Hoarders

[Alexis Kennedy]

Hi all, I caught a preview to a program last week, that made me set my DVR to record it. The preview showed a home in a nice upper-middle class area, where it appeared the homes and yards were well taken care of. In this case, some adult children of a couple probably in their 60's, video-taped the interior of their parents home and sent the tape to the Oprah Show. The hoarding was like I had never seen. There wasn't garbage, per se, just endless items mainly bought at clearances and such. The show got involved and here is what was inside the 3,000 square foot home.

Stuff that got thrown away 75 TONS. It filled 15 of those huge construction dumpsters. :shock:

The For Sale pile was taken to a 10,000 square foot warehouse, where it was very professionally displayed. Long tables filled the room and bins of stuff were under the tables. Clothes hung around all the sides, and there was a wall of TV's that reminded me of a display a Circuit City. There were over 3,000 pairs of shoes, 3,000 purses, endless piles of stuffed animals, lots of craft items and on and on.

Then there were huge Donation piles, the stuff she was able to keep and she returned many items.

The children had tried working with the parents and it was only after endless frustration that they sent the video to Oprah. At first, the parents were highly embarrassed, but eventually agreed to let them clean the house. The Show hired professionals (including counselors) to do the job and work with the couple. The couple had to be involved with the whole project. It took a team of 100 people 8 weeks to complete the job. This couple (she did the shopping and he was a doormat) are the type that you would see shopping at Safeway and you would not think twice. They appeared like clean probably law-abiding types. It was hard to see how there was room for both of them sleep in the bed and most of the the other furniture was not visible. There were only goat trails through the main parts of the home, but the basements, spare bedrooms and 3 car garage were packed almost to the ceiling.

This got me to thinking that if these decent appearing homeowners could do such thing, what do real estate investors ( esp. landords) come up against at times, when tenants leave rentals. I am sure there are many on this forum who have some real tales, but these people have to be in the outer limits. Incidentally, some walls did have to be replaced in the home due to mold and the Oprah show totally updated the home for the people.

The trailer for the show is on you tube. Type in "Oprah hoarder" and it's the first one.

Alexis