Oh, goody. Hoarders is on tonight.

G

GeorgiaXplant

Well-known Member
Location
Georgia
I always feel so much better about not vacuuming and dusting when I watch Hoarders. I think tonight's show is the last of the season. Are the seasons getting shorter or is the time going faster?

On Monday nights I have to stay up later so I can watch the rerun of Anderson Cooper's show. But...Hoarders...who can resist a train wreck?
 

Sometimes I do, too. Their compulsion is to keep everything; my compulsion is to unload as much as possible, then arrange everything into either very neat dirt or a very clean mess. You can imagine what a challenge it is...
 

These shows remind me of Roman's cheering/laughing at other people's pain and suffering in the Colosseum.

The only upside is that the people featured get some form of payment for putting their situation out there for people to laugh at and judge.

Where I live we have a couple of real-life examples of hoarders. One man has so many quirks and idiosyncrasies that it takes most of his day to deal with them. He even goes so far as to remove the license plates from his car when it is not in use for fear that someone will steal them.
 
GeorgiaXplant said:
I always feel so much better about not vacuuming and dusting when I watch Hoarders. I think tonight's show is the last of the season. Are the seasons getting shorter or is the time going faster?

On Monday nights I have to stay up later so I can watch the rerun of Anderson Cooper's show. But...Hoarders...who can resist a train wreck?
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I've watched Hoarders, a few times, and found myself labouring to breathe.
 
I find these shows disturbing. Sure it makes just about anyone feel better about themselves after watching these shows but these people are getting exploited in trade of having their junk sorted through and removed one way or another. They have agreed to do it but I can’t imagine how embarrassing that would be for them after the show. I end up feeling embarrassed for them even though I understand it’s for their own good.
 
Keesha said:
I find these shows disturbing. Sure it makes just about anyone feel better about themselves after watching these shows but these people are getting exploited in trade of having their junk sorted through and removed one way or another. They have agreed to do it but I can’t imagine how embarrassing that would be for them after the show. I end up feeling embarrassed for them even though I understand it’s for their own good.
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For the people who are older, I just can't imagine being a child of them. It would be crushing and even debilitating to me to watch and know.
 
Aunt Marg said:
For the people who are older, I just can't imagine being a child of them. It would be crushing and even debilitating to me to watch and know.
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There’s got to be a lot of embarrassment. How could they not? I remember watching one show that was actually called ‘Holmes Does It Right’ which is about home renovations not hoarding. The woman was a hoarder though and I guess they made a deal with her that they do the work only if she agreed to have professionals over to help her destash all her stuff. They couldn’t do the work that needed to be done until they moved some of their stuff.

The brickwork under their windows hadnt been done right and was crumbling apart. Anyway these professional hoarder helpers 😅 came over. There was about 20 of them and within two days they had that house clean and tidy. What a huge transformation. The woman struggled for a while but then EIGHT dumpster trucks left their house all single file. It takes guts but she did it.

The other day while surfing the channels I saw part of a hoarding show about an older couple who were breaking up and her husband and her children were all harassing her to throw stuff out and the poor woman looked beside herself, like it was too overwhelming for her. Her husband kept threatening her with the fact that she has to clean all her stuff out because they had to sell the house. I wondered how she’d feel living in that same neighbourhood after the show aired.
 
Keesha said:
There’s got to be a lot of embarrassment. How could they not? I remember watching one show that was actually called ‘Holmes Does It Right’ which is about home renovations not hoarding. The woman was a hoarder though and I guess they made a deal with her that they do the work only if she agreed to have professionals over to help hide destash all her stuff. They couldn’t do the work that needed to be done until they moved some of their stuff.

The brickwork under their windows hadnt been done right and was crumbling apart. Anyway these professional hoarder helpers 😅 came over. There was about 20 of them and within two days they had that house clean and tidy. What a huge transformation. The woman struggled for a while but then EIGHT dumpster trucks left their house all single file. It takes guts but she did it.

The other day while surfing the channels I saw part of a hoarding show about an older couple who were breaking up and her husband and her children were all harassing her to throw stuff out and the poor woman looked beside herself, like it was too overwhelming for her. Her husband kept threatening her with the fact that she has to clean all her stuff out because they had to sell the house. I wondered how she’d feel living in that same neighbourhood after the show aired.
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I do agree, lots of embarrassment and shame attached to such a lifestyle, yet so hard for them to let go. Poor people, I do feel for them, but I just know how I am when it comes to having an organized and clean life, and things have to be right for me. If there's so much as a magazine left on the kitchen counter I twist, so I fel fairly certain that hoarding will never make it's way into my life or world. :)

By the way, I seem to remember the Holmes Dies it Right show, where Mike, and his work crew tackled the home you speak of.
 
Aunt Marg said:
I do agree, lots of embarrassment and shame attached to such a lifestyle, yet so hard for them to let go. Poor people, I do feel for them, but I just know how I am when it comes to having an organized and clean life, and things have to be right for me. If there's so much as a magazine left on the kitchen counter I twist, so I fel fairly certain that hoarding will never make it's way into my life or world. :)

By the way, I seem to remember the Holmes Dies it Right show, where Mike, and his work crew tackled the home you speak of.
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Yes it’s definitely for their own good and these people know what they are doing. I actually smile when the show is finished. Mike Holmes Makes it Right and that house looked fabulous when he was finished. Every room was cleaned. They got new windows, new roof, new floors and band new kitchen and fireplace. It was stunning and it was done late fall so when they finished there was a first snowfall which made everything magical looking.
 
Watching tonight's episode. I watch it a lot. Gets me to clean. I found it interesting a couple weeks back when I had the dumpster and a few friends here to get rid of a lot of the 30 years of accumulated stuff that is not coming to apartment with me. Furniture, old clothes and just stuff. I felt like I was in an episode of the show.

I am far from a hoarder, but I pretty much sat there giving OK to get rid off or keep.

The cleaning expert, Matt Paxton, wrote a book called The Secret Life of Hoarders. A good read. As a Social Worker I am always interested in the mental health issues that bring them to this point
 
Keesha said:
Yes it’s definitely for their own good and these people know what they are doing. I actually smile when the show is finished. Mike Holmes Makes it Right and that house looked fabulous when he was finished. Every room was cleaned. They got new windows, new roof, new floors and band new kitchen and fireplace. It was stunning and it was done late fall so when they finished there was a first snowfall which made everything magical looking.
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A happy ending to a sad situation.

One Hoarders episode, I actually broke-down watching it, because I felt the woman's daughter was being way too harsh on her, and it was after that where I quit watching the series.

I could never have treated my parents like that, as frustrating as it may be.
 
It interests me, too, Marie. What I can't understand is why the family/friends of the hoarder can't get it through their heads that the hoarder's problem really is all in their head and have the idea that they can just throw everything away...then everything will be all better. It just doesn't work that way, at least not for the hoarder! If it were only a matter of throwing everything away, they'd have done it themselves before it ever turned into a hoard.
 
Aunt Marg said:
A happy ending to a sad situation.

One Hoarders episode, I actually broke-down watching it, because I felt the woman's daughter was being way too harsh on her, and it was after that where I quit watching the series.

I could never have treated my parents like that, as frustrating as it may be.
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When I cleaned my parents house up I didn’t tell them about all the stuff I threw away. My dad was trying to convince me that the rolled up carpet full of mice $hit wasnt really all that bad. 😝
There were a couple time’s when I had to fight back with them for their own good. For instance, the subsidized nursing service was going to be pulled if their place wasn’t cleaned up but they didn’t see the problems or the mess. A week or two later their doctor paid them an unannounced visit to make sure their house wasn’t in condemnable condition and told them he was surprised at how good their place looked.

retrospect what I was actually doing was enabling them to stay where they wanted to but it’s REALLY tough knowing your parents body’s and minds are dying and there is nothing you can do about it. It was the hardest thing I’ve had to go through in my life.

Sorry. There’s that attitude again. 😝
 
Keesha said:
When I cleaned my parents house up I didn’t tell them about all the stuff I threw away. My dad was trying to convince me that the rolled up carpet full of mice $hit wasnt really all that bad. 😝
There were a couple time’s when I had to fight back with them for their own good. For instance, the subsidized nursing service was going to be pulled if their place wasn’t cleaned up but they didn’t see the problems of the mess. A week or two later their doctor paid them an unannounced visit to make sure their house wasn’t in condemnable condition and told them he was surprised at how good their place looked. in retrospect what I was actually doing was enabling them to stay where they wanted to but it’s REALLY tough knowing your parents body’s are minds are dying and their is nothing you can do about it. It was the hardest thing I’ve had to go through in my life.

Sorry. There’s that attitude again. 😝
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Nothing wrong with a little tough-love from time to time... I've always been a supporter of such, but coming down on an older person like the woman did in the show I watched, boy, was that ever upsetting.

Your folks are so lucky to have you.
 
GeorgiaXplant said:
It interests me, too, Marie. What I can't understand is why the family/friends of the hoarder can't get it through their heads that the hoarder's problem really is all in their head and have the idea that they can just throw everything away...then everything will be all better. It just doesn't work that way, at least not for the hoarder! If it were only a matter of throwing everything away, they'd have done it themselves before it ever turned into a hoard.
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It’s a mental disorder. They don’t see the stuff the same way others do so the idea of reasoning it out is almost possible. The mental disorder has to be addressed before any advances can be made . I think that’s why there are teams of professionals who do this cause it’s too hard on the family to do it alone.
 
It's not so much that it's too hard on the family as it is that the family can't be objective. It takes a "disinterested third party," that is, someone who can see the whole picture because they're not emotionally vested in it. The word that comes to mind is gestalt.
 
GeorgiaXplant said:
It's not so much that it's too hard on the family as it is that the family can't be objective. It takes a "disinterested third party," that is, someone who can see the whole picture because they're not emotionally vested in it. The word that comes to mind is gestalt.
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YES! Yes! That’s exactly it. We know all the excuses and all the reasons their house is the way it is but we also have the emotional baggage that went with it. That’s exactly right. Professionals don’t get caught up in the family dynamics or drama. They are there to get the job done no matter what. The excuses don’t work as well with the professionals so less emotions flying. Lol
Good point. 👍
 
I wish there was a follow-up show that caught up with the hoarders a year or two later. Hoarding is like alcoholism. You never become an ex-alcoholic, just a recovering alcoholic. The desire never leaves you; you just learn how to resist the desire.

I imagine the recidivism rate for recovering hoarders is pretty high. As in alcoholism where you can't have "just one drink....that's all I'll have", a hoarder who's been through "cold turkey" can't "just buy a couple of figurines, and those two purses and that chair and then I'll stop".

I definitely could be a hoarder if I didn't keep a tight rein on myself.
 

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