It was no Jake & Shirley.
But I loved the part where the lady was FURIOUS at the professional moving squad for removing a box that was CLEARLY MARKED WITH HER DAUGHTER’S NAME.
Crucial fact: Her daughter’s name is CHARITY.
Clearly, any professional mover who even thinks of removing from a hoarder’s home a box that is clearly marked CHARITY is an idiot.
You can’t make this shit up.
I still like Hoarders, but I worry I may grow out of it if the crazy-bitch-with-low-self-esteem-bossing-around-her-hapless-mate theme continues. Maybe they paired those two stories together for a reason, but instead of feeling bad for them I felt like punching them both in the face.
I just can’t watch these types of shows. It seems to be exploiting someones mental health problems. It’s too painful to watch. I don’t blame others for watching, but I just can’t stomache it.
I want to see some OCD hoarders! With hundreds of neatly stacked boxes evenly filling the house. Logs of each item in each box and exactly where it is placed in the home. Perhaps the pathways through the junk could all be done in right angles or something.
Does such a creature exist?
I saw last week that one of the creators commented on the original post! Is there a Slog article/interview about Hoarders forthcoming?
to SeattleSeven: I don’t think that a perfectly organized hoarder exists. I’ve been in contact with a lot of people with this problem and it tends to be extremely chaotic. Part of the hoarding problem is that it is an inability to ‘deal’ with the stuff, in any way, and it is also cumulative so stuff just piles up. People who have a million records and have them all labeled and organized perfectly aren’t really hoarders – are they ‘collectors’? I don’t know…but one crucial difference is that hoarders are ashamed of their situation, whereas ‘collectors’ or super organized packrats are proud of their collections and want to show them off to the world.
This was the first episode I caught and I am still in shock…
@1–I agree…it’s just painful to watch…
I hope there is not an article forthcoming…but perhaps it would detail the continuing mental health counseling these individuals receive long after the show hits the air and their secret is known to all. If the counseling they receive terminates when the show hits the air then the producers have crossed the line into exploitation rather than “edutainment.” the hoarding affliction seems to be similar in the vein of the diseases that affect white people on a mental/social level, like eating disorders and erectile dysfunction. important stuff for certain!
I am being prevented from watching this program by evil demons that live inside my television. Seriously: whether I try to watch episodes on On Demand, or on my Comcast DVR, I get sound and no picture — and I have to reset my motherfucking cable box. I’ve seen two, and I want more. Dag nab it.
STOP EVERYTHING
There’s a tiny piece of a tile that was on a table in the other room that I asked you to remove. Please, stop what you’re doing and find this little piece, it matches the 2 other pieces I lost a long time ago.
She failed so hard, she had to keep going through every little thing. Lady, you haven’t seen this shit for years, if you don’t already miss it you’re never going to miss it.
That’s my loveable way-too-worried-about-a-piece-of-tile mom! As my brother pointed out, those guys in green were hired for their manual labor, not their dumbass opinions, and you’re so right… they couldn’t get it together enough to NOT throw away a box labeled CHARITY. Useless and irritating.
Several of the scenes were cringe-worthy. I get really bitchy, too, when people put me in anxiety-provoking situations. Who wouldn’t?
@5 – It scares me a little that collecting versus hoarding can be boiled down to the items you choose and how your arrange them. We expect a stamp (or any other thing) collector to be every bit as upset as these people if a stamp went missing… Even if it wasn’t particularly prized. Now that I view the two as one in the same I will never collect anything… ever.
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I feel bad but I get so frustrated with these people on hoarders. I know it is mental issue, I know they are struggling with the whole thing and every once in a while I feel really bad for them (the gay boy with the dog hair and the drunk dad.)
I really really really want to tie them up out back, clean the house and then let them come back in and see how much better they feel now that the house is clean and tidy! But of course only I feel better with a clean house, they would freak out and their head would ‘splode.
If one of these women were my mother, I don’t think I could handle it.
I’m going to go watch the exact opposite of hoarders for a while. Better Homes & Gardens TV.
Charity! Is that really you?
@ 3,
They exist. I used to be one when I was a kid. Every single friggin’ toy, book, game, piece of clothing I’d ever gotten in my life put on display or packed up into those plastic storage totes. I had collections of collections. Then I went to college and had to travel light. Eventually I got sick of hauling around boxes and reamed out the old clothing. Then I donated the toys to charity. Eventually, I realized all the books I loved could be found at the local library. The only stuff I’ve got now is stuff I actually use…..and a kick ass antique Czechoslovakian Christmas ornament collection. (So I’m not totally cured. Big deal.)
p.s. My book collection has gone down to one large shelf from filling the entire house. That was the worst pain I suffered but, as I said, I got over it.
@3,
I’m pretty sure my neighbor is one of those people. He has boxes and plastic tubs stacked up to the ceiling, but he doesn’t have any garbage or rotting food issues.
You probably won’t see people like that on Hoarders since people who can control it to some degree probably won’t get in trouble with the authorities or their landlords.
‘we probably would have mistaken that for rubbish. because it was a broken piece of tile.”
i’m not gonna lie, i laughed really hard about that one.
but i looked all over the aetv website for hoarders, and i couldn’t find the whole jake and shirley episode! all i found was the one with the two bossy hoarder wimmins.
@3
Yes, ODC hoarders exist — my Mother, for one.
@ 13 Your collection sounds interesting. Do you have any pics?
There must be many other things going on along with the hoarding. Bipolar disease sufferers will collect all sort of things in their up phase and then feel depressed and overwhelmed in the down phase. Then they will collect more stuff to make themselves feel better in that down phase. Regardless, they will suicide or resort to other physical violence or legal or extreme emotional measures if their highly valued possessions are taken away. It seems as if some small or large possession takes on an inordinate emotional connection that makes it almost impossible to part with without parting with an important piece of their own identity.
. The fierceness with which people will protect their possessions to the exclusion of all other considerations is truly remarkable.
Somehow or other do they suffer from the rushing thoughts and depression of bi-polar disease along with (separation) anxiety? Now that is a difficult syndrome.