I'm Janet, and I'm a retired visiting home nurse.
Definitely, I am a hoarder.
Yes.
You can open the back doors, but you got to squeeze through.
I just walk through the laundry room.
And then I walk across and go to the chair.
My name is Beth, and I'm Janet's daughter.
The inside of the house is absolutely dreadful.
And I just can't believe that my mom lives like that.
I haven't had heat for two or three years,
but I don't have any problem with it
because even in the coldest winter I'm as warm as toast.
BETH: When my mom has to go to the bathroom,
she walks out the back door and just goes outside there.
JANET: I do not have an outhouse out there.
I go to the bathroom on the side of the house
where it's private.
BETH: She has a hard time walking,
and for her to try to climb over a mountain,
obviously you're going to have an accident
if you can't make it.
That's why I get those pads and wear them.
My name is Keith, and I am Janet's second son.
My mom feels comfortable in the mess that she lives in.
If my sister wasn't driving this force
my mom would live like this the rest of her life.
If my mom refused to clean up the house,
I would absolutely have no choice but to call
protective services.
CORY CHALMERS: Good morning, everyone.
Good morning.
We are all here today to help Janet, who's
facing a pretty serious crisis.
My name is Cory Chalmers, and I'm an extreme hoarding
cleanup specialist.
Janet is an extreme hoarder.
She's living in absolute squalor.
I have actually seen homeless people live
a cleaner lifestyle than her.
JANET: Nobody ever came to my house.
I'm used to having the house to myself.
Mm-hmm.
Well, did no one come to your house,
or did you not let anyone in your house that came over?
I wouldn't let anybody get in my house.
CORY CHALMERS: That's what I thought.
[laughter] - Well, guess what?
After today, you're going to have people in your house.
[laughter]
I haven't been to my mother's house since 1994.
It's been about five years since I've been in the house.
CORY CHALMERS: Below the top layer, I mean,
everything was just filthy.
I mean, we found stuff dating back to 1993.
The last two feet was almost like wood pulp brick.
And as you got closer to that chair,
the things got a little bit denser
and it got a little bit stickier.
I'm getting more and more pissed when I'm in there.
We could have six more people in there, easy.
Just pick another spot and just start
digging down to the floor.
Oh, it stinks.
My brothers and sisters are losers for not coming
out and contributing to this.
I don't know if we can do this in two days.
It's, uh-- It's terrible in there.
I would say the five trucks that we
took to the dump probably weighed a total of about
7,500 to 10,000 pounds.
Hey, what are you doing here?
Mary?
My name is Dr. Robin Zasio.
I'm a licensed clinical psychologist,
and I specialize in OCD and compulsive hoarding.
Beth mentioned that there was a split in the family.
What are you doing here?
You're not freaking welcome here.
In walks her twin sister, Mary.
And it was on.
Where are you for your [muted] mother?
Where have you been for your mother?
You rotten piece of [muted].
MARY: I didn't come to clean. BETH: Then why are you here?
MARY: Because I'm getting-- BETH: Get the hell out of here!
MARY: Because I'm glad mom's getting help.
You could care less whether--
That's-- she's not--
You need to grow up.
I don't want her here.
Now, too bad!
She has never been there for your whole life.
- This is not your house! - Stop!
She's not worth arguing with.
She's never been here for my mother.
MARY: You're only here because you
want to fix this house up because mom's
leaving it to you. - OK.
OK.
MARY: And you want the money.
You're only for mom for the money, Beth.
OK, well--
BETH: You have no--
JANET: When Mary walked into the house with the dog in her hands
I knew she was here just for show.
ROBIN ZASIO: Hang on, one second.
I didn't say a word to her. She came and attacked me.
I-- - Hang on.
Hang on.
The one thing that I want to say that I don't think
you're aware of is that this house was
hoarded up to here in trash.
Your mom has no heat.
She has no water.
Hang on. Hang on.
She never told anybody that. ROBIN ZASIO: I understand that.
I'm not blaming you.
CORY CHALMERS: How are you doing, Janet?
It's-- it can't be healthy.
Have they always fought like this?
She fights with everybody in the family.
Who?
Mary does.
- Because I want-- - Then what are you doing here?
Stop! Now.
--to say a prayer for mom.
BETH: Oh, you're so full of [muted]..
- We'll make our point. - Come here.
OK?
We'll make our point.
All right?
It's not--
Danny, it's been four days.
I know.
That we have had help.
She wants to come on day four at the very last minute
to go, hey, hi, look at me.
Don't you think I'm pretty?
Beth.
We all know that.
Mom, I do love you.
You know I do.
OK.
ROBIN ZASIO: Listen, I understand what you're saying.
It kills me.
Beth, everybody sees it.
CORY CHALMERS: When was the last time you visited your mom here?
Probably about three, four years ago.
My dad has begged her and begged her
and said, let me send people in to do it.
And she has refused every time.
Then you come over here and you throw it away for her.
OK.
Drop this. - I don't want to drop it.
I want you to live a healthy lifestyle.
- Well, when I-- - Yeah, I know.
But this one doesn't know how to tell the truth.
Mary is just like her dad.
She lies most of the time.
MARY: Are you going to tell him how
you locked us all in the basement at 12 hours a day,
crying for my dad?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mary. That's right.
MARY: Because dad's the only one that kept me safe.
That's right Mary.
That's right.
You know, this is one of the most dysfunctional families
that I've worked with.
I want that--
How can I be saying that--
Amongst themselves, they just can't
get along for two seconds.
Just like my father.
Negative, rotten, manipulative, and treats
my mother like [muted].
Where have you been for the last four days?
At home.
Dad tried to call you, you wouldn't answer.
Ladies, ladies.
Stop, stop.
Stop. - OK--
I need to walk away.
OK.
I think that's a good idea.
There's been so many different stories told.
I don't know where the truth lies.
Wow.
We got to get Janet out here.
Hey, Janet?
What I would like to do is throw away all this food.
Whether it's expired or not.
No, no.
Because it's out here and it's been in this gross garage.
It's not gross in the garage.
CORY CHALMERS: Listen.
This is common sense stuff.
This is expired food.
Expired makeup.
That's The only common sense to a degree.
Janet has a hard time letting go of food.
Even if it's expired, has mouse droppings on it.
It's filthy, gross.
She wants to keep it.
I can't let you keep all this food that
is literally sitting on the floor in here
where rodents are running around.
Can we just close the door on it?
Just throw everything away!
BETH: No, we're not throwing everything away, mom.
We're throwing away the food.
This food is unsanitary. - Mom, it's going to be--
It's no good.
It is not unsanitary.
We're going to feel much better about this later.
OK?
It's--
No, I'm never going to feel better about wasting stuff.
Go ahead.
ROBIN ZASIO: We have all the stuff out.
But it's still not habitable.
Myself and Cory cannot sign this off until we have confirmation
that she will not be returned to this house until there
is running water, heat, a bed.
There's going to be much more than that, doctor.
At this point, I'm not going to call APS on my mom.
She's going to come and stay with me
and she'll be over here with me every day.
It's going to take me about a week to paint the walls
and do the repairs in the walls that need to be done.
Now it's a house, but in a couple of weeks
it will be a home.
If you come back in six months,
this place is not going to be full.
CORY CHALMERS: Despite how serious this hoard was,
we made a lot of progress.
With the interference from the family,
Janet slowing us down just a little bit here
and there, we were able to get the whole house pretty much
cleaned of all the clutter.
Thank goodness for the children showing up.
They pitched in on both days and did a lot of work.
I feel good about coming out here and doing a lot of work.
But it was two days, and it doesn't make up for 17 years.
I owe my mother a lot more than this.