[music playing]
My name is Loretta, and I--
I am leading a double life.
And I say that because people that I know and love,
they have no idea that I live this way.
I have numerous pieces of glassware,
50, 80 vases, clothing.
My home is a disaster in every nook and cranny.
My name is Mike, and I'm Loretta's husband.
Another baby is about to be born,
and right now, we don't actually have space.
I literally have not a place to really sit down
when I come home from work.
My name is Christian, and I'm Loretta's niece.
I know people be looking at her like,
how she's gonna bring a child into this home
and this home look like this.
But then, also, people don't know where it's coming from.
If you've been through what Loretta's been through,
you probably will have a nervous breakdown.
[music playing]
It was a while before I even realized
that I was staring in the barrel of a gun that
was pointed right here to my--
my face.
Of course, that was very traumatic.
We both thought that, you know, they were gonna waste
us or cause some bodily harm.
I was praying so hard in my mind,
and I know my God heard me.
[music playing]
My name is Leona, and I'm Loretta's youngest sister.
The robbery affected her to the point
where they were pretty much forced to move in the house
that they currently live in now.
We had to leave everything in Detroit in the home.
I was even afraid to even begin to go in and get things out.
[cries]
It didn't look like this.
[music playing]
You have held me long enough.
I leave it right here.
I leave it here.
LEONA: There's such a grand sense of loss for Loretta
that has caused the hoarding and the excessiveness
and trying to hold onto things.
The three robbers, they didn't kill us physically
with the gun, but I've now come to realize
they did kill me somewhat.
And I don't know what to do about it.
[music playing]
DOROTHY BREININGER: Well, good morning, everybody.
Good morning, Dorothy.
I'm Dorothy Breininger.
I'm an expert professional organizer,
and I specialize in hoarding.
So, everybody, are you ready to get going?
Yeah!
OK, let's go.
[music playing]
Wow.
It's just everywhere.
Why don't we work on lamps.
You've got two of these, for example.
Keeping them.
Uh-huh.
So how about these?
Well, as you can see, we really have
nothing hanging in the house.
We just hadn't got around to it.
Uh-huh.
She barely gets off the stairs to walk over to it.
She already says, uh-uh, not gonna happen.
You don't have enough rooms in your house
to hang all of those.
LORETTA: I'll just store what I can't hang.
I'm sorry.
But there is no storage.
I'll have to go get one.
There are just some things that she
will not even consider.
Give me five that I can take away right now.
Give me five.
Wow.
I'm Dr. Renar Reinardy.
I specialize in compulsive hoarding.
It's letting go of some of these things, experiencing the sting,
but knowing that there's a lot of benefit
that's gonna result, OK?
OK.
RENAE REINARDY: So that's what we wanna move toward.
OK.
These two, they go to Mom.
These two right here?
Yeah, those two are Mom's.
I really believe she's saying that she's sending it
to my grandma's house so she can go back and say, that was mine,
Mother.
You gave that to me, and bring it right back to the house.
You're not compromising with some more stuff--
I'm not gonna compromise with this, I'm sorry.
That's not an argument.
You can't hear?
Leona, you do it.
DOROTHY BREININGER: Loretta is fighting
us tooth and nail all the way.
But you know what?
I can fight, too.
I'm challenge you to be able to be a leader in your life
to pick one piece of furniture among 50 to give
away to some needy person.
One piece.
This is a test.
Good luck.
This isn't fair.
MIKE: I'm looking at Loretta going
through the decision-making, and it was clear that she was
really getting very emotional.
I need y'all just to try to--
LEONA: What's wrong?
From looking at her face, it does really
look like she can go on in labor just talking about the couches
and talking about the things in the house.
There was some stress and some pressure.
It somehow was transmitted to my baby,
because she began to move as if she felt it herself.
I feel like I could go into labor any second.
You know what, you're having hard emotion right now.
So let's figure it out.
Let's break this pattern, OK?
There's just so much at stake, and her sister
and her niece both love Loretta, they wanna help her,
but they're fed up.
Keeping it.
RENAE REINARDY: It's a very slow process for Loretta
because she wasn't quite ready to do any change.
Keeping.
I'm keeping that.
Keeping.
Let's make a deal.
How many keeps for every one give away?
I don't know yet.
Definitely keep it.
I'm keeping it.
How often--
I've-- I've worn them like, once or twice
when I could find them.
How long have you had them?
LORETTA: A couple of years.
I don't know.
I'm not sure.
So far, I'm not hearing a whole lot of different.
LORETTA: Keeping.
Keep.
You have other people in here helping you at your house.
We don't wanna throw nothing of yours away.
We know you have [inaudible].
We know how bad Mike worked to get you
this stuff, but if you don't want the help, then
where is it gonna come from?
Where's it gonna come from, Loretta?
You sit here, and I'm not even lying,
you're sitting here looking sick, literally sick.
You have a problem.
Something's wrong with you.
Something is really wrong.
I'm sorry, you guys, for all y'all to come
out here and help, but something's really wrong.
Done with it.
LORETTA: I'm not heard.
And you scream a lot so you can be heard, don't you?
They still ignore me.
It just ain't right.
DOROTHY BREININGER: I got it.
I don't wanna live like this.
DOROTHY BREININGER: You don't.
I'm glad to hear that there's some anger here,
because letting go of the anger helps
you let go of the clutter.
That anger has you clutching it.
I want you to get rid of it.
Give yourself, your baby, your brain some space here.
I needed help.
You need help.
We got help now.
You need help.
Yeah.
DOROTHY BREININGER: I want to walk down that hallway,
and we need to make some choices.
OK? - OK.
DOROTHY BREININGER: Either in the next hour,
she's gonna have a breakthrough, or she's not.
But you know what?
I have to believe that I will get one
full truck out of her today.
You've got a bunch of beautiful tables in the living room.
Any chance that we can get rid of this one?
This is a big step if you can say yes to this table.
May I take this table?
Let's just say might.
Michael takes this very passive stance,
and what we're trying to do is wake
him up to see their patterns and to see how
those patterns aren't working.
LORETTA: Mike?
Yeah, I think we should clear it away and allow other--
other items that you have that's been hidden be utilized.
OK.
DOROTHY BREININGER: Thank you.
You're filling your truck.
Do you understand?
Good job.
I think she's going to realize that by me speaking up,
it really is gonna make a better environment for us.
They're cracked and broken.
You can have them.
Doug, these are cracked and broken.
Ready to go on the truck.
Good job.
I have this black thing that's on shaky ground.
You can have it.
All right, what about this?
You can have it.
Thank you.
It fills my truck.
LORETTA: Take that little blue shade.
DOROTHY BREININGER: All right.
I'll take that as a lamp.
LORETTA: OK.
Can you two celebrate, please? 'Cause you
did that work together.
OK.
Good job.
No, wait, he helped you.
Are you gonna to give him some-- some love back?
Thank you.
[music playing]
I am grateful that she did make some decisions,
but I'll tell you what, one truckload
is not an even exchange.
But it's the only negotiation that I could make.
LORETTA: I knew that I should have made
even tougher decisions of what I needed to keep
and what I didn't need to keep.
If you're wondering where everything went, I'll tell you.
It's in the shed.
Then we have two bedrooms chock full of furniture,
books, and one entire room is full of clothing.
LORETTA: Everything is a little tidier,
but problem isn't solved.
RENAE REINARDY: Loretta wasn't ready to do this process.
So I'm glad she was able to do what she has been able to do,
but she has many, many steps ahead of her
in order to really change her compulsive hoarding problem.
Yeah, we're getting there.