This show is set to premiere in Obsessed's time slot on Mondays at 10.

I can't wait! For some strange, strange reason, I love shows about hoarders, what they hoard, why they hoard, and why can't just can't toss that garbage in a dumpster and have it carried off.

I like Hoarder stories too, so this sounds good to me. Does this mean Obsessed is cancelled though?

Toaster Strudel, me too. I don't know why I'm always so interested by people saving 45 years' worth of rubber bands and string. Oprah had an episode awhile back with a woman who was a compulsive shopper as well, and had filled a five-bedroom house to the rafters, to the point that her family could not even come to her house. Oprah's staff cleaned the whole place out and had a giant garage sale, really an aircraft hangar sale, to get rid of it all. The whole thing was trainwreck TV at its finest.

I suspect that Obsessed will be off for Hoarders' premiere because the post-Intervention audience is just what Hoarders need to get started on the right foot. They can't have it premiere after one of those horrid neon episodes of CSI: Miami.

I expect that a new time slot will be announced during/after the show. I don't believe that Obsessed is canceled, unless they run out of nuts in the greater LA area...

Oh and I think I saw an episode like that on Dr Phil. They even had window frames on the kitchen floor, and they just couldn't part with emptied cat food tins... nor could they part with the rotting food caked on the inside. They were living in a trailer on the side of the house, and the trailer was packed to the ceiling already... even the car was used for storage, you couldn't drive it.

If you think about it, pretty much every episode of Clean House is about hoarders. And I completely appreciate people who can't throw stuff away, since I'm one of them and my mother was, too. The pleasure I get out of watching shows like this is the proof that there are people out there much worse than I am.

When does it start? My ex was a semi-hoarder. We had garbage bags of empty Quaker oatmeal cardboard round tubs in the attic. He would bring home broken office equipment from work and haul it up to the attic. I am a decorator and very organized. Neddless to say, it was a struggle. I would wait till he left for work to put things out into the garbage collection. When he moved from CA to WA with his ex he took a 2nd rental truck up with him that was just filled with old tires, non-working appliances and boxes of unopened junk mail. 2,000 miles of gas costs for that.

By memory, I think it starts August 17.

WhineandCheez Boxes of unopened junk mail??? Criminy, I'm glad to head he's your EX.

I didn't care for the show Obessed, but this sounds like a winner. I also don't know why, but I like shows about hoarders. Maybe because I am trying to understand my parents or maybe because I no longer get the Style network and can't watch Nicey and Clean House.

I'm glad I saw this here because I rarely watch A&E. I love watching shows about hoarders because the grossness of their homes always inspires me to clean and de-clutter. I once helped a friend move who was a junior hoarder and the trauma of filling up storage units with all her useless and broken junk set me off on a personal 3-week organization mission.

I just hope they don't show animal hoarders because that is always heartbreaking.

From the A&E website:


Edited to add that this casting notice from November 2008 had Screaming Flea Productions as the contact, but there's nothing about the show on their website:

And according to her blog, Dorothy Breininger of the Delphi Center for Organization is the show's "expert organizer."

Thanks for all of that info editorgrrl. I thought it started tomorrow.

My husband is a hoarder. I look to shows like this to help me deal with it. He can't/won't admit he has a problem. So far, it is contained to his office and his half of the bedroom. I have learned from watching these shows how to work with him to get him to go through it and clean it up and out. He has actually cleaned out his bathroom cabinet. The phrase that I heard on one of the hoarding shows was "Do you have an emotional attchment to this?"

Nine more days, nine more days... how shall I kill time from now 'til then?

Garage sales?

I'm kind of a demihoarder. I have a really hard time throwing things away. I always think I might need it someday and stick it in a box. I recently had stuff in my parents garage and told my dad to throw it all away. I knew if I tried to go through it I would end up keeping everything. I'm getting ready to move across the country (NV -> NY) and need to get my stuff down to a manageable level. Maybe this show will help? I've thrown out about 8 large trashbags of stuff over the past month, but I've kept a lot of stuff I know I don't really need. Hopefully by March I will get down to 3 - 4 medium boxes plus some larger items (bicycle, electronics, etc). I need to get to a point where all my stuff, my cat, and me will fit in the car.*sigh*

Maybe A&E would like to come throw my stuff away for me.

For those who are interested, there's a documentary called My Mother's Garden that's available to watch for free on MSNBC.com about this very thing.

But yeah, it's fascinating that people are just terrified to do this. I get that way sometimes, but on a much smaller scale.

Clean House, like TLC's Clean Sweep, seems fake and contrived to me. People don't live in clean clutter. Witness any episode of How Clean Is Your House? for the reality of filth and garbage. I hope this new show is real.



I am pretty messy, but I look like a neat freak next to my teenager. I once cleaned her 10' x 10' room and took out fourteen large garbage bags. I was only able to do it when she was in school, as she would fight me for the right to keep rotted food and broken crayons. She would be a very good candidate for a hoarding show.

Don Aslett's books are really good for putting belongings in perspective, but the hoarder has to be willing to read them.

I have found my people! I am obsessed (no pun intended) with hoarders. I'm not exactly sure why, but perhaps because I float somewhere between organized and a packrat. As someone mentioned upthread, these shows make me feel better about my life and also inspire me to organize. I can't wait for Monday!

Pollyprissy: Me too!

I like to see hoarders because I can say "Well, at least I'm not THAT bad!" Books are my downfall, it's like pulling teeth for me to throw/giveaway a book, even those I know I won't read again (and believe me, I reread my books). I had to get a shed to store my mother's furniture (which is another thing -- should have just sold it), and it's packed with books, and scrapbooking supplies and scrapbooking magazines, etc. At least I have the shed.

Wow, thanks for posting about "My Mother's Garden." What an amazing film. The filmmaker had so much patience with her crazy mom. If the "Hoarders" show is handled with half as much sensitivity, I'll be very impressed.

I'm really looking forward to this show. I wonder how it wll be handled.

Oddly enough, I don't think Intervention is depressing, but I find Obsessed relentlessly depressing.
Am hoping Hoarders is more Intervention-ish.

I'm a hoarder. I'm working with someone right now. Looking forward to seeing the techniques they use with the hoarders.

More than one book on decluttering has noted that most clutterers have tons of books on how to declutter among their possessions.

I knew my first hoarder in the 70's and always wonder now if newer therapies/meds would have helped her. She was in danger of losing her apartment but couldn't stop bringing home reams of used paper from the office "to use the other side". Add to that pizza boxes, cans, you name it.

Preview videos are available at http://www.aetv.com/hoarders.

That's what I don't understand. I have a stack of used paper so I can use the other side for printing drafts. One stack. I don't have boxes and cans with rotting food in them. Damn. I keep a pretty tight ship and don't like a lot of visual clutter, but I can understand the magazine and book hoarders. I can understand and have known clothes hoarders. But when I see the stacks of dirty food containers, I just want to hurl. It truly must be a mental illness if you don't understand that you are inviting vermin, bugs, and stench into your home and you don't empty the damn trash because you need to keep the dirty boxes. I see people like this on How Clean is Your House and just do.not.get.it.

ThatPoshGirl, come sit next to me on my couch. I'll move last week's Sunday Times that I'm still working through.

I'm not a member of the Collyer's family, but I DO have a problem throwing thing away ('what if I could use this?') Recycling makes things worse, because I always try to figure out a way to reuse things.

There was a clip about the show on Today this morning. They spoke who I believe is the woman in the first episode.

I ended up throwing out a half bag of old papers after that :)

Maybe if they have a marathon one weekend, I can totally turn over my apartment!

I feel the same way. Clothes, books, magazines, I get it. I understand wanting to hold onto those things. But straight up garbage? I don't get it either.

Ha! I know what you mean. I just finished my second year of college and I have a huge box full of every piece of paper I have received in that time, not because I think I will need it, but because I keep saying I'm going to take up paper making as a hobby. That's actually my big problem. I keep taking up hobbies and not following through, lol. I have brand new rock hounding/geology equipment still in a box, balls of yarn, boxes of knitting needles, crochet hooks, knitting looms, both digital and film cameras, etc everywhere.

I can't wait for this show. I'm hoping, like others have said, that it will make me feel a little closer to normal.

I agree I haven't seen any cockroaches or other vermin on Clean House, but I do remember one young married couple that had used condoms on the floor of their bedroom. Who would make stuff like that up?

ETA: I have posted on many threads on TWoP, but after reading your posts here I know I have trully found my people.

Did the parents have any kind of therapist there? The main person offering help introduced herself only as an "organizer" and she brought what appeared to be hired help to trash things. There didn't seem to be any kind of support system or therapy on-hand to try to help the couple realize how it got to be as bad as it was.

I can't think the couple's only problem was hoarding and obsessive shopping either. If you notice, almost every room had drawings all over the walls that must have been there for years as their kids grew.

I'm the oldest of three boys and I never remember our laundry being that bad even on the worst days where my parents were working two jobs each and didn't have time to do it all day. We had a designated space in the basement that might be a bit crowded every now and again, but it wouldn't spill out up the stairs and into a hallway.

I understand the hoarding mentality somewhat and I can certainly see how Jill could see the world with her rotting food. Strangely I know a lot of elderly people who are willing to ignore expiration dates because they think it's still good.

However, I don't quite understand the parents: the wife buys a lot of things and the husband never wants to throw anything that's broken out thinking he can use it or repair it later. How does that explain the dirty laundry that could be "repaired" by doing said laundry sometime over the course of two months? How does that explain leaving a box of cereal rotting on the floor because "the dog wouldn't eat it."

The real problem seemed to be a mixture of the wife not knowing how to organize/clean and the husband enabling her by making things more cluttered. Since they received no on-camera therapy to help them overcome this, I can't help but think their house will just re-clutter itself when the cameras leave.

Whoa, shout out to Louvul! That poor little boy, maybe they could have asked him to give it to another family maybe through Freecycle instead of just busting it up? It looked ok, and might have given him some closure.

"It's not puffy, it's expensive, and it is something I can eat on my diet."

Uh, what kind of diet would that be now? Free Range Green Buffalo Pumpkin Seed Tacky Fly Soup with Kitty Litter Crunch Yogurt.

Blurg. Jill has a mental illness, and they should study her immune system. Wow. To not throw up among all that rotten food, takes mad skills.

I really feel for the guys that had to clean Jill's house. That was the most disgusting house I have ever seen. And she didn't believe in the expiration dates? The smell must have been overwhelming, yet she seemed unfazed.

Must the hoarders be present when all the crap/rotten food is being thrown out? It seems like it would be so much easier to just toss all that out instead of trying to argue usefulness or expiration dates.

Jill's house probably needs a hazmat team in there. Who knows what's living underneath that rotten food. If she's that bad about food, I imagine the cat's litter box goes untouched. I'm amazed her landlord allowed it to get that bad.

The older woman reminded me of that Richie from Obsessed.Pumpkin is rotting to pieces and she needs to take some seeds. Yeah, ok.

That little boy broke my heart. Twenty years from now he'll probably be saving everything too.

"It's not puffy."

One of my favorite parts was when Jill peeled off the outer layers of the rotten cabbage to reveal the inside that was perfectlyfine to eat.

I may just be cruel, but the first family, if i walked into their house, I would think "filthy hillbillies" instead of "oh, hoarders." I don't deny that the dad was a hoarder, but that would be my impression. Jill seemed so hoardery because she had multiples of items. Like 10 jars of Newman's Own spaghetti sauce, and all of the yogurt, and those boxes of rice.

And then left the rotting part sitting wherever it was probably until the crew came to clean up.

But Cheezbiz, IT WAS ON SALE. lol. OMG did anyone compulsively clean a little after that show? C'mon' raise your mouse (es) - er computer mice.

Jill had a mental illness. The other girl with the hoarder hubs and kids was just.....disorganized and maybe also on her way to hoardom. LOL.

DUCKYINKENTUCY you owe me a new keyboard for the "it's perfect for my diet" menu. However, you left out the expired cheese in rotting meat juices. Oh, YUM. .(gag)

God, I can just feel the loneliness and depression in those people, especially the older woman. Someone must have a total lack of self worth to allow themselves to live in such squalor. And I thought I was bad about not throwing stuff away!

I'm guessing that talking through the removal of the food and the reasons why were part of the therapy. To simply have everything removed would've been traumatic to Jill and might have spurred on a breakdown or relapse.

I'll take another armchair psych stab that for some hoarders, that kind of act (the removal of their possessions without reason or warning) when they were kids may have brought on their hoarding in the first place.

I'm feeling that the young family could get better but Jill will always have a problem. The family is in therapy now and Jill is "planning" on setting up appointments.

Although it's 11:30 at night, I am currently fighting the urge to clean out my fridge after watching that shit.

I don't know what was worse the picking of the seeds from the rotting pumpkin or the meat "juices" that the cheese and other non-puffy supposed non-perishibles were floating in. You know when the professional cleaners are puking that you are dealing with some crazy shit. Speaking of crazy shit, for a while there I was really worried that they were going to scoop up a dead kitty or two with the rotting pumpkins. I was so happy to see that was not the case!

Add me to the list of people who think that the couple really wasn't a compulsive shopper/hoarder. I think they were just filthy pack rats. Oh, and that poor kid is going to be traumatized now after watching his play house get hacked to bits by some guy with a sledgehammer.

This show is already SO much better than Obsessed!

Jehzuz that was bad. The old lady clearly has major mental illness(s) that must be addressed, but where is the survival instinct to not eat rotten meat with bugs in it? I can't claim to know anything about this as I have never once gone hungry and it must be truly terrifying so I have a lot of sympathy for her. She was just a sad mess.

The hillbillies on the other hand did not illicit such feelings. The dad was the true hoarder if the black screen of knowledge is to be trusted. Mom is a shoppaholic? What in gods name did she buy? All I saw around that sugar shack was trash! Shopaholic is not synonymous with filthy pig. Oh, look my child dumped a box of cherrios on the floor and the dog won't eat them, hells bells there they lie, and she laughed about it! She was a lazy nasty thing. I don't feel any pity for someone who "never learned organization skills" or however she worded it. Buy a book in one of your shopping binges. I can't believe that she tried to pass her bad parenting off on being a shopaholic. Her children should have been taken away from her rather than be forced to live in that filth. Tell me maam how being a shopaholic interferes with doing the laundry or washing dishes? Also her little heart to heart with her son after tossing the diliapidated toddler house was bizarre and seemed quite showy to me. They were dirt ass poor. Those poor kids. No chance. What did she do all day when the kids were at school? It said she was a stay at home mom. CLEAN UP!

Probably. Going without due to poverty or losing stuff in a fire is supposed to trigger symptoms too.

I'm guessing that the threat of losing their children was enough to motivate the couple and probably enough to go into and to stay in therapy. The husband seemed to realize something was off in his attachment to the items. They did show items being shipped to the house. I can believe she was buying stuff. She had run up that overdraft too.

Jill, on the other hand, has admittedly always been messy, smelled nothing bad, didn't really see the situation as being one of utter filth and squalor, and is probably too irrational to seek therapy. I live next door to a hoarder and there's no way to break through to rationality. I've seen the same kind of false economy (e.g. they think it's cheaper to buy in bulk even though you don't need the items, have no place to put them, and when they rot, you lose any savings) in my neighbor. Although my neighbor also has memory problems and a simmering case of paranoia too.

I have to add, I also expected them to find a few dead animals in there. Well, apparently, there were. WHO LEAVES WHOLE CHICKENS IN PLASTIC OUT OF THE FRIDGE/FREEZER? - Or, it appeared that way. This show was way better than obsessed, and I could relax a bit watching it, if that makes sense. I did give my kitchen counter a rubdown with clorox , even though it was not needed. Tomorrow I'm cleaning out the fridge,- just because. I don't ever want that to happen to me. LOL. I guess that's why I watch the show. At times, I let the apt. go for one day, but that's it. How those people can live in trash and justify it is........disturbing.

I too want to clean out my fridge, geez. I couldn't believe she was ok with the meat juice drawer stuff. And the two-year-old yogurt. I thought the disordered thinking there was kind of interesting, in that some of it was rational - like yes, many expiration/use by dates are much more precautionary than a hard limit. Like, until a can is puffy, it's probably safe to eat. But that doesn't go for yogurt, lady. That she seemed to have no ability to discern between stuff that does quickly spoil and stuff that doesn't was odd.

I mean, not that they shouldn't have chucked it or given in to her and maybe she needs the hard line to be able to throw things out at all, but boxed stock that has an expiration date a few months old, I'd probably use. That she couldn't see a difference between that and 'what's sour cream going to do? Go sour? Hah!' is ... odd and interesting.

I thought the couple had real problems too, just not as evidently disordered as Jill's. I thought it was a good sign that they could deal with the cleanup and are apparently keeping up with it and therapy of some kind.

Word that this show seems better than Obsessed, I think the therapy and yapping and singular problem (like, an hour of she picks her face) made Obsessed boring for me in a way this didn't. Not that this wasn't an hour of 'omg the house' but... I dunno, less boring.

Oh, I forgot what really creeped me out about the hillbilly couple - she was 27 and he was 39 and they'd been together a decade. Excuse me? You were 29 and she was 17? The hell? Where were her parents?

Not sure why I like to watch this type of show but I do. If anything, I'm the total opposite of a hoarder. If I have no use for something, out it goes. Drives my hubby and son (a semi hoarder) crazy. I'm always organizing, throwing or giving stuff away. You won't find anything bad here cept for cat hair and my pile of laundry. I hate to do laundry. I never knew there was such a thing as food hoarding, that poor delusional woman.

I'm mad that those kids and even the pets were living in that squalor.

The fact that the kids have lived like that all their lives and no one ever bothered to call CPS makes me so pissed.

And those stupid fish tanks? Jesus.

Count me in as another viewer who will have a spotless refrigerator tomorrow.

I can't believe that the Milwaukee woman has never had food poisoning. There's no way she is going to counseling; she's probably out right now buying more squashes to talk to while they're rotting on the floor. I loved when she just had to pick out the seeds from the rotten squash to start a garden. If your lack of ability to deal with your putrid decomposing meats makes a professional organizer puke, I seriously doubt you're going to keep a plant alive.

I didn't think that clinical psychologist was very helpful but I had to hand it him for even going into that house. I wouldn't have gone within 500 feet without a hazmat suit. And when he found the bag of rotting lettuce that was dripping juices ? When she took it away from him I was dying to see what she did with it - she probably just set it down somewhere else. If she does get evicted she can just go live at the garbage dump - it probably smells better than her house.

Obviously if their current dog didn't eat the 10 lbs of cheerios on the floor, the solution for the Louisville couple was to get another dog who did like cheerios. I really wonder about the future of their relationship if she continues to get people to take his stuff away the minute he leaves the house. I'm glad social services was involved in their children's lives because I'll suspect they'll be back. If she has enough disposable income to be a compulsive shopper she has enough money to hire a teenager to stop by once a week and do the cleaning she is unwilling to do.

Ten minutes into the show I made my husband swear to clean out the fridge this week.

It's a very different show than Obsessed, primarily because the focus is on short term fixes rather than long-term problem solving. The stress caused by getting these hoarders to part with their treasures in a tight time frame makes for a lot more snark-worthy drama than we get in watching a 12 week self-improvement program.

I have to give a nod to yet another psychiatrist with infinite patience and, it would seem, incredible control over his gag reflex.

The first interaction between Jill and her shrink in her living room had me laughing and groaning at the same time.

Shrink: "There's a very strong, unpleasant odor in here."
Jill: "Oh really? I must be immune to it."
Shrink: "And there's a lot of flies buzzing around up there."
Jill: "Yes, there are."
Shrink: "Well, when there's a strong odor and lots of flies, it often indicates that there's something rotting. Is there anything rotting in here?"
Jill: "Not in this room. There's some apples that have gone bad in the kitchen, but nothing in this room."
Shrink: "Well, um, then what's that?" (Points to orange sludge on the floor.)
Jill: "Oh, the pumpkin! It was a beautiful pumpkin when I bought it."
Shrink: "And that?" (Points to barely visible top of a plastic produce bag.)
Jill (lifting bag filled with unidentifiable sludge that drips from the bottom): "Oh, that's some lettuce I bought last week."

Who the hell leaves produce to rot in their living room??

Best moment with Jill, hands down, was when they discovered the fridge drawer from hell and the "professional organizer" had to go outside before he barfed all over.

Man on man, she is some kind of crazy. Her whole thing about puffiness being the sole determination as to whether something has gone bad is just nuts. I agree with the previous posters who have said that she's going to be this way forever, and that someone needs to study her immune system ASAP.

I know this is not a rational condition, but I just don't understand how Jill can't see how much money she wastes in her quest to be self-sufficient. Buying mass quantities of food only to let it rot has to make her worse off financially.

And DuckyinKY, your kitty litter crunch topping comment made me snort Diet Coke through my nose. You're now on my "don't eat or drink while reading" list.

My personal theory about the source of the hoarding instinct in many of these people is that it's rooted in having Depression-era parents or grandparents. My Mom and Dad were kids during the Great Depression and then lived through the rationing of WWII. They drilled in me that I should never get rid of something that might be of use, and I admit that I have a hard time letting objects that are in perfect shape go unless I know someone is making use of them. Thank goodness I have a husband who has no problem making certain things go away when I'm not watching.

That was unpleasant. I found this show very painful to watch, much worse than Obsessed. Part of it has to do with it's focus on (as one poster put it) a short term fix rather than a long term solution to what are obviously very large problems.

Jill should have been on Obsessed. She needs long term therapy. That woman is ill. I am glad they sent her a psychologist as well as an organizer, but 2 days ain't gonna cut it. And what exactly did the organizer do? Throwing out the rotting food was a first step, but she had crap all over the place. I will admit that her 'Let me see if I can save some seeds' gave me the one huge laugh I had in the entire hour.

The Louisville couple should have been on Clean House. Whatever problems the husband had were not addressed at all. The wife I think was just overwhelmed. One thing I noticed was that their house seemed to be falling in around them. I didn't see one room that didn't have water damage or peeling paint or exposed joists or some other problem.

Other than that, I have no snark. No snark at all. But my kitchen sink has Comet sitting in it overnight, and I made sure to load and set the dishwasher to run. I have a strong desire to clean the refrigerator, but it will have to wait a day or two. Hopefully I can keep the desire alive until then.


Can you send him over to my house when he's finished with yours?

I was surprised they didn't go further in cleaning the houses. Like a fresh coat of paint in all of the rooms and heavy-duty carpet/floor cleaning. I mean, great, their houses are emptier, but they are still pretty dirty. The couple, especially, might be more inclined to maintain the neatness if there had been a more significant change. Like fresh, clean walls that the kids know are not to be written on, or there will be hell to pay. And I didn't really see any organizing stuff brought in, like laundry hampers or dressers to put away clean clothes.

I think it was easier on the husband to have the stuff hauled off when he wasn't there to witness it. It was done and gone, no getting it back, no having to dither about what goes or stays. And chances are, some of that stuff he will never miss, or it will be months before he realizes it is gone.
One of my cousins is sort of like hubby and his aquariums. She doesn't want things to "just end up in the landfill", even though she knows, deep down that it is junk. She has to take everything to the recycling center, or donate it to charity. Which would be fine, but at the one-box-every-few-weeks rate she is going, noticeable progress will take years. And Goodwill doesn't want 20-years-old clothes or broken, filthy aquariums.
I think a concerted, "just hire a damn dumpster and get it over with" approach is the only way to go when you are dealing with people who have to examine, ponder, set aside, re-examine, re-ponder, lather, rinse, repeat. If it doesn't leave the house the first second they decide it can go they will find reasons to keep it.

The psychologist didn't seem all that helpful, and I think might have been of more help to the family, but he was kind of cute. Not that it matters, I suppose.

I recognize the psychologist from Oprah. I thought he was great on Oprah. He dealt with these types of problems on there, too. I always thought he gave good advice.

I think he could've done some good therapy with Jill, but we only saw a fraction of that, and he had so little time with her.