I'm Laura.
If I had to pick a yes or no for whether or not I'm a hoarder,
I would say no.
I'm John.
I'm Laura's boyfriend.
Laura's definitely a hoarder.
The house, it's a mess.
Laura's got crap everywhere.
I'm Angelina, and Laura is my mom.
In the house, there's Tupperware, there's paperwork,
there's clothes.
It's like a giant mess.
I'm Janet, and I'm Laura sister.
It's really hard to go there and be comfortable.
I love my sister, but Laura cannot accept
responsibility for the mess.
The convoluted reasons that she gives about the hoarding
are just delusion.
I am like a frustrated perfectionist.
I can't clean until I can do it right,
or do it all, in my timeframe.
JOHN: I used to get upset on a daily basis about the house,
and it always resulted in a screaming match, which
wasn't doing anybody any good.
I love him.
I just don't like him very much.
JOHN: I'm pretty much living in the garage.
I thought it was better, you know.
I've outfitted it with, you know, cable and TV,
so it's kind of half man cave, half garage.
And it's pretty much one place in the house
that's a clean, semi-normal environment.
I don't like that Laura and Angelina have to share a room.
Angelina should have her own room.
But I like her in there.
I like her sleeping in the bed, because I
like to know she's there.
I love my mom.
I guess I'm a mommy's girl.
JANET: Angelina's very influenced by Laura.
I think she would actually like to have her own room,
but when you grow up in that type of an environment,
it's her normal, and that's what's sad.
JOHN: I've said to Laura that I will not live this way anymore.
If it stays this way, we're done.
LAURA: I would be more than happy to give
him the clean, perfect life he wants,
but he doesn't compromise.
I feel like he doesn't love me and wants to control me.
But he's her dad, and I want to be able to look her in the eye
and say, I tried everything I could humanly,
possibly do for us to be a family like you should have.
I just don't think there's anything wrong with me.
I just feel like I'm just off-course.
I just want to feel healed, you know, not perfect, not fixed.
That's the last thing I want to feel is "fixed."
DOROTHY: I need my junk team.
Junkers, I need you over here.
This is it.
I'm Dorothy Breininger, and I'm a professional organizing
expert and I specialize in hoarding.
We are up against a house full on the inside and outside.
And then there's two individuals who are at odds.
But the most important thing here is a 14-year-old girl.
We're here for a reason.
Angelina, at 14, you deserve, at this age
now, to have your own space--
yours and yours alone.
So that's our mission, to help you get that space.
And I want to get started, and we're
going to start bringing it out.
Justin, I want it to right here.
We're going to hit the carport, hit that backside of the house,
bring it all forward and have her start going through it.
All of this stuff, just start pulling it down.
You're just going to lay it all out so she can see it.
LAURA: Just throw it out, yeah.
DOROTHY: Everybody is working on their assignments,
and we're motoring through it.
I wanted to go in the kitchen.
Are you gonna be able to see what he's done?
OK.
I'm done.
I'm tired of him.
You know, this was supposed to be all about me
so that I could feel safe with the stuff that I have saved,
that I wanted to have.
MELVA: The only things that have been released
are the things that were trashed.
LAURA: No, that's not true.
JOHN: Do you want to see what I did in here, by the way?
LAURA: No, I don't want to see what you did in here.
I don't want to talk to you, I don't
want to deal with you anymore.
JOHN: Isn't this what you want? - Not anymore, I don't!
JOHN: Are you telling me that you
wanted it to be the way it was?
LAURA: No, I wanted to take all of my mugs and my cups
to my cupboard.
All of your mugs--
I kept out some ones I thought you would use on a daily basis.
That-- this box and that box in there
are all the rest of them for you to go through and decide which
ones you want to keep, OK?
LAURA: I want you to not touch my things,
not think about me having them and you using them!
Go away!
MELVA: Nope, nope, nope.
Nope, nope, nope.
You don't care about anything of mine!
JOHN: No, you don't care about anybody but yourself.
Let me have the space for things that we use on a daily--
Fine, you can have the space--
No!
On a daily basis!
Take all my [muted] out.
You don't need any of my [muted] in here.
JOHN: You could have done that 10, 15 years ago.
Yeah, I know.
But you chose to force me to not
be able to put away everyday items in the kitchen that
need to be used.
LAURA: Really, because when I empty this bin, what would
you put in there?
JOHN: I want it to be a functioning house, not--
LAURA: Well, I don't want to be functioning with you.
JOHN: Not-- LAURA: I'm done.
It's your house.
You're going to do what--
when they leave-- - I am going to do what I want.
--you're gonna be you anyway--
Because you know what, I [muted]----
--you're gonna do the same.
--to be functioning.
I'm not going to do this anymore.
LAURA: Whatever.
OK.
I want everybody to take a deep breath.
You're not going to fix this.
This is not going to be better.
MELVA: No, this is not about fixing it.
What I want is for everyone to be clear.
Because what I'm hearing is some line drawing in the sand.
What's the bottom line?
Bottom line for me is I'm not--
I'm not playing this game anymore.
MELVA: Laura, what did you hear him say?
It's all about him.
It's always about him.
What did you hear him say?
JOHN: I got to get back to work.
I'm not going to let this opportunity
slip through my fingers by sitting here and arguing.
(SOBBING) I can't do this anymore.
I'm tired of getting rid of stuff
that means something to me just because I live in his house.
I am so done.
The more I throw away, the more people throw away for me,
and the clearer it gets, this is not my home.
I don't know about her, but it's not my home anymore.
You're not trapped.
You're at a crossroad.
OK.
Boxing it all up, taking it to your little,
say, apartment or something while you
guys work on this relationship.
This is not good for Angelina.
It's not good.
I know.
DOROTHY: Yesterday, Laura said I want
to have everything boxed up.
I want to have it put in storage.
This is the last day, and it is important that all of us
are on the same page.
[sobbing]
Talk to me.
I know that's really hard, and you
know what, it's very hard for all of us,
because we do care about mom.
But she needs to get better, you know?
I understand that, but I just don't understand why you
guys have to talk bad to her.
Come here, give me a hug.
I understand.
I want to apologize to you.
You all right?
You know, and that's kind of one of the problems
that mom needs to work out.
You know, you just don't know how much she's kept us apart,
you know?
You and I don't get to have, you know,
a regular father-daughter relationship.
MELVA: Laura has a tremendous amount
of influence on Angelina.
And John has identified the bond as something that
has been an impediment for him developing a relationship
with her, and it's something that he's saying that he's
ready to do something about, that he's looking
forward to building a relationship, a deeper bond,
with Angelina.
ANGELINA: I just felt that he understood how I was feeling
this entire time a little bit better,
and it made me feel better that he understood.
So it's coming together.
Huh?
Yeah, it sure is.
Yeah.
Crazy.
Bittersweet.
What do you mean?
JOHN: Because I have to be firm about how things go
from here with Laura, you know?
I've got to follow through, stick to my word, you know?
Walking in and seeing everything clean just
underscores, you know, the pain I
feel for everything I've learned and have to say to Laura.
Hey. - Hello.
Hey.
MELVA: John wanted to share something with you about sort
of the expectations moving forward
so that you are able to be very clear about your next moves.
OK?
The process to-- you know, took me to a new
place I've never been before.
The house is clean, but there's--
there's more to it than that.
I think that we are just too volatile
together at this point, and I just
can't see anything changing.
And unfortunately, that means for the sake of myself,
the kids, and yourself included, one, I agree to pay
for the storage for two months.
And the other thing is you need to find another place
to live within a month.
I don't know what else to say, you know?
MELVA: This has been a big, big, big step for John.
Coming to the realization of what
he needs in terms of his own boundaries
and his own sense of self-respect.
Sometimes the hardest decisions are the best decisions.
Yeah.
OK?
And it may feel like it, but this is not a failure.
If you are able to give yourselves what you need,
you can give Angelina what she needs.
I agree.
Oh my god, it's pink.
MELVA: Angelina having her own room is vital for her,
in terms of learning her own boundaries.
This is your space.
You do not have to share it.
You have every right to be selfish with your space.
You know, if John and I never come back together,
she'll have a place here.
She'll have a place with me, and that will be up to her.
JOHN: Angelina having her own room
is the best result of all this.
LAURA: John's going to do what he's going to do,
and I gotta do what I gotta do.
He gave me 30 days to find another place.
You know, I love him and I care about him,
but as much as he can't do this anymore, I can't either.