[music playing]
Hi, I'm Diana, and I get kind of lost in my own world.
I have just become, you know, so secluded.
For some reason, it is comforting for me
to have things around me.
[music playing]
I'm Reba, and I'm Diana's daughter.
The house is filthy.
There is everything from fast food wrappers
to bottles to papers and magazines,
and the animals that messed all over it.
It's a death trap.
[flies buzzing]
My name is Andrew, and Diana is my mother.
My mother's house looks like a nightmare-- nothing salvageable
in any way, shape, or form.
DIANA: I mean, it's not something
you want to brag about.
But unless it's hurting somebody else,
I don't feel like anybody should poke their nose in it.
I'm extremely worried about her.
As the time has gone, on she's getting weaker and weaker.
Her body is hurting more and more.
And it's to the point where it's so bad she really
cannot walk through the house.
It's definitely adding to her health issues.
I have struggled so much with back surgery and then cancer
and another back surgery.
And that's just been the last few years.
There are days when I come in and it is much too
painful to even check the mail.
She's actually called me before telling me
that she's fallen and she needs help getting up.
And I wasn't able to immediately get to her.
My brother and I live with the guilt
every single day, knowing that the house
is completely inhabitable and the house is killing my mom.
[suspenseful music]
My name's Matt Paxton.
I'm an extreme cleaning specialist.
It's day one.
First thing we got to do is let the family
see the entire house, so that they
know what they're dealing with.
Mercy.
And then we got to get busy.
What percentage of this stuff is trash, do you think?
98. [laughs]
Yeah. I'm thinking up in the 90s.
OK.
So we're going to get the obvious stuff,
which is the plastic bags, the cans,
the bottles, the food wrappers.
That goes right away.
[music playing]
Oh, my gosh.
What is all this?
Reba is finding her voice.
This is sad.
MATT (VOICEOVER): She's saying what she needs.
She's saying what she wants.
She's finding a confidence about herself.
Here you go, mom.
Work.
OK.
[music playing]
[sighs]
[ominous music]
All right, Andrew, why don't you come on back here?
I'll get some bags.
No problem.
And we'll just do this together.
It's, like, a never ending fountain.
We're working really late tonight
so Andrew can be a part of this process.
It's imperative that the entire family works
in the process of cleaning up.
[ominous music]
Your old room.
ANDREW: Yup.
Just like I left it, unfortunately.
Is it?
Yeah.
It's been a little rearranged, but pretty much
everything is the same.
MATT: Do you want to keep any of this stuff?
ANDREW: No. No, I'm good, man.
Clean slate it.
MATT: Is there nothing from your childhood you want?
There's nothing, man.
Like, it's all a bad dream, as far as I'm concerned.
Everything from my childhood, like, it's
just one of those things that you
got to almost repress if anything else,
and just keep moving on.
That's not the healthy way to do it.
ANDREW: Oh, no.
I didn't have a choice at the time.
I'm Dr. Melva Green, a board certified psychiatrist
specializing in anxiety disorders
and hoarding behaviors.
In the room with Andrew, the extent
of his pain as a result of his mother's hoarding
becomes clear.
The biggest feeling I have for it all right now
is the anger, is just the hatred of everything that's gone on.
Just how it happened-- how it was allowed to happen.
Just like when we were kids man, like,
we were raised to think this was the normal.
We didn't have this then.
Yeah, we did.
It wasn't just an overnight deal.
It's been the entire time we lived here.
Up until Andrew came into the picture,
we were under the impression that empty nest
syndrome triggered this real psychological breakdown
and hoarding.
Diana gave me a very different story.
My theory was that this was mourning your leaving
and her other traumas.
But what I'm hearing you say is it was
like this when you were here.
Yeah.
It's always been, to some degree, dirty.
At one point in time, we only had to wear
dirty clothes to school.
I'd come in here and--
nothing.
Empty.
So we'd just go to school, 'cause it was away from here.
I'm sorry.
I really don't recall that.
MELVA: You really get to see just how
deep in denial Diana has been.
She seems clueless that her children
have been so traumatized and are holding so much pain inside.
I don't know.
I mean, if you've repressed it, there's
not-- there's not any way I'm going to remind you of it.
But I can't forget it.
I hated a lot of my childhood, to be completely honest.
Andrew is just a stick of dynamite,
just ready to explode.
He is so angry and so resentful.
You failed us.
And what you've done will always have an effect on us.
I'm never going to be normal because
of what's happened here.
In some ways, I'll never be able to forgive you.
Your son is Incredibly angry.
Reba's incredibly hurt.
Mm-hmm.
You've got to own that.
Do you want to apologize for not knowing
better or not choosing better?
I'm very sorry that I can't fix the past, I can't go back
and do it over, and that it has had
such a negative impact on you.
This was huge, just taking accountability for her actions
and her poor parenting.
I heard what Andrew said.
I felt what he said.
And it makes me more determined than ever
to make a big difference and make things better.
[suspenseful music]
Now that mom really does know what it was like for us,
and what kind of effect it has made on us,
and how it impacted us, she's really converting
it into something positive.
I'm feeling better about everything
getting out of there.
And to face my responsibility feels really good.
[ominous music]
MATT: We got the house completely empty now.
We removed about six tons of trash out of this home.
We've got painters, and organizers, and stagers coming
in to make this as beautiful and as livable as a house for Diana
as we can get.
[upbeat music]
You guys have done a lot of work this week,
both physical and mental.
And I'm proud of that.
[laughter] All right.
You ready to go inside and see your house?
I am.
All right.
Let's do it.
OK.
Oh, my gosh.
MATT: What do you think?
DIANA: It's incredible.
It's beautiful.
Oh, my gosh.
It's like the impossible dream for me.
This has kind of always been my dream furniture,
and I don't know--
it's wonderful.
REBA: She was shocked and overwhelmed.
I've never seen my mom react like that to anything.
MATT: You've said very clearly to all of us
that you want to make space for your kids to come back in.
Right.
Is this the kind of space you'd
like to come in and hang out?
Oh, my god, yeah.
[laughs]
Yeah.
It's great.
It's just so much better in here.
Now that everything has been cleared out
and everything's been cleaned up,
we'll have more time to spend here
and hang out with my mom, and my family, and have new memories.
Got your kitchen back.
[laughs]
You can cook at home.
Uh-huh.
Oh, my gosh, the refrigerator.
A fridge.
I didn't see that.
[laughter]
Oh, my gosh.
DIANA: Having a place where everyone
can gather here and be our family again
makes me feel whole.
And this has given me a chance to redeem myself
in my children's eyes, and prove myself worthy of being the mom
that I was at one time, and that I will be from now on.
MELVA: I'm really hopeful for Diana.
She's done the bulk of the work, which is acknowledging that she
has been a part of the problem, and that she
is her own solution.
You've done the hard work.
You've opened up.
You've allowed.
You started this process of healing.
Yes.
You're halfway there.
Oh, yeah.
Those bad memories went out with the trash.
They are gone.
And I can breathe again.