Gosh, this one was a trainwreck. Neither intervention seemed likely to end happily. Nadene managed to concentrate for an hour and half before she demanded to stop, and she refused to part with anything. The other hoarders, Erin and Melinda and their mom, squabbled over who owned what rather than sorting and clearing. The mattress full of carpet beetles was revolting.
But the worst was Dennis and Nadene. Dennis was clearly in a major depression, in precarious health, and had isolated himself in his cluttered room with his guns. Nadene filled the rest of the house with junk, cigarette smoke, anger, profanity, and denial. Who was most at fault? At that stage, I'd have to say that it was Nadene. Dennis seemed too feeble to add to the clutter, or to protest vigorously if some of his were cleared away. Nadene could have done a lot of clearing if she'd tried ... but it seemed that she'd rather smoke and stew in her anger. I wondered if she was starting to slide into dementia.
Watching that episode was difficult for me, in that I lived with a packrat (not a hoarder but close) for twenty years, much of which I spent resenting his clutter and angry at him because I couldn't clear it out. It wasn't until he left that I realized that I'd fallen into the clutter habit too. In just one area, sewing materials and projects. Years after he moved out I'm still pruning.
Clutter is contagious! Dangnabit!
