Hoarders

As someone who has seen mental illness in my family, I should be more sensitive to these things.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collyer_brothers

 

My parents had a down-the-street neighbor that hoarded food, containers for food (pizza boxes, chinese take-out boxes), urine and feces. The lady died when, living outdoors in a tent because her house was so full of shit and piss and boxes, she contracted pneumonia.

She was relatively normal if you talked to her on the street, and she had a cover story for the tent saying she was refurbishing some old furniture and didn't get it all done in the summer and fall.

They had to demolish the house it was so messed up. It's still one of the most bizarre stories I've ever heard.

 

Aren't we dealing with a couple of different things, though? It's one thing to save every copy of Time magazine, but another when you're storing rotting food and creating a health hazard.

The magazine hoarder probably really believes someday he'll have the free time to get around to those issues. An adult should know that package of Oscar Mayer bologna is going to reek and be useless in two more weeks.

I even understand the crazy ladies who have 90 cats in the house. They can't stand to see them without shelter, and they bring them in, even though on some level they realize it's far from ideal for anyone involved. At least they're doing thinking they're saving a life rather than holding onto a decaying pumpkin.

I can understand the compulsion to hoard prescription bottles or paper towel tubes (they can be used for stuff!), but the idea of having rotten food or dung in the house is a whole different deal.

 

This was awesome.

And no, 93D, Clean House is on the Style Network. It's with Niecy Nash from Reno 911. She's great, no matter how much my dear darling Danielle Fishel makes fun of her on The Dish.

 

Did anybody see the episode with the guy who collected beer cans, among other things? Interesting to see that side of hoarding as opposed to the episodes where it's just pure filth in the house.

 

Just got done watching that one on the DVR. The guy is on the brink of bankruptcy but won't sell anything from his "valuable collections." And I thought it was interesting that he had 50,000 beer cans but said he'd only had one beer in his life.

My mother in law is very close to the border of hoarding. We were there for Christmas, and it's just out of control. We couldn't take anything out of our suitcases because every drawer was stuffed with crap and every square inch of flat surface was covered in stupid shit -- bunches of dried flowers in little vases, candles, framed needlepoints of why teddy bears make the best friends. The whole house is like that. You could put damn near everything in her house on a card table at a garage sale and sell it for a quarter.

She has at least 200 plastic totes in closets and the basement, filled with god knows what. And did I mention the place smells like an ashtray? When she dies, her kids are going to have to spend six months of their lives just going through it all. Either that, or my preferred solution: a can of gas and a match.

 

I'm going to go with D.

 

I am a little curious as to how some of the networks come up with ideas for shows. Maybe there should be a show about how they come up with shows.

 

Same way they come with ideas for movies.

 

OK, I have seen that. They sell shit to buy shit for people.

The BBC version is two ladies cleaning up filthy, flithy homes.

 

already the line of the night -- How do you form an emotional attachment to an empty bottle of hot sauce?