[music playing]
[inaudible] My name is Laura.
I'm 47.
I consider myself to be a writer, but I'm disabled.
I can't work.
I haven't worked since 1996.
And I have a chronic pain problem.
On top of that, I've got stage-four colon cancer.
I don't want to leave this clutter for my family to have
to deal with after I die.
I'm living on borrowed time right now.
I really should be dead.
My name is Wayne.
I'm Laura's husband.
And we've been married going on 15 years now.
When you walk into our house you see
an over accumulation of anything that you can imagine.
When it comes to helping other people,
that's been my education and my training.
When it comes to being with a person who
has a condition where she accumulates stuff, that's
one of the things I look at as part of my love
for them is accepting them.
My name is Michelle.
I'm 23.
And I'm Laura's daughter.
It was definitely difficult for me to live in that house.
I always felt like she was ruining
our lives because the house was like that.
I've lost a lot of the respect of my daughters because
of the way that the house is.
I tried for years to clean.
But every time I tried to get rid of something, you know,
she would come after me.
And I felt before that she, you know,
chooses these things over, you know,
me and my sister and our health.
I'm Stephanie.
I'm 20, and I'm Laura's daughter.
My mom doesn't want to be alone all day by herself
because, you know, dad works seven days a week.
I think I've forgotten how to feel about
all the stuff in the house.
Who is that?
It's been there so long, that I don't
really know anything else.
When I wake up in the morning, it's hard to breathe.
The quality of the air in the house is--
it's so bad because there's so much dust.
Olivia's 18 months old now.
And she's just running around, getting into everything,
and it's dangerous for her.
I don't want her to be pulling something down
and just have a huge pile of stuff crash down onto her.
To think that, you know, she's growing up there,
you know, she's got no place else to go,
that she has to put up with that.
And she could be getting sick because of that.
It's-- it's heartbreaking.
You know, I mean, she's just, you know, a little baby.
And she doesn't deserve that.
She'll pick up things and put them in her mouth
if she's not watched.
We've actually had her pick up cat poop
before and put it in her mouth.
It bothers me that she's starting to grow
up the way that I grew up.
I don't want to see her go through what
I had to go through.
Sit down with Grandma.
This cancer, no matter how much it gets beaten back,
it's going to keep coming back.
And eventually it will kill me.
And it is tremendously important to me
that I get this place cleaned up before that happens.
If she's happy for the remaining days of her life,
that's the greatest joy you can get,
is to leave this Earth peacefully
and not having this burden that's upon your shoulders
and saying, I don't want to pass it off to anybody else.
Good morning to everyone.
Good morning.
I'm Donita.
I'm a life management specialist.
And I work with people with chronic disorganization
and clutter.
We are here this morning to help Laura clean her house.
The first big decision that I need Laura to make
is to relinquish control and trust that the people are going
to follow the orders that we give
them so that she doesn't have to be in control in every room.
My name is Dr. Robin Zasio.
I'm a licensed clinical psychologist,
and I specialize in OCD and compulsive hoarding.
Nothing will be thrown out without Laura
and Wayne's permission.
It's very, very important that you guys honor that request.
OK.
We've got a lot of work to do.
Everybody ready?
Yeah.
OK.
Let's get going.
Whoa!
[laughs] Crapalanche.
Oh, wow.
- Yeah. - Oh, this is gross.
I mean, the feces is just falling out of it.
Yeah, this is horrifying.
Wow.
I didn't know it was this bad.
Yeah.
The further we got, it became more and more disturbing
because we began to discover cat feces that
was covering clothing and bedding,
and it was literally stuck to the floor.
It doesn't surprise me that it was there.
It should.
In a normal house it would.
That's something I grew up with.
It's always having the animals kind of going to the bathroom.
And if you couldn't get to it, it would stay there.
Oh, god.
[coughs] Excuse me.
[coughs]
Stephanie, this is horrible.
I can't believe my daughter's been
sleeping within a foot of that.
Oh.
Oh, my gosh.
[crying]
[inaudible] I need you to breathe, OK?
Slow everything down.
My children-- my children grew up in this.
Michelle is sick because of my house.
I let it happen.
Looks like you're getting a nosebleed.
She's getting a nosebleed.
She started having a nosebleed,
which is rare in this case.
There is a number of side effects
that you can have from chemo.
She developed what was called pseudo seizures.
It's more based on a catatonic seizure, where she freezes.
And then we have to gradually move her arms
and put cold cloths on her face.
I'm sorry, baby.
I'm sorry.
[crying]
This has been a major change just in the last couple
of days for us.
MAN: Excuse me, Gina.
I think something's going on with Laura.
WAYNE: Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah, I got to take care of her.
Here.
Laura, can you hear me?
And masks.
Thank you.
Do you all have masks?
Gloves are available.
What are they going to think about me?
It's horrible.
Look at that.
I mean, there was cat droppings and, you know,
all-- all the hair.
And-- and it stinks.
When the cleaning crew arrived,
Laura saw them start to walk in the door,
and she expressed her concern that they
didn't have masks or gloves on.
And they elected to go in anyway.
These women are going in there with these cleaning people.
They're going in there, and they don't
know what they're getting into.
They didn't know--
I don't think-- the extent.
Shortly thereafter, they came out and were putting
the gloves and masks on.
You know, all of us who are on this team, they're all experts.
There's nothing that they haven't seen before.
They know exactly what they're walking into.
Moving.
WOMAN: [inaudible] shoes.
I took Laura down to the basement,
and she was overwhelmed.
She was crying tears of joy.
Oh, my God!
This is a lot different [inaudible]..
Oh, my god!
[crying]
WAYNE: This is a lot different.
LAURA: Oh, my god!
Are you happy?
Unbelievable.
The living room has been completely transformed.
There's a clear space for Olivia to play.
And when that carpet was removed,
many of the scents, smells, whatever you want to call them,
went with it.
I never imagined there would be this.
That's like beautiful hardwood floor.
They'll sit on the floor where Olivia and play.
Look, this is your space to play.
Look at that.
I mean, that was the most amazing reaction that I saw
from her, just looking from place to place to place
and going, wow and, you know, things that she could touch
and she was allowed to play with.
That's the floor.
That's what it's supposed to look like.
Watching her enjoy her bedroom, it just--
it made me cry.
This is happy, honey.
WOMAN: Yay!
Grandma's not sad.
Grandma's so happy.
I think the future for my family's
a lot more hopeful now.
I mean, before, it was just--
I felt like the whole family was just going to fall apart
when mom passed because nobody's going
to want to be here if the house is just as big a wreck
as it was.
But now the house is clean.
And, you know, maybe mom doesn't have much time left.
We don't know.
But the time that she has will be better.
[inaudible].
[music playing]