[music playing]
My name is Melinda.
I'm 33 years old, and I'm a teacher.
I live here with my mother and my younger sister.
When you walk through the front door of our house,
the first thing you're going to notice
is the fact that there's just clutter everywhere--
boxes and bags stacked several feet high.
My name is Erin.
I'm 28 years old, and I'm a cashier.
We've collected things probably all our lives in this house.
I am Luanne, and I am Melinda and Erin's mother.
Yeah, I get scared sometimes when I'm in the house
because I get wobbly really easy.
When I first get up I have to watch what I do,
and it's just so hard to even walk through my house.
We have 10 cats in the home with us.
They are anywhere and everywhere.
If we see them make a mess, we clean it up as soon as we can.
They're a handful.
They're-- they're a lot of company.
I think with both my girls, the reason they hoard
is they get something and it brings back memories.
It's some kind of sentimental value.
They don't want to get rid of anything.
I'm not sure why I buy things that I don't need.
I think at the time I convince myself for some reason
that I do need it.
I think, "oh, maybe I can use that sometime,"
and the sometime just never comes.
I acquire a lot of things.
And we buy a lot of repeats, because we'll buy something
and it gets misplaced or gets thrown out.
Who knows what happens to it.
It just disappears, so we buy more.
[music playing]
I probably have sev-- at least several stuffed animals.
I was about 15 when I got my first stuffed animal.
I've always liked stuffed animals,
and the girls like them, too.
And then every time we'd go out, we'd
buy one from a different place.
We have thousands of them.
It's very difficult to live in a house
with three people that have a problem with clutter.
We blame each other for the mess,
even though we all do contribute to it.
If something falls that doesn't belong to us,
we'll blame the other person for bringing it in,
or for setting it in the wrong place, or whatever.
[music playing]
My bones have gotten really brittle,
and that scares the daylights out of me.
Because if I would fall wrong, I'm afraid
I could end up paralyzed from my waist down.
DSS concerns me, because I've been
told that they can actually remove us from the house.
We're not wealthy.
We don't have the money even to stay in a hotel
for a long period of time.
So I'm not sure where we would live if we
were removed from the house.
I don't want to lose this house,
and I don't want our family to be-- to be split up, either.
[music playing]
[knocks on door]
- Hey. - Hi.
- I'm Dr. Wilson. - I'm Erin.
Nice to meet you. Come on in.
Thanks.
My name is Dr. Reid Wilson, and I am director
of an anxiety disorders clinic.
This is my mom, Luanne, my sister, Melinda.
Hi.
This is Dr. Wilson.
So we have a household of-- of three women,
all living together for a number of years, all
collecting a variety of things.
We have a fireplace, but we can't really use it.
Mom, where do you sit?
- Usually over here-- - Uh-huh, uh-huh.
- --on the chair. - OK.
Whose boxes--
We've got a fortress that we're up
against when we look at a very unique situation like this.
We've got three people in the same family
who are all hoarders, and a family history of it.
We don't know the exact percentage of learned behavior
versus genetics.
But we're finding, with a family in a situation like this,
it is highly genetic.
So this is the kitchen area.
Who does the cooking around here?
- I do it. - Yeah?
- Most of it. - Do you--
The kitchen has things piled all over it.
So sanitation-wise, it's a terrible mess.
Do you have access to everything, Mom, or--
It's a little difficult sometimes, but yes.
The environment is not at all physically healthy.
The ability to move through places in the houses
is stymied.
They've got bedrooms that they can't even--
you have to take one giant step in and then
leap over to the bed with a flashlight
in order to get in your room.
Now, you don't have a lot of access to that bed, do you?
No.
I think the two daughters are, to some degree,
in denial about the mother's physical condition
and what the house is doing to her.
A lot of this is clothes for you, not a lot of collections.
It's not all clothes, all my clothes.
It's a little bit of everybody's.
Oh, so everybody's got some?
Yeah, there's some of them Erin's, and then there's a few
things of Melinda's.
At this point in their lives, their mother
has a health problem that needs to be managed,
and their attachment to the hoarding
is keeping that from occurring.
[music playing]
Good morning, everyone.
Thank you for being here.
I'm so happy--
My name is Standolyn Robertson.
I'm a certified professional organizer.
So I'm going to go over a few of the guidelines.
Nothing leaves this property without your permission.
You're going to set the pace for the project.
If you want a lot done, then you got to make a lot of decisions.
Some of the decisions are going to be hard,
but they're going to get you closer to your goal.
OK, gang, let's get going.
Yeah.
Yeah, good.
It's a little bit more complicated
when you're dealing with three people that are hoarders.
What we want to start with is everything
that's open and exposed-- - Yeah.
--and then figure it out.
Worry about the-- yeah.
Yep.
Yeah, we're not supposed to be going through boxes either, so.
It will not be easy, because they're
bringing to the table habits that they've had for years.
More hand sanitizer.
I'm surprised at the amount of hand sanitizer we're finding.
That's Erin.
Yeah.
And what's the fear?
Disease.
OK.
I don't know where the match is to that.
[laughter]
I'm noticing this a lot.
Empty cans.
I'm noticing the empty--
are you saving-- like, is there a coupon
or something you're saving?
Because I'm seeing just--
these just thrown in a lot of places.
No.
How they interacted with each other, how they process things,
it's not going to change overnight.
One of the things I'm predicting
will happen is that there'll be conflicts
between two of the women, or all three of them.
Are you making sure you're not throwing stuff away
with important numbers on it?
Not because this is such a conflictual family,
but because it deflects the primary task.
Pitch the birdfeeder.
The birdfeeder's mine and she told you to pitch it.
It's just dirty and rusted and--
Well, it can be tossed.
It just aggravated me that she'd made the decision without even
saying "do you mind."
And did you realize it was hers?
It's been here, it's rusted, it's filthy, we don't use it.
Is this a keeper?
No.
It doesn't matter.
I was asking Mom.
I'm just going to have to tell them
we've got to work together.
They've got to let up on each other
and they've got to deal with this.
- Erin, are you all right? - Yeah.
Oh, OK.
[laughs]
I just don't want certain things advertised.
[music playing]
What did you find?
We have bugs.
Bugs.
Finding the carpet beetles now.
Oh, carpet beetles?
Is that what they are?
They're all over the place.
I would say from here on out, any of this stuff
has to be junked, really, to be safe for you.
Do you mind if I just put some disinfectant spray in here?
Would you be all right with that,
or would that get your asthma going?
I should be all right with that.
[music playing]
I hope they haven't gotten too dirty being
mixed in with all this stuff.
Oh.
It's the size of this.
There!
See that one?
Wasn't that one? - That's-- that's one of the.
That's one, yeah?
Can I just check in and find out what you're doing and why--
Some stuff that was on the bed that
was clean and wasn't supposed to go
got tossed with everything else.
In the big picture of getting your room done, tell me
where that is on a scale of--
I think because we haven't found them already,
they're probably mixed in with stuff that's contaminated, so--
OK.
OK, so is it fair to say, in the big picture--
- We can let it go. - OK.
- Are you OK with that? - Everyone off the truck.
This isn't how we want to spend our time.
[music playing]
I'm just aggravated.
I'm looking at all this stuff, and we're not getting anywhere.
There's stuff coming out of Mom's room
that's going in the dining room.
I got to go through it.
[sniffles] It's not all going to be accomplished today.
They're carrying the weight of this stuff around
on their shoulders.
It's actually taking a toll on them, physically.
I'm just getting tired, and I know we just
got how many more hours to go.
I just ache so bad.
I just want to sleep, but now that I know
I got to get this done, so.
[music playing]
I'm excited about having it cleaned
up and getting to be able to move around a little bit better
in there.
And not have to worry about tripping on things
and cracking my toes, and just getting-- literally
getting around in there.
I'm hoping that we can cope with the stuff
that's still here just by maybe tackling
a couple of boxes a day.
And then hopefully we can actually
claim the rest of this space.
I think today was the day that I really realized
what this disease is all about.
It's a lot to--
to overcome, especially in just two days.
[sniffles] There's a lot to do yet, but I mean,
we have really made a big difference.
Aftercare will be very important here.
They really need to work with the therapists,
and work through, and.
And this will be a lifelong struggle for them.
If they get no reinforcement out of this,
either from each other or from somebody else
to-- who's an objective observer to come in, no,
it'll be back to a mess.
[music playing]