I have to admit that I have a guilty fascination with "Hoarders." Although there are no mummified dead cats under piles of garbage in my house, I realize that there is a fine line between "collecting things" and hoarding. It becomes a full-blown mental disorder when people can no longer use their homes and they become oblivious to the sight and stench of piles of trash, but what about people like me who have two dozen plastic tubs of stuff in the basement that I can't bring myself to part with? ironically, the rest of my home is neat and even somewhat spare in its aesthetic. My dirty secret takes up the basement space and a small part of my upstairs workroom (I make jewelry as a hobby) I am making an effort to get rid of as much of the stuff as possible--I have already given away tons of it to Goodwill and other charities and I am selling the rest on Craig's list. My goal is to have a basement with no boxes of stuff except on the shelves.
"Hoarders" is a reminder that I am not so very different from these poor souls who jump on the garbage truck. Sometimes I even feel some sympathy for them: "I can see why they wanted to save that, yeah, I might have saved it...She has a doll collection! So do I!" This is scary. i have to get a grip! Toss it out! As Tyler Durden says in the film "Fight Club": The things you own begin to own you!
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Posted 2 years ago #
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as fascinating as Hoarders is to watch in a schadenfreude kinda way, i find it terribly sad, of the few episodes i have seen I'd say that the show's producers take advantage of these folks at their weakest and worst time of their lives. MOST of these folks cannot really enjoy log term success without anti-anxiety meds before they even start this, behavior modification will not work alone unless you have a therapist with you 24/7. Families need group therapy, it is not all one person's burden anyone else sharing the space is culpable and usually an enabler, the husband paying for his wife's shopping sprees at the cost of their own children, is a case in point - he was obviously passive aggressive and subconsciously wanted to rid himself of his family. Unless you have worked with folks with the disorder you can't appreciate the gravity of it.
The How clean is your house show on the other hand is a stitch! It is much more satisfying to watch. are american hoarders and british hoarders different? do they see their 'stuff' differently? do american's see their stuff as a reflection of themselves and fear losing their 'stuff'? it makes you wonder.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Erasergirl, are you a professional organizer?
I haven't seen it in a long time, but I always thought that the people on How Clean is Your House were just lazy slobs. I'm sure there are plenty of those types in the US. We see them on Clean House.
Most of the people on Hoarders and on "Hoaring, Buried Alive" have serious mental health issues. Some of those people will probably never be able to live what we might think of as a typical normal life. Occasionally, you will see someone on one of the hoarding shows who has an epiphany of sorts, gets the house cleared out quickly, and will probably be fine for the rest of their lives with only a little therapy.
Posted 2 years ago # -
"How Clean is Your House?" is hysterically funny--in the great tradition of wacky British TV shows like Monty Python, the original Office, and It's Me or the Dog (on Animal Planet, it features a British doggie Mary Poppins--I love it!) Some of the tips on How Clean are quite good--I use the vinegar/water spray bottle on everything! And laundry detergent with enzymes will clean the scum off your bathtub if you put in a cup of detergent to a tubful of water and let it sit for an hour. Hardly any scrubbing! But as far as keeping stuff clean goes, I don't really have a problem, though I'm sure my house would never pass muster with my grandmother. My mom was a so-so housekeeper--too busy being an artist and gardener. There are similarities between the filth on Hoarders and the filth on How Clean--the difference is a matter of degree. Little bacteria farms on toilets and counters are bad enough, but what happens when your whole house is a serious health hazard?
Posted 2 years ago #
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