The Secret Lives of Hoarders_ True Stories of Tackling Extreme Clutter - Matt Paxton [10]
Someone like Margaret looks like a hoarder—overweight, straggly hair, socially withdrawn, and living in a messy house. Because of that she is more likely to get attention and help from friends, relatives, or social services. But hoarders like Li, Rick, Jackson, and Katrina can slip under the radar, with their problem growing worse until it threatens their relationships, their livelihoods, and their health.
It’s impossible to diagnose hoarding solely based on what someone says, what they look like, or even what shape the house is in. Brad and Ellen were smart, social people and their house wasn’t so messy that a visitor would assume they had a problem.
It makes sense how hoarders like Li start collecting stuff. But how do things get so out of control? Katrina was clearly an intelligent person who knew that mold is dangerous. Why couldn’t she stay clean? These are frustrating questions that many family members and friends of hoarders ask, and the answers aren’t always simple.
WHAT HOARDERS HOARD
When people think of hoarders, they think of someone living among broken furniture, decomposing garbage, and animal feces. But hoarding isn’t just about dirt and trash; it’s about hanging on to things that seem important for one reason or another. The rest is garbage that accumulates because everything else has gotten out of control.
Most hoarder houses end up looking like the owners collect general clutter—too many old clothes, sheets and towels, tote bags, warehouse-sized crates of food, and other items from daily life. Yet some hoarder houses are pristine and packed with fine antiques and collectibles. Most often the hoarders start with that sort of thing, be it magazines, clothes, or valuable artifacts, which then accumulates and takes over the house. The tendency to hoard one thing often spreads until the hoarder becomes incapable of getting rid of anything.
I’ve seen homes and yards full of bicycles, airplanes, pornography, empty prescription bottles, live birds, dead rats (carefully sealed in plastic bags), handbags, and even a collection of ten thousand cookie cutters. Hoarders are as diverse and creative as the stuff they collect.
▶ The Animal Rescuer
Margaret was a Stage 5 dog hoarder. She started out with one dog, but her love for animals quickly made her the go-to person for strays. Margaret’s dogs had complete run of the house, chewing, eating, and marking anywhere they liked and sleeping in a pack on the beds. Her animal hoarding eventually extended to a few parakeets in a large cage and then to ten horses she kept in a barn behind the house. Margaret was unable to say no to any animal in need.
The classic stereotype of the animal hoarder is the old lady with too many cats, like our client, Rose, whose thirty or so cats roamed freely through her house and garage. During the time I worked with her, every time I tried to breathe without a face mask I got a mouthful of fluffy hair. My crew and I found more than fifty dead cats and kittens; their dried-out skeletons were flattened under piles of clothes and boxes.
Rose never noticed any missing pets because there were just too many around to keep track of. The decaying animal smell didn’t get anyone’s attention because the whole garage and house reeked of cat urine.
Ironically, Rose wanted to protect and care for the animals, but her hoarding got in the way. The animals quickly became endangered simply because she couldn’t feed all of them regularly, change their litter, and provide adequate living conditions.
It’s hard for a non-hoarder to understand why someone needs so many pets. In so many cases, it became clear to me that a hoarder overlooks