I haven't quite been able to figure out why, but this is one of my favorite shows. Its fascinating and yet heartbreaking at the same time.
I had a friend that once rented a trailer from me and she was a compulsive shopper and hoarder and no one would ever know how she lived, unless you actually witnessed it. I realize now, its a type of illness and its hard to understand the "why's". Especially when they don't have a working kitchen sink, shower, or toilet.
But....many times after watching it I will clean out something and find it really easy to throw stuff away !

lavon you're right..it is fascinating to see and makes you look around to see if you've reached that point..then you feel so good you havn't, lol...

how sad your elders lily, became so reclusive...did they ever attend family events in other homes?

my grandmother's homes were always very clean, but from living thru the depression and the sand storms in kansas, her pantry was always stocked...she used the food so none went to waste, but it was as if she needed that reassurance...

My brother and sister-in-law bought the former home of a hoarder. The house was built by a wealthy physician in the early 1900's and his daughter lived there with her husband until his death. She lived there alone and the house was full of beautiful antiques and sooo much more. She never went into the upstairs part of the house, it was too full, and she slept on an old mattress in the dining room of this near-mansion. She died when she was hit by a car as she crossed the street and the auction of the house's contents was held over two days. I don't think it was full of garbage, just antiques and stuff. Anyway, it's becoming a gorgeous house now, after many years of work. Since it had so little use, the woodwork and everything was in great condition, just painted odd colors, etc.

I also saw some clips on the internet about people who hoard annimals. Some of these are shown on animal plannet. On woman had like 37 cats. loved babies etc Three bedrooms, one for food, one for litter boxes, one for cat beds--guess she slept on the couch along with too many. She saw nothing wrong. That too is sad.

There was a pair of sisters that hoarded animals, Marie, they were just a few miles from me. They had cats, dogs, goats....all in a doublewide.

I wonder what causes people to hoard? Fear of being without something? Are they over compensating for another area of life that they feel they are lacking something?

watching this show ALWAYS inspires us to clean house and throw stuff away LOL! i would never watch the animal hoarding shows i just can't. my dad told me in june that someone who rented a house from him that had passed away last winter and had been a longtime funeral home employee was apparently a hoarder :-( he also has a longtime renter who started w/ 1 apartment and now has 3 apartments is also a hoarder... i don't know what he's going to do, he doesn't need (or want) to rent the places out but he'll never be able to sell till the places get cleaned. ~ liz

The show I saw profiled a couple of cases and each had had a loss and they holding on the "stuff" was to prevent another loss.??? Makes no sense to me, but to them it did. And the show does make me want to throw out. But I don't have junk sitting around, just went to too many auctions over the years.

I have a friend who had this problem...the HAd is only because she lost her house to foreclosure and is really trying to to let this happen to the rental so the house isn't bad that I've seen.

She lost her Mom, Dad and Son PLUS husband cheated on her and they divorced PLUS she lost her job because het boss said she couldn't get her head out of her a$$ over loosing her son (Okay with a boss like that...no los in a big way, but income!)

Anyway she just wouldn't clean. A group of us went in one day and cleaned out for her (From what I've now seen, this isn't the best solution, which could explain why it had to be done twice more over the next few years). OMG. Her car..HER CAR..took 5 black garbage bags to clean out. I love her dearly (she was one who'd let people into her houseso there was a difference)...but I hate having her ride in my car. Now my car isn't immaculant by any means, but comeon, if you had a pop in someone's car would you just throw the cup on the floor when you were done...WHEN THEREE IS EMPTY CUP HOLDERS??? You cannot put your feet on the floor of her car. Her house had "stuff", but also just garbage that wouldn't be taken out.

I don't understand it either, but suffice to say it is a horrible disorder.

Vickey

I love these shows. Makes me feel not so bad-my house is nowhere near as bad as theirs. In five or ten minutes I can pick up and make my home fairly neat. And I don't have trouble getting up stairsdue to stiuff blocking the way. These shows are like watching a train wreck. I feel good when they clean up and the people have a nice place to live.

I watched that show a couple times. I wasn't interested in watching it after that because it kind of seemed like the same thing every time - a person who is obviously not mentally well in a house full of stuff - just wasn't entertaining for me. I was left wondering what level of desperation would lead to people going on TV with this situation. The whole thing is incomprehensible for me. Can't understand what goes on inside the mind of someone who does that or how their families can stand by and live like that without intervening. It's horrendous. The closest I have seen is my inlaws - they just never threw anything away but during their younger years it was all kind of tucked out of sight most of the time. My FIL died in his 80's (MIL was in a nursing home) and I can remember going in his home for the first time in a long while in his later years. We saw him at least once a week but he spent time with us at our home so I hadn't been in his house in a long time. Things has accumulated all over the place. There were just little paths to get through and stuff piled all over. It's quite a project when the kids had to go through all of this when he died. Unfortunately my DH has similar tendencies - doesn't throw anything away. Eventually I take matters into my own hands though - we will not have a hoarder situation as long as I'm alive and able.

I've seen this show a few times, but this is not the show that leaves me feeling "Wow--at least my house is not as messy or disgusting as their's." It's not a show that anybody should feel (for lack of a better word) "superior" after seeing. Because there's just no comparison here. These houses are a side effect of a mental disorder. We have the power to change things--for them, it's nearly impossible. And you might see a cleaner house at the end of the 60-minute show, but the odds are stacked against them that it will look that way the next week, the next month, the next year.

If it makes you want to rush around your house and clean or declutter, well, whatever gets you through the day, I guess.

All I'm saying is that "Hoarders" isn't even in the same category as "Clean House" and the old "Clean Sweep" kinds of shows--those are the ones I can get my "Oh boy, gotta go through that closet and finally put together that Goodwill bag!" feeling.

I really have come to the point where I hate seeing this show on. Its akin to some show that would have you looking in on a facility for the mentally disturbed. Do you stare at the emotionally or physically disabled? Maybe "Hoarders" is designed to breed compassion for the less-fortunate, or to educate people that if you've walked into this situation, you can't just hand the person a box of jumbo-sized trash bags and help start tossing stuff into them, that the situation is more complicated than that. I dunno, but it seems to me that the only thing the network wants through it is ratings.

There was a local news story a few weeks ago where a father had called 911 to say that his 8 year old son was missing. When the police arrived at the home they found that the father was a hoarder. The boy was found sleeping in a room but could not be seen because of the mess of "stuff" piled everywhere. The boy was removed from the home and put in foster care. It's pretty sad when you can't find your own child amongst your mess.

Wasn't there recently a story about a woman who died amongst her stuff and they didn't know where she was? I think a huge stack fell on her. Finally the body decomposed and they tracked the smell. My aunt, who has the problem to a far lesser degree ,clipped articles from the paper making notes on the top. Looking at them I had no a clue why they were relevant to her. Some dated to the early 50's. And she had a log noting when anyone called her..time and extend of conversation. Yet it wasn't rational the way she did things. We had to break into a 1930's locked blanket chest because we didn't want to send it to auction maybe stacked with money There were 1930's bathing suits and bathing caps in there and YET precious family pictures and a quilt made by her grandmother were carelessly tossed in cardboard boxes which had dampness problems. My aunt, who always was my favorite, obviously had mental problems, never diagnosed, and isolated herself from everyone who could have helped her.

I'm probably going to sound mean and cruel and heartless, but I can't watch shows like that, whether it's Hoarders, Intervention, et al. It's not that I don't feel sorry for those poor folks, but I just can't wrap my brain around the very real fact that they know there's something terribly wrong and yet they just won't seek help unless it's (most of the time) forced upon them. I don't understand it, I don't get it and frankly, I don't want to. If I wanted to understand it, I would have become a psychologist or psychiatrist.

I have a cousin who is like that...and yes...before this started she lived through a trauma. This is one of the cousins I go out to eat with once a month. She is the oldest. I think she turned 79 this year.

She is always clean, dressed very nice, and always has her hair done at the beauty shop.

Her kids have been in there and say that things are neatly boxed and piled to the ceiling. even on her bed, except on the side where she sleeps.

before the hording she was drinking wine. I'm glad she stopped the wine drinking.