Reality TV Show - Hoarders

[sneakymom]

I was bored- and watched one episode of the one on TLC.

There is NO WAY those people were faking. Not the one with mouse poop ALL OVER THE HOUSE, and the lady who was the hoarder was just ignoring it. Ick. I can't stand one stupid cockroach in the house- let alone hundreds of mice.

And that other lady- with the family. She threw a fit when her daughter walked out of the house with a bag of trash. Just sad.

Btw- Jasper came from a hoarder. I don't think she was quite as bad off as the people on TV. But that's because his owner had 2 people that cared about her a lot- and I think she was ready for a change. She doesn't really talk about that part of her life when she comes over here to love on Jasper (she misses him very much).

cheryl

 

[denice]

I also tend to be the opposite of a hoarder and go overboard throwing things away. I've gotten worse about it since I moved into an apartment because I don't have as much room. I have even remembered throwing something away when I need it again. I guess the theory of hoarding is that it is a form of OCD maybe I also have it and it just manifests itself the opposite way.

 

[ducman69]

Originally Posted by Momto3boys

I am so opposite them it's insane, I throw EVERYTHING in the garbage, even things that SHOULD mean something to me, it simply doesn't.

MEEEEOWWW!!! *hisss*

Oops, sorry honey, I was on a roll! *helps cat out of trashcan*

 

[gailc]

When the elderly gentleman who lived next to us died we bought his property.
I have to qualify this saying he was "shell shocked" as he was in the service and involved at a very young age in the D-day invasion.
A car wouldn't run-it was behind his house-one with a good sized tree growing through it. His family would not let us in the house (which we had burned down) 6 months after we bought it.
There were piles of stuff though throughout the house and when we were prepping the roof for the fire dept we got into the attic and it took us three months to clean everything out. He liked going to rummage sales. I cleaned up and donated tons of stuff to Goodwill and took truckloads to the landfill.
I'm thinking this was his coping mechanism from the horrors of WWII.

 

[ducman69]

Watched two more episodes, and this show is making us look bad...

Seems that 99% of these hoarders have cats! I'm going to ueber-clean the house when I get back home in the morning.

 

[momto3boys]

Originally Posted by Ducman69

MEEEEOWWW!!! *hisss*

Oops, sorry honey, I was on a roll! *helps cat out of trashcan*

Hahahaha I should hav clarified. I've never thrown out animals, kids or Craig...

Sometimes I think about it with Craig, though

 

[trouts mom]

I feel that hoarders are just kind of trashy. Maybe some of them have a mental problem that makes them like that, but I don't buy it for all of them.

 

[denice]

One thing I have noticed is that they seem to fall into two categories. There are the ones that collect and can't let go of anything. They have too much of everything like clothes, appliances, and reading material. A common thread seems to be I might need it or with clothes I want to always have plenty to choose from. I certainly see that as a mental problem or at least very warped thinking. Then there are the ones that never take out trash. The ones that just throw things down be it paper plates or pizza boxes wherever they finish with it. I think that may be something different than the warped thinking of the others. Although clinical depression can lead to someone being so exhausted that they can't do anything including picking up and taking out trash.

 

[just mike]

Originally Posted by Denice

I also tend to be the opposite of a hoarder and go overboard throwing things away. I've gotten worse about it since I moved into an apartment because I don't have as much room. I have even remembered throwing something away when I need it again. I guess the theory of hoarding is that it is a form of OCD maybe I also have it and it just manifests itself the opposite way.

Ohhh... just like me. If it hasn't been used in a year, it gets pitched.

 

[carolpetunia]

Originally Posted by Trouts mom

I feel that hoarders are just kind of trashy. Maybe some of them have a mental problem that makes them like that, but I don't buy it for all of them.

I don't know how to convince you... but for what it's worth, when I was hoarding, I was also stepping out of my apartment every morning well-groomed and well-dressed, going to work in a highly professional job at a great company, and earning a very good living. I was a responsible, upstanding citizen, despite my secret problem. I don't think I was trashy.

 

[odiakkoh]

I'm the same as Momto3boys and others, I throw away too much lol. Besides my books (which takes about 7 big boxes) all my things can fit in a duffel bag

My husband wouldn't go as far as hoarding but he does tend to over save. He hid an empty soy sauce bottle from me last week so I wouldn't throw it away. He claims it'll come in handy someday, I say we'll have another empty soy sauce bottle then to use it for whatever it ends up being needed for.

 

[ducman69]

Originally Posted by CarolPetunia

I don't know how to convince you... but for what it's worth, when I was hoarding, I was also stepping out of my apartment every morning well-groomed and well-dressed, going to work in a highly professional job at a great company, and earning a very good living. I was a responsible, upstanding citizen, despite my secret problem. I don't think I was trashy.

She didn't say all, just that some are, which I agree with. I believe the technical term is "chronic disorganization", but basically there are a few that appear to be hoarders and are misclassified as such by the show, but are really just complete slobs. Certainly you weren't among them from your description.

My only hoarding is that I have a bunch of clothes that aren't close to fitting me and that I haven't worn in years, some of them with the tags still on them and they are very nice. But I need to keep it there as a reminder that my fat ass needs to get back into the routine of running everyday, with the goal to get back into those!!!

 

[resqchick]

Originally Posted by Ducman69

She didn't say all, just that some are, which I agree with. I believe the technical term is "chronic disorganization", but basically there are a few that appear to be hoarders and are misclassified as such by the show, but are really just complete slobs. Certainly you weren't among them from your description.

My only hoarding is that I have a bunch of clothes that aren't close to fitting me and that I haven't worn in years, some of them with the tags still on them and they are very nice. But I need to keep it there as a reminder that my fat ass needs to get on the treadmill more often, with the goal to get back into those!!!

Me too!! I'll take them out and try to get them on whenever the brownies or chips are calling me!

 

[denice]

Originally Posted by CarolPetunia

I don't know how to convince you... but for what it's worth, when I was hoarding, I was also stepping out of my apartment every morning well-groomed and well-dressed, going to work in a highly professional job at a great company, and earning a very good living. I was a responsible, upstanding citizen, despite my secret problem. I don't think I was trashy.

They had a woman on one episode that sounds like you were. She got up very early every morning to put together a nice outfit, do her hair and makeup. She looked very professional and put together every day. She was a compulsive shopper. Along with her house she had five storage units filled with multiples of everything like TVs and vacumn cleaners. She had the display boxes like a store filled with rings to choose from many of which had been bought from the home shopping networks. Of couse she was in trouble with her finances because of the compulsive shopping. Her home wasn't filled with trash, it was actually as clean as is possible with all the stuff she had bought. That's why I think they are actually combining different types of problems on these shows.

 

[bellaandme]

I lived next door to a hoarder for 5 years. No one knew it. She was a business woman, well dressed, well spoken and educated, went to work every day. While she was at work one day the landlord went in to fix something. There were piles of clothes up to the ceiling, garbage everywhere. One very small path from the living room to the bedroom. Just walls of debris. Piles of trash covering her windows and blocking the bathroom. How did she bathe?
She was eventually evicted and a few of us volunteered to help clean out the apartment. We just got one of those huge industrial dumpster and parked in under her window. We began tossing junk out.
She hadn't thrown out a newspaper or magazine for over 20 years!! I was very gun-ho about the cleaning until I began to find the skeletons of her deceased pets--yes, cats. I had to stop and walk away at that point.
I can't watch any of the shows. There always seem to be animals involved and that make me sick. There are plenty of resources available for hoarders, but what happens to these sick, neglected pets? They're not pets, they just more possessions people seem to collect to fill a void in their lives.
I guess I'm a hard-ass. If people want to live in filth and squalor go for it, mental condition, laziness, whatever, but when they start bringing innocent animals into the mix then I have issues with that abuse.

 

[februa]

Im really shocked and saddened at how many people here are dismissing the people on this show as "trashy" and "lazy". How can those of you who feel this way look at their homes/listen to their friends and family and not see the pathology? Someone who is lazy has a sink full of dishes - not a house full of feces/rodents/purchased items. I wonder if all those of you who are calling them "just lazy" also feel that people with germ/cleanliness related OCD are just "extra neat".

This show is clearly needed to educate those who dismiss this mental illness as laziness. This is a real issue where people and their families suffer. Im happy to see there is a TV show about it: at least it has people talking about the issue.

IMO, this thread should be in IMO.

 

[ducman69]

The Ron/Carol episode was just uploaded.

So per usual, another hoarder has a cat (what is up with almost all hoarders on this show having cats), but this one really rubs me the wrong way.

She can't stay in her house, so for six months she has been living in a compact pickup truck. Well, get this, while I usually support indoor cats, she has restricted her cat to living in the truck as well. And when she's not there, she puts the poor cat in a little cat carrier and its meowing all pathetically to be let out.

As I've said before, almost any home is better than no home for a cat so I'm not too picky, but this is definitely one of the homes where I would say they have a moral obligation to rescue her cat. I've seen far too many shows already where the hoarder didn't even realize there were cat skeletons found under the garbage.

 

[denice]

I heard one of the clean-up guys, Matt, explain what he thought was going on with the cats. He called it easy love. They have pets there to love and feel as though they are loved by the pets but the pets make no emotional demands on them. He also said that they only recognize a few of the cats as theirs, the rest either belong to someone else or they are strays.

 

[ducman69]

With all of the hoarders having cats...

Here is a little switch on that, where this time its the cat hoarding! Be fun if they brought that psychiatrist from the show in to talk to the cat, and make Dusty start throwing away his prized junk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDX7t...rec_grec_index
"Dusty has apparently stolen more than 600 items from his San Mateo neighbors over the years."

 

[parsleysage]

After consuming like 12 or 13 episodes in a 3-day period, I had to stop watching. Some of those stories really stayed with me and showed up in my dreams, lol. I want to watch some more, but I'll have to do it in moderation and follow it up with something warm & fuzzy.