to
make some hard decisions, and I want you to trust
your family to help you through that process. Absolutely. Oh, geez. Linda. I'm Lynn, and Linda
and I are family. I-- I don't know what happened. I would like to be able to
blame something or someone, but you can't. I don't know what happened. I just want to go all in. This is the hamburger that
Linda was eating yesterday. I'm feeling very
overwhelmed and very sad, and I find that I
want to lower my eyes, because I do not
want to continue to look at the situation. Oh. That's-- yeah. That's something to dump. Should have never happened. I'm Tim, and I'm Dave's cousin. I think Linda's
idea of cleanliness is not necessarily
the same level that other people might think
would be necessary for Dave's well-being. Yeah, you can't get
to 'em to clean 'em. And I've known
Linda for 46 years. Yeah. And I had no idea. You can watch more "Hoarders"
episodes every Sunday morning this month, starting
at 7:00 AM on A&E. LEZA: I had no place to be
for two months because of you. That's not true, Elizabeth. LEZA: And then, he kept
calling welfare checks on me. I had to call the
police and tell them there's nothing wrong with me. I'm just asleep
in the back room. GENE: There was only one
welfare check, and no one-- I had no place to
be because of you. You could have
stayed at my house! Oh my god. You know, with
your health the way it is, I didn't know
if you had a heart attack or stroke,
laying on the floor, if you can't get to a phone. And as far as coming
over to check on you, you told me you're so glad
to have a friend like me that cares about you, sweetheart. LEZA: Yeah, I did not say that. We don't have to fix
this relationship now, but would you like,
at some point, to salvage this relationship? No. Out of all due respect to
you, if that's what you want, I will walk away. Just remember. I always cared about you,
and I will always love you. I've done nothing to you, OK? I felt like she was looking
at a monster or something that came up from hell. I'm your friend. Why are you acting like this? (CRYING) Thank you! [SOBBING] ROBIN ZASIO: Leza
feels like Gene's responsible for everything
that's happened to her. And if she doesn't acknowledge
that she has a mental illness, her risk for hoarding
is extremely high, if not inevitable. Just take your time. LEZA: Oh, no! That's an art piece! Oh my god! I've saved that for two years. DOROTHY BREININGER: OK. Keep that, please! For now. LEZA: Oh my god! Whoa! Why are you just throwing
out all my papers? That's what I make my stuff out
of-- is those recycled papers. My business is over. Oh my god, they're throwing
out the stuff I use. I do when I'm in the kitchen,
but I don't go in the kitchen, because the kitchen isn't
usable, and yes, it's washable, and no, you don't throw it out! It's always a case-by-case
situation when you choose to battle with someone
who hoards, and whether you keep this dead tree or not. But the ultimate goal is to
get her back in her house. What I'm trying to do
is save your house. The stuff in it is so
secondary for me right now. Whether you keep it or whether
you don't, I really don't care. I just need to get your house
in shape for code enforcement. The next big thing is to
disassemble this tiki hut, which is the code violation. Are you kidding me? That's what keeps my
windows from getting broken. I do my writing, my creating. I sit out there and
watch my sunset. You've just ripped
away my whole life. You won't be able to live in
your house anymore if we don't. We are taking away her space
that she has used and lived in for the last 30 years. But it's not up to code. In order to eliminate
the code violations, we have to get rid
of the tiki hut. LEZA: No!
No! I don't want to hear it. You're tearing down everything
that's important to me. You really are, and I don't
want to talk about it. I'm really on your side. But I also know you
can't keep your house if we don't clean it. You know what? If you're gonna throw it out,
just [BLEEP] throw it out. Ah, no, no! No, I don't want to hear it! STANDOLYN ROBERTSON:
A transplant patient and a hoarded home, the
two of them do not go together. Linda's husband has
a new heart, and I feel like it's my job to give
that new heart a home that it can come to and be safe. OK, Ms. Linda,
let's get going. Tell me. It's this donate? Donate, yeah. OK. How about this? That's donate. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON: Donate? LINDA: Donate.
STANDOLYN ROBERTSON: Donate? LINDA: Donate. These are napkins. Are those donate? Yeah.
Yeah. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON: OK. You're doing a good job on this. What's going to be
the hard part for you? LINDA: Well, I don't know
what's going to be hard. I do have a
couple of concerns-- how calm and cool, and how easy
it is for her to let things go. I don't know if she's
being sincere about it, or she's going to
regret it later. Time to tackle the kitchen. Yes. First thing is
the refrigerator. - Right.
- Yeah. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON:
And you know, because of your dad's transplant. This particular refrigerator
is a really big concern. Because of anti-rejection
medication, that kitchen has to be so clean. You don't even want to take
the chance that there could be germs on a piece of lettuce. JENNIFER: Get that
hamburger out of there. That's disgusting. I just bought that. JENNIFER: That is--
are you kidding? You want to keep this? LINDA: I just bought that. Getting into the refrigerator
was a little difficult, because you know, there
were so many things in there that my kids thought I
should be throwing out, which I disagreed with them. They're still good. JENNIFER: They are
not still good. CURTIS: Looking into
that refrigerator, it was just ridiculous. JENNIFER: Mm, yum. CURTIS: Oh, god. Please close that. JENNIFER: This milk, it
feels like cottage cheese. LINDA: I'm not drinking it. I'm not drinking-- JENNIFER: It's freaking nasty. I never ate at
home as a teenager, and this is exactly why. I never knew what was good. Growing up, it was difficult
to eat in the house, because the
refrigerator was packed with food that was
mostly expired, and it smelled
when you opened it. And so I would clean it
out when I was a teenager. So it is disturbing,
and I don't understand. And I know now, with
my dad coming home, obviously, he can't be
in that environment. We have to pull down things
like all of this netting. Oh, don't take this
lattice down, though. What's going to stop
the homeless people that come into my yard to use my
water, [BLEEP] in my yard, sleep in my thing, and
try to come in my door? What's going to stop them? I'm just asking you. DOROTHY BREININGER: I hear
everything you're saying, but code enforcement is going
to not only red-tag your house, but throw you out. And I have one goal. That's for you to keep your
home and to find yourself. Remember, that
was my commitment. LEZA: It's going to be gone. DOROTHY BREININGER: No. LEZA: It's going out
in the back of trucks. DOROTHY BREININGER: I believe
that that's how you feel, but I'm going to hold a
different vision for you, hon. Yeah, well. DOROTHY BREININGER: OK? The truth will
be in the pudding. My job is to destroy
Leza's life, in her eyes. All right. Let's go. My job is also to comply
with code enforcement. So that's what I have to do, and
I'm going to take it on myself. LEZA: (CRYING) I can't
live in this house without being able to
even sit on my own porch without being hit
by a pellet gun or getting my
property destroyed. Dirty rubbers on my porch,
balls all over the place, and they're going to get
away with it I guess. You know what? Policemen never want
to do their job. I think it's just difficult
if there's not proof. If there's no
evidence, they can't-- Well, there's no proof when
they don't take the rubbers with them and have
them looked at, when they don't do cast of
feet that are in my yard. So all of this stuff
represents safety to you? LEZA: No, it just
means they can't shoot me with a pellet gun
from over there at the gate. They can't do that if there's
something between them and me. So we're going to have to
figure out some solutions to this that are not-- There are no solutions. DEENA STEWART-HITZKE: --that
are still within the city code. Because that's the problem. They will do what
they have to do. And you know what? I want this to be done. But it'll be
successful for them. But it'll be a failure for me. I'm sorry you feel that way. Well, I do. ROBIN ZASIO: Understandably,
this is a very difficult process for Leza. But she is still not
taking any responsibility for the situation. It's about the neighbors. It's about the code officer. It's still about everybody
else, which puts her at risk for rehoarding in the future. OK, please, Lord. I'm not a hoarder. But I'm in the same place. Yes. That is correct. I think that's good. And I recognize that. So I know this has to
get-- get taken care of because I'm not a hoarder. I understand that. But still, there are
things in a person's life that when they're
taken away from you, they destroy part of
soul of who you are. I understand. LEZA: Remember how I told you I
could sense your energy before? Mhm. I feel nothing. I feel nothing. Is there anything
that we can do? I will get the house
done so I don't lose it. OK. You got it. You got it. You're doing OK? These are actually my raisin.s Oh, that's disgusting. Don't even open that. Toss that. I don't want to smell it. This expired in 2014, Mother. This is July of 2013. September 2011. Expired in 2010. LINDA: Some of those dates
on there are, you know, best buy or sell by. Mom, when dad comes home,
we cannot have expired food, period. MICHAEL TOMKINS:
Give me an update. What are you finding? Really old-- A lot of expired food. Old, expired food. Really old food. Like 2012, 2013 some-- I don't think jelly goes bad. It's never been opened. But I'm trying to explain
to her that Dad's going to be very fragile when he gets home. And we can't have even
a day pass expiration. MICHAEL TOMKINS: So how
does this happen, Linda? Yeah. What happens inside
of you that you don't feel some
urgency to declutter and go through the refrigerator? Yeah. You know, truthfully,
Doctor, I don't know. MICHAEL TOMKINS:
What I try to do is to put some question
marks behind certain things that she believes that she
hasn't really thought about to make her curious so that she
will be more willing to accept therapy after we leave. [MUSIC PLAYING] STANDOLYN ROBERTSON: I want
to point out in that purse right there, this is
what you had for food. You had a pantry in there. LINDA: Yeah, right. OK, so there's
something around food you're not telling me about. It's important that Linda does
all of the work around food because she needs to understand
what's really going on. And she doesn't. [MUSIC PLAYING] DOROTHY BREININGER:
Code enforcement is asking that we get rid of
the back half of everything in that yard. Clear? Let's go. [MUSIC PLAYING] This was in a gold
thing with my other ducks. I just want it done. My life is ruined. But the inspector will be happy. You were pressed to do this. And you did an
extraordinary job. I feel like I just
destroyed my own life. That's all. I actually think you
took charge of it, babe. I know. [SLURRED SPEACH] OK, you're slurring. When you start slurring
your words, that tells me you need a break. OK, I need you to go
out under the tent. We're done here. I'm putting together
something for Leza so that she feels like
her house will be her home and a creative space again. And I just know she's
going to hate it. [MUSIC PLAYING] All right. Wheel her in. DOROTHY BREININGER: This was put
on the door before we got here. Yeah. And the news is
it can come down. LEZA: Oh, that's fabulous. Everything's in compliance. Your house is in compliance. Your bathroom's in compliance. You've got the
backyard in compliance. LEZA: I appreciate
you guys did all this. Is just-- you know,
there's lots of issues that are still going to be going on. Well, mostly we want for
you to be able to wheel around with your wheelchair in here. Use some of the furniture
as it's meant to be done. You've got at least
two spaces to create. This room gets too hot. ROBIN ZASIO: I specialize
in hoarding disorder. And many of the times, people
are thrilled at all the help that they've received. In Leza's case, she
is so focused on what she's lost that she can't
see what she's gained. If we didn't pull
this off today, she had no place to live. LEZA: I know I should be really
excited because the red tag is going down. But the joy of being back in the
house and the joy of the house being the way it
is is overshadowed by what I've had to give up. [MUSIC PLAYING] STANDOLYN ROBERTSON:
This is a reflection of what's happening
in the kitchen, what's happening in the basement. This is I've got to be ready
in case there's no more food. LINDA: It sounds like
I'm obsessed with food. I'm not really
obsessed with food. You're-- you're not
obsessed with eating food. But what you're obsessed is-- Having it available
if I need it. Having it available. Yes. OK. So what's behind that? My mother, she lived
through the depression. OK, you cannot in this
day and age blame something that happened that long ago. There's a real overflow
mentality about food. I'm asking her to think
a different way about it. Why is this going on? You know, there's
a deeper reason. And to tell you the truth,
it made me more conscientious and determined to get-- get
it clean and keep it clean. [MUSIC PLAYING] - Wow.
- Wow. Wow. It's great. This is wonderful. It's awesome. I'm just overwhelmed. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON:
That's what you had in mind for a living room? Yeah, definitely. It's awesome. I couldn't hold the tears back
because it looked so great. In years, I've never seen
this house look this good. Wow. Look how pretty. Oh my gosh. This looks great. It looks great. You know, this is just
unbelievable, you know, that, you know, somebody would
come in and do all this for us. It's really-- means a lot to me. That's true. Right Wow. It looks like a different house. It really does. I know. It really does. Geez. When I walk through that front
door, it was more than amazing. It really was. LINDA: This is your chair
that you had before. DAVE: It looks so much
more room with all the-- I mean, I never thought
it was this big before. I couldn't believe it was
going on home in a way. You know, some
people really worked their butts off to do this. And I can't thank
anybody enough. Counter space. LINDA: Yeah, I knew you'd
be happy about that. Yeah, I guess. Wow. Big, big difference. My goodness. STANDOLYN ROBERTSON: This
story was personal to me. As a living organ
donor, I wanted to make sure that that heart
was going to have a good home. And I think we
accomplished that. DAVE: It's just mind
boggling, really, to see it the way it is now
and remember the way it was. [MUSIC PLAYING] As you may know, I'm no
stranger to collectors. And I'm no stranger
to people who hoard. And I've been studying
hoarding for over 25 years. I'm very clear on
the differences between clearing out a hoard
and organizing a collection. You can have
collections like dolls, stamps, coins, glassware,
or even music albums. But when organizing heirlooms,
be ready to spend time making decisions,
staging the collection, and then preparing before you
give any of those items away or sell them. The real organizing
and preparation happens in your mind
before you ever touch those precious belongings. Step one, clearly
state what heirlooms or categories you have,
like art, or, in this case, coins and paper dollars. Whether you've got
dolls or comic books, just make a list if you
have more than one category. Prepare to only organize
one category at a time. And when you see like
items grouped together, it's always easier to
decide how to divide them or not if you're
passing them along. Step two, ask yourself whether
you kept these precious items because they had sentimental
value from the past or because they carry financial
returns for the future. And be sure to think
about those questions when deciding to whom you
will gift those heirlooms. Are they likely to carry
out your intentions? Might your loved ones feel the
same way about your heirlooms as you do? If yes, that's great. You would rather give-- or sorry. If yes, that's great. But if not, you would rather
give those items perhaps to a museum or a school
or sell them outright for your own personal benefit. Step three, retrieve and
gather those heirlooms from all the hiding places-- closets, storage, garage,
attic, cedar chest, anywhere. If you have a
collection of heirlooms and truly want to get
organized, it's an optimum thing to bring the entire heirloom
collection together, like great grandmother's
two sets of dishes, and have it all in one space. If the heirlooms are smaller,
such as spoons or stamps, this can be easier. If your heirlooms consist
of old typewriters or even vintage cars, it
can be much more difficult. No matter how large
or small the items, the principal is
generally the same. Get the collection together so
you know what you have and you can stage it and
prepare to review it, inventory it, eliminate it,
give it away, loan it out, sell it, whatever you wish. Step four, take a simple
photograph of the items. Nothing professional,
just a quick snapshot. Sadly, heirlooms have become
less important to folks than in the past. We live in an age of
pretty, new, and sparkly. If you happen to receive an
heirloom from a loved one that you don't
really want or need, you do not need to
condemn yourself to storing the items out of
guilt. Be honest with yourself about this. And then take a
couple of actions to honor your aunt,
grandmother, or father. Simply take that photo of
the item or you with the item and bookmark the memory. The photo pays homage
to your loved one. And you can keep the
memory alive without having to keep the item. Once you have taken
these actions, the guilt is often lifted, which
allows you to give the item away to a good home or sell it. Good luck. Della wants her trash. You need to have some
respect for your mother. 20 years of disrespecting
us, you're not going to get respect today for sure. The last conversation
Daddy had with me before his death was
to make a difference for you and your trash. That became his dying wish. ROBIN ZASIO: They don't
have access to food. They don't have access
to their clothing. We are here to help. But the law is the law. We have to report that. Then I'm going to say
stop everything right now. I can't take this. [MUSIC PLAYING] DARCY: My name is Darcy. And Adella is my mom. She lives in and
sleeps with a pile of nameless, faceless trash that
is her accompaniment in life. You want to care for and
respect and love the people who brought you into
the world and have been a part of your existence. And instead, I don't even
have her phone number. I wouldn't know if
she was alive or dead. She certainly doesn't want time
with me instead of the trash. So I allow her to have what
she wants, which is the trash. I've only come back because
my father asked me to. [MUSIC PLAYING] In the very last conversation,
he asked me to do the best that I could do for my mother. And I will. BEVERLY: I'm Beverly. I'm 46. And Adella is my mother. My mom's hoarding
started in 1988 when my grandmother passed away. Something seemed to short
circuit in her brain. She started slowly
becoming somebody else. And then she started
bringing in bags of trash. And my dad says, I
can't live like this. Why are you doing this? And-- [SOBBING] My mom told him if he didn't
want to live like that, he could just leave. And that's what he chose to do. She chose the trash over my dad. She chose the trash
over me and my sister. And she chose the trash
over our children. She put up a wall of
trash to keep us all out. My daughter Beverly is
thoroughly disgusted with me. She thinks there's no end
to my collecting things. I have things in my car, things
in my house, things in my yard. High society people
don't like that. She sees me as the
demon from hell who wants to take away all her trash. ADELLA: Darcy got
a good education. She's had things
that I didn't have. And that's good. But you should never
look back on your mother and think, to heck with you. I've made it. And you didn't. I'm here on
behalf of my father. He asked me to. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm Terry Humphrey,
code enforcement officer for the city of Edmond. We received multiple complaints
about her almost daily-- problems with excessive
amount of trash, stagnant water, collecting
out of other people's trash receptacles. ADELLA: I've been known to
get things out of dumpsters. Well, I'm not hurting anybody. So what's the big deal? TERRY HUMPHREY: We tried
getting therapy for Mrs. Graves. She would take the trash
from the therapy office. Well, you know the
people that wear badges, they're not always right. They're in the
right because they have a badge on their shoulder. TERRY HUMPHREY:
Believe it or not, city officials do have a heart. We use any means possible to
try to keep her in her home. However, if some
very forward steps aren't taken to
correct the trash, to stop the problem from
continuing to reoccurring, it leaves us no other option
than to go ahead and pursue demolition of the
home, putting Miss Graves in a homeless status. [MUSIC PLAYING] TERI: My name is Teri. I'm 47 years old. I'm a registered
nurse here in Hawaii. A hoarder, to me, actually,
when I first heard the term, I thought it was such
a negative thing. There's no way, you know. That-- I'm not a hoarder. We're just messy. KERRY: My name is Kerry. I am Teri's husband. I just made 55 years old. And we've been married
for 15 plus years. I get angry every
day when I come home. I see the house the way it is. The more that I try
to do something, like just clear little area,
I come home the next day and it's even worse than
what it was when I had cleaned it up the day before. So after a while, I
said, I just give up. Our friends have asked
me so many times, why are you guys together? TERI: My current
relationship with Kerry is very touch and go. KERRY: We argue and fight
about just about anything-- the kids, the
house, the clutter. TERI: We've been very close
to divorce several times. The relationship
has progressively gotten worse over the years. COREY: My name is Corey. I am 12 years old. And Teri is my mother. There's definitely too
much stuff in our house. I don't know. There's sometimes
it kind of just need to get away from it all. JORDAN: My name is Jordan. And I am eight years old. And Teri is my mom. I don't like the mess. And I'm trying to clean it up. But it keeps on getting messier. TERI: So what happens
with a lot of the clutter is it becomes a home
for the cockroaches. Whenever these, what we
call in Hawaii B-52 bombers, the big cockroaches come out,
I've had them bite me before. Last night I turned on the light
and saw one near my son's head, which totally freaked me out. KERRY: We have a house that can
be a wonderful place to live. But yet it looks like it's
nothing but a junkyard or a storage facility. TERI: The kitchen currently
is functional as far as all of the appliances. I can cook a meal
as long as I move everything off and around it
so that there's no fire hazard. Eating gets to be kind
of tricky in our house. For the most part,
we're usually taking it upstairs on the floor,
eating in front of the TV. KERRY: I've had my
children sit on the stairs. I've had them sit on the floor. TERI: There's no place to
congregate as a family anymore, which is a sad state because
you always see that that's what builds a family, is to
have, like, a dining table where you can
sit around and talk about the day's activities. And-- and we have none of that. I think the respiratory stuff
is not very good for my kids. So the dust and things
don't help at all. KERRY: Both of
them are asthmatic. The clutter-- I'm sure all of
that's contributing to the-- the lack of air quality and
just not a safe environment. I know when Corey was
born, I told myself I would give up my life for him. And I've put him
in this situation. I know that Jordan-- I've done the same thing to her. So it's like I've let
both of them down. [MUSIC PLAYING] [CRYING] I just feel like
crying right now. I don't know why. [MUSIC PLAYING] I don't strikeout every
day to be a hoarder. I don't want to wear that
label on my forehead. BEVERLY: It's insanity. She keeps repeating
the same action and expecting a
different outcome. She should be living life
and enjoying her grandkids. The code enforcement
is in the right. I'm not mad at them at all. I'm angry with her for
not waking up and seeing the hurt that she's caused. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hello. Hi, Adella. Mark Pfeffer, nice meeting you. Nice to meet you. Come in. Thank you. My name is Mark Pfeffer. I'm a licensed
psychotherapist and specialist working with people
with compulsive hoarding and their families. Can you tell me, Adella, when is
the last time you actually used the kitchen to cook something? Two years ago. Oh, really? Mhm. MARK PFEFFER: Adela is
certainly a hoarder. She has clutter to
the extent where she's unable to use her rooms
for the original functions. And it causes extreme distress
on her and her family. This is a bedroom. It's piled high. And there's nothing
that I can do about it. It just happened. Right. Adella is in somewhat of a state
of denial of her responsibility in her hoarding and the state
of her house as well as the fact that it is a problem
in the first place. This is the bathroom. Such as it is, it's
non-functional right now. MARK PFEFFER: Tell
me, Adella, why do you have the toilet in the bathtub? TERI: There was
nowhere else to put it. I haven't contacted a plumber. Is that something that you
plan to do in the near future. I would like to
have it fixed, yes. MARK PFEFFER: When you
have to use the restroom, where do you actually
take care of those needs? I'm close enough to the
facilities that I go-- elsewhere. MARK PFEFFER: OK. In order for her to use
the toilet facilities, she actually goes to a
restaurant in the community. Can you tell me a little bit
about your storage situation out here? This is
miscellaneous catch-all four tools and whatever. MARK PFEFFER: I have a
question that I want to ask you that has to do with
your home that you lost. All right. MARK PFEFFER: Adella somehow
feels that even though she was evicted from her last home,
that this state of affairs will not occur again. There was a lot of
items in that home that you cared a lot for
that you no longer have. Yes, sir. They was going to do away
with my belongings regardless of who liked it and who didn't. All mementos, all keepsakes. It hurt. My mom's autograph book from
high school was in there. And it's gone. MARK PFEFFER: The same outcome
will happen again unless she makes a change in her life. TERI: When we first moved
in, it was a dream come true. It was huge. KERRY: I think Teri said,
we have a new house. We should have new things
to go along with it. We've just basically run
out of space in the house. TERI: The house is throwing
up clutter, literally. ROBIN ZASIO: Hello. Dr. Zasio.
KERRY: Hi. Kerry. Hi, Kerry. Hi. I'm Teri. Hi, Teri, It's so
nice to meet you. Same here. ROBIN ZASIO: My name
is Dr. Robin Zasio. I'm a licensed
clinical psychologist. And I specialize in OCD
and compulsive hoarding. KERRY: OK. Welcome to avalanche city. TERI: Yeah. ROBIN ZASIO: If I
had to ask you guys how bad you think this is,
0 is there's no problem, 10 is it's extreme, what
number would you give it? 12. ROBIN ZASIO: You'd give it a 12. What would you give it? Well, our limit's 10. So it's 10. So for you it is a 10 though. Yeah. Teri is a compulsive hoarder. She's also a compulsive shopper. I do not believe
she has any concept of the crisis that we are in. OK, and where is this? This actually looks like a
storage room of some kind. This is my son's room. OK. This is not a room in which
anybody could reside in. It's quite frankly
dangerous in here. Where is Corey sleeping? Right now in our
bedroom with Teri. Any concerns about a
12-year-old sleeping with Mom? Yes. ROBIN ZASIO: OK, so
whose room is this? TERI: This is Jordan's room. ROBIN ZASIO: This
is Jordan's room. Right. Is this where she sleeps? Yes. She shares the sleeping
bag on the floor with me. ROBIN ZASIO: OK. That's-- that's a bit of a
problem with an eight-year-old sleeping with dad. Right. ROBIN ZASIO: Right. So these are some things that
we need to fix first off. TERI: This is our kitchen. Oh, dear. There's no counter space at all. KERRY: Nope. ROBIN ZASIO: How are
you cooking in here? We're not. KERRY: We're not. OK. So we-- we have a little
bit of a dilemma here. The law with CPS
basically states that if there has been neglect
or abuse, which you do not abuse your children, OK, or
there is active neglect going on, it has to be reported. The problem is they don't
have access to food. They don't have access
to their bedroom. They don't have access-- free access to their
clothing and so forth. Right. ROBIN ZASIO: It's
important that you know that we are here to help. But the law is the law. As somebody-- and
you are too, Teri, as-- as a nurse, you're--
you're a mandated reporter. Right. We have to report that. Certainly, I never expected
when I got here to even imagine that this was going to happen. But unfortunately,
the law is the law. And we have to abide by it. Is this a surprise
to you, really? I mean-- Yeah. It is? TERI: Mhm. Well, then I'll just
say we don't need help. I'll do it on my own. KERRY: [SOBBING] Sorry. ROBIN ZASIO: It's OK. It's OK. I propose that right
now I make the call while you're here so you can
hear exactly what I tell them. Then I'm going to say
stop everything right now. No, I'll resort to my defenses,
which is to take the kids. And we'll go somewhere. You can watch more "Hoarders"
episodes every single Sunday this month at 7:00 AM on A&E. BEVERLY: Even though my mom
chose trash over the marriage, he still for years
footed the bills. And I don't have any
money to help her. [MUSIC PLAYING] MATT PAXTON: Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for
letting us be here. Thank you for coming. My name is Matt Paxton. I'm an extreme
cleaning specialist. We're in this big backyard. You've got a lot
of stuff back here. Yes, sir. MATT PAXTON: Some of it's good. Is all of it good? 50 years of accumulation? MATT PAXTON: So
answer the question. Is all of it good? Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. MATT PAXTON: So we
see the problem. We see why we're here. OK? The biggest problem is
we could lose this home. This is very real. All right, let's do it. [MUSIC PLAYING] As this process is getting
underway, I'm hopeful. MATT PAXTON: Soggy britches. Yeah, but they'll
hang up and dry. The rain just came
last week, y'all. I'm hopeful that it'll
continue on an even keel rather than uneven. Yeah, this is keep right here. Not the toothbrush though. Yeah, it is. DARCY: I don't expect that. In fact, I frankly
expect the opposite. MATT PAXTON: Now, what'd
you squirrel away back here? - That's new.
- OK. Well, why are you
squirreling it away? You just put it
on the keep pile. Because I'm keeping it. She keeps things that I
think she should have let go, like-- that frustrates me. What is this? I'm keeping this guy. No, you're not keeping this. It's got money in it. How are you doing? OK. Earlier I asked you to let
me know how you're feeling on that scale of 1 to 10. Where would you say you're
right now in a 0 to-- 5. MARK PFEFFER: In Adella's case,
she almost feels that the items represent part of self. It becomes very difficult
for someone to let go. It brings back the memories. Those are calendars
from the '80s. I know.
They're antiques. And they got-- Well, they're not antiques
if they're from the '80s. They're just old. What year is that? I don't know. But I want it. Let me ask you a
question for this. It goes to a drinking cup. This is for jewelry and stuff. I know. I'm keeping it. But not for napkins. Lord, help. I use napkins of all things. [MUSIC PLAYING] MATT PAXTON: Adella,
I know this is where I know you don't want to do this. But this is the work. That's in the tool shed. MATT PAXTON: Exactly. What? That's my stuff that's
in the tool shed. Adella, let's reset. Let's try a different way. Come. And show me, Adella,
what you wanted to keep. I wanted to keep
the whole thing until I could go through it. OK. DARCY: Now there's a
team here with sweat rolling down their back,
walking back and forth for you. I understand that, Darcy. ADELLA: Those tools stay. You can go to an antique
store and buy that today. Your intention, though,
is to do what with that? It hangs in a
person's kitchen. They paint those. All right. Well, go hang this in
your kitchen for me. I don't have a place
to hang it in my kitchen right this minute.
- Well, find it. There's a wall. Let's go hang it. If this is what it's
for, let's do it. That's what it is for. And I can't get in
my kitchen right now. I'm going to go hang
this in your kitchen. OK. We're making space right
now for things in the house that you want to keep. ADELLA: But that's a tool shed. The idea was we've got
to clean out this shed. DARCY: Do you want to be
able to put tools in it? Or do you want to be able
to stack boxes in it? ADELLA: I'm going
to put tools in it. That looks lovely. Made a big deal
about a rake that didn't really matter
because I just wanted to see how she would react. ADELLA: Keep the tool boxes. They're mine. She's a lot like
a rattlesnake. It's going to be kept. That's it. I mean, she's going
to make a lot of noise to get you to leave. We're not going to do that. How are you feeling, Adella? What are your levels right now? 10. BEVERLY: You have to decide
which is more important, one thing or the other. ADELLA: I understand
that, Beverly. But tools are tools. And they was in the tool shed. They wasn't bothering anybody. DARCY: It needs to be organized. ADELLA: OK. Well, organize it. But you're telling
me to throw it away. It's not throw away stuff. MATT PAXTON: Everything
we're doing is on purpose. And it is to help you. Everything you're
doing is on purpose. But you're taking
away from me after I ask you not to throw it away. We are pushing you
in a positive way. That's what we're doing. Well, you're sure
pushing me right now. MATT PAXTON: You're
damn right we are. You're absolutely right we are. I'm not going to back
down like everybody else does in your life. I'm here to help you. This is the part where-- I'm not trying to
make you back down. Time out.
I'm talking. I'm talking to you. This is what happens
in your life. Someone pushes you like
this, you push them away. My opinion hasn't
changed of what I would do with my belongings. MATT PAXTON: You want to
be alone for a few minutes. I'll sit and look at
my stuff, if that's OK. [MUSIC PLAYING] ROBIN ZASIO: Yes, I just have
a quick question about the reporting laws here in Hawaii. [MUSIC PLAYING] ROBIN ZASIO: What
is the time frame, the mandatory reporting
law here in Hawaii? TERI: See, this is the
bull [BLEEP] too, though. It's like, everybody sits
there and tells me to clean up this crap and do something. KERRY: Teri, that's fine. TERI: I mean, it's
like-- you've heard me tell Corey how many times.
We're in there cleaning up. KERRY: Stop. We're here to fix. OK.
TERI: And you just let it go. KERRY: No, like I said-- TERI: And I try to do stuff. And nobody wants to do [BLEEP]. ROBIN ZASIO: Thank
you very much. I appreciate all your--
your helpful information. OK.
OK. Buh-bye. We have five days. All right? We can do this. We need to get you back
being parents as a family. OK. [MUSIC PLAYING] DARNITA L PAYDEN: We have
with us today four members of the Hawaii Association
of Professional Organizers, our 1-800-GOT-JUNK
team, the family, and we have a plan of action. I'm Darnita L. Payden. I'm a life management
specialist working with people with chronic
disorganization and clutter. The stakes are high. And it's not an option
to leave without getting this house in order. TERI: Last night after
talking to Dr. Zasio, I was pretty upset. This morning was
a bright new day. Decided things were
going to be good. And we are going to
move forward with it. It was a no-brainer. Kids over stuff,
stuff is history. This looks like a donate
bag, wouldn't you say? OK. DARNITA L PAYDEN: Corey
has been a tornado. He's been making
decisions quickly. He's not second guessing. OK, good luck with that. Donate. OK. Donate. Trash. OK. After last night,
I really thought there was very little
that we could do about it because it's just so daunting. But after seeing the progress
from just this morning, I mean, in a few hours,
it's such a big difference and much improved. TERI: All that
stuff is stuff that just got bought as gift items. That I can tell you
right now is all keep. That's all Tupperware stuff. You can tell me from a glance? I'm going to pass
you over there. There's-- there's the doctor. It's like the little
Tupperware things. OK, there's, like, a
cockroach or something in there. It's an egg. It's a cockroach egg. It's a cockroach egg. OK? Teri, I mean, you-- you are not going
to use that, right? You know what, I can just
have them take it to the church. Well, we can't--
we're not going to take this to the church.
You can't. But, I mean-- OK. All right. Where's the trash? We can't slow down
at this point. There's still a
lot of work to do. And they have to keep
that momentum up so that I can see and feel
comfortable that this is a safe house for them. Is this supposedly rubbish? No, this is not rubbish. We still have massive
amounts of stuff in the house. I think we can keep that. This we can save. That's the keep. Is there a spot for it, Teri? No. Everything has a home. We have way too much stuff here. This is not solving our problem. [MUSIC PLAYING] MATT PAXTON: When we left last
night, all of this was empty. Yes. What happened? I'm trying to find
me some clean clothes. - Do you want to--
- I didn't want to-- Time out. Do you want to keep
your house or not. Well, sure. But I didn't want
to look dirty today. Do you blame me, Beverly,
for wanting clean clothes? No, but I blame you
for not listening. And it's been like
this for 20 years. ADELLA: A child's responsibility
is to respect their parents. OK. Well, you don't get respect
if you don't give it. OK. BEVERLY: 20 years
of disrespecting us, cleaning up this
filth, you're not going to get respect today for sure. ADELLA: You're going
to lose it if you bring anything back in here. OK.
OK. OK.
OK. OK. OK. MATT PAXTON: All right. This is Father's Day, OK? It's hard enough to do
this on Father's Day when you lost your
dad three months ago. And then you won't even listen. You won't-- ADELLA: I did listen. I was thinking about cleaning--
- Bull [BLEEP]. You didn't [BLEEP] listen. Doesn't even [BLEEP] bother her. ADELLA: I was anticipating to
start working this morning. But the minute that I get
out here and start working, I get all this cussing. Adella, it's the minute
we start asking you what your responsibility
is in this whole situation that you become very
angry and defensive. They don't hear you
accepting responsibility. Nor do they hear your
motivation to want to change. BEVERLY: Why didn't
you just listen? I need a reason why. What's the [BLEEP] reason. Don't use the
Lord's name in vain. I don't give a
[BLEEP] what you say. Well, go home then. I'm not going home. Why don't you leave? I don't have to
listen to backspeak. You leave. I wanted this to be a peaceful,
get the family back together. But Della doesn't want that. Della wants her trash. All because I came out here-- BEVERLY: Della wants
her [BLEEP] trash. DARCY: You know what, you
need to stop the manipulation. Everybody here is
feeling a massive amount of disrespect from you
because of what you're doing. You do not care about
the impact to yourself nor to anyone else around you. Well, that's-- that's
your opinion only. No, it's not my opinion. This team came here
away from their families to give you their
strength and their efforts to make a difference for you. That's what they
came here to do. They're away from their kids. They're away and
they are sweating. And they're doing it for you. And you don't have
respect to say thank you. ADELLA: Well, I
will say thank you. Do it. Thank you, everybody. I didn't think we was through. No, we're not through. Look at this place. But-- but you-- you're
wanting me to say-- No, let me tell you
something you don't know. The last interactive
conversation Daddy had with me before his
surgery and his death was to make a difference
for you and your trash and to use the
cooperative effort of his team to do that for you. And that became his dying wish. ADELLA: OK. You need to man up. And you need to take
some responsibility for your choices. You need to have some
respect for your mother. You need to have some
respect for everybody. I do. Quit recreating your own
personal tragedy every day. Determine you want
something different. You've got to want it. [MUSIC PLAYING] This area is a biohazard. What is this we're standing in? Wet. Wet paper towels? No, that is cat feces. This is your cat food. There's cockroaches and
kitty litter in the cat food. You guys have got to
start purging this food. Anything that is expired and not
edible has got to come out, OK? These kids cannot
come in and make good decisions about what's there. This has got to be taken care
of before we leave today. Where-- where are
you guys going? I don't know. Where am I going? Refrigerator. I'd rather put
somebody else on it because I can be more useful-- ROBIN ZASIO: No,
I would like you guys to be accountable
to get that cleaned out. I don't want
somebody else to do. I want you guys to
see what's in there. I'm not wasting time on this. ROBIN ZASIO: That
smell was horrific. It was really horrific. Sorry. I disagree. ROBIN ZASIO: It was
a lot of minimizing saying that it was
a Hawaiian smell rather than a rotting smell. And that-- that just
wasn't the case. How much a year are you
guys spending on storage? But this is cheaper
than what I used to do. What did you used to do? I used to have
a bigger storage. OK. DARNITA L PAYDEN: Well, having
a storage unit in her yard. It doesn't seem strange to her. It seems as a normal behavior. Because you're
basically paying rent for your stuff to
have a place when you have a 3,000 square foot home. We're back to putting stuff
in front of the kids again. You know, Kerry--
when we're dealing with compulsive
hoarding, we're dealing with a mental condition. When she gets
overwhelmed, she bolts. At this point now, she's holding
on to all the dysfunction that-- that as
you're suggesting, got her into this place. So, you know what, I'm-- I'm perfectly happy with you
looking at her and saying, I'm getting rid of the stuff
because I don't want this. That would be the end of it. End of what? Marriage? Probably. What will she do? I'm not sure. But I know it won't be something
that I'm going to like. ROBIN ZASIO: When I asked
him to go talk with Teri and really confront
her, he kind of went back to that old
pattern of sort of caving. The problem is is
that the easiest route is not always the best route. I can't take this anymore. I've had it. ROBIN ZASIO: Too much. Too much. I can't take this. [MUSIC PLAYING] How come you're
tearing this down? DARCY: It's stacked
against the fence. And it's a code violation. MATT PAXTON: This lady's mean. She's tough. And she's going to fight
you to the very last minute. You didn't tell
my two containers away that was right there. You didn't put those
on the truck, did you? I hope so. I hope it's [BLEEP]
on the truck. Is this one of them? You're upset that
people are not really paying respect to your things. You feel like you're
losing your stuff. She feels like she's
losing her stuff. You're feeling the
exact same thing. What do you want me to do? I want you to not
bring anything back. Promise your daughter. This is her house. She's got her name
on the line for you. ADELLA: Oh, that's--
that's mighty fine. I bought the house. And I was kind enough
to donate it to her. If I-- if it hadn't
been in my name and I hadn't taken all the crap,
you would have done lost it. So go get the papers. I'll sign it over to you.
Lose it. You're going to lose it.
- That's not what I'm saying. Yeah, it is what
you just said. No, it isn't. I don't want the house. Taking the Christmas stuff out
of here that's brand new that I had just bought, paid $25 for. MARK PFEFFER: Adella, what's
your intention with this bin? Are you going
through the whole bin because there was
one item in there? No, not one item, Mark. They had cans and cans, a
full bottle of spot remover. Hadn't been open, brand new. What are they tying
up in that bag right there that come off this porch? BEVERLY: I don't know. DARCY: I put some
trash in the bag. What's in the bag is trash. What kind of trash is it? Garbage. Indiscriminate garbage. I did what Daddy asked me to do. That's all I can do. All right, I love you. Bye. BEVERLY: I don't feel like
I made any reconciliation with my sister like I wanted. I feel like crap I
didn't get to hug her. You know, I don't
see her every day. DARCY: I won't be back. I feel like when my dad
died, I lost my only parent. ADELLA: At least I was
going to tell her adios. These are pretty good. You like pretzels? Just at a glance, I
think you are going to be safe with the city for now. We're going to have to work
very diligently together to-- to keep a lid on this problem. Yes. ADELLA: I knew where
everything was. But now it's all gone. So I start over. MATT PAXTON: Here's the deal. This is everything
you wanted to keep. And you got plenty of room. Our task was to clean the home. And we did that. The house is clean. All the citations are gone. But I don't feel like we've
solved the problem at all. When I come back
in three months, I don't want this place full. OK? Yeah. I don't mind walking over stuff. MARK PFEFFER: Beverley and
Darcy expressed their motivation to come today and to
assist in the process based upon their
father's dying wish. But they've been through
this so many times that I think that
they've already protected themselves emotionally
for the worst case scenario. BEVERLY: It looks
good for now until she starts accumulating stuff. And then I'll be
getting a notice until I get it out of my name. I've done my last cleaning. ADELLA: I like tables. And I like chairs. And I like radios. And-- everything
has to be put up. So I'll go dig me a radio
out when y'all leave. [MUSIC PLAYING] ROBIN ZASIO: This is far
too much for any one person to handle. And that's why it got
to this place, right? Yeah. I know. And I'm afraid. ROBIN ZASIO: I know. I know. I can't take this. What's the matter? ROBIN ZASIO: Now is the time. Now is the time. Tell her how you feel. She knows. ROBIN ZASIO: No, no, no. DARNITA L PAYDEN: Don't assume. I did already. ROBIN ZASIO: Tell her. Tell her just like you told us. I'm scared. I'm overwhelmed. What are you scared of? Going back to what we were. I'm scared about
losing the kids. I mean, I walked out
there and I looked. It was like what
had happened before. It all exploded. And I didn't see
anything happening. Been there too many times. I don't want to go back. I asked Kerry
if he would reveal to her what he revealed to me. And he was very reluctant. But with some
nudging, he did it. And for the first time, I felt
that Teri actually listened. Will you both together
follow through with aftercare services? I do. OK. I do. You OK? ROBIN ZASIO: Oh my gosh. Are you really? All right. All of these
have money in them. - Do you want a container?
- Yeah. Well, Jordan will be happy. She'll be like, yay. Wow. [MUSIC PLAYING] Nice. Whoa. You can actually
stand in the room. Yeah? So did you believe
this could happen. We're standing on the
floor, a clear floor. Only in my wildest dreams. Oh, Jordan. This is great. ROBIN ZASIO: Whoa. You are king of your bed. How's that feel to be up there? Good. Who's sleeping
with you tonight? No one. That's right. That's right. Everybody's got
their own place now. Can you believe it? Can you believe this? Do you remember what
this was like yesterday? Yesterday, guys, we had
mountains of stuff as tall as you, Teri. TERI: This is my dream kitchen. It is. It is. I'd like everybody
to have a seat. I am certifying this house
as safe, no longer hazardous. That's great. Oh, thank you. ROBIN ZASIO: For today,
we have a happy ending. We've accomplished the
job that we set out to do. I'm extremely happy. And yes, I am confident
that my children are here to stay with us. I'm excited about
the new day that's here for me and my family. I mean, my kids can
run through the house. They're-- they're ecstatic. It was so nice meeting you. Are you crying again? I know. I know. [MUSIC PLAYING] So what do 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. But don't worry, you can watch
more episodes of "Hoarders" this month every Sunday
at 7:00 AM Eastern Time on A&E. See you next time.
