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Post by gadget on Feb 23, 2012 13:15:36 GMT -5
I saw another helpful show. On the FOOD Channel!! It was called Stuffed and dealt with food hoarding.
It was done very respectfully and showed the people actually tossing out old food. It told you how long to keep outdated food and gave helpful hints on how many same items to keep.
I am cleaning out my refrigerator and pantry this week because of this show!
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Post by downandout on Feb 25, 2012 2:09:04 GMT -5
oooooo thanks for the heads up Gadget! i havent heard of that show. i will dvr it because i have problems with throwing away food sometimes. ive got a whole bag of apples in the fridge that needed to be tossed two weeks ago but i cant seem to get past the whole "i was going to do this with them..." sigh.
i havent seen the A&E show yet. my dvr died last week and i had to replace it. hopefully i will see it soon but it sounds interesting! they actually did some decorating!
sometimes i like these shows and sometimes i cringe when watching. guess it all depends. im gonna say that no matter what its good for me to see this because either it motivates me to get up and do something or it makes me afraid that i will go further into this madness and really have trouble you know?
i did get to see TLC's Hoarding:Buried Alive and the one lady well they cleaned out her house completely and that totally freaked me out!! all she had left was a shelving unit with a tv and two wicker chairs in front of it. there was a kitchen table with four chairs and some bedroom furniture but no bed. i mean sure she obviously wasnt living there but they took everything!!! and during the cleanout i saw that they were tossing live plants away! not a dead plant but a perfectly fine green plant! did they toss all her pots and pans too? plates?? silverware??? i mean some of that stuff you could wash for sure....gah im still freaking out over this...
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Post by grungygeorgie on Feb 25, 2012 13:57:18 GMT -5
I love watching hoarders as well. Though, if there is a episode featuring animals, I turn it off. In someways it makes me feel like, I am not alone", just like this website does.The one thing I want to mention is, that I do not agree with is "the family tour". How does the dr. parading family members into the bathroom and showing the hoarders "shame" help them??
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Post by dayeanu on Feb 25, 2012 15:38:48 GMT -5
I love watching hoarders as well. Though, if there is a episode featuring animals, I turn it off. In someways it makes me feel like, I am not alone", just like this website does.The one thing I want to mention is, that I do not agree with is "the family tour". How does the dr. parading family members into the bathroom and showing the hoarders "shame" help them?? I totally agree with this! Showing the family, whom the hoarder has been hiding it from for years, can't be healing. It would be a deal-breaker for me. Too bad they don't blur the hoarder's face and front of house. I'd consider doing it if they did. It's not the stranger in Seattle who worries me. I wouldn't want my neighbors to know.
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Post by dayeanu on Feb 25, 2012 16:19:37 GMT -5
. . . but so many shows leave us with a final image of people in unattractive, empty houses that seem devoid of comfort or function. I can't recall who, though regular posters here longer than me will remember, but one person featured on a show posted here saying she had three pairs of pants that fit, and despite communicating this to the crew, the show tossed the two she wasn't wearing, leaving her literally with no change of clothes. This is not the happy ending I want to see to encourage me. This feeds into my fears of destitution that keep me hanging on to crap I don't need, and is why I finally stopped watching. I got the feeling that "normal" viewers who don't struggle with house keeping see gutting the house as what hoarders "deserve" for their poor behavior, and it really turned me off. But if I get to see a well-furnished, functional home at the end, the show becomes a motivational tool that encourages me. I agree! When they finish and the house is empty, stained and damaged, that does NOT motivate me. This whole thread elicited a LOT of responses from me, but I've been too sick to post. Now that I have seen the shows, I realize that I am, indeed, a hoarder. My house is not as bad as most on the show, - but some of that has nothing to do with me. I live in a rural area, in the middle of hundreds of acres of private land. I don't have to keep pets in my house 24-7, as I might if I lived in a city. They can run the property with little fear of harm. So i don't have significant animal waste in my house. Fortunately I have not had plumbing problems. But if my bathroom goes out, there are heavily-wooded areas where I can "go." I can toss scraps in the fields, where they are gratefully received by the critters. There is no zoning here, no landlord or city inspections, and no nosy neighbors. I, myself, and what I feel is acceptable, are the only "hoarding law" there is. That is both good and bad. My house IS worse than a few I have seen on the show. I don't think I have quite as much trouble letting go of my stuff as some of the people on the show have. Nevertheless, I DO understand how they feel about it. I can really relate, even though my intensity is not to the same level as theirs. I DO see myself often, trying to decide if I should toss that half-dried-out bottle of nail polish. Thanks to the shows, and the years I have spent here, learning examining myself and being inspired by you all, and after years of dealing with the horrible frustration of living in squalor, and all the hours of reading helpful books, and soul-searching, and praying, and, and . . . I AM finding it easier to toss stuff. I still have horrible organizational abilities. I am still overwhelmed bythe smallest mess. I still just do not see things, sometimes. Like the time I was posting about nowhere to put away my clean clothes; yet there was an empty flaming orange plastic chest at the foot of my bed, and empty drawers from a large 5-drawer chest. But I just didn't see it. Or the times I repeatedly swept up the same pile of debris, to the point that I could recognize the stuff in it, by it didn't occur to me to dispose of it after sweeping it up!Nor the time I spent half a day trying to figure out how to keep the dish drain rack from draining onto the floor, when it suddenly dawned on me I could just put it by the sink - the way it was designed to be used. I really think hoarders' brains just work differently. . . . I resented the other woman featured on the show because she expressed displeasure to the psychiatrist and organizer for stepping on her things! If she said it once, she said it a dozen times right in a row. The organizer even tried to ask her if these things were so special why were they all over the floor, but the homeowner continued to repeat, "I don't like it that you are stepping on my things." I think this is one of those situations where you would have to be a hoarder to understand how she felt. I understood her. Yes, her behavior looked absurd to the non-hoarder, but I could relate to her feelings behind it. I guess it's one of those situations where you have to be one to get it. . . . Several others have had the same attitude. One young mother was angry that the helpers were stepping on her daughter's school photo, which no one was aware of. Her children had been removed from the home until she could get it cleaned up. That show ended with her keeping all of her stuff, including the photo, but gave up custody of her children because she didn't want to change her ways. " because she didn't want to change her ways" I saw that episode. I think she COULDN'T change her ways. Not that quickly. I think this is the hardest part for a non-hoarder to get. It really is not that she didn't want to. I really believe she couldn't just switch off that driving compulsion. Not in such a short time span. I HATE how I am. I HATE how I live. I loathe how I live. I loathe what it has robbed from my life. I have been to counseling many times. I want desperately, more than anything, to change, and yet here I sit. Her issues seemed much more profound than mine. I think she could not change in so short a time. If she could, I would be right behind her in line for the next "dose." I think this is what is so hard for outsiders to get - it's really not just a matter of making a choice, of deciding "this is what I'm going to do." Because I determine to change nearly every day. My greatest fear is that I will never be able to overcome it, that I will always struggle, and that I will never have a clean, comfortable, pleasant place to live. That when I die, my life will have been about fighting the hoard.
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cincygal
New Member
Joined: January 2012
Posts: 22
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Post by cincygal on Feb 25, 2012 18:00:11 GMT -5
I believe so many of these people have been severely traumatized "before" in their lives that it may have caused Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and Severe Depression in many of them. I think the program is SHOCK therapy and it's just scary to see people belongings tossed into a truck - but, when it comes to horrific debris - rotting food, items destroyed by animal and human waste, then all of "that" awful stuff has to be removed. I keep wondering if the lingering smell of "cat" has soaked into the woodwork and flooring even though it has been painted. I think there definitely should be the total re-do, including the person. How many of these people have recovered? How many were damaged and are now without a home or are ridiculed from here on out?
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Post by einsteinsdesk on Feb 25, 2012 18:43:42 GMT -5
I am a hoarder. My house is probably at a 2 right now. Yes, I think there is an exploitative element to the shows, but they have helped me more than anything to see my mess with new eyes.
One thing I want to point out: Many of the people on Hoarders are in an absolute crisis situation where they a) are in trouble with the city and face loosing their homes b) in trouble with their landlord and face eviction c) in such a bad state as to be unsafe for human and animal habitation. There are often time limits to when they have to have the space cleaned up. They do not have the finances nor the ability to tackle such a big clean up on their own. So, yes, while the clean-up timeframe isn't ideal, it's done with the help of specialists the hoarder might not be able afford on their own, and with a large team of workers who can haul it all away. The people featured on Hoarders almost always do not have the luxury of a slow and steady clean-out. In an ideal world, we would be able to get the help we need regardless of finances, but that doesn't happen very often. I am glad that some of the people featured DO get psychiatric help, and are able to continue on with organizers with their aftercare funds.
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Post by dayeanu on Feb 25, 2012 18:44:38 GMT -5
I believe so many of these people have been severely traumatized "before" in their lives that it may have caused Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and Severe Depression in many of them. I think the program is SHOCK therapy and it's just scary to see people belongings tossed into a truck - but, when it comes to horrific debris - rotting food, items destroyed by animal and human waste, then all of "that" awful stuff has to be removed. I keep wondering if the lingering smell of "cat" has soaked into the woodwork and flooring even though it has been painted. I think there definitely should be the total re-do, including the person. How many of these people have recovered? How many were damaged and are now without a home or are ridiculed from here on out? I totally agree that I think most hoarders have suffered trauma or serious insecurities that maybe triggered their problems with stuff. I have seen a few follow-ups where the person is doing well, months post show. I don't know about the rest of the people. I would think it would be really hard to live down the public outing of one's "secret." I believe that if I were outed publicly, here where I live (small-town), I would have to Move. Away. And never come back. I don't see how those people do it.
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Post by dayeanu on Feb 25, 2012 18:51:27 GMT -5
I am a hoarder. My house is probably at a 2 right now. Yes, I think there is an exploitative element to the shows, but they have helped me more than anything to see my mess with new eyes. One thing I want to point out: Many of the people on Hoarders are in an absolute crisis situation where they a) are in trouble with the city and face loosing their homes b) in trouble with their landlord and face eviction c) in such a bad state as to be unsafe for human and animal habitation. There are often time limits to when they have to have the space cleaned up. They do not have the finances nor the ability to tackle such a big clean up on their own. So, yes, while the clean-up timeframe isn't ideal, it's done with the help of specialists the hoarder might not be able afford on their own, and with a large team of workers who can haul it all away. The people featured on Hoarders almost always do not have the luxury of a slow and steady clean-out. In an ideal world, we would be able to get the help we need regardless of finances, but that doesn't happen very often. I am glad that some of the people featured DO get psychiatric help, and are able to continue on with organizers with their aftercare funds. You make an excellent point here! You're absolutely right. Most (all?) of them are at a point of crisis. Traumatic for them, yes; but by then I guess most of them have run totally out of other options and are at the point of last resort. At that point, guys with trucks and shovels would be a blessing. I have only seen a handful of shows, so I don't really know. Are all these people under the gun, so to speak, or do any of them just volunteer because they can't do it on their own, and want their place cleaned out?
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Post by casper on Feb 25, 2012 21:09:02 GMT -5
On Hoarders all of them are in crisis. Maybe losing their children to CPS, or financially bankrupt, or city/county imposing fines and jail time and/or threatening to raze their homes. That's why they do the quick clean out, to comply with whatever agency needs to be dealt with. Sometimes it is a family member or land lord forcing the issue, threatening the hoarder with eviction or them having to move into a care facility, like some children do to their elderly hoarding parent. Before the clean out the hoarder receives counceling and after the clean out they can continue to receive more counceling and help with an organizer. I don't know how much money is provided but it isn't like a whole years worth of after care funds.
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Post by dayeanu on Feb 25, 2012 22:20:31 GMT -5
Thank you for the information. That's interesting. Too bad they don't have more after-care.
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Post by downandout on Feb 26, 2012 2:12:36 GMT -5
this. and even worse would be people knowing at my job. when we were evicted and the neighbors saw all the crap i was embarrassed but at least we moved you know? at least i dont have to deal with that. heck even now i avoid driving thru my old neighborhood. but thats why the people who do go on these shows - ok i know theyre doing this for themselves but they are also doing a wonderful service for all of us who are still hiding our secrets - they are very very brave and upstanding people all of them!
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Post by downandout on Feb 26, 2012 2:23:33 GMT -5
forgot to add that i saw Stuffed on one of the on-demand stations. pretty good and man oh man can i relate to that!! its too late now to be cleaning (hubby is sleeping and its 2am) so in the morning im going to tackle my freezer. pretty sure there is some stuff in there to toss. i will toss the not-so-fresh-fruit too. and even get rid of the stuff that has made it to the back of the fridge recently.
one thing is that i feel i have a good handle on my pantry. there is a running list on one of those dry erase boards that is kept up to date. so i know what i have and how much.
but i have to disagree with the organizer on that show who said that canned foods have a 2 year shelf life. no, thats the manufacturers suggested shelf life. undamaged canned goods can last much much longer than that.
sorry didnt mean to derail this thread!!!
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Post by dayeanu on Feb 26, 2012 10:27:17 GMT -5
this. and even worse would be people knowing at my job. when we were evicted and the neighbors saw all the crap i was embarrassed but at least we moved you know? at least i dont have to deal with that. heck even now i avoid driving thru my old neighborhood. but thats why the people who do go on these shows - ok i know theyre doing this for themselves but they are also doing a wonderful service for all of us who are still hiding our secrets - they are very very brave and upstanding people all of them! You're right. AND, these people, whether they intend to or not, are doing us all a great service.
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Post by Script on Feb 26, 2012 10:40:14 GMT -5
i did get to see TLC's Hoarding:Buried Alive and the one lady well they cleaned out her house completely and that totally freaked me out!! all she had left was a shelving unit with a tv and two wicker chairs in front of it. there was a kitchen table with four chairs and some bedroom furniture but no bed. i mean sure she obviously wasnt living there but they took everything!!! and during the cleanout i saw that they were tossing live plants away! not a dead plant but a perfectly fine green plant! did they toss all her pots and pans too? plates?? silverware??? i mean some of that stuff you could wash for sure....gah im still freaking out over this... One thing I know from my own work with TV people [filming commercials at an old job]: the amount of EDITING in any show is enormous. There may very well be EXPLANATIONS of this supposedly unnecessary tossing that never made the Final Cut that YOU saw: Examples: *bug infestations *water damage with resultant MOULD *webs and spider eggs *pet waste damage *rust damage With regards to tossing LIVE PLANTS: once I talked DearHubby into rescuing a really lovely [ha ha] GARDENIA from a neighbour's curbside yard-waste-trash. WELL! He brought it home, lovingly repotted it. Gardenia bloomed a bit, but then...................the SMELL from the earth was horrendous. Like Zombie Soup combined with Sewer Gas. We don't know EXACTLY why the plant was tossed: maybe their aged dog was peeing in the earth? I would NEVER do this again. very interesting posts.
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