[theme music]
Hi, baby.
It's OK.
I'm Cynthia.
I'm a health care provider, a mom, and a grandma.
I'm not here at my home very much.
I work a lot.
And when I am here, I'm usually just here to eat or sleep.
I'm AJ.
And Cynthia is my mom.
She's got bird feces everywhere.
She's got mold in her sink.
Last time I did her dishes, there were maggots.
I do dislike it when someone knocks on the door.
I only have a couple family members that come.
Not even all my family members really know
or have been in my house while it's been like this.
I'm Laura, and Cindy is my big sister.
Yeah, I think Cindy has a hoarding problem.
Part of it, I believe, is from when we were growing up.
It definitely started with my grandma.
Hoarding definitely runs through my family.
I think my mom started hoarding because she pretty
much lost everything she had.
I feel like this house is so important to me
because it's the first house I feel safe.
And I know it's not in a great condition,
but I feel safe here.
Everything changed when my mom got sick.
I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease.
And it is a disorder of the thyroid.
So it affects organs, tissue.
It affects everything in the body.
She couldn't bathe by herself.
She couldn't go to the bathroom by herself.
She couldn't get out of bed and get dressed by herself.
So I had to pick up a lot of the slack.
It was never the same after that, ever.
She changed as a person.
And-- sorry, it's hard for me to talk about.
All right.
Good morning to everybody.
My name's Matt Paxton.
I'm an extreme cleaning specialist.
This is the first time I don't really know where to start.
There is absolutely no space in this house to move.
I don't know if I'm going to get it done.
I don't know where we're going to put this stuff.
But at the end of the day, this house has got to get clean.
Your health depends upon it.
All right. You guys ready?
- Ready. - All right.
Let's do it.
All right.
What are we looking at?
A lifetime.
A lifetime of stuff.
Yeah.
It is jam packed in here.
This is the space we need empty today to be able to keep
anything else in the house. - Yeah.
Try to figure this out.
And there's a lot of kids' clothes in here and stuff.
And those we want to consignment or whatever.
OK.
So we can put those in bulk bags for kids.
Yeah.
Well, I want to just look quickly.
MATT PAXTON: You still got to sort quickly.
Just quickly, I want to look through them.
All right.
Let's move over here.
This is what happens.
This is why I have to be careful in the garages.
Oh, yuck.
- You see all-- - Yes.
--this mouse poop up here.
I knew.
Like, this, we gotta toss.
If they poop, they also pee.
And so urine's all down in here.
If it's covered in plastic, that's fine.
You're welcome to still look through it.
I just wanna look, yeah.
But I'm not gonna let you keep anything
that's got mouse [bleep] on it. - OK.
OK.
When I see this much poop, that also means
you want to see an awful lot--
I know--
--of mouse droppings.
And that-- it is what it is. - I know.
This is actually rat, not mouse.
And they're putting all that stuff in bags,
and I've not looked through any of that.
Yep.
I have to push you a little more.
I know.
You're keeping too much, and you're touching everything.
I'm going to buy more.
That's the problem.
MATT PAXTON: Well, then I'm going
to pack up and go right now.
But this is-- this is Malaysia--
Time out.
If you go buy more, that's like me hanging out at an AA meeting
and someone says-- CYNTHIA: I know.
--well, I'm going to go drinking.
CYNTHIA: I know!
That's a slap in my face.
I know, but I'm trying--
If you go buy more, there's no point in me paying
all these people to be here.
CYNTHIA: I'm trying to be realistic--
And I'm trying to be very realistic.
--about what I need to keep, and it's not working right now.
When you look at the amount of rat poop
I'm pulling out of here, this house is not sanitary.
And she's still saying, I might do this craft
or that craft or this craft.
I might do this.
But her plans are covered in rat piss and poop, period.
Stuff is going to have to go that you want to keep.
I don't know what to do.
All my skill sets aren't working.
I'm going now.
MATT PAXTON: Where are you going?
I don't want to be followed, and I want to be left alone.
MATT PAXTON: That's fine. You can run away from me.
It doesn't change the fact that this stuff is covered in piss.
It's a fact.
This house is really unhealthy.
We've known it, but no one could see it.
And now I found the source.
I found the mouse and the rat right next to each other.
Cynthia, I need you inside for a minute.
And I need my client to see it.
Let's go in here real quick.
Oh, my god! Oh my god!
I can't. I got to get out.
I got to get out.
[sobbing]
Calm down, OK.
You've got to stay calm, remember?
I can't believe I'm living in this.
I'm going to take care of it.
You don't need to go back in there, OK?
I had no idea.
I wouldn't-- I wouldn't have even been in this
house if it was like that.
Seeing the rats and all of their poop,
it reminds you how unhealthy a hoarding situation can be.
I wouldn't have been able to stay here.
Here's the deal.
We're keeping the house clean to avoid that again.
- Yeah. - And to keep you healthy.
Yeah.
I don't-- I don't ever want to be any place that has that.
OK.
Never.
This is so incredibly dangerous for Cynthia.
She has immune deficiencies.
If we don't clean this house and keep it clean,
this is going to build right back up.
And it absolutely can kill her.
I never will have to live like that again, ever.
And I can't believe I was living with it.
And I just-- I didn't know.
This problem, hoarding, is very complicated.
It is very complicated.
There isn't any one thing that contributes to this problem.
It's usually many things.
It is not necessary for you to figure
out how you got to this problem to know how to move ahead.
- Trash. - Got it?
Yep, got it.
MATT PAXTON: Well, what do you have here?
Oh, my goodness!
Whoa!
MATT PAXTON: You have a new couch, a new love seat.
How did you manage that?
There are no rats in them whatsoever.
The house is sanitized.
Everything has been wiped down.
Walking into it today, it was wonderful.
I just hope she keeps going on this path and doing better.
You let about 8,000 pounds of trash out.
The reality is you threw away more
than we even thought you would.
We did solve the health crisis.
We got rid of the things that were dangerous for her health.
My mom has a house again.
And that's really exciting for me
because she hasn't had one for so long.
And I'm so happy and thankful.
It's pretty amazing.
Wow!
I'm missed seeing my bed like that.
I get to wake up tomorrow morning
and just have a whole, brand-new fresh start.
I love it.
I love it, love it, love it.