I wonder if maybe her problem was hoarding, and now she’s suffering from dementia or a similar problem, such that she can’t really figure out why all the stuff is everywhere, and invents reasons why things are so screwed up.
I haven’t dared watch yet. At least with a lot of the other episodes, there was some kind of hope. This sounds utterly bleak.
I haven’t watched it yet either, and am a bit daunted at the prospect. I love clean-up shows partly because I identify with the people–I’m always battling my own cluttery tendencies and I worry I’ll end up like that. The shows serve as awful warnings and cleaning inspiration for me.
But this Hoarders show–I feel much more like I’m using mental illness as entertainment. I don’t identify with them at all. I’m just horrified and sad. At the same time, though, my in-laws are sliding down the hoarding slope, and so I wonder if I’ll be in the frustrated-relative position sometime soon. So I still watch, but I don’t exactly feel good about it.
I get where you’re coming from, but the cleanup shows I’ve seen feel too cheery for me to get any real warning from them. There’s no real danger, no filth or vermin, everyone wants to change (at least, until it comes down to their obnoxious but beloved item being tossed, at which point a game is created to inspire them), all is well in the end. With this show, there are always dramatic and terrible consequences lurking.
Many years ago, I had a bad depressive period where just my bedroom in my apartment got very cluttered and messy. I wasn’t quite leaving food around or that kind of thing, but I slacked on so much that it kind of scared me. These days I just have some clutter lying on and around some surfaces, but things are good. I’d like them to stay that way, and serious reminders of what people do are useful for me. I hope that potential hoarders/starting-up hoarders may see this show and at least have the seed planted that Things Are Going Awry, and that they should do something.
I can see part of me in this quote, too. My husband’s parents are extreme hoarders. Most of the houses they show on the program are no worse than my in-law’s house, even though it’s just the two of them living there now.
In fact, the episode with Betty (which also happens to be my MIL’s name. . .) having her husband removed by emergency rescue, and being told he couldn’t return until the place was cleaned up. . .I could totally see that happening to them. My FIL has had a number of heart attacks. So far, thank God, they’ve been able to get them to the hospital in the car.
But what happens if they have to call the paramedics, and the paramedics are tossing crap out of their way (because you literally have to step over piles of crap to get to their bedroom) and report the house?
I get that, being in their 80s, they are both “children of the Great Depression”, but they are also both extreme acquirers. With her: decorative items (Depression glass; silverplated crap; candlesticks-she has hundreds and hundreds, and will buy a new set she doesn’t even like because she doesn’t ‘have a pair like that’; and yards of fabric and skeins of yarn, even though it’s been years since she could even get into her sewing room). With him, it’s electronic crap. He’s a HAM radio operator, and a retired electrical engineer. He has no fewer than 14 non-functional television sets in the house because you never know when you’re going to need a part from one to repair another one! And you dare not mention throwing away a microwave oven in his presence. He wants it! It may be old enough to have a magnetron in it! He’s got dozens of magnetrons by now, and what in the world he plans on doing with them all, heaven only knows! Oh, and also, he will not throw out anything with “the written word” on it because Hitler burned books! (Yeah, try to follow that logic!) So their sofas/chairs, etc are piled with stacks of magazines and newspapers, and every room is lined with bookshelves that are all stuffed with books, including crap like Halequin romances! In their living room, there is one available seat, which he sits in to watch the little 9" TV on the coffee table. In their “TV room”, there is one seat, in front of the computer desk. Their kitchen is all but unusable, and they pretty much exist on frozen prepared meals (which doesn’t stop them from hoarding groceries!) that can be nuked. They eat their meals and spend much of their time in their bed. 
I tried to talk to MIL about it once. I told her “Look, your husband has had three heart attacks; with a heart attack, every minute counts! What if the EMTs are trying to get him, and it takes longer than it should because of all the stuff in their way?”
Her response? “They’re professionals; they know how to deal with this situation!”
A couple of years ago, they did a reverse mortgage on their house and cashed out a lot of equity; with part of that equity, they bought two sheds for the yard, one for each of them. The plan was to get their crap out of the house and into the sheds. Didn’t happen. Before that could be accomplished, they’d acquired enough new crap (mostly at yard sales, flea markets and ham-fests) to fill the sheds to capacity!
I’ve no doubt that some of their collectibles, antique furniture, etc. are worth some money. But seriously, if nothing catastrophic happens before they die, we’re gonna have our work cut out for us after they die!
Actually, on occasion, I prefer them that way. Some types/brands are much better or worse in that regard, though I can’t remember which is which.
Think about it for a bit, baloney/bologna (at least the cheap kinds) are probably hotdogs very close cousin. Nobody freaks out about “raw” baloney. Well, at least not the raw part 
My ex-husband, who was a hoarder, died a couple of weeks ago, and I shudder to think what someone is cleaning up right now. The lady who had power of attorney brought us a half-finished Lego set from the house because she thought my son would want it. It was in an open cardboard box, and so smothered with dust and hair you could hardly tell what it was. We took the stuff out in the woods to clean it before we brought it in the house.
I sometimes watch Clean House despite the shrill/obnoxious hosts, but they had World’s Messiest House, and it went beyond messy. There was clutter but also used dishes and pots and pans left out, food garbage piling up. He had a back problem (which somehow didn’t prevent him from picking up every box of Free from the side of the road) and claimed this kept him from being able to clean. I was ready for a more light-hearted version and ended up with quasi-Hoarders.
My back hurt and prevented me from changing the channel…
Well, I don’t watch Clean House or Clean Sweep–I’m more into Kim and Aggie, who are definitely dealing with scary filth. (CH is obnoxious, CS is OK but too long, too much yard sale and home dec. I like the cleaning part!) Yes, K&A are funny, but there’s plenty of scare in there. I’ve never heard of World’s Messiest House, should I watch it?
It also helps me to have something the kids can watch; Hoarders is too horrifying for kids. I don’t watch much TV and when I do, the kids are often around.
Well, I caught my first episode last night. Wow.
I wish they had delved more into the thought process that leads to someone deciding that using adult diapers makes more sense than getting the plumbing fixed. Or that tying yourself to a chair makes more sense than finding some spot to lay down. Clearly, there was a lot more going on there mentally than hoarding, though. The psychologist kept saying that she was worried because it was “too easy” and because Judi seemed detached. It seemed fairly obvious to me that Judi didn’t seem mentally engaged with the process because she wasn’t mentally engaged in general!
Judi’s daughter came off very badly. I feel for anyone who grew up like that and has to deal with it now, but she only talked about how it affected her and didn’t seem to have one iota of concern for how her mom was feeling. I guess it struck me deeply because when I had a lot of health problems, my ex-husband would go on and on about how stressed out he was because of it, but never acknowledged or even considered that it was stressful for me too. It was all about him, and it was all about that daughter.
Gail’s story seemed more upbeat and optimistic. She obviously grasped that there was something really wrong about the way she was living, but was simply unable to do anything about it. She also seemed to understand and admit that she had a mental illness. She needs lots of help, of course, but I think a better outcome is possible. She had a lot of warmth and humor, and clearly has a strong bond with her daughters, so hopefully that will help her through.
Besides, I like goats. As long as they’re not eating through my wall.
Green Bean - As you watch more eps, you’ll see the most often the children are just worn out with dealing with their hoarding parent’s disorder. Often their childhoods have been disrupted because of it. They have often tried to help, tried to be compassionate, and finally they’re just tired. You can’t really put a lot of blame on them. the more compassion they give, the more they try to help, the less the hoarder does for themselves.
StG
Yeah, after watching every episode, my sympathy was firmly with CiCi (the daughter).
I couldn’t even stand watching this episode all the way through. As soon as they realized that the feces had completely worked its way through the bathroom floor, I gave up. Was the house ultimately condemned? Or will she be able to sell it?
I believe that they said that it was condemned and that Judi only cleared $5,000 from the sale. I’m surprised it was even that much.
Green Bean, the Hoarders website advertised that Judi’s daughter was going to be on the message boards answering questions, so I went over and read a bit. She said that this was not the first time her mother’s house has been cleaned out. I cannot imagine how demoralizing and frustrating it must be to go in and clean out a situation like that, only to have it happen again and again. From what I understand, this is not terribly uncommon with families of hoarders, either.
Gail’s story was IMO one of the most successful ones we’ve seen on the show so far. She actually managed to get her house clean and the junk gone, and has been continuing with seeing therapists for aftercare. I think there is hope for her.
I suspect it might have been sold for the land.
Like Augustine, I really don’t think Judy’s issue is hoarding. There’s something else going on there.
I watched another one yesterday evening (while folding a basket of laundry that I had been avoiding). It was the one with Betty and Tara.
I definitely did not think Betty’s children came off badly at all. Maybe because they seemed to be trying to find a way to balance their love and concern for their parents with the realities of dealing with the problem. You could see that so clearly in the daughter who was screaming, swearing, throwing stuff around, and eventually declaring “I choose me.” And also in the son who wasn’t at the clean-up. They were trying to move on and make their futures better. And boy did I feel for the daughter who was fighting leukemia and had it confirmed that her mother cared more for a broken vacuum than for her family.
All things considered, the 4 kids that we met seemed to have their heads screwed on pretty straight, and I hope that they can maintain themselves as a family unit even if they have to limit ties to their parents. And I really hope that they have some energy to spare for Trieste, who clearly needs ongoing help, but also seems like she’s trying to do what she can for herself.
Speaking of which, I wish they had shown what kind of progress they had made in Trieste’s rooms. She was kind of a cool character in her way. She did seem to understand that her hoarding was a problem, as we saw when she said “I caught the hoarding bug.” I wonder if the fact that she’s dealing with another mental illness makes it easier for her to accept that she’s also dealing with another one at the same time. Betty, on the other hand, couldn’t admit that there was anything wrong with what she was doing at all.
Like others have said, I’d like to see some follow-up, particularly on Trieste. It would be great to see that she was living independently (or semi-independently or whatever) and keeping some sort of control over the hoarding. Living in that environment must make it so much harder to deal with her own issues effectively.
Tara, on the other hand…well, it seems hopeless unless she gets counseling.
Both segments suffered from not having a psychologist on hand. This isn’t an organization problem. It’s a mental problem. You need the organizer, but they shouldn’t be in charge.
I was watching one of the repeats and I just thought, organize the stuff and get rid of packing materials. There was a big cardboard box with two little toys in it–just organize items themselves, without traumatizing the hoarder by throwing anything out, and it will be a full house but grouped and organized.
But maybe the hoarders thinks they will need the box someday too and can’t even get rid of that.
I find myself talking loudly at the TV!
I watched Judi & Gail this week, and found myself wishing that the show included more of what happens after the initial cleanup. Not with Judi as much, since she won’t be in the house, but are the subjects able to keep the houses clean or uncluttered for a week, for a month? I think I’d feel a little more hopeful if they showed us 'Two months later" the way Intervention does.
The show is hard to watch, but it has had the positive effect of making it much easier for me to throw out things I’ve held onto for far too long.
The part where they implied it might be hereditary was worrisome to me.