Anyone watching Hoarders?

[Sarahfeena]

I didn't watch the first season, but I caught the season premiere and a rerun of the series premiere.

Not sure what to even say about it except that it's weirdly compelling and fascinating, no matter how gross it is. And it is gross...in the new episode, they found two dead, flattened, cat carcasses in the rubble of the lady's house. The lady had wondered where they had gone to.

I've enjoyed watching Clean House before, but those people are a little easier to snark on. Their houses are messy...some crazy messy...but usually not in a city-is-about-to-condemn-the-property-and-put-the-kids-in-foster-care kind of way. This show is really kind of sad because they people are clearly in need of a lot more help than just shoveling out the place. I hope the show really does follow through and help them get it.

[pepperlandgirl]

I never watched the first season, but due to a thread on the Dope, I've caught two episodes (Jennifer and Ron, and Tara) on On Demand. It's very clear that these people aren't like the people you see on How Clean Is Your House or Clean House. Those people tend to be slobs and overwhelmed, but they always want to get a clean house, and they seem to be fairly healthy, normal people. Hoarders is a show about people at the breaking point, and the most frustrating thing of all is that several of them don't appear interested in getting any kind of help. They don't even really acknowledge they have a problem at all.

I'm going to a do a massive cleaning of my apartment this weekend. Honestly, the show scares me. I'm not as bad any of these people. Hell, I'm not even as bad as the people on Clean House or Clean Sweep, but I understand the people on Hoarders. I understand that they're doing it for a sense of security. I understand that they're doing it because they have infused all of their things with great meaning. I understand the fear and anxiety that comes with throwing things away. I understand the sense of feeling so overwhelmed that it's easier to just not deal with it. And I don't want to look at my house 10 years from now and realize that I let it all get out of control.

So this weekend, I'm throwing it all away. Silence and I are both packrats, though it manifests itself in different ways. (I want to keep stuff that might be useful some day, he wants to keep stuff that counts as a "memory." And what he deems memorable is not really normal. Unless normal people keep receipts from grocery store trips 5 years ago).

[Zuul]

This rather disgusting article made me think of this thread.

[OneCentStamp]

I've watched several episodes of this season, and they're compulsively watchable in a peer-between-your-fingers-while-your-stomach-flops-around way. The lady with the flattened dead cats was pathetic and horrifying.

I get pangs of guilt at watching this program that I don't at some other voyeur TV, though, just because the people who hoard like this are so obviously mentally ill. I don't think there's a straight line continuum from "neat" to "messy" to "hoarder." It jumps the tracks somewhere. These people all seem to be very depressed, for one.

[Glazer]

I never watched the first season, but due to a thread on the Dope, I've caught two episodes (Jennifer and Ron, and Tara) on On Demand. It's very clear that these people aren't like the people you see on How Clean Is Your House or Clean House. Those people tend to be slobs and overwhelmed, but they always want to get a clean house, and they seem to be fairly healthy, normal people. Hoarders is a show about people at the breaking point, and the most frustrating thing of all is that several of them don't appear interested in getting any kind of help. They don't even really acknowledge they have a problem at all.

I'm going to a do a massive cleaning of my apartment this weekend. Honestly, the show scares me. I'm not as bad any of these people. Hell, I'm not even as bad as the people on Clean House or Clean Sweep, but I understand the people on Hoarders. I understand that they're doing it for a sense of security. I understand that they're doing it because they have infused all of their things with great meaning. I understand the fear and anxiety that comes with throwing things away. I understand the sense of feeling so overwhelmed that it's easier to just not deal with it. And I don't want to look at my house 10 years from now and realize that I let it all get out of control.

So this weekend, I'm throwing it all away. Silence and I are both packrats, though it manifests itself in different ways. (I want to keep stuff that might be useful some day, he wants to keep stuff that counts as a "memory." And what he deems memorable is not really normal. Unless normal people keep receipts from grocery store trips 5 years ago).

I'm kind of the opposite of packrat. Although my home tends to the messy side when I clean I throw it all away (except books). I like the feeling of freedom of not being tied down by a lot of stuff. I like being able to pack my van and go anywhere at any time. My home is bare a minimum of furniture and bare walls. I almost never buy stuff just to have stuff, or keep it just to have it. My stuff has a use or it's gone.

[vison]

I have spent the last 2 years getting rid of "stuff". Recently I had a shredder truck come and shred 40 years worth of documents. They all fit in 10 garbage bags, as they were all neatly bundled and stored in bins. We have to keep 7 years of records for tax purposes, so it's been easier over the years to just keep adding to the closet rather than discarding the oldest. And the kids' clothes routinely go to the thrift store.

So where the hell does this stuff come from? I suspect it breeds in the dark.

I'm not a hoarder, my house is actually pretty clean and orderly, but I, too, can relate to the terror of getting rid of things - things that I spent years collecting. Like a certain type of old china. Neither of my sons will ever want it and god knows I don't want it any more either. Craigslist, I guess.

There is a guy in our neighbourhood who has every car that he ever bought - going back over 65 years of buying junkers and wrecks that he drove for a few weeks or months and when it stopped running he'd just park it "out back" and buy another one. He has two big fields full of them and will not sell or trade even ONE.

[OneCentStamp]

There is a guy in our neighbourhood who has every car that he ever bought - going back over 65 years of buying junkers and wrecks that he drove for a few weeks or months and when it stopped running he'd just park it "out back" and buy another one. He has two big fields full of them and will not sell or trade even ONE.

And, see, that's quaint and quirky to me. I guess the difference between "quaint and quirky" and "dangerously disturbed" is how much room you have to store the shit in question.

[Cluricaun]

Did anyone else see the one with the gay guy in Milwaukee with the two adopted kids where one is crazy and has a mouth like Slimer from Ghostbusters? I felt so increadibly bad for that guy, his life is just.....wretched. And I don't have much sympathy for people.

Part of me wants to send that guy $100. But another part of me wants to just burn his house down so that he can't live there anymore.

Also, every time we watch that show I have a great idea. I'm going to rent a truck and offer my services as the junk removal guy for the show, and then after the cameras are off I'm just going to circle the block and come back and offer to sell them their stuff back for as much money as I can get. I get paid to haul it away and I get paid to sell it back.

[Sarahfeena]

I did see that guy, Cluricaun...I felt so bad for him, too. He seriously needs someone to just help him make sure his house stays clean, or that kid's issues will just get worse and worse and worse.

[Rube E. Tewesday]

My wife and I watched it regularly when it first came on. It was fascinating. We've given it up, though. It's just so depressing...those g-dawful messes, and those sad, crazy people who'd sooner give up on their children than their old mayonnaise bottles.