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Post by Celeste on Aug 27, 2014 12:04:18 GMT -5
I want to remind posters that this self-help forum is for people who have housekeeping problems, including hoarders.
We are all here because we WANT to change. We offer support to each other for cleaning our homes and changing our cleaning fallacies to something healthier for ourselves and our dependents.
This is not the place for ranting at those with hoarding problems. See the rules in the Community Information board for more information.
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Post by hiding on Aug 27, 2014 17:23:41 GMT -5
I went back and looked a few Hoarders re-runs. After listening to Dr Randy Frost's talk, I have a much better understanding and sympathy for both other hoarders and myself. Getting rid of all the stuff, especially if it is by force, is by itself, not the answer. Sometimes it is counter-productive.
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Post by hungaryhippo on Aug 27, 2014 18:19:51 GMT -5
Apologies if my comments about food expiry dates were unhelpful and inappropriate. I appreciate that many people struggle with discarding food - I'm obviously one of them! However, I will say that I ate one of my old yoghurts today and I'm still alive!
Today I watched an episode of "Hoarders" and an episode of "Buried Alive". One reason for watching all these shows recently is to try and open my house-mate's eyes to the possibility that he may be a bit of a hoarder himself. I say "may be" but I really mean "definitely is". He read a newspaper while I watched, but afterwards a rather surprising thing happened..... suddenly all this recycling appeared out of nowhere - stacks of old microwave meal trays, yoghurt pots etc. It's all clean, thank goodness - everything gets thoroughly washed as the recycling only gets collected once a fortnight and we don't want to attract flies and other nasties. But why he'd been stashing it away instead of recycling it heaven only knows. But at least it's going now!
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Post by papermoon on Aug 27, 2014 20:07:25 GMT -5
Some of the earlier posts on this thread (from 2012) mentioned dislike of Dr. Robin Zasio. I went to hear her speak in person about a year ago, at a reading to promote her book "The Hoarder in You." To me, she seemed to be a genuine good person, with compassion for the suffering that hoarders are trapped in.
The most interesting part of her talk, though, was her revelation of her own human frailty. She talked about recently moving into a new home with her husband. This new house seemed larger and more spacious when they bought it. But it turned out not to be... it lacks the closet space and cabinet space that their old house had, and many walls have large windows where furniture cannot be placed. So she suddenly found herself facing Too Much Stuff, and facing her own strong resistance about having to get rid of things she loved and valued.
How she has subsequently dealt with her problem I don't know. But it was refreshing to hear her admit her own struggles. It made me think that these helpers aren't superior to the hoarders they help. I suspect that they've done battle with their own hoarding demons, learned how to overcome, and sincerely want to help relieve the suffering of others.
BUT... on a program like "Hoarders", those compassionate intentions are underplayed because, frankly, who wants to watch that? How boring! Viewers prefer the shock effect, the rapid-fire editing... all the tricks that the show's producers use to manipulate our emotions.
We here know that there's way more than meets the eye in a brief episode. The hoarders are fragile complex humans, not freaks. It would be well to also remember that the helpers are human, too, not monsters.
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Post by lostchild on Aug 27, 2014 23:00:53 GMT -5
I think that the people become so hostile because many times they recognize something of themselves that they don't want to face. Many times I think the family members should know what's going on so once the problems are resolved if they see it happening again they will do something to help before it becomes unmanageable. Maybe they are thinking it will result in the hoarder not being isolated in shame because if the relatives know then if they need help they know the relatives know the truth because many times the hoarder hasn't let anybody in physically and emotionally for years...decades even.
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Twix
New Member
Joined: August 2014
Posts: 31
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Post by Twix on Aug 31, 2014 1:51:51 GMT -5
I don't know if anyone saw it but this house was full of cat feces. Everything was covered. The show really had to have spent a ton of money to get rid of it and clean it. I wish I knew how much. Nothing in the house could be saved from what I could see. They probably bought her all new furniture and such. I don't see how the bathroom fixtures and kitchen stuff could have been even saved. In addition they took the woman who owned the house for a make over of her own, nails and hair. It was a great episode to watch. When she came home they had completely redone the house for her. Not just a cleaning and getting rid of episode. I believe that was the Jan/Dee episode. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but apparently Jan's house was still condemned after the show - despite the new furniture, etc, the stench from the cat feces/urine was too pervasive. For me that was a very difficult episode to watch - that toilet and the dead/suffering cats was hard to cope with.
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Post by hiding on Aug 31, 2014 16:59:25 GMT -5
Twix,
What is the name of your beautiful avatar moth/butterfly?
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Twix
New Member
Joined: August 2014
Posts: 31
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Post by Twix on Sept 1, 2014 4:24:03 GMT -5
Twix, What is the name of your beautiful avatar moth/butterfly? I'm not sure, I'm afraid. I'm glad you like it though. I'll see if I can find out
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