[music playing]
I am Lydia.
I am a homemaker.
I grow up in Puerto Rico, up to 16, 17.
And I came to New Jersey, and I've been here all these years.
My name is Michael, and Lydia is my mom.
My mom keeps everything.
You know, it can be a screw.
It can be a pin.
It could be, you know, a box, a bag.
Angels, figurines, knickknacks, ornaments,
little birds, little dollies.
Oh, flowers, forget it.
I go bananas.
My name is Anthony, and Lydia is my mom.
I know she keeps family photos, childhood arts
and crafts that we've created.
All my childhood stuff is there.
I am too sentimental.
Maybe that's no good.
I don't know.
MICHAEL: The house wasn't cluttered when I was little,
you know, when I was a kid.
You know, there was space.
We had the sofas, living room.
We could run around the house.
But it was after me and my two brothers started leaving,
and all the stuff just started adding
up, adding up, adding up.
I think she's got that empty nest syndrome
or something like that.
[non-english speech]
MICHAEL: It doesn't matter how you are or whatever,
but your mother doesn't stop loving you.
You know, she'll always want to take care of you.
And, you know, I'm pretty sure she's going to be there now.
You know?
[suspenseful music playing]
I was walking out of the house, and I just
lost all complete feeling in my legs.
I called my mom.
I said, mom, I can't--
you know, I can't feel my legs.
I can't walk.
LYDIA: I took him to the emergency room,
and they said that he has an infection on his leg,
but went up to his neck.
And from there, now he cannot move at all.
He have to come here.
He has nobody else.
I'm Gregg Frank, and I am the Occupational
Therapist/Contractor.
It's my job to let the medical team know whether or not
the condition is safe.
Michael can't go home right now.
First of all, you can't get in the front door
or the back door.
There are obstacles inside the doorways.
There's pieces of furniture.
There are boxes, things that are going to make it so that you
and I could walk through there, but you can't take a wheelchair
that has a 25-inch span and propel it
through there without running into an obstacle.
MICHAEL: If they don't let me go home--
they, you know, want me to go to, like,
a nursing home facility.
Now unfortunately, there aren't
facilities for people his age.
And if they put him in one of those old people nursing home,
he's not going to have the care that he's getting living here.
No, I don't want to go to a nursing home.
No, I'm too young for it, you know.
Nursing homes are for older people, you know?
And I'm just going to be bored out
of my mind in a nursing home, go stir-crazy or whatever.
He is depressed.
MICHAEL: There are days that you get aggravated,
frustrated, and you just--
you don't want to blow up.
I don't want him to go to a nursing home.
He's going to be more depressed.
Morning.
ALL: Good morning.
My name is Matt Paxton.
I'm an extreme cleaning specialist.
We're here for one reason and one reason only.
We want to get Michael back into this house.
Lydia's son is still at the hospital.
He's supposed to be released within the week.
Unfortunately, they cannot release him to this house
because there's no way that wheelchair can get
in and out of any of the doors.
You're probably really nervous, very anxious.
I know you're feeling very protective today
of your mother.
ANTHONY: The hardest part for me is seeing my mother get
emotional or getting upset or crying because
of what's going on in the home.
Those are all good feelings.
OK?
Oh, here's Mikey.
Oh, look at that.
Very cool.
[music playing]
MICHAEL: I think my mom was crying because she misses me.
You know, she wants me home.
She's, I don't know, excited and worried,
I guess, about what's going on today.
OK so this is the room that's going to be Michael's.
Here are trophies.
Now these are the trophies that your friend had given to you.
LYDIA: Mm-hmm.
I can put this up in the garage.
No, hold on.
We need to make some tough decisions here to save space.
What would happen if you let this go?
Will hurt me.
GREGG FRANK: Why?
Because those are sentimental to me.
Your love for her, her love for you is not in these items.
They are up here, in your head.
That will never go away.
I think it's more than just these trophies and
her connections to her friends.
She gets stuck to even think about parting with things
that she has a sentimental attachment to.
The challenge here is, there's this box of trophies
that you're very attached to.
But the conflict is, we also have
the situation where what's so important to you
is having your son at home.
And the two things wind up in conflict with each other.
Your friend-- if we said to her, listen,
one of the things we'd have to do
is get rid of this box of old trophies for Michael
to come home.
We need to make room.
Do you think she would be happy with that decision
or supportive of that decision?
I don't know because she was like me.
She was very sentimental.
Did she like those trophies more?
Or did she like Michael more?
Well, I know she loved Michael.
That shouldn't be a hard question.
LYDIA: Are my kids. - Yeah.
LYDIA: But you know.
MATT PAXTON: I mean, this house is a perfect storm of emotions.
This is a wonderful family, a loving family.
So for us, we're going to need to find a balance.
If it is that you need that space to put your stuff so it
doesn't go outside, then just put my bed in the front,
in the living room area.
You know, it's not like I need a lot of space anyway.
You sure?
Don't worry about it.
GREGG FRANK: Is that what you want, Lydia?
MICHAEL: Yeah.
GREGG FRANK: So we're staying in the living room?
This is a family that really loves each other,
and they protect each other.
Michael was willing to live in the living room
just so his mother could keep more stuff.
When the family doesn't push the other one to let go of things,
they actually make the hoarding worse.
MICHAEL: You know, the windows, we can--
the windows.
You can bring down the blinds if you moved
all the flowers and stuff.
Leave in the living room.
LYDIA: Your back pain?
MICHAEL: No.
I get this spasm in my legs, and they get tight, and they hurt.
I love you.
[speaking spanish] OK.
Take it easy, OK?
I can't stay any longer.
My brother left, too.
So I think she's taking it well.
You know, I think she's more scared than anything else,
you know, doing it on her own.
Be careful, papi.
MATT PAXTON: Let's go back over there.
Let's get away from everything.
LYDIA: [sobbing]
Sounds like you are thinking about letting
those trophies go.
But--
They're going to go bye-bye.
GREGG FRANK: How bye-bye are we talking?
On the property out of the house,
or are we talking on the truck?
On the truck.
MATT PAXTON: Really?
Because I think it's fantastic.
But this is good.
This means you're letting--
you're taking the better good of the family above
your own personal knickknacks.
GREGG FRANK: Yeah.
You're taking control back of your home.
MATT PAXTON: That's a good thing.
That was good.
Keep this or let it go?
- Take it. - Good job.
Donate it.
MATT PAXTON: That big piece can go?
Yes, yes. That piece.
Wonderful. Put it in the trash.
- That's it. - Thank you.
Nice work.
[shattering] - Aye!
What happened?
It broke?
All that in the--
MATT PAXTON: That's what we're doing.
We're taking everything out of there.
Unfortunately, because there's so much glass,
things are going to get broke.
When something breaks during a cleanup,
it becomes an immediate item that you can really focus all
the anger and all the blame on.
It really has nothing to do with the item.
I said, I have a lot of knickknacks.
And you're right.
You do have a lot of knickknacks.
You also have a son that is paralyzed that is moving
into that room very soon.
There's no way to get around that anymore.
We have to empty that room for him to come home, period.
[music playing]
Yes, it's trash.
1, 2, 3.
That's all we got.
Dude, a lot of space.
How are you?
[inaudible]
MATT PAXTON: I never thought those trophies would leave.
That was amazing.
You know, it's a big change.
You got rid of stuff, and you got me here.
MATT PAXTON: This whole--
It's a good trade-off.
MATT PAXTON: Check out to your right.
That whole room is empty now, too.
Wow.
MATT PAXTON: So you'll actually--
That's a lot of space.
MATT PAXTON: You won't be just stuck here.
Wow. She did it.
She got rid of stuff that she was
holding onto for a long time--
years of stuff-- to get me in the house.
I didn't think-- to tell you the truth-- it was possible.
But she did.
She did, you know--
she did real good.
You guys did a tremendous job.
I'm sorry about your vase.
Thank you for letting us in your home.
Sorry about that vase.
GREGG FRANK: This is just the first step.
Lydia still needs to clean up that bedroom.
Michael needs his own space, and hopefully she
will follow through with the aftercare
and start cleaning out those other spaces.
But I think we got done what was essential at this point
in time.
Thank you, mom.
I love you.