[music playing]
I'm Ann, and I really love Christmas.
It's just a lot of fun.
People come over and they ooh and ahh over your trees,
and you take joy and pride in knowing that you did that.
It's a creative thing.
But we don't have people over for Christmas anymore.
We can't because we have so much stuff.
[music playing]
I'm Scott, and Ann is my wife.
This house is absolutely a disaster.
It honestly looks like Christmas just
threw up all over the house.
I haven't taken down the decorations
myself for, I'd say, roughly seven or eight years now.
I can't get to them because of all the other stuff
that is in the way.
The kitchen is completely covered in boxes,
and mail, and just debris.
You can't use the bathroom downstairs.
There's a path that goes through all the stuff
that she's purchased in the house.
It's horrible.
And it just keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse.
[music playing]
I love shopping.
Working at the mall, you're there,
you don't have to drive anywhere to go shopping.
You're already at the mall.
And it just builds up.
That's why it's so messy.
A hoarder working in a retail store in the mall
is basically like an alcoholic working in a bar.
She can't control herself.
She spent roughly $60,000, $70,000 easily
on bath products and purses that are just sitting
there in bags around the house.
[music playing]
She just gets hysterical.
Whenever I throw things out, she would
go and get them out of the trash and bring them back in.
I do want to get it cleared out to a point,
but I want to make sure that I keep
what I want to at the same time because it is my stuff.
It is my house.
I feel like she's prioritizing her stuff over my health,
that I should just watch where I'm going.
I told Ann that if she was not going to clean up, that I was
going to end up just leaving.
I'm at my wit's end.
I can't take it anymore.
[music playing]
Good morning, everyone.
I'm Standolyn Robertson, a certified
professional organizer.
I'd like to start in this room.
Tell me what I'm going to find.
Purses and beauty products and the Christmas, obviously.
OK.
The harder you work, the more we can get done.
OK.
OK, let's go.
[music playing]
What I'm seeing is a compulsive shopper.
I mean, to have a house so filled with perfume,
lotions, makeup, clothes.
That's all impulsiveness.
[music playing]
None of this is stuff that you even need to survive.
This is all luxury.
So why don't you just start making
decisions of what can have new homes
to make someone else happy?
Keep, keep, keep, keep.
I thought the plan was you were
going to tell me what could go.
OK.
Um, keep, keep, keep.
Just tell me the ones that are going.
Donate that.
How do the donates feel?
Does it feel good? - No.
Why does it feel hard?
Because it's brand new product, and I spent my hard
earned money to buy it.
Is it fair to say when you bought it, you didn't need it?
I still like it, and it might be a good deal.
Is it a good deal?
If you can't walk in your house, is it still a good deal?
Well, no, not if you put it like that.
Well, that's the way I want you to think.
Is it a good deal if it smells sweet and looks good
but it's in the middle of my relationship?
Yeah.
If you don't absolutely love it, it can't stay.
What's unique about this job, it's so many little things.
We're talking about thousands of bottles.
It would take her years to go through that.
Unless she turns over some of the decisions,
we won't get this done.
Keep, keep, keep, keep.
[music playing]
I can't even stand in this hall at all, not
without standing on something.
Scott's been a lot more emotional today.
He was so angry, he was like shaking.
It's such a waste, $30 bottle of lotion.
Wow.
And there's one, two, three, four of them right--
just five of them right there.
I mean--
That whole rack had thousands and thousands of dollars.
Oh, easily.
OK, I have someone all lined up to take it, OK?
OK, all right.
- Be really careful. - You got it?
Yeah.
They have so much stuff in their house
that it is sucking the life out of the family.
In order to pull off a project of this magnitude,
we need Ann to give us decisions we can make without her.
We have to get this done, and I need you to help me figure
out what that strategy is.
What's our plan?
The tubs that are upstairs that have all the old stuff
that we emptied out--
STANDOLYN: Right.
We're dumping all of it.
Once she fills those up, all the other stuff just goes.
With the bath stuff, yeah.
Candles don't go there.
She's going to get one box of candles.
And then once that box is full, done.
I want to be able to walk in front of my bed,
and I want the Christmas trees gone.
I want them gone.
And you're OK with filling the box and being done with it?
Can you just give me a minute please?
Please?
Can you just tell us what's going on?
No.
I just want a private moment please, OK?
[music playing]
This is one of the main goals of this project
is to get the trees down.
Yes, ma'am.
What will that mean to you?
Freedom from Christmas.
[music playing]
Taking down the Christmas tree was absolutely phenomenal.
I'm so glad to see the house without Christmas.
It feels like an actual house again.
This is staying.
That's a nutcracker candle.
I bought it to go with that candle holder.
[music playing]
SCOTT: Ann, no more candles.
No, that's for decor.
It's nutcracker.
I'm very aggravated.
I set her guidelines-- you get one box of candles.
And now, she's saying that she wants
to keep other candles, which is just defeating the purpose.
I want that.
You upset?
Yeah.
It's very aggravating.
So that's a snapshot of what you're
going to be experiencing.
This is an opportunity, with our support,
for you to practice asserting yourself,
and insisting she let it go.
Yeah.
All right?
OK.
The candle, it needs to go.
No, that candle is staying.
I gave up the other candles that were sitting there.
No, no.
I give up.
Fighting a useless battle.
It's OK.
You did OK.
At this point, I'd like to throw the candle
across the room, but.
The other thing you could do is you could say, look,
this isn't about the candle.
This is about our relationship.
And if you care about our relationship,
you'll let go of that candle.
OK, all right.
OK, here he comes asking about the candle again.
Maybe the two of you can not talk
about the thing a little bit.
Maybe the two of you can talk about what's going
on in between the two of you.
I mean, how are you feeling about Ann's choices?
It does affect our relationship, it does, with all the stuff.
That's been said.
So I don't think one candle--
I think you're getting hung up on something.
OK, all right.
- Are we agreed? - We're agreed.
- OK. - OK.
I'm trying to get Scott to actually assert himself,
and he just couldn't do it.
If he's not able to set limits around her stuff,
he's not going to be able to manage
his safety in that house.
STANDOLYN: I thought we were taking Christmas down.
Yeah.
Is this what I think it is?
No.
I thought we were gonna-- yeah, it is.
It's a candle.
Things are not going as we expected,
so Dr. Tomkins and I really need to come
up with a plan B for Scott.
I want to give you your own room, your own bed,
that's safe with a clear path.
We want to give you a place to defend.
OK, sounds great.
--from the stuff.
That sounds great.
I love that idea.
All right, so it's really important for you
to kind of stand your ground.
You're not asking for a lot here.
I'm not.
That's not too much to ask, to be able to have a space.
- Right. - Bust a move.
All right, let's do it.
We're going to give him his own room.
At least he'll be safe there.
But the battle for him is going to be the relentless protection
of that room from Ann's stuff.
His life depends upon him asserting
himself and protecting himself in this home.
[music playing]
We're at the end of the day.
Our team has done a pretty good job of clearing some space.
Yes.
So right now, just having the freedom
to walk through the house, that's
the luxury that you have now.
I think it looks great.
STANDOLYN: It looks great now.
Right now, yeah.
There's only one concern, and that is the amount of stuff
that's out on the lawn.
This is stuff that I either need
to go through on my own time or I want to keep.
So is the plan that we'll just have paths on the first floor?
It may be.
Rome wasn't built in a day.
Enjoy this for a few minutes, and then I will bring
in a team to fill it back up.
At the end of the day, it wasn't a total success,
but I feel like we've created some space for Scott.
If he feels empowered to be in charge
of that space, who knows what will happen in the future
as he gets his voice.
I'm very disappointed to see the stuff that
went outside coming back in.
But I'm going to stay.
I feel safe in the house now.
There is actually a clear path for me
to be able to go to the bathroom,
for me to be able to go to bed and get up in the morning,
without hitting anything or stepping on her junk.
And I won't let her take over the house
like she has done before.
She will not do this again.
[music playing]