Do You Watch the Show "Hoarders?"

I could have written what you did my story is so close. My grandma would also save everything, including the plastic butter containers. She kept everything in piles and piles. But, she always kept places to sit on the couch, and paths in the house. Actually she would put everything in neat boxes. And then stack boxes on boxes on boxes all the way up to the ceiling. She would sometimes mark what was in them, but mostly she had "areas" for different things.

We never really classified it as a mental illness because she had lived through the Depression in North and South Dakota, where she lost her dad at like 8 and so her mom had to provide everything. She then had to swim out of the Vanport Flood and almost didnt' make it.

So, she lost everything twice. It just made sense that she would keep everything, but I have noticed hoarding tendencies in at least 2 of my aunts and mom, and even an odd attachment to some things.

But, I love to watch that show, and my husband hates it, which I think is so funny because he is really comfortable in clutter!

Occasionally. It hits close to home. It's very depressing. From a family member's POV it's very hard to deal with someone who is suffering from hoarding.

I watch it. No hoarders in my family. But it makes me feel a lot better about my house! LOL!

I do watch the show often and am amazed that people can actually live like that. And it is heartbreaking to see when someone does come to help them clean up, that they can't let go. Even something small. There was a woman one time that had dead animals (birds, I think) in her freezer and she couldn't let them go. Unbelievable. Anyway, no I am not a hoarder, I like to throw stuff away. Just ask my husband. Many years ago, we bought a house for an investment, it was a friends mom's house. She had died in the house, and her daughter wanted nothing to do with it. When we went in, yep, she was a hoarder. We would find bags and bags of milk jug lids, or peach pits, or those little wire bread wrappers. Odd things. It was really sad the things she was clinging to. Very interesting too.

Oh MamaBird, thanks for posting this! My mom is a hoarder, and it's been very h*** o* our family. We always had a lot of 'clutter' and stuff in the house when growing up, but I wouldn't say it was out of control. Once us kids all moved out on our own, her hoarding really took off. And you nailed it, hers is tied to depression. She couldn't deal with her kids moving out and it just magnified the hoarding.

She is not the rotten food and animal poop kind either. So no bugs, etc. in the house. Just stuff. She keeps papers and craft supplies, mostly. But there is no amount of convincing her to throw things away. We found a notice from the post office about a postage rate increase from the 80s- she couldn't throw it away. We all have a really hard time with this, we would do anything to help her. But we can't do it for her. Before we knew what hoarding was, we would go in and clean an area or a room, but it always got filled right back up, usually more so. She has to want it, and has to delve into why she does it in order to stop the pattern. We've offered to pay for therapy and an organizer, she finds reasons to not go or accept the help. It is terribly sad. We know one day we all have a monumental task of cleaning out the house, but for now we just keep gently encouraging.

I am not a hoarder, and I laughed when I read that after you watch the show, you want to go clean up. I do the same thing!! I'm so afraid that hoarding will 'kick in' and I'll be one. I go and purge a bunch.

There is a website called 'childrenofhoarders.org' that I check out sometimes, for a reality check. But mostly, it all makes me too sad.

I hope your mom gets better. But as you already know, it's up to her, all we can do is be there when they're ready!

OMG I am watching it RIGHT NOW! I had it on while I was making dinner and I just sat down to check in here lol!!!
I'm not sure why I'm so fascinated with this show. I don't know any real hoarders, and I am the COMPLETE opposite, I am getting rid of stuff all the time, I hate clutter of any kind. I actually find it calming and soothing to clean out the fridge, or reorganize my kitchen cabinets. So maybe I'm just fascinated by the other, the opposite, the (very) different :)
ETA: people like that DO exist, I have been in a few homes in my lifetime that look just like what they are showing on TV, twice as a kid and once as an adult. It is horrifying to see and the stench is something you can't imagine :(

I watched it once. I had a son that worked for a company, "Got Junk", that was a sponcer. He said they would add "junk" to some homes to make it more interesting if they didn't have enough "junk" for the un-"reality" show.

During and after the filming of the show they woud help haul "junk" away.

No, I would never watch the show if my son wasn't on screen.

BTW, Lots of people are hoarders. Some of the things people hoard are more acceptable than others. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet hoard money. They have Billions of dollars. I'd like to hoard some of that too! Mickey Rooney hoarded wives and Elizabeth Taylor hoarded husbands and boyfriends. I know men that hoard guns and women that hoard men/boyfriends. Fort Knox hoards gold bars. It all depends on your point of view.

Good luck to you and yours.

I don't always watch the show, but I did last night.

My neighbor is a hoarder. She even goes through other people's trash. If you take something outside to organize or air things out, she will ask if she can have them. Or...outright take them. You can't even walk a pathway in her house. Why she would want OTHER people's garbage is beyond me, when she doesn't get rid of her own.

I know someone else who won't throw certain things away. She'll keep vitamins and cold medicine, and strangely enough, salad dressing, even though it's expired 5 or 10 years ago. She insists it's still good. An unopened bottle of Scotch might improve with age after 10 years, but vitamins or salad dressing? I think not.

I've really had to downsize over the years and often feel like my house is cluttered. Watching "Hoarders" made me realize my house is immaculate in comparison. Not perfect, but I'm not afraid to throw garbage away or get rid of things. I have some pretty cool stuff and I give it away as gifts. Yard sales are a lot of work. Instead of getting a couple dollars for a beautiful cake plate, I gift it. It's gone and I saved money on a gift. It works for me.

There are certain things I will never part with. They were handed down to me and will ultimately go to my children. But day to day getting rid of things, like cleaning out the refrigerator or throwing away old food, I can't imagine letting that pile up.

I do think that people who hoard do so because of some loss they have sensed, as if getting rid of something might signify that they will somehow do without or not be able to get "more" of something.

What I wish the show would do is have follow-up episodes so we can see if people have reverted to their old ways even after all the effort to clean and organize and help them.

Just my opinion.

I watch the show when I need something to make me go into psychotic cleaning mode. Nothing makes me clean harder and faster than watching 10 minutes of that show. I love hate the show. Have not watched it in some time. My father is a "collector."

Ha, I'm watching Hoarding: Buried Alive right now! I also enjoy Hoarders and Animal Hoarding. Watching these shows always makes me want to clean! Even though I have an extremely organized home. And I own onoy what I need and use. I do not know any hoarders. But both my parents refuse to get rid of things. My mom's house is cluttered with too much furniture. Someone once told me my home looks bare. Ironically the person who said it was an animal hoarder with a messy home.

I watched it, but then found a macabre fascination. These people are suffering, and their friends and families are suffering along with them. I think the show is a bit exploitative. I stopped watching.

F. B.

I see my Aunt! You can barely walk down the hallways of her house or sit down because of the boxes a bags of stuff! She is very depressed and it has gotten worse over time!

I can see also that my Mom and I have a tendancy to save things, I am working to correct my problem and encouraging my mom to follow my example.

I have seen a couple episodes but I do not regularly watch it b/c I think it is just too sad.

I do not have any hoarders, like in the show, in my family, besides *maybe* my Aunt, to a certain degree, she did have a whole little backyard storage shed that was filled with coupons? but that was it, the house itself was fine, a little cluttered but nothing like the show... but as a kid (probably @ 10 y/o) my Grandma's neighbor died and we had to go in and help clean out the house and there were piles upon piles of old newspapers and magazines EVERYWHERE! There was a path from the front door to the kitchen and the whole living room was just newspapers and magazines all bundled together with twine. Looking back I imagine the whole house was this way and maybe it was worse in different rooms, I don't know? My Grandmother only had us kids help with removing the newspapers and magazines (this is why I think maybe the rest of the house was worse?) and she did the rest of the house herself.

Oh yes, mama bird. I have had dealings with a hoarder. This person lived through the depression and never wanted to let anything go. She never saw her stuff they way others did. She wasn't a dirty hoarder but in the end you could barely find a plug in that wasn't in use. She had scads of clothes in closets with the tags still on. You had to sleep in a bed with 6 covers on it because there was no other place for the blankets. There were dressers with medicine in every drawer. If anything was free she took tons of it.
She had and still has more stuff than she could ever use. She would much rather have her stuff than her family. So no, I don't believe they can be forced into getting rid of things. I can only watch snippets of the show. You can't change crazy.

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I tried once and I truly gagged!! I have worked in surgery, picked maggots from living animals and have had to cut dog's heads to be sent in for rabies testing....that show is just too much for me.

I just kept thinking "where is her family??"

I have watched it from time to time. I have known a few people in my life. I've even had to sleep in their houses and it was awful. Back then they weren't called hoarders, as you said. The ones I've known were pretty darn filthy but didn't have piles to the ceilings, but di have piles upon piles and pathways throughout their house and junk everywhere. They looked like they hadn't cleaned in years. I have cleaned out the house of two different hoarders way back when, it's awful. I knew they must have something happening with them to be this way and that life must have been pretty sad for them, I also thought they must have given up and must some how just ignore everything around them. No one talked about the mental illness of such then.

No. I watch TV to help me escape from life, relax, and make me happy, not bring me down via other people's pain.

I had to smile when I read this question, Mama. I know that might not make sense - it's a serious subject and watching just a few of those shows made me feel a little sick to my stomach.

The reason I smiled is that I did a big "dump" this summer of accummulated things we really don't need anymore. I've been wanting to downsize for a long time, and finally did it. I have the bug to do more, but I'm exhausted mentally from doing it. I've seen some people's homes where everything is perfect, like looking at a show house. I'll bet their closets and drawers are just so too! I'd like my closets and drawers to look like that! Why don't I just do it?

It's so boring to straighten, straighten, straighten, that's why I have trouble. Had I the compulsion to straighten like the hoarders have a compulsion to hoard, I guess my house would look like those show houses! Then again, I think they call that OCD, and maybe I don't want to "feel" that way.

I only watched a few of those hoarder shows. They're truly too depressing to watch (and stomach turning.) But maybe watching a few episodes helped me get rid of more things than I would have! I'm working on my office now, trying to throw away papers. That will never be finished, I'm afraid!!

Smiles!
Dawn

Hoarders is one of my favorites! Mo co-worker and I classify ourselves as level 1 hoarders. I always start cleaning right after and sometimes during the show, which is bad cause its usually late at night!