[Music]
i'm michelle i'm 59 and i'm a retired
sales clerk
i guess i have to admit that i am a
hoarder
describing my house right now is in
chaos
almost every room is basically touched
with the mess
and other things that have just piled up
i know pretty much what i have
but it's just gotten out of hand
i'm maurice michelle's husband
most of the stuff in our house is dolls
i love to play barbies
you know they have different character
dolls and then they got the outfits
dresses the shoes the matching purses
you know
is it really necessary to have every
item available
the basement is totally covered with
dolls
in the kids rooms i have a lot of
storage of my dolls there too
i'm roxanne and i'm michelle's daughter
i'm most worried about how out of
control my parents house has become over
the years
every day there's another package in the
mail or a box at the door
i would spend most of my paycheck on
these items
[Music]
i'm jenny i'm michelle's mom
i've slept in the chair for a long time
i just give up you know i says okay then
i won't bother you know i just won't go
on a bed then i'll just stay on that
chair
she needs somebody to take care of her
at least be there to let her have a
place to lay down at night i mean at
least you can deserve that
okay dinner's ready mom
my daughter came in and said well if you
don't do this i'm going to call
authorities put my mother in a nursing
home because she felt i wasn't taking
good care of her what else can i do to
get your attention it was either that or
i threatened to never see the grandkids
again
i'm heading downstairs
but i don't think my mom cares
hello everybody hello
i'm dorothy brenninger i'm a
professional organizing expert and i
specialize in hoarding here's the thing
we've got a crisis on our hands we may
have a situation where we have adult
protective services coming in jenny
michelle's mom is going to be taken out
of the home if this place isn't cleared
up we need to have a safe space for you
jenny
mom is sort of caged
literally there's nowhere for mom to go
except the reclining chair
anything at this point is going to be a
good start got it
let's start let's start taking it
so the plan for today is to get into
that living room start pulling
everything out get it out under the
front lawn and we're going to start
sorting immediately so that when
michelle comes out later she can
actually look at the dolls and make
decisions
well welcome to your world of land why
don't you stand over here all righty
okay
work with me just on this table and give
me an understanding of things that
you're willing to give away
this one i i
i think i want to keep this one keeper
that one
oh keepers was one of a kind keeper
keeper
do you think of your collecting as an
addiction
yeah oh definitely well all my friends
we all say we're vinyl addicts
she's gotten rid of a few of the dolls
but there's still so much more that has
to be
let go
you went through 50 dolls just now
uh-huh 50. you've got 18 000. yeah so
what do you want me to speed it up
okay
don't need you to do anything i just
want you to know that in the back of
your mind yeah okay
your family would like for you to have a
room adult protective services is in our
picture
what i want to do is clear your bedroom
as much as possible
so that we can set you up to sleep in
there
all right so take that and show that to
her we'll see if she gets rid of
anything
my elvis no that stinks it's my elvis he
stays all right
and my other panda
stays
this panda too yep that stays down
[Music]
she wasn't throwing nothing away how
about this stuff it's my panda bears but
do you need every panda bear yes i do
as we started going the breakdown
happened immediately we're going to put
them i don't give a crap you're not
taking any more those are new what can
we throw away to get in your room
maurice was pressing her to get rid of
get rid of get rid of she just wouldn't
give away one thing let's get your room
laid out you're going back in there i
know this is right up your alley this is
for you
maurice and jenny were like this
i'm sick of this already everything's
got to be your way your way your way
it's always been that way
we had to change the entire plan turn
the front bedroom into a storage unit so
that we could take all of jenny's stuff
and put it into storage
so there's a really exciting part of the
day where we brought in an auctioneer
and he assessed all of the dolls so that
he could give an estimate to maurice and
michelle
your stuff is worth a lot of money
conservatively i would say a good
auction estimate for everything that
i've seen
you're looking at roughly around a half
million dollars
[Laughter]
just the condition of the stuff is is
awesome when the auctioneer said it was
worth a half a million dollars my wife's
legs buckled
in mine too i was just like wow oh my
god this is this is unbelievable
suddenly maurice does not resent
michelle anymore the relationship is
changing still shaking and in shock
about the amount of money that my dolls
are worth but i think i can part with
them and i just have to tell myself
they're pieces of plastic
this was really difficult situation
because none of this was trash we had
500 bags of clutter that we were able to
go through
we had boxes and boxes that we were able
to pack up for them it was just a
conglomeration of difficult
circumstances
family your house awaits you let's go
look okay
when they walked in they were absolutely
stunned this is something else eh what
does this feel like michelle that's
wonderful i had no idea it was going to
be set up with my dolls and it was just
like going to doll heaven
wow
oh my goodness wow
i never dreamed this could happen this
is like winning a lottery
this is amazing i would never thought
this was possible
just let it out it's okay
whoa
oh it's beautiful when i walked in that
room i was so happy
jenny this is really emotional for you
tell me what's going on for you
means a lot to
me it was such a relief to me that i
didn't have to call adult protective
services now seeing that my grandma's
room is set up like an actual room with
a bed roxanne could you come here please
i love you so much i'm glad you did this
for us
i love you too again
i'm glad that you realized that that's
what we were doing yeah i don't know
this family gave change a chance and it
worked
they started with negativity accusations
and blame and they wound up with
appreciation respect and love
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