A&E Hoarders

[Sarita]

Anyone else watch this show?  It’s so weirdly fascinating to me.

It’s one of those shows where you don’t want to watch but you just cannot look away.

I guess there has to be something in the way these people are wired.  I find it interesting too that they have professional organizers who help them – I mean is this really an organizational problem or something else.  

 

[kralspace]

I do. Especially when I know I need to get up and clean, really kickstarts me. I think some of it is lack of organizational skills and some is an illness. Their mind doesn’t see or comprehend what it sees the same way as a ‘normal’ person so it doesn’t make sense when someone else tries to tell them that ‘that just ain’t right’.

When I get the urge or Mike’s pestering me for another pet I make sure and watch Animal Planets cop show when they go into a house and take out 123 cats and do the chant: that could be me, that could be me…..

[Andi]

I watch it, a lot LOL
I feel so bad for those people, because they are mentally ill.
I’m a bit of a pack rat (so I feel), I like having things that mean something to me, and cannot comprehend EVERYTHING meaning something to me like it is for all these people on the show.

The ones where they find dozens of dead animals (it seems always cats) inside their houses when they clean…. yeah i can’t even think of what the SMELL is like in these places. How could you NOT noticed the dead animal smell and not look to get it cleaned up?
uuugghhhhh….

[Elrohwen]

I watch it too. It’s definitely a train wreck that I can’t look away from.

According to my mom (she’s a psychologist) most of the people with hoarding problems have severe issues with OCD and anxiety – they feel that if they throw anything away something bad will happen to them. It’s totally illogical, but they can’t help it and have a very hard time working past that feeling, especially without lots of therapy and probably meds.

I find it interesting that Clean House (on the Style network I think) also cleans up people’s homes, but they clearly pick the people who are just a bit cluttered and messy, not those with serious psychological issues like on Hoarders. Being a true hoarder is so different than being a bit of a packrat and it’s a really tough disease.

[HatterBunny]

I have never seen this show…but it does intice me to do so!!! 

Kralspace – Those animal cops shows always make me so sad! I saw the Texas one were some lady had two horses (I guess related to a famous racing horse) and just left them in neglect. One of them died but the other got adopted. For her punishment she was only allowed bread and water for up to a week in jail and pictures of her deceased horse were put up in her cell!!!

[Elrohwen]

Wow, bread and water only? I wish all animal abusers were punished like that. In general they get far too lenient of a sentence 🙁

Though I feel bad for the people who hoard animals. Yes, they are usually neglectful, but rather than jail they need to be in a mental health program. You can put them in jail, but that’s not going to help them get over their issues and they’re going to do it all over again. Those people need some serious help.

[kralspace]

Some many of the animal cop shows are so very disturbing, they make me cry and get angry at the same time.

I think they help people to watch for situations like that. Our neighborhood has a couple of small rent houses that people move in and out all the time. Just by a lucky chance we found a nearly starved dog in one of the backyards, the people had moved out a couple of weeks earlier and just left the poor girl on a chain. None of us ever heard a sound from her, no barking, howling, whining to let us know she was there. (tall fences and honeysuckle kept anyone walking by from spotting her)

My neighbor’s daughter went in after a baseball and found her, she was in terrible shape, just skin and bones. They were able to save her and find her a good home, but the police couldn’t locate the previous renters to do anything.

Now when a house goes empty we go check and make sure no animals got left behind. People like that make me crazy.

[kralspace]

Hatter, I wish they were all punished that way, but it might be more effective to post what happened on the fence outside her house. Some people will do anything when they think people won’t find out.

[Sarita]

Oh wow Kralspace – that’s so sad…I just cannot comprehend why they wouldn’t at least take the animal to a shelter and say it was a stray. I’ve heard that alot of the realtors who are the first to check on the foreclosed homes find pets left behind too.

That’s odd punishment of bread and water…I mean it’s not that I don’t think she deserved it, but I didn’t even realize judges could be so creative.

I understand about the OCD but I’ve always associated that behavior with the person who compulsively washes their hands not hoarding but I’m obviously not an expert in psychology or mental disorders.

I need to watch that Clean House series too.

[Elrohwen]

Clean House is definitely more light hearted! They give good advice on how to get rid of clutter (for the average or slightly messy person).

It’s a form of OCD because people feel “I must do X or bad things will happen”. Usually we think of hand washing and light switching, but hoarders just think “I must save everything I got from my parents or bad things will happen”. Or “If I throw out these canned goods and food, I’ll run out of money and really need it”. They just have sooo much anxiety about throwing things away that average people just don’t experience (luckily!). It’s that kind of irrational thinking that’s really the hallmark of OCD. It’s a very tough disease.

[Sarita]

I’ll have to watch the Clean House show too. I’ve heard that “How Clean in your House” on BBC is good too – I’m going to have to watch that.

I have been making a huge point of giving at least 2 to 3 boxes for charity each time I get a flyer in the mail. It feels so good to declutter and not own so much stuff.

[babybunsmum]

i watch hoarders too. it, and other cleaning shows, can really motivate me to de-clutter tho i feel so sorry for the people on hoarders. emotional attachment to ‘stuff’ can be really tricky to let go of. i had a hard time selling my dad’s sail boat after he died… of course not the same thing… just sayin it must be terrible to have attachments to such an unhealthy amount of ‘things’ to the point that its seriously detrimental to your well being. so sad.

[kralspace]

I use the Waco Freecycle website a lot. The rules are you must give something away instead of it going to the landfill and the person receiving it must use it — not turn around and sell it. and you can ask for items.

I love books, but needed to thin them out and this way I felt they went to ‘good homes’ 😉 I’ve met a lot of nice people on there. It’s gotten very popular now and the minute you list an item you get swamped with requests for it, so I usually watch and list until I see someone requesting what I have and contact them. You always have your greedyguts that ask for EVERYTHING but you get to recognize who they are after a while.

As a bet with my gardener friend I listed a large bag of my bunny litterbox stuff and got 35 immediate requests. I’ve given 2 bags away and have a nice list of people who want some. Nice way to spread the poop around…lol

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

A&E is addictive. There’s a Billy the Exterminator marathon today. He’s so dramatic. It’s so dumb but it’s weirdly entertaining too.

The hoarding show and Intervention are super interesting, but they always get to me! I really like to watch them, though. Oh, human tragedy.

[Andi]

“How Clean in your House”

LOVE that show, those ladies are so great! I laugh my butt off and learn many neat tricks on how to get stuff clean. I am also always so shocked when they tests for germs etc. I cannot belive what kinda of nasty bactiria and viruses people live in! I want them to come to my house and do that just to see what an average clean house is like.

My Grandmother just helped a lady clean out her mothers place, the lady was a hoarder. She said there was a fancy chair still in the packaging under all the stuff. I couldn’t imagine living in a condo or soemthing next to one of these people.

There was 500 rabbits seized from inside a home about 3 hours from me i read, and they said the rabbits were all free inside this house, eating through everything. I couldn’t even imagine living that way, and i love my bunnies, but those poops belong in the litter pan!

[Sarita]

Wow, 500 rabbits! That’s sad – I imagine that the rabbits were in extremely poor shape. I helped with a lady who I guess was a hoarder and helped seize all her rabbits – she only had about 60 total though – okay, that’s a ton but it’s not 500. It was extremely exhausting being nice to her – somehow I became her contact point and she would call me and email me while we were gaining her trust to get those poor rabbits out. I somehow forget about her – I guess because it was not a pleasant experience. I can only hope her family kept her in check after that since they were the ones that got us involved. Her rabbits were in such bad shape and there is no way on earth one person can care for that many rabbits. We would separate them and she would put them back together even after we threatened her and she swore there was no bunny hopping happening but we knew she was allowing them to breed. Unfortunately we didn’t have any kind of court order to keep her from getting more rabbits – we kind of just took matters into our own hands – not the best way to do these things though but I’m not entirely sure that the courts would have been on our side.

[Sarita]

I do remember that all her rabbits had the same name too – well not all had the same name but many of them shared the same name – weird.

[Elrohwen]

I know they often impose limits on how many animals a hoarder can keep after they’ve been convicted of neglect or whatever (usually something very low, like 3). But I don’t know if there is anyone who checks up on them to enforce that rule. It might just be in place in case they get caught again so it’s easier to take the animals away the second time, but that doesn’t do much to help the animals if the person keeps collecting. It’s so sad.

[bunnytowne]

You just gave me an idea what to tell my hubby when I go to throw somethign out.   Nothing bad will happen to you after you throw it out. 

He isn’t quite a hoarder but a horrible pack rat.  He picks up things that he thinks someone can use but it so expired or old or just plain junk

The other day he said hey do you want that chair (someone was throwing out)   I told him no I don’t need another chair we have enuf.  He said should  I turn back and get it

I told him  NO  its ok to leave it lol

Hatter that was a perfect punishment   excellent idea and a judge can really do that? Cool.

[LoveChaCha]

500 rabbits? Poor things.. they must have multiplied…

I collect rabbit things… lol

[MimzMum]

Posted By Sarita on 05/05/2010 12:10 PM
  I’ve heard that alot of the realtors who are the first to check on the foreclosed homes find pets left behind too.

                              This is how I wound up with a few of my cats…a friend of mine got foreclosed from her house and her mom was going to just leave the cats there. I was furious and told her they were coming with me. We had many years of happiness together. So for me it was a good thing.

 

                                I admit, I’ve got a cluttered house. But I really long to have a very spartan home, with as few possessions as are necessary to live day to day. Now that both kids are going to be moved out probably in the next few years, I’ll have the chance to dump a lot of stuff that we’ve kept simply because there were ‘memories’ attached. I look forward to having my local salvation army come get a lot of the things that don’t fit anyone anymore, but that I was too busy with other things to set out! ^_^

                                I think for me though, it’s just plain laziness. I have a hard time even getting started cleaning of any kind since it takes more out of me nowadays and my allergies always get bad while I dust and vaccum. Plus there’s always something better to do. lol…like hang out here.

                                But I like a clean house. I’d be happier if someone else were doing the cleaning though.

[Beka27]

So many of these hoarder people do it b/c of the associations with things. It is so sad. I throw everything away (or recycle/donate) b/c I cannot stand excess stuff in my house. We have a small house so every square inch matters. I am very into organization and routinely will go thru cabinets and closets and weed out stuff we don’t need. Something I’ve noticed with these people is that they make it into such a HUGE process… when in reality, it only takes 3 minutes to clean out a cabinet, maybe 20 minutes to empty a closet and reorganize it. It’s all about baby steps. What I’ve done before (summer breaks are great for this) is work on one room a week. Go thru it, organize it, clean every inch. Move furniture around. Donate old things. Next week, tackle another room. I don’t think it’s right that they make these people (supposedly) do all this work in 2 days. That seems far too stressful for people who are clearly ill.

[Sarita]

Beka, I’ve become much more like you. I’ve never been a hoarder or even a pack rat by any means but I realized a few years ago I had way too much stuff so I started packing boxes and boxes up for charity and do a charity box each month. I put something in the box now at least once a week because well, I’m still not where I want to be. I don’t want a bare bone home but I don’t want stuff in every cabinet either. I have a huge set of Wedgewood from my Grandma that I obviously cannot put in the charity box but will never ever use and I plan to put it on ebay to try to sell it this summer – I just have to make sure I can pack it properly so it doesn’t break so it’s not something I want to do without alot of care and thought because even though I will never ever use it, if I sell it I want the person who purchases it to get it in excellent condition. I just hope I can find a collector out there who wants this otherwise I’m not sure what I will do next.

Otherwise I’m slowly but surely getting all the dust collectors gone. I feel liberated not having so much stuff to care for. It’s been a slow process but it’s been worth it.

[kralspace]

Sounds like we’re all making progress. My older house doesn’t have large closets or storage area so I find myself putting things in large plastic storage boxes and I’ve been working through those.

A lot of stuff came came from my parents house and I’ve been going through it bit by bit. My dad had all sorts of movie projectors, screens and accessories from the late 50’s and I was able to find it all good homes through Freecycle. Some people collected that sort of thing, but most had reels of home movies from their parents/grandparents that they’d never been able to look at. I had already had our movies transferred to cds so I gave most of the equipment to a guy who said he would let others come use it if they wanted.

My dad was in the Air Force. It was common to come home and see boxes and know we were moving in the next few days. Each kid was allowed what they could get in one box so I’m good at packing 😉

I like a pretty spartan house too, just because I don’t like spending so much time cleaning. It has helped since my daughter is grown and I’ve been able to sneak all of her stuff to her house..lol. You know, all the stuff they want to keep but not at their place.

I’ve been spending all my time this spring outside working on painting and fixing things up, but with the mosquitoes and heat getting worse by the day, I’ll be back at inside stuff before long.

[Sarita]

Yeah, it’s getting hot now but it’s a good time to work outside while it’s still tolerable!

I have a whole closet outside of those storage boxes I don’t know what to do with – I keep telling my mom, please don’t buy any – if you need them I have them – of course, I don’t want to encourage my Mom to start storing stuff either. Do you think Freecycle might be a good place to find them a good home?

I also have 3 very nice animal carriers that I have to clean up and get over to the Guinea Pig rescue soon. Now that I’m down to 5 rabbits I don’t need all those carriers – I just need 4 total and maybe one for the bird. And 2 puppy pens that once I clean up I have a home for those!

[kralspace]

I’m sure the rescue will be very happy to get those. I had found this article on making hamster bins from plastic boxes when I asked about the hamsters since I have both boxes and hardware wire (my choice of interior decorating) already.

http://www.bitterepiphany.com/bin_cage.html

[Sarita]

Hmmm…that looks like alot of work – do you need on of my bins to make one :~)

I think the crittertrails are around $20 at the rescue if you adopt a hamster – that was much easier for me. And it appears the wheels are not as squeaky on these new crittertrails too.

[Billie]

Has anyone seen the episode about the woman who kept a house full of rotten food? It was fascinating but sad.

I’ve actually met the producer for Hoarders. She said that they are very patient with the people while attempting to help them clean their homes. Just throwing everything out doesn’t solve anything because they’ll start hoarding again. They even provide counseling services and follow up with them later. I always think about the exploitative nature of shows like this, and I think it’s good that the producers are at least giving the participants something in return for airing their dirty laundry.

[Sarita]

Yes, that episode was definitely sad. That’s interesting you met the producer and I’m glad they help them further than the show – you know it cannot be over once they leave. I was watching another Hoarders show where the hoarder was explaining how she functions and what she see’s and thinks and it was fascinating – basically she had not job and couldn’t function at all in the real world too. Her professional organizer (that is such a strange occupation) said it would take years of therapy to help cure her (and medication as well).

[Lintini]

In 20 years you guys are gonna see me on that show.

[BinkyBunny]

Posted By Billie on 05/07/2010 04:12 PM
Has anyone seen the episode about the woman who kept a house full of rotten food? It was fascinating but sad.

Yes.  That show is always amazing to me.  I also watch it (it’s recorded on our DVR!).    And I don’t even know why I watch it as half the time I am horrified by the rotten food and dead critters underneath stuff or at least evidence of critters living underneath all the stuff.   I get very itchy and freaked out, but I can never stop watching it.   I think my brain is just trying to make sense of it somehow.   I’m always searching for HOW and WHY?   I feel just baffled and frustrated with the people who are held hostage and hold their family hostage to all that junk, but at the same time I feel so sad for everyone.   I just can’t wrap my brain around it even if I fully understand it’s an illness. So I think I watch it to figure out that very puzzling illness or maybe it’s like a train wreck and I just can’t look away.  I don’t know…. I’m baffled by why I watch it really. 

[Monkeybun]

Posted By Lintini on 05/08/2010 01:51 PM
In 20 years you guys are gonna see me on that show.

 

Me too. But I’ll be overwhelmed by sock bunnies >.>

[Author]

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