Hoarders & How to Free Your Life from Clutter
Today’s show is all about clutter. Anderson is going to help you clean up and get organized.
First, Anderson meets a woman whose hoarding is destroying her family. Both her husband and daughter confront her in an attempt to make her change her hoarding ways. Anderson sends Dr. Rebecca Beaton, one of the leading hoarding experts, into her home to help make a positive change and de-hoard their lives. Psychological compulsion affects millions of people.
Hoarding isn’t just about being messy, it goes much deeper than that. To help the family suffering from hoarding, Anderson introduces them to the daughter of an extreme hoarder whose mom called police on her when she tried to clean her house. She talks about the toll that hoarding took on her family, and shares a support group and organization (for which she is a spokesperson) that provides help for people suffering from this disorder.
You might not be a hoarder, but everyone can relate to clutter. Organizing expert Justin Klosky is here to teach you how to organize and live a clutter-free life. He takes audience organizing questions and gives his three tips for de-cluttering your home and your life.
Print It: 3 Ways to De-Clutter Your Life
Hoarder Quiz
Comments
I can only say that Dr. Beaton is so kind and caring, so genuine, she is an Angel touched by God. Words cannot express how your unselfish acts of care change other and the world, but there is a ripple affect that you create with your love of others. Thank you Rebecca! May goodness, kindness and prosperity follow you and yours always in your life. God Bless. Sincerely Jim
I used to be a hoarder. I see my children in her daughter. I now am free of the junk and it is so liberating!!! Lady---please listen to your family,--it will be hard at first but it will get better. I now can throw away almost anything. Do this for them. Your sister and Mom would want you to get rid of their stuff and save your family. Iam so thankful I am free and my family has a wonderful life!! You can do this too.
I loved the show on clutter & hoarding. I may be a border line hoarder. I am trying. My New Year's resolution is to clean out a cupboard a week. I am successful so far, but it is extremely hard. As a person who grew up extremely poor and wore hand me downs, I have trouble throwing things out especially clothes. I have clothes in my closet from size 8 to 18. (dieter). I have made a video of a cupboard I cleaned out, before and after, to send to the show. I actually feel great when it is done. I hate clutter, I love a clean house, my house is usually spotless, it's all the cupboards and hiding places all over that are full to capacity and I can barely get into my storage
room in the basement. (We live in a condo). I do have the capacity to ignore piles of papers and it gets overwhelming when I look at the mess and can't even think where to start. I'm working on it. Baby steps. I thank you for getting me started.
How can I get a tape of your show on Hoarding from 12/29/2011?
Thanks.
The first words the lady first on the show with her daughter rang so true to me. I hoard a bit, but am purging when I move. But clutter catches up to me. She said that her stuff gives her pleasure all the time, whereas friends only for an hour of two. That is so true for me. I can't seem to let go of things, as I remember where I bought everything.
I was never a hoarder until I started living in smaller places. I guess I need a larger place to live.
I am trying once again to get a handle on my stuff. Although I am not as bad as the guests. The bedroom is tidy with a clear bed! I just have stuff that needs to go, hopefully without something else to take its place.
I took the test three times. The second and third times I answered all of the questions correctly but was told that two of the answers (the ones that were "all of the above") were incorrect.
I can't afford the extra cable channels... I have seen other hoarder shows on Oprah and such, but only slightly related to them.
Today's show was so similar to my situation. I have lost several family members in the last 18 months & have received items that have consummed my home. I have been fighting, wanting to downsize what I have received... but feel like I am rushing my morning, grieving process. I am looking to join a forum to facilitate and make my home warm and welcoming as it use to be.
I’d also like to add that when it comes to seniors in their 70s and 80s, this whole hoarding phenomenon is in my opinion a throwback to them growing up during the Great Depression. The terms recycle, reuse and repurpose are not new to them because they were taught to do just that when times were tough in the 1930s; when they hold onto “stuff” they do so thinking they might actually use or need it someday.
I would consider myself a recovering hoarder. Last year I went thru everything I had packed away and got rid of everything I would not need for my future apartment (I live at home) as much as it hurt and was difficult to throw away thousands of dollars worth of items, I felt like a HUGE weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I no longer have things that I do not need just because I spent such and such on it. But I still have things that I haven't used in along time but have a VERY hard time getting rid of them because I may use them in the future. Thankfully it is NO WHERE near the amount of things I had...ie. stuffed animals, dolls, knick knacks that I no longer collected...those are all gone. Now my issue is handyman items and paperwork but considering I have grown up with a hoarder and have a best friend who is one I am VERY proud of what I have accomplished. I went from having OVER a garage FULL to around 20 totes. If it wasn't for the show Hoarders and seeing my best friend trying to live with all the "junk" and her 4 kids, she has I would have NEVER gotten rid of all the stuff I have. I was always much better at helping someone throw away things they needed as apposed to myself and now for the most part if i don't need it or have the room I do not keep it or buy it.
Just finished watching this hoarders episode, and was so glad to see the interview with the woman whose mom called the cops when they tried to clean out her house. My in-laws were hoarders, but you’d never know if you walked into their house. At first glance it looked perfectly clean and tidy and it was UNTIL you opened a closet, a drawer, a cabinet or their storage room, all which were packed to the gills with “stuff.” Old stuff, new purchases, memorabilia that dated back to when they married in 1957… you name it they had it. But the biggest haul was yet to come when in 2008, about a year after my father-in-law passed away and my mother-in-law decided it was time to move from the big family home to a smaller place to live out her senior years. We knew there was “stuff” in the detached garage but the day we started to clean it out all the craziness came to light. There were boxes upon boxes of tools, household items, appliances, my husband’s childhood clothes and toys – he’s 50 years old this year! – much of it corroded, covered in rodent mess and verifiably unusable … oh my gosh, it was like a time capsule that had been added to over the past 50+ years. We decided it was too much for my husband, myself and a couple of his cousins to tackle so we called a junk remover and that was when my mother in law became upset. She accused us of throwing away her memories and became very emotional and irrational. It took several days to convince her that the stuff had to go. We had to get graphic and show her the rat nests and mold that was covering her stuff. She finally came around to reality and at a cousin’s suggestion we sent her to stay with her sister for a few days while the garage and the house got decluttered and cleaned up. Looking forward to when it’s time to deal with my own parents – whose garage is also filled with “stuff” going back 50 and more years, I think I will wait until they are gone to deal with decluttering their garage because my father is very possessive of his belongings yet declares that he is NOT a hoarder - I disagree. Great show, Anderson!
How can one receive help if the $35/hour "hoarding removal" companies are not within budget? I am a 65 year old woman who is ready to remove the clutter but needs help with the overwhelming amount of stuff I have accumulated. One or two bags a week to Goodwill has hardly made a dent. Family and friends have given time, but still. I am embaressed by my situation but haven't found a solution. I live in Milwaukee and would greatly appreciate any suggestions. I enjoy your show and watch it whenever I can. Happy New Year.
My husband served in Viet Nam as a Recon Marine. I don't know if his PTSD contibutes to his hoarding. Living with a hoarder is a NIGHTMARE! My husband actually said to me "It's my half of the room, just don't look at it." He has no regard for me. He tells me I have no reason to be depressed. He has spent over $100,000 at thrift stores on his "treasures" and pays $489.00 a month for a storage unit. He is a retired firefighter (31 years) and worked hard his entire life but still chooses to squander his hard-earned pension! Any suggestions?
I am the Elizabeth who appeared briefly on yesterday's show. Yesterday's show was, I hope, an opportunity for people to think more carefully about the impact that hoarding has on families, specifically the children in the household. I was grateful for the chance to participate in this ON BEHALF OF the group that has existed since 2006, started by Donna Austin. I am just one of a number of people who discovered Donna's website & support group in the early days and found it so remarkable that I wanted to promote its message in every way possible. I hope everyone has the chance to visit the website at childrenofhoarders.com and benefit from the incredible amount of blood, sweat, and tears invested in it. Before Donna Austin bought that domain name and was motivated to share her insights with the world, there was *no* source of support out there for adult children of hoarders. THANK YOU, Donna, for making it so much easier to cope with our lives as COH!!
This is the first time I've seen your show...it's fantastic! Interesting, informative, and entertaining. I felt like I wanted to sit down and talk with Anderson and all of his guests. Thank you!
I've been a "borderline-hoarder" for years. Now I feel like I understand myself a little more. I want to purge one closet at a time, organize what I want to keep, and move on. There' a huge difference between the "stuff" in your life and the caring people.
I am sitting watching this show Anderson and I am seeing mysel****ain...its not a pretty thing and my heart goes out to these folks. For years I kept collecting things. Craft supplies, papers, pens, anything. Was going to make things. Didn't happen because I would do it in my head and then not have to make it. I eventually became a "pet rescue" and became talk of community. I was abused as a child and keeping things made me feel loved and people at a distance, but it hurt my son who is 35 with family now and my marriage of 26 years. The worse I felt about me and not being important to anyone the more the mess grew. I lost total control of myselfworth. Due to an illness in the family I had to leave my home for a period of time, and lived alone in my dads home where due to his sudden death I kept making reasons why not to come back to Tennessee. Almost 2 yrs passed and he divorced me while I was there and when I did come home, he had left everything just as I left it. I learned alot from this. I am important and after months of panic, self loathing and many thoughts of suicide I have come out to the other side. I am currently married to a wonderful man who loves me for me and he has shown me I do have a value. I am soon going to be 64 yrs old and if I could have a "do over" I would change many things. Life doesn't give us that but we do have the gift to change and move on with or without the ones who so called loved me. This may not make alot of sense, but this show is of value to many. I wish someone would have told me or tried to help me, but I doubt that I would have believed it.
Lady Lost