Hoarders

Deborah, a 49-year-old mother of two is living in fear that her hoarding will lead authorities to take her children away again. Her husband Ron is at his wit’s end. He says her hoarding fueled his depression and alcoholism. She says his alcoholism fueled her hoarding. It all came crashing down around them when Ron attempted suicide in 2003. Now, Deborah’s anxiety has reached an all time high. She has to make a major change or risk losing her family for good. Jim, a well educated Bee Keeper, is living a double life. He manages a successful honey business, but the inside of his home is a nightmare. Heather, Jim’s 37-year-old daughter, will call Adult Protective Services on him if he doesn’t clean up his act for the sake of himself and his eight-month-old granddaughter.

Linda’s family has been ripped apart by hoarding. She wants nothing more than to have a relationship with her grown children, but they refuse to come near her house which is packed waist and neck high with piles of belongings. Despite Linda’s past threat to commit suicide, her children have had it. And while her husband doesn’t want their marriage to end in divorce, he doesn’t feel he should be forced to live this way any longer. 29-year-old Todd has been collecting models, kits and various hobby items since he was a kid. His girlfriend of five years, Robyn, wants to get married and start a family, but has threatened to leave him if he doesn’t clean up his act. Todd wants to create a life with her, but is at his wits end not knowing where to start.

Janet’s picture perfect life crumbled when her husband of 32 years died while waiting for a heart transplant. Devastated, her hoarding spun out of control and she has now hit rock bottom. She turned to shopping and began filling her home with decorating supplies, in the vain hope of completing a home remodel her husband had wanted to do. She even collected over 20 sets of patio furniture in the process. Her four daughters are concerned that if Janet doesn’t change, she will be lost to them forever. Christina, a former psychologist, is literally suffocating beneath her things. Breathing at about 80% due to chronic asthma, Christina has at times been rendered blue from exhaustion and tears. She has filled her large suburban home with clothing for her and her daughter, 12-year-old Hanna. Despite much of it being unworn for years, she refuses to part with any of it. With her health on the line, she must clean up before her asthma gets worse.

Gail’s house is literally falling in around her. With no heat, cracking walls, a leaking ceiling and bowing floor boards, Gail desperately needs to make repairs but can’t because the house is packed full. Gail has to go in for major surgery in two weeks and without a clean up and repairs, she will have no place to recuperate. Warren, a self-employed heating and refrigeration specialist, literally brings his work home with him. Old refrigerator units, tools and unused supplies clutter all but 200 square feet of his home. The clutter is a danger to their three-year-old son, Josh, and Warren’s wife Leanne worries about the impact the lack of open space will have on their son’s development. She’s finally had enough and has given him an ultimatum; clean up or move out.

Tra is a 40 year-old firefighter living two separate lives. At his firehouse, he is expected to live in a clean and structured world. But in his home, he lives in chaos, surrounded wall-to-wall by hoarded possessions. Now, these two worlds have collided and fellow firefighters are worried that Tra’s hoarding is affecting his performance on the job. His future with the Fire Department may be in jeopardy if he can’t get things under control. Jill’s 13-year-old son Tyler struggles with severe asthma on a daily basis–much of it triggered by a house filled with piles of dusty boxes and a basement that has black mold from a flood. Her 17-year-old son Spencer is fed-up with the condition of the house and resents his mother for her hoarding. Their family is at a crossroads–Jill must part with rooms full of keepsakes or risk losing her kids.

28-year-old June lives in a mobile home filled with keepsakes like Care Bears and Cabbage Patch dolls. She’s not only facing violations of the city’s fire codes, but a strained relationship with her 13-year-old daughter, Tori. There is constant tension between mother and daughter and Tori has threatened to abandon her mom as soon as she turns 18. Faced with the loss of her home and daughter, June must get help now. Doug, 38, is a single dad of two adopted children. Kylie (6) and Nate (8) both have special needs and the conditions of their home are only adding to their problems. The family’s kitchen is hardly usable and the refrigerator doesn’t always work. In fits of rage, Nate pushes over hoarded stacks and throws anything in sight. Now, a social worker will be visiting the house along with the children’s therapist, and Doug fears they may remove his kids from the home.

Dennis and his wife Nadene are compulsive hoarders who blame one another for the clutter and mess that has completely consumed their home. Dennis, a retired cop with an arsenal of guns and knives, has retreated to his bedroom in declining health. Now, with Adult Protective Services involved, their daughter, Heather, has flown in from London for one last attempt to help them clean their home and deal with her father’s lingering anger and deep depression. Sisters Erin and Malinda cannot remember a time when hoarding did not affect their lives. Their parents were both hoarders and their home was always cluttered. Now, as adults living with their sick mother, they are forced to face their life-long problems of compulsive shopping and hoarding–or risk having her removed by Adult Protective Services.

This family of 14 was the Brady Bunch of the block–until mother Claudie’s hoarding tore the family apart and turned them all into the pariahs of the neighborhood. The house is so bad that Claudie is now sleeping in a homeless shelter. Her husband moved away and sent her divorce papers with an ultimatum: clean up or sign.