Hoarders

I was fascinated when Oprah featured a show about hoarders a few months back.  There was one woman who lived in a house full of so much stuff that, once emptied, it filled two giant warehouses.  Not only were these items filling every room of her house from floor to (almost) ceiling, it was costing her thousands upon thousands of dollars.  Completely unbelievable.

I decided to check out the season premiere of Hoarders on A&E this week and, again, I was shocked.  This time the woman lived in utter filth and decay.  I don’t even like to think about it.  Underneath the piles in her living room, they found two dead cat carcases.  Yes, UNBELIEVABLE.  So I decided to TIVO some  episodes.  I was hooked.

Why can’t these people just THROW THINGS AWAY?  They have disgusting, rotting food in piles on their kitchen table and they can not bring themselves to toss it into the garbage can.  The organizers who visit these hoarders sometimes need to wear “space looking” suits and masks because of the awful smell and potential danger.  These hoarders don’t notice ANY OF IT.  Plus, many of these hoarders have obsessive buying habits too. They can’t resist a sale or things on the clearance rack, so they keep bringing home more stuff to add to the piles. 

I am really fascinated because I am pretty obsessed with being neat and organized.  Sure, my master bedroom closet is in disarray right now, but I basically spend the day making the kiddies put back their toys. And I’m always Clorox Wiping something.  I never hold onto anything we don’t need.  I love to donate to Goodwill or toss things out.  I just don’t have room for clutter in my house.  Clutter would make me feel claustrophobic and just, plain yucky.

One compulsive hoarder said she used to be completely neat and organized.  She said she would stay up until 3 AM every night just to straighten her house.  But the stress of keeping everything clean and orderly threw her out of whack and she did a complete 180.  She is now a hoarder. 

It is a true mental illness.  These hoarders can’t tackle the mess.  It’s too overwhelming and debilitating for them.  One woman tried to clean up, but she spent the entire day trying to clean ONE bathroom.  She had to touch and look at every old shampoo bottle or piece of paper.  One couple lost their children because of the unsafe environment and they STILL could not clean it up.  It really is eye popping television.

After watching a Hoarders marathon the other night, I had to run back to my master bedroom closet to start cleaning and organizing my piles.  I could not get all those Hoarders images out of my head.

And I probably should be keeping my eye on Annabel too.  (Hee.)