[goat granny]

You should watch Hoarders sometime on satellite....they even find dead animals under the piled high crap...one woman lost her kids but was really sad then they took her dogs and cats away...something like 50, with feces piled throughout the garage and house...

The one I watch today, they use shovels to clean up the place and took out 8 tons of crap.....rotting food, toilets black, with paths to walk throught the house....beds that had not been used it years because of the garbage on them....a real eye opener..

[proudofthesouth]

I've got a neighbor who is a Hoarder. She is an extremely nice woman but you can't even take one step into her place because every square foot of floor (and every where else) is covered with something. A few weeks back I had my washer/dryer replaced and happened to mention to her that I do about 4 loads of laundry a week. She was astonished and said that she rarely washes anything.

Now I admit that my place is cluttered. I'm not a neat freak. But slowly but surely things are being organized in my own home.

What frightens me about my neighbor is that we both live in a row of attached townhouses and (God forbid) she ever has a fire. The whole building will go up in flames.

[Tuscaloosa Goldfinch]

There’s a website called Childrenofhoarders.com, or .org, I forget which, but it’s a support group for the offspring of these people. Often it’s the adult children who time after time try to get their parents’ places clean, only to have them re-stuff their houses.

[Graybeard58]

You should watch Hoarders sometime on satellite.

I watch it on regular cable.

[Graybeard58]

I posted a story a few weeks back about a woman in Connecticut, who lost her life in a fire because the firemen couldn’t get to her because of the “clutter”.

[PetroniusMaximus]

Hoarders Augustine Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kSAu20ABQw

[notaliberal]

I watched that last night. It made me sick, especially when the found dead cats, yes, dead CATS under all the garbage. And I was getting worried about hoarding paper grocery bags (I had about 50). After watching one of those episodes, I threw all of them away!!!!

[Hoosier Catholic Momma]

My husband and I watch that show regularly—I noticed that about that woman too—she seemed more upset at the animals going than the children.

I’ve had people remark that you couldn’t tell we have four kids because I keep the house so clean. I can’t stand clutter; every couple of weeks I go through and sort through the papers that have piled up and either file or throw them away. I purge stuff on a regular basis and make the kids do a ‘toy purge’ before Christmas. While I’m not anal about cleanliness and clutter (with four kids, who can be), I try to keep it to a standard that I would not be completely mortified if someone dropped by unexpectedly.

I’ve often thought about going into professional organization, but I’m not sure I could deal gracefully with the hoarders. I’d just want to throw stuff out!