- [Destiny] I've hoarded this home
with my mother for 20 years.
- [Doug] It is completely packed almost to the ceiling.
- [Destiny] 48 Hours ago, my mother had a heart attack.
(emotional music)
If she doesn't go through with this clean up.
- She will get evicted.
- If I'm evicted, I don't know where I'll go from here.
- It's not going very easy.
I want her to learn, this is not okay.
Destiny's already over there picking out
what she wants to keep.
- Oh.
I need to find a specific plate.
- I've been trying to keep it together.
- [Dorothy] He too is a hoarder.
- [Doug] I want to keep so much of this.
- [Destiny] This is probably gonna be
the hardest thing I'm ever going to do.
- This is the time for her to step up.
(somber music)
(eerie music)
(traffic passing) (instrumental country music)
- I'm Destiny, I'm 35 years old
and I've hoarded this home with my mother for 20 years.
(dramatic music)
The house is three bedrooms, two bath,
and it's full of trash, and unneeded collectibles.
(slow rock music)
Dolls, angels,
elephants,
peacock figurines,
pots and pans, kitchen gadgets,
different brands of soda products,
pillows, clothing,
stacks of books,
movies,
and lot of trash right in front of the door.
(music fades)
- I'm Dawn I'm Destiny's sister.
(dramatic music)
The house is so bad that
I call it a nightmare.
It's dark and dusty,
and it smells like trash.
There's plates, and cans,
and just things that just fell apart,
and they just left 'em.
- I'm Doug and I'm Destiny's older brother.
(eerie music)
When I walk in the house,
the first thing I see is the living room,
and it is completely packed with trash.
From the floor almost to the ceiling, just a wall of it.
On the way into the kitchen is kind of the same story.
The entire dining room,
where we used to sit and have our meals is full of garbage.
You can't get to the counters in the kitchen at all,
because they're so packed with stuff.
- We have one working burner on our stove.
It's where I cook, or the microwave, or an air fryer.
There is one spot on the counter that I can prepare food,
which makes it very difficult.
And there's maybe three feet of space
that I could turn around in, the rest is taken up by trash.
- I'm Roddy, and I'm Destiny's brother.
(dramatic music)
When you walk through the house,
I think the first thing that grabs your eye is the trash.
It's just chaos.
All of the furniture is in disarray.
Everything's covered in dust.
Nothing's been cleaned in years.
It's just, again, just trash.
- Most of the trash consists of boxes of food
that we brought in, and I just never took to the trash.
I would open a box and take the product out,
but just kind of throw the box around the room,
whichever room I was in.
If it is something that's not too soggy,
I will toss it in my room.
If it's something that's going to leak everywhere,
I take kitchen trash and toss it there.
- I don't think that Destiny has a problem
of getting rid of the trash,
but when you've lived in that environment for so long,
moving one piece of trash to a trash bag,
you look around and you think,
what difference am I really making?
And taking the first step seems insurmountable.
(dramatic music ends)
- My bedroom is where I spend most of my time,
mostly surfing the internet,
reading fan fiction, watching TV.
It's also where I eat.
For the last year or so,
mom spent all of her time in her room
and I spent all of my time in my room,
because there really was nowhere else
for us to sit down together and spend time together.
(dramatic music)
The last time the property manager
was physically in the house was probably five years ago.
The house was bad at the time, but it's much worse now.
I've been concerned that if she walked in this house
and saw it, she'd be very angry.
- The property management company did tell my mom
that if we didn't clean up,
then they were gonna have to find some else to live.
- If we don't get this cleaned up, we will be evicted.
(dramatic music fades)
(sad slow music)
My mom has been hoarding my whole life.
Growing up in the house, my mother had a lot of things.
I don't think any of us thought it was hoarding at the time.
Mostly because the house was clean,
but there were a lot of things everywhere.
My hoarding was a learned behavior from my mother.
I would see how my mother would collect things
and I wanted pretty things too.
In my early childhood and early teen years,
my dad would take me to thrift stores.
That's when I really started collecting,
I would never clean my room, never get rid of anything.
- Honestly, I feel like Destiny began her hoarding
after my sister Melody and my nephew, Sean died.
I think that's when the family began its fall.
- When I was 17, my sister Melody and my nephew Sean,
were killed in a car accident.
- The night it happened,
the police came to the house to notify us.
And as soon as they said it, mom just collapsed.
- After we were notified,
I went to the hospital to identify the bodies.
It was traumatic, I saw them in the bags.
- It fundamentally changed the dynamic of the family.
Mom sort of checked out and I think that's really,
when it started to go downhill for Destiny.
- I was devastated.
I fell into a tailspin, became very depressed.
- There was a time when she was full of life.
So much life in her eyes and she just stopped.
- After the accident,
mine and my mom's hoarding got a lot worse.
That's when it started to pick up,
it became a bit of a problem.
- Mom and Destiny would go thrift shopping together,
and I think that they were trying to fill a hole.
And I think they started acquiring things to feel better.
- Hi! - Hello.
My mom's hoarding went into overdrive about that time.
My dad was the one who kept the hoarding in check.
- The stuff in the barn, the stuff in the two sheds,
and the little trailer, all of that was put out there,
keeping the house kind of free of the clutter.
That was always daddy's answer to mama's hoarding,
is put it in a building outside, just stack it up.
- Once my dad passed in 2011,
it was out of control completely.
We stopped taking things out of the house.
- After pop died, I think mom completely let herself go,
and let everything go.
- I think that all these losses
absolutely contributed to their behaviors.
- Mom and Destiny both got the habit
of doing things they needed to do and nothing more.
- They formed a very unhealthy symbiotic relationship.
Destiny and mom were both shut-ins.
Unless it was to go get groceries
or to go pick up more stuff for the house,
they just kind of stayed in the house with their stuff.
- My mom has been in poor health for a number of years.
She's had thing, after thing, after thing,
just sort of go wrong.
- Mom has been a smoker since, I think she was 15.
She's had congestive heart failure for at least 10 years,
sleep apnea, asthma, and a whole list of other ailments.
And these last couple of years,
it has really limited her mobility
and her quality of life.
She has spent all of her time in her bedroom.
- On her bed she has this tiny sleeping space
where she probably couldn't even roll over if she wanted to
because it's so piled high with stuff.
- The house got really, really, really bad.
And I knew that something had to change,
if she was going to have any chance of getting better.
I told my siblings that, "Mom can't live like this."
and we sort of had an intervention if you will,
with my mom and my sister, that we would clean up the house
and we would move mom and Destiny to where I live.
And mom is not very receptive to the idea.
- When Roddy wanted to clean up,
mom provided a lot of resistance.
I wanted to be supportive of my mom,
but I really wanted the house clean.
- The only way I could get her to agree to it
was to tell her that I wouldn't move her and Destiny,
if they agreed to do it.
She was still not happy, but she said, yes.
- Mom was very tired of living like this.
A few days ago, she told me she was very ready
to get everything out of this house that was unneeded.
She was finally ready to let things go.
- When mom was on board, I was like, this is it.
(slow dramatic music)
- 48 hours ago my mother had a heart attack.
It was very sudden, very shocking.
I was sitting in front of her when it happened.
All she said was "Oh." and clutched her chest,
and then she slumped,
and the light went out.
- My sister called me in a panic
and said that mom collapsed and wasn't breathing.
I think a part of me knew that she was already gone.
- The loss of my mother's been devastating.
I based almost my entire life around her.
I'm having a hard time
imagining what life's gonna be now without her.
- I'm extremely worried about Destiny.
I'm afraid she's gonna fall into a depression
because she was with mama every day of her life.
So, I'm sure she has no idea where she's gonna go
or what she's gonna do.
- The decision to move forward with the cleanup
was extraordinarily difficult.
- When mom passed, I had to make the decision
whether I wanted to continue or not.
- When we walked out of the hospital,
the very first thing my sister said to us was,
"I wanna still do it."
- And it has been the hardest decision of my life.
I have to clean up this house for her,
for me, and for my family.
- If the cleanup doesn't happen,
then the property manager will definitely evict Destiny.
And I'm not sure where she
or any of us would be at that point.
- This probably gonna be the hardest thing
I'm ever going to do, trying to clean up a house
that was meant to be cleaned up with
the most important person to me, my mother.
She's not here anymore.
- If she doesn't go through with this cleanup,
I feel like I might lose her too.
- I don't think (that I have starteds)
dealing with the feelings of this yet.
My mom meant everything to me,
and then she passed in front of me.
The cleanup would've meant a whole lot to mom.
She hated living the way we do.
I have to clean up this house for her.
- I think Destiny's ready.
But I think it's gonna be harder on her
than she thinks that it is.
Not cleaning up is not an option.
It has to be done.
- If she doesn't go through with it, she will get evicted.
- Ultimately I think Destiny knows
that this is the time for her to step up
and really make a change.
- If I'm evicted, I don't know where I'll go from here.
(dramatic music fades)
(birds chirping)
- [Robin] Hello everybody!
- Hello. - Hi.
- [Robin] I think I've come to the right place.
- Yes ma'am. - Thank you for having me.
- Thank you. - Thank you for coming.
- I'm Dr. Robin Zasio, I'm a licensed clinical psychologist
and I specialize in helping people
who are struggling with hoarding behaviors.
I wanna start by saying,
that I'm so sorry to hear about your loss.
The timing is obviously not ideal by any means,
but I know that you guys are all really motivated
to get this house in order.
So I'm glad that I'm here.
Before we continue, I thought I would just do
a quick check in with you, Destiny.
How are you doing?
(emotional music)
- Very shocked,
very devastated,
but I'm doing alright.
- Okay, how has it been for you the last few days?
- Very hard.
- Okay, well I know your family's here
and I know that everybody really is not okay.
And I'm here for all of you during this very difficult time.
So, thank you for being open about that.
That being said, Destiny, are you ready
to go into the house and show me around?
- Yes. - Okay.
Destiny and the rest of the family
are all very brave to do this.
I can't even imagine
what an incredibly difficult time this is for them.
Ooh.
Wow, okay.
Living room?
- Yes. - Okay.
- This used to be the heart of the house.
We'd hang out just casually, we'd have friends over.
- Okay.
Were you a social family?
'Cause it sounds like it.
- Oh, we were very social. - Okay.
We had lots of friends over.
We ended up not being so social,
- Right. after the accident.
- Okay, tell me about the accident.
- Melody and Sean were killed in a car accident in 2004.
Melody was 24 and Sean was two.
It kind of imploded the family a bit.
That's when we basically all just stopped living.
Stopped hanging out, stopped pretty much everything.
- Okay.
Were hoarding behaviors present at that time?
- I don't know if it'd be categorized that way.
She wouldn't have, my mom. - Mm hmm.
She always said that her house was cluttered.
- Okay.
- Which is how she always explained it off,
is it was cluttered.
- And Destiny, when I look around,
the thing that really stands out is the amount of trash.
- [Destiny] Yeah.
- So there's clutter,
but this is trash. - Yep.
- And I know in the midst of it,
you probably have some really good stuff,
that's hard to see.
- Yeah, that's underneath everything.
- But what was the turning point from the clutter
to just throwing the trash on the ground?
- When my dad died, he was actually
what would keep us from keeping too much stuff in.
He was the one who took care of the trash.
- Right.
So when he died, it's like, we didn't care anymore.
Even though we did.
It just, it would snowball. - Mm hmm.
- You're probably aware of this,
but all of this is perpetuating your loss.
- Yep.
Yep.
- Because you've had some very significant losses
in your life that have really led
to your giving up.
- Yep.
- And you've gone into a spiral of grieving.
- Yep.
Most of the trash though is me.
- It is.
- Not all of it, but I was the one
who was responsible for the trash mostly after dad died.
- I feel like there's a lot of judgment
that she's putting on herself because of the trash,
which essentially led to depression.
There's a really strong sense, Destiny,
that your self-esteem is really lacking.
- Oh.
(slow emotional music)
It's hard to have it when you look around
where you're living and it looks like this,
and you don't know how to pull yourself out,
and stop the habits and clean it up.
And yeah, I don't have very high self esteem.
- Okay.
I get that you were a major contributor,
but I really wanna focus on the reality
that there are factors, deep, deep, emotional pain,
that led to this.
- Yeah.
- And so in addition to managing
the grief of the loss of your mom, we'll help you with this.
- Okay. - Okay?
- Yep. - Okay.
She has over a decade
of grief and loss that has not been processed.
- [Destiny] This is my bathroom.
- Question. - Yep.
- There's a lot of toilet paper on the ground?
- [Destiny] Yep.
- So is the toilet working?
- It was. - Okay.
(somber music)
The floor is covered in used toilet paper.
This isn't any way a person should be living.
And I know that Destiny knows this.
I think she's just completely given up.
- [Destiny] This is my bedroom.
It's where I sleep.
- And so this is a similar situation when you're done
with whatever you're eating or doing,
it just goes over there.
- Yep. - Okay.
Are you able to separate out stuff to keep
versus what is really trash?
Or do you anticipate you're gonna struggle with
getting rid of the trash?
- The trash, I'll probably be just fine.
- Okay.
- It'll be once you get past the trash
and into the clothes that I worry.
- Okay.
Destiny, I know you're really motivated.
We clearly have a crisis here.
- Yeah.
- What's gonna happen if we don't get the house cleaned up?
- I lose everything.
- Okay.
- I'm gonna get evicted.
- Okay, we can't let that happen.
- [Destiny] Right.
- Absolutely not.
I feel really bad that Destiny
has been living in these conditions
and hasn't had any resources to get this house in order.
(somber music fades)
Which room is this?
- This is mom's bedroom. - Okay.
Okay.
Where did she sleep?
- On the other side.
- Okay.
Have things been moved
or was that pretty much where she was sleeping?
- I don't know if things have been moved, I can't look.
That's where she was. - Okay.
- That's where it happened.
I was sitting on the end of the bed.
(slow piano music)
- Gail passed with Destiny at her bedside
and that's gotta be extremely painful for Destiny.
And unfortunately she is now by herself,
left to make all the decisions.
We're here, obviously,
because this house needs to be salvaged.
We've gotta keep our eye on the goals.
Okay?
The reality is, is no one should be living like this.
- Yeah, I know.
- We're gonna get this cleaned up.
We'll work on all of it.
- Okay. - Okay.
I'm most concerned about how overwhelming
this process is going to be for Destiny.
This is gonna be an important part of her healing.
It may be too soon for her,
but we'll just have to wait and see.
(piano music fades)
- It's really important that we get this house cleaned up.
I've been ready for years,
but this was too much for me to do by myself.
- I think she knows at this point that if she doesn't,
then there really isn't any other option.
- The property manager is well aware of this situation.
So we've got to figure out what the next steps are.
To not only clean up the house,
but to keep Destiny in the home.
- Hey kiddo.
I'm Dorothy. - Hi.
Nice to meet you.
- I'm Dorothy Breininger,
I'm a professional organizing expert,
and I specialize in hoarding.
You two know each other, yes? - Hey Destiny.
- Paige is the property manager
and she hasn't been in the house in quite a few years.
Thanks for letting us go in, okay?
- Yeah, thank you Destiny.
- [Dorothy] Okay.
(eerie music)
- Wow.
- We're both just stunned.
We just are staring around, like not saying a thing.
- I'm at a loss for words, it's unbelievable.
The additional items that are in here,
the floor wasn't so covered here.
These are all new.
The last time I was in the house,
I could walk into the front left living room.
This time there were boxes and trash piled up so high
that I could not even walk into that room.
- [Dorothy] I don't think anybody's sitting in here.
- [Paige] No, I don't either.
- [Dorothy] Is this new?
- All new, new piles, new stacks.
- [Dorothy] It's just a trash can.
- [Paige] That's unbelievable.
- I'm looking at everything from my point of view,
which is how am I going to help the family?
Paige has to look at it from her point of view,
which is how do I help and protect the homeowner?
Like, do we evict or do we allow Destiny to stay?
And if she stays, what needs to be done?
- This is just, I don't know how to describe it.
- [Dorothy] They just cook, and then it stays.
- They just set it to the side.
- [Dorothy] This is food from last year
with roaches running around it.
- That's disgusting.
- [Dorothy] I'm so sorry.
I mean, I'm sorry for them. - Yes.
- And I'm sorry for your homeowner.
It's a sad situation.
I want to be respectful, but the truth of the matter is
the house is one of squalor.
Let's go into the bathroom.
I don't want you to come in too far.
I don't know how to say this delicately.
This is a biohazard.
- The bathroom is nasty.
It's filled with toilet paper that's been used.
It's stacked against the wall.
- This is so completely unhealthy.
By the time we get to Destiny's room,
it looks like you're at a garbage dump.
I can't even tell it's a bedroom
because there are all these plates of food.
This is someone's bedroom.
I'm devastated.
This is where I feel the worst,
not a sheet on this bed or on the pillow cases.
When we look at the side of the walls here.
- [Paige] Is that the smell?
- [Dorothy] They're terribly stained.
- I'm wearing a mask and the stench
is even coming through my mask.
I just don't...
My heart.
- And then we get into Gail's room
(eerie music continues)
and that's the space in which she was living,
for the last 10 years.
And all around her are cigarette ash trays.
- [Paige] Oh my goodness.
- That's decades of dust, not years, that's decades.
For me, I'm shaken by how incredibly sad this is.
It just feels like there's been no movement in here.
And if you look at the pillow,
it's the one underneath is just brown from cigarettes.
But at this point, we need to go out and talk to Destiny.
On behalf of the homeowner, what are you thinking?
- On behalf of the homeowner?
This is not how a tenant should maintain a house.
It's not.
There's no upkeep on the house.
As property manager for this home
and knowing Destiny and her family for many years,
it's been tough seeing nothing get cleaned,
and no advances made toward
getting the house in the proper condition.
(somber music) (door closes)
Destiny, I'm a little bit overwhelmed.
- Yeah.
- A lot in there.
- Yeah.
That's how I feel every day. (laughs)
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Before I can decide what we're going to do
in terms of organizing and clearing out,
I need to kind of know what you
and the homeowner think of what you just saw.
- I think the main thing I was seeing was the trash,
the piles of trash need to be taken out.
The discarded food items. - Yeah.
- A lot of those.
Anything that's excessive in there needs to be taken out.
I do think that cleaning it out
will take care of a lot of it,
but this will help you get there.
- Thank you for being gentle.
Thank you for listening at a time where,
how could you have all this on your mind
when really the focus is on your mom?
- Yeah.
- And I'm sorry, I'm so sorry about all of this.
Basically Paige is saying, look,
we've got to clear everything out of the house, everything.
(dramatic music)
And on top of that, the whole outside needs to be cleared.
There are two sheds there.
There's a camper that's out there,
all of the overgrowth outside.
And we have an entire barn with eight horse stall
or something in there.
And it's just full of the family's stuff.
We really need to do this for this family,
but there's so much to do,
just to bring this house up to a basic level
of seeing whether or not she'll be evicted.
(dramatic music fades)
And that's the reality.
(melancholy music)
You're a beautiful, beautiful woman,
who deserves something different
than what has been happening.
And I'm sorry that it's been happening.
Okay? - Yep.
- Okay, okay.
So we'll clear it, see what furniture you might wanna keep.
We'll clean it, and then we'll go from there.
- Okay. - Okay.
Sorry if I'm being tough on you.
- Sometimes tough is what's needed.
- Yeah.
- Good morning everybody.
- [Everybody] Good morning.
- Normally we are looking for lots of enthusiasm
and excitement to start this next journey.
We have some very unusual circumstances
that occurred prior to our arrival, and of course,
that was the death of Gail
(melancholy music)
who we were coming to help,
in addition to you, Destiny.
Dorothy and I do not have the words to convey
what you're going through right now
and to express our condolences for your losses.
So I just really want to acknowledge that.
I would like to just take a moment of silence
in honor of Gail.
Thank you everybody.
Destiny, I'd like to start with you.
How are you feeling right now?
- I'm okay.
Very sad, very excited. - Mm hmm.
Ready to start. - Okay.
All of you are incredibly brave to go through a clean out,
given that you've had such a significant loss in your life
within only a couple days.
We are all here to support you in this process,
and it can go as quickly or as slowly as you would like.
And I know all of you are ready to roll up your sleeves
and get this job done, but we do have a crisis here.
So I know there's gonna be a lot of conversations
about getting this house cleaned up
and working with the family in terms of
what can we do to support you to stay in this house?
And that being said, I'm gonna turn it over to you, Dorothy.
- Thanks Dr. Zasio, wow.
The tears are flowing out there, huh?
(group laughs) - Yes they are.
- If you look around, there are 20 people here,
ready for you Destiny and family members,
standing in the rain, in the tears,
ready to do what we need to do for you.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- Okay.
I think the first thing I'd like to ask you as a family
is how would you like us to behave?
'Cause we usually joke around,
you know, cheerleading, rah, rah, all that kinda stuff,
and is that appropriate here?
How would you like us to be for you?
- We need that.
- Yeah we need that, you be you.
- Be us? - Yes.
- And we'll be us. - Really?
You also said your mom would like to hear some laughter.
- She would. - Oh yeah.
- She would be causing laughter.
- She would be causing the laughter.
I know your mom would say something
about the rain happening right now.
- Yep, yep.
- Do you know what she would say?
- She said, "Ha ha, can you hear me now?"
(group laughs)
- Wanna take my stuff?
Come and take it.
(group laughs)
- See, that's what I'm talking about.
Okay, good, thanks for starting us off with that.
We are going to, Destiny, help you with decision making.
- Mm hmm. All right?
The first thing that we wanna do is get all the trash out.
That way you can get an idea
of what has been piling up in there,
but how do you feel about that?
- I think that's good.
- [Dorothy] You think that's good?
- That's good.
- You'll see it when it comes out, of course.
That's the basic plan.
The last question I have is, on behalf of your mother,
is there anything that we should be looking for
that's very important, as we go through the house?
- I think most of us know the big items
that she would want to keep, big furniture,
any pictures that we find.
- Got it. - I think we'd all like that.
- My dad's wedding ring if it's in there.
- Okay, got it.
So, I hate to say this on the one hand,
'cause we're under the tent, but team members,
are you ready to go?
Give me a thumbs up.
(team cheers) (intense music)
All right, let's go!
Everybody out!
All the way back up here.
Everybody let's go.
It's just one of those days,
where it's not going very easy at all.
We're behind the eight ball of course,
because of the rain mostly,
but it's okay, the team will not be deterred.
And the process is simply to bring out
all of the trash first.
Nothing else, just the trash.
(intense music ends) (trash clattering)
The trash is just coming out barrels and barrels,
and we're dumping it right onto a big tarp,
so that the family and especially Destiny can see,
what's in that trash just in case,
before we get in into the dumpster.
(slow music)
And while we're starting to get that pile of trash going,
Destiny's already over there picking out
what she wants to keep.
- Destiny, what are you trying to keep?
- These are the pieces for the air fryer.
The accessory. - This all can be replaced.
- Are you gonna buy me a whole new air fryer-
- Absolutely. - that's $150?
- Absolutely, I will.
I feel like it's my responsibility
to really tell her what I think about a situation.
If I think she should not hold onto something,
I'm gonna tell her.
But ultimately the decision is hers.
- I do. But it's your decision.
This has been, it's been sitting.
- I know.
That's part of what we have to do right?
To downsize, that's the ultimate goal, right?
It's not gonna be easy.
'Cause we still have thousands of more decisions like that.
Okay?
(dramatic music)
- How you doing kiddo?
I know, I know.
- It's just a lot. - It is.
- That's all.
- There's one concern that I have.
Destiny is watching the trash come out of the rooms
and the piles are going higher and higher
and her eyes are just darting around like,
I'm in total overwhelm.
How do you feel about
seeing everything coming out right now?
- Oh. (laughs)
- Destiny, what's going on? - Lot of emotions.
- What are they? Can you name them for me?
- Embarrassment, for one. - Okay.
Trepidation.
- What else is happening for our family?
What are you seeing, feeling?
- That big ol' pile is overwhelming.
- Yeah. - Yes.
- And that's- - That's not even a whole...
- [Dawn] No, that's not even a dent.
- No, it felt like maybe a few piles,
and that is not a few piles, that is a mountain.
- If she's in overwhelm just with the trash,
I can't imagine what's going to happen
with everything else coming out.
(dramatic music fades)
My goal was to get at least two rooms clear today
and we're actually on track,
and now we're heading into the kitchen.
- Hey, thank you.
- We knew it was gonna be hard.
You just never know how hard until you're in it.
- We're here. We got you.
- Do you see anything else?
- As we are bringing stuff out of the kitchen,
it's all the dirty dishes, all the dirty pots and pans,
things that haven't been washed in eons
and it's starting to pile up out there.
- I need to find a specific plate, that's all.
- For me it's like, no.
No, no, no.
No you don't want that. (laughs)
Please don't want that.
So before you go digging in here - Mm hmm.
and I know that I think you see something in here,
- Mm hmm. right?
You want the plate.
- But these, a lot of the dirty...
Most...
(slow dramatic music)
- Breathe, it's all okay. - Hey, take your time.
- I do wanna look through them so that I see them going.
So that I can say okay, yes.
For everything 'cause-
- Okay, so I'm gonna gently lay them out here.
- Mm hmm.
It's gonna, you know, make a little bit of noise.
(dishes clattering)
- Oh. - You okay?
- Yeah. - Can I go further?
- Yes.
Oh.
(dishes clattering)
Oh, she would be so mad about that one in particular.
You see this bowl here, it is so easy to clean.
Those were mamas.
- Well, can I ask you a question?
When was the last time this one was clean?
- [Destiny] Oh.
I don't know.
- Let's just say this Roddy for what.
If that's the one plate that you're going to keep-
- That's great.
- Out of all these? - Out of all of this,
that's a fair compromise, wouldn't you say?
- Yes, absolutely.
- 'Cause actually there's a lot of them that I want to keep,
but I shouldn't. - Right.
- But this one is, it means a lot to me.
- Okay.
- So. - So that-
- Some of these, I would like specific ones like this,
if you would take pictures of them with us,
we could let them go that way.
- Perhaps she could throw it out,
but still keep the memory associated with the item.
- I still want the other plate though.
- Okay, so grab that one.
We're doing a nice balance here, Destiny.
You picked out a few
and then in the background of your mind,
I also want you to remember,
we've got 20 people waiting to bring stuff out of the house.
So can we move ahead? - We done backed 'em up.
- Yep, all right. - Yep.
- All right, give her a round of applause.
(team cheers and applauds)
Okay.
- And I'll bring this one back after the picture.
- Okay, all right, take the pictures, on we go.
So we kept two dirty dishes.
Not bad considering we had bins full.
- And this way, like I said,
you can get rid of it, but still hold on-
- Still have the memories. - to the memories.
- [Dawn] Yep, You good?
- You ready? - Oh yeah.
- [Dawn] You got this.
(intense music)
(dishes clatter)
- Heck yeah. (laughs)
(everyone applauds)
Okay.
- [Dorothy] You doing okay?
- Yep, I'm doing good.
- You're doing good? (group laughs)
Whoa, well that was cathartic for you then, right?
- Yes. - I haven't heard you
that strong since I met you, wow.
- I do want to pick up that sugar canister and throw it.
- [Doug] Oh.
- This one over here? - Like throw it, throw it?
- Throw it into the pile.
- Okay. - We'll get it.
- Do it. - Go ahead.
- Do it, do it. - Make it happen!
- [Destiny] I wanted to throw that thing away for years.
- Everybody ready? - Yes!
(group cheers)
- Excellent, excellent.
All right, look at your sister.
What are you feeling about that?
Dawn? - I'm feeling so proud.
- Tell your sister. - So, so proud of you.
(Destiny sighs)
- You got this. - Yeah.
- You got it. - Yeah.
- You got all of us here. - Yep.
- That was just a huge moment for not just her,
but for the rest of us, because she is choosing
to take a picture, hold the memory and get rid of the stuff.
(intense music)
(chattering)
- Okay, family, all of this trash
came out of the living room and the kitchen.
There are six other rooms - Mmm.
that still have trash.
So I just wanna have you take a look and see
the volume that's here.
What I want to do here is
have my team get it onto the dumpster.
- Yeah.
- That being said, Destiny,
I think it is important that you assist Dorothy's team
in getting this stuff into the trash cans
and into the dumpster.
We want you to be a part of this process, so that,
that is ingrained in your head that you never wanna go back.
Are you willing to do that?
- Yeah. - Okay.
(dramatic music)
- 1, 2, 3.
Now that we have a 20 by 20 tent out back,
we don't have to worry so much about the rain,
so we can start clearing out the dining room
and the rest of the kitchen.
Come on into the living room, okay?
We have all the trash out of the living room.
Now it's time for the family to come in.
This is where Gail had all her decorative items,
and this is where they need to make choices.
If we all just look at
what's over here on this entertainment center,
this is gonna be for you to decide,
how much do you as a family want to keep,
I'm gonna leave the three of you,
to make some decisions and do some work in here,
just the three of you.
- Okay. - Okay?
- Let's get all the pictures. - Start with pictures.
All right.
- I don't wanna push them the way
I normally would push someone,
but there's just too much to keep.
- Oh mom, I'm so sorry, I love you so much,
but you had so much (beep).
(lighthearted music)
- I want this doll it was Melody's.
Yep, I want that.
I wanna keep this horn.
And see I want this, because it's pretty.
- I can see that Destiny has that tendency
for continuing to keep.
- I want to keep everything.
- [Dorothy] Of course, of course.
But with the coaching of Roddy and Dawn,
she's letting it go.
- That's good, but you're also saying
"I want, I want, I want."
- Yeah, I know. - So we need to pare it down.
- And also what we wanna look at is,
we have the whole house to do, right?
- Yeah.
- Oh (beep) - Oh, Lord.
- All of that can go, for sure.
- Yep, yep. - And that.
- [Dawn] Which is why I was asking.
(lighthearted music fades)
- It was to my understanding that y'all were looking for
a men's ring throughout this process,
I'm not sure if this is the one you were looking for,
but I did find this one while we were cleaning.
- That's it. That's it. - That's his ring.
(emotional music)
- Thank you. Thank you.
- You're very welcome.
(Dawn crying)
- We have a family that's grieving, not just for Gail.
But for all the things in the house.
- Daddy's ring and I have mama's ring already.
And I'll put 'em together.
(Dawn crying)
- I have hoarded this home with my mother for 20 years.
- It is completely packed with trash.
- The house is one of squalor.
- Not cleaning up is not an option,
but I think it's gonna be harder on her
than she thinks that it is.
- Oh. - You okay?
- [Destiny] I need to find a specific plate, that's all.
- How you doing kiddo?
I know. I know.
- We have a family that's grieving, not just for Gail,
but for all the things in the house.
- That's his ring. - That's it.
(Dawn crying)
(intense music)
- It's pretty remarkable that Destiny is letting go
of as much as she is,
and most of it is going to trash.
Yesterday we had two dumpsters come in, we filled 'em up,
we rotated them out, had new dumpsters come in again today.
And I just hope that it continues to go like this.
All right.
Good morning family.
- [Everybody] Good morning.
- Dr. Zasio, good morning. - Good morning, yes.
- How are you?
Destiny?
How you doing?
- Feeling a lot better today.
- Yeah? - Ready.
- You're ready? - Ready.
- You did a great job yesterday.
- Yeah, you did. - Yes.
- Right? - Absolutely.
What's causing you to feel better today, Destiny?
- The world didn't end. (laughs)
- It did not.
- So, I know it's gonna be okay.
- Yeah.
- Well I hope that there's a new sense of freedom
that is coming with the purging of the stuff.
- Yeah.
- And we had a very, very successful day yesterday.
- Mm hmm.
All of you did an amazing job in making the decisions
and just facing what you had to do,
in spite of having just lost your mama.
(melancholy music)
- Yeah.
- So today we have a new plan,
and that's to, first of all,
get to the sorting that we have outside,
- Mm hmm. all right.
Make the decisions so we have room again
to bring more things out, all right?
We'll be building boxes, labeling some boxes
for things that you do wanna keep
because Destiny we're going into your room.
- Oh. (laughs)
- Right?
So we'll head in, simply down the hallway,
bathroom, Destiny's room, and then finally that back room.
And I think there's a little bit here up front too.
So there's so much to do.
Are you all ready to do that this morning,
decision making? - Yes we are.
- Yep. - Absolutely.
- Okay, come on.
- [Worker] Just tape the boxes and put 'em down there.
- My plan for today is, first of all,
reviewing everything that came out of the house yesterday
that's under the tent.
What we're gonna do to start us off,
we're gonna show you a few pieces
and you're gonna say keep or toss, like that.
And then in a few minutes, you all can start coming in
and making decisions on your own
while we go back inside the house and continue, okay?
So I'll start with this one.
- So I don't want anything on it.
- And what about the piece itself?
- I want the piece.
- Okay. Got it.
So I'm gonna go this way and the next person comes.
- I don't want any of that. - No.
- No.
- [Dawn] It probably doesn't work.
- [Destiny] No, neither one.
- No. - No.
- The family is doing fantastic.
They're making the decisions as we pass by
and they're looking out for each other.
It's like, "Hey, this is yours. Do you want it?"
- I don't want it, but. - No.
Yes, keep.
- [Worker] You wanna keep both?
- Yes. - Okay, perfect.
- [Doug] Is that dad's tackle box?
- If you wanna go through it later, you can say,
keep to look through it.
- Keep. - Okay.
- Yes, absolutely.
- [Dawn] And Doug, you can have it.
(uplifting music)
- Yes. - Yeah.
- Keep, keep, oh my God, keep.
It is a definitely a keep. - You got it.
- Oh. - Oh!
I had been looking for this one.
- [Worker] There's another piece in there.
- There's another one in there.
- Yep, definitely keeping this.
- Doug, I pulled this one for you.
(Destiny laughs)
- Was that dad's? - Yeah.
(emotional music)
- Doug is really getting emotional,
because he doesn't have much from his dad.
He thought that one of the model ships
might have been tossed.
So I knew anything like that from his dad particularly
is something that Doug would want.
- I'm good.
Thank you.
- Did we get it right? - Yes ma'am.
- We know what you're looking for now,
don't we? - Yes ma'am.
Thank you. - You're welcome.
That's keep. - It's a keep.
It means so much to him.
Even the smallest thing, like a boat
in the middle of a massive hoard
is going to trigger something in Doug
because he too is a hoarder.
- [Heather] What's wrong?
- I want to keep so much of this and we don't have room.
- You can keep some stuff.
You okay?
Just breathe, okay?
- I've been trying to keep it together this entire time.
Kind of lost it a little bit a few times.
You know, seeing all these things go is bittersweet.
I don't want to let those things go.
I didn't want to see 'em get thrown away.
Breaks my heart.
- Hey, Douglas, what's going on?
- I want to keep so much of this,
but we just don't have room for it.
There's a lot of memories surrounding those items.
- So it's sentimental for you.
- We have a small apartment in Mississippi,
so we don't have enough room for it.
And I have hoarding tendencies myself.
- Mm.
She's been helping me a lot with that.
- It's great that you've got this insight
and you're trying to keep it manageable
because it can run in families.
You know, it's the nature versus nurture.
And it sounds like you kind of have both.
- It's just hard to let these things go.
- I understand. I understand.
- Hey bud.
- Doing okay? - Yeah, man.
Just hard to let some of the stuff go, you know?
- Yeah.
No, like I said to Destiny, items trigger memories,
and it's the memories that we want, not the things.
- Yeah. - You know.
That's why we're taking pictures as much as we can
- Mm hmm. because none of us have room.
- Yeah.
- Destiny's not gonna have room
and it's not gonna bring either of them back.
- And honestly the memories are not gonna go away
just because the items are gone.
Y'all are still gonna remember those things.
- So we're not gonna lose anything.
All right?
We're here for you if you need anything, okay?
- Thanks little brother.
- Doug is really struggling.
He has a lot of sentimental connections to this stuff
and I'm worried that he could start to hold onto stuff
that would slow up the process.
- I love you. - I love you more.
- I'm trying to make sure there's no pictures in it.
- Yeah. - We just found two pictures.
- [Worker] So what we got here is all the kitchen stuff.
- I don't even know what this is.
- [Heather] Hey baby, are you okay over there?
- [Doug] I'm good.
Baby? - Heather.
- [Doug] Baby?
- We don't have room for it, baby.
- So we get through everything underneath the tent,
now there's more in the front.
And the family now needs to go through two massive piles
and make decisions because the rest of the day,
we need to focus on all the other rooms.
(energetic music fades)
Family members, have at it. Okay?
(upbeat music)
- [Roddy] This is trash.
- I think this can go.
- [Roddy] Why? Why did you keep all these socks?
- Trash.
- This whole box can go.
- Destiny's doing well.
The rest of the family's doing well.
This totally speaks to how this family is pulling together,
making decisions.
- [Dawn] Do you wanna keep the photo album thing?
- No. - All right.
- The initiative is there,
this family wants this to be done.
- All that's trash? - Yeah.
- Okay, here's why I'm especially glad
that you're here.
You know, I know we need to go into the bathroom next.
I know you have all your hazmat material,
your biohazard material.
And I understand none of this can go
in the dumpsters, correct?
- Correct, they have to be transported
to an offsite facility to be discarded.
- Okay so, if you can make that happen
once you're done with that,
then we can move on to the next room.
- All right, sounds good. - Okay. All right.
Good luck, thank you so much.
(intense music)
This is super delicate, I don't want to embarrass Destiny.
I don't wanna put it out there for the world,
but on the other hand, Destiny needs to understand
there's no getting around this.
A pile of all of this biohazardous material.
So I need to have sterile clean come in
and pick up all of that waste.
This is human waste.
It's a shame.
I want her to learn, this is not okay.
(inspiration music)
The family was so participative.
- At least- - Destiny?
Toss? - Yeah toss.
- They were keeping up with us,
like, as soon as we were getting it out,
they were sorting through it.
I've really never had this kind of experience
where the family was keeping up with us.
- This is another box for Destiny to go through.
- Everything that's coming out of the house
is being reviewed and most of it is going to trash.
It's elevating their mood
and their motivation to continue with this whole thing.
- I can't reach it. (laughs)
(melancholy music)
- I thought we'd do a little work on your room.
- Okay.
- I'm going into Destiny's bedroom with Destiny,
because she hasn't had anybody
tell her what she needs to hear.
Now I'm gonna ask you something,
is this how I'm supposed to be cleaning a bedroom?
- [Destiny] Nope.
- [Dorothy] What's wrong with this picture, babe?
- So much.
- There's so much.
I'm using a shovel- - Right.
- in your bedroom, not okay.
I want you to come over here
and shovel the rest of this out with me.
- [Destiny] Okay.
- It's not just that she'll do the work
and scoop up more of the trash.
Pull it towards you, all the way out.
Yep. Good.
It's for her to have a realization
and just sit there and look around.
Because as the house is emptying out,
she's having transformative thoughts.
If you had a daughter,
would you let her sleep in a room like this?
(music fades)
- No I wouldn't.
This is not healthy, it's not right.
- I feel so determined to help Destiny understand
that she cannot live like this is a homeless encampment.
Can I just say to you,
it's not okay to sleep right next door to trash.
(melancholy music)
- Okay.
- That's just not okay.
Has anybody ever said that to you?
- No one's ever told me what you just did.
- You still have a life.
You can still meet somebody.
You can have a home.
You can have goals.
You have many things that can come.
You get that?
- I put most of those dreams away a long time ago.
- No, those dreams don't go away.
They don't go away.
You get to have that.
All right?
- Okay.
- I'm being a little tough,
because we can't have someone like you
sleeping next to a pile of trash.
- And that's not to hurt you.
It's not to belittle you.
It's just, we're really concerned
because you had gotten so used to this
and this is just not okay
for any human being to live in.
You know, sometimes we all have to hear things
that are hard to hear, - Mm.
but if we don't have these conversations
and it's just about a cleanup,
then there will be no healing inside you.
And part of that process is,
I never wanna go through this again, meaning you.
- Never again.
- Once I get the okay from Destiny
that everything is coming out of her bedroom,
I give my team 30 minutes to clear that room.
(energetic music)
Beds, platforms, furniture, everything.
Whatever it is, bring it out.
One pile is going to her to sort, under the tent.
Everything else is going to trash.
She gets to look at everything,
but it's moving like that. (fingers snapping)
I also wanna sneak in that back bedroom.
It's where all the kid stuff used to be.
So we're pulling everything out of there as well.
We're going to just finish up there
and then put it under the tent for more decisions tomorrow.
At this point, between yesterday and today,
we're going on seven tons worth of trash.
Almost got the whole house cleared.
Every single room is clear except for Gail's room.
(dramatic music)
And I do have concerns for tomorrow.
I'm hoping that by starting in the morning,
everyone will have more clarity.
But on the other hand, we are going into Gail's room.
How is the family going to feel when we're pulling out
the very bed that Gail passed away on?
It's tragic.
(dramatic music fades)
(engine running)
(metal clanging)
This is the third day.
We have got so much to do.
And we have the most important room left to do,
which is Gail's room, mom's room, right?
But we've also got sheds,
we've got a barn, we've got a camper.
I don't know where to start exactly,
but we've gotta get moving fast.
(dramatic music fades)
Thanks for climbing back here with me.
Listen, there's just as much outside
- Mm hmm. as there was inside.
And really none of this happened on your watch,
and yet you are now having to make the decisions.
And I'm curious, what do you want to do
with everything that's back here?
(energetic music)
- I'd like Adam to take pictures of things
that he thinks that we might want pictures of.
And then I want it all gone.
All of it.
- Really? - Yeah.
- It's been sitting here for 25 years,
they've just been sitting.
- Yep. - Yay.
- And none of us have an emotional
attachment to any of it.
It was all moms, and we can't hold onto it.
- Okay. All right. Wow.
Yes? - Yes.
- All right.
Destiny and the whole family are just remarkable.
Again, sweeping decision, Dorothy, let it go.
(metal clanging)
(intense music)
(garbage clattering)
I'll tell you what, if we have any chance to finish this,
we've gotta start right now,
because every single stall is at least waist to chest high.
You just see bags, and boxes, and toys, and furniture,
it's just everywhere.
Not only that, the barn is in the woods.
So we have to find the side road and park a dumpster there,
get an ATV and drive the stuff
from the barn to the dumpster and get it in.
Like, this is no easy task.
(intense music fades)
- That's a big set.
If you want part of the Blue Willow, you're welcome to it.
- I might pick a piece or two.
- Okay.
'Cause, keep in mind that some of it came from granny
and then some mama just added.
(dramatic music)
- So Jill, will you be responsible?
Take all of this- - Yes.
- and then put it over into a place
where you can wrap it up and box it.
So the next big one we're going to go to is the red.
- Here's what I'm thinking.
There are other pieces that I would use
and I wouldn't use that, - Mm hmm.
but I am very uncomfortable with it going to the trash.
Very uncomfortable.
- If it was going to a donation store,
would that make you feel better?
- It would. - Yeah?
- Beautiful. - Yeah.
- Okay. - Beautiful.
- All right.
- [Dawn] 'Cause it's usable and yeah.
- Yeah, I was gonna say to donate the rest.
- Yeah. - Okay.
- They've made the decisions.
We need to pull up the tarps and move on.
(dramatic music fades)
- Okay, we have now the most important
and the last room in the house,
which is your mom's room.
And normally we just jump right on in there with you.
But in this case, I wanna send you in there
as a family alone, without us.
To just be in this space
and maybe start looking at what you wanna keep.
Oh, Dawn, I know honey. I know.
(melancholy music)
I know.
You okay? - Mhm.
- Okay.
And then I'm gonna stand with my team
right outside in the hallway.
When you say, keep, we'll get it into your boxes.
Otherwise you give it to us
and we'll gently, lovingly put it on the dumpster.
Okay?
- We can do it. - You can do it?
Okay.
This is their mom's room.
And the family needs to go in there with Destiny
to just start the work and be together
and face this as a group.
- [Dawn] Do we dive in?
Is that what is happening right now?
- Think so.
- I know this was hard.
I know.
Mama's room, it's daunting in there.
It feels like the end.
(melancholy music fades)
- [Roddy] I know.
- Destiny? - This is gonna be
the hardest to let go.
- [Dawn] I know.
- I can't look over there.
(emotional music)
- Truth be told, I can't either.
- I shouldn't have, the other day.
Not having dealt with my mom being gone,
you know, I started thinking to myself, she lived in that.
Almost everything in this room smells.
- Yeah. - Like the poison
that helped kill her.
So yeah, I'm good with it gone.
And I need out of the room.
- Okay. - I need...
- I've had anxiety and nightmares about this
because I knew that when the time came and mom passed
that we were gonna have to deal with this.
And this is not something
that anyone should have to deal with.
(garbage clattering)
(Dawn crying)
- Hi everybody.
- [Dawn] Hi.
- Hi. - How's everybody holding up?
This is the last room of the house,
and of course the most difficult.
What are you feeling Destiny?
- That I wanna keep it all.
(melancholy music)
- Yeah.
Roddy, what's going on for you?
- I'm just mad.
She gave up.
She stopped listening, she didn't care.
Didn't matter how many times we came out to help.
- Yep.
- Me too.
I'm mad too.
- I know it's not easy
thinking that she was living like this
and that she passed in these conditions.
- Just lived in that one corner.
(Dawn and Destiny crying)
- I am so deeply sorry for your loss.
And I'm so deeply sorry that
you have to be standing in these conditions
in the process of grieving your mother.
I think at this point,
restoring this room
will help all of you
to move past what this is.
Because I think right now,
even though this was your mom's room,
and this is where she lived, at the same time,
it's not producing good feelings for any of you.
I think you all are gonna feel just a little bit better
once we can get this room in order for you.
Do you guys feel like you need some time to just digest?
- Absolutely not. - Nope.
- Absolutely not.
- You're ready to dive in and get it done.
- Yep. - All right.
I'm gonna get Dorothy.
- Let's get this over with.
- They have been grieving the loss of their mother.
And I think that this is a healthy response.
- Basically, the family turned
all the decision making over to us.
Photos, paperwork, jewelry,
anything that might have some special value.
They all go onto the tarps underneath the tent.
Everything else is trash going into the dumpster.
(energetic music)
(energetic music fades)
- [Robin] What are you sorting through?
- This is a box of stuff from my room
and kind of thinking about, I can't keep it,
because it doesn't even inflate anymore.
(Dr. Zasio laughs)
But the reason I've kept it so many years
is because the nephew who died, Sean,
helped me blow it up for my bedroom when I was like 15.
So, I was thinking of keeping it,
but I don't think I need it.
- Destiny, how did the loss of your sister Melody
and Sean impact you?
(emotional music)
- It's hard to describe it.
It made me withdraw from everyone.
I stopped interacting with people outside of the family.
And even with them, I stopped interacting.
- Mm hmm.
- Did your life just kind of go to a screeching halt
when they passed?
- It did.
- And why was that?
- Self sabotage. - Oh.
The trash situation might have been subconscious punishment
myself and everyone around me.
- The thing that I'm learning about you
is that it seems like when things get hard,
you get paralyzed.
- Yeah,
that's a good way to put it.
- You know, when you lost Melody and Sean,
you got paralyzed.
When the house started to get out of control.
- Yeah. - You got paralyzed.
And my concern is that you're gonna retreat back
and get paralyzed again.
- Yeah.
- And I'm curious if you're worried about that?
- I am. I'm very worried.
I'm worried, it's gonna be like two, three weeks
and I'm just gonna like shut down.
- Mm hmm.
But, I think I've got plenty of people
who are gonna shake me out of it.
- Mm hmm.
- Dorothy and I have really tried
to remind you that you do deserve better.
And are you feeling like you're getting in a place
where you can internalize that?
Or do you think you'll go back to old ways
and continue to punish yourself?
- I honestly don't know. I'm hoping.
- Yeah.
- I will probably stumble. - Mm hmm.
Probably struggle for a bit. - Mm hmm.
I think I'm capable of it.
- There are resources that we're gonna be providing for you
when we leave, this is never about a cleanup.
It's always about the person who's struggling
and they're emotional and mental health.
We're gonna provide a therapist for you.
- Okay.
- But if we miss that piece,
then the likelihood of your going back again is pretty high.
So I'm hoping that you will accept
what we have to offer you.
- Okay.
- 100%?
- 100%.
- Okay. All right.
I'm really glad to hear that.
- Okay.
(upbeat music)
- Tomorrow's the final day,
and on top of having a mountain of things to do,
we need to finish the barn and we have two sheds left.
We've gotta clean the place
because Paige, the property manager,
wants to do a walkthrough and see what's going on.
(garbage clattering)
I'm a little worried about that.
I don't know if we can do this.
We have one day left.
(upbeat music fades)
It's the last day, we've got a lot to do.
We've got the barn to finish, we've got sheds to do.
We've gotta clean and finish the inside of the house.
And the property manager's coming to visit.
The stakes are very high,
because if we don't do this for the family,
then Destiny is facing eviction.
We don't wanna let her and the family down.
This space needs to look as good as it possibly can.
So we had housekeepers coming in,
and it was a nightmare in there.
That floor was horrendous, just full of the stuff.
All I can do is say,
please vacuum with a shop vac right now.
They're vacuuming, everybody's scrubbing walls.
There's just so much to do and not enough time to do it.
We're trying to get everything done.
I'm running back and forth.
Then I see Paige walking up to take a look at the house.
- Hey Paige!
- Hi!
- And I am just hoping that this is enough.
You said to clear it all out.
- Yes. - We did the barn.
We're working on the sheds
and we're just finishing the cleaning here in the house.
- Well, I'll go see what you've done.
- Okay.
Paige is going in by herself and my fingers are crossed.
We all are just hoping that this is going to work.
- Wow.
There are floors in here.
Walking in the house, I see walls,
I see floors.
I'm just amazed at how much work has been done.
Room's much bigger without things in it.
The countertops in the kitchen are clear.
It's the first time I've seen them in years.
Wow.
Difference is incredible.
I can see how these rooms are completely
free and clear of any items.
This room looks so much bigger.
The house is looking good, so far,
but I still need to see the rest of the property.
Wow.
Oh, the change is amazing.
This looks really good.
- All right.
- So, I've toured the property and it it looks tremendous.
I never would've guessed it looked this good.
I can tell you've been hard at work
and on behalf of the owner and our company,
we will be willing to work with the family
and halt the eviction.
It looks great,
and this family- - Well let me just say this
about all that.
(both laughing)
- Yeah, I'm jumping in!
Fortunately we don't have to evict them.
It's a good day.
This is great.
- Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I can't wait to tell 'em.
Thank you.
- You're welcome.
- Man, I wasn't sure that we could do it.
(inspirational music)
From where we started, to where we ended up,
two different things.
We cleared out the entire back area.
Then, there's the entire house, room by room.
We filled up 18 tons worth of stuff.
That's nine dumpsters.
We averted the eviction and suddenly now we can see
what this house really looks like underneath,
all of the hoard.
(music fades)
- Hi family. - Hello.
- [Dorothy] Hello there, come on in!
- [Doug] Wow.
(lighthearted music)
- [Robin] Come on into your living room.
- Wow. - Wow.
- Oh my God. - Wow, wow.
- What do you think? - Very pretty.
- [Roddy] This is the most space I've seen in here
in a very, very, very long time.
- Yeah. - Does it feel too empty?
- No, actually I like the way it's open and clear.
- Mm hm.
- Seeing the house now that it's all been cleared out,
I do feel a sense of freedom.
- So this feels good to you?
- Yep.
- And it feels much better than the way you were living?
- Yes, it does.
(group laughs)
- It's really good to hear that this feels good to you,
which really adds to your prognosis
to keep the house in order.
- All I could think this whole week was
how in the world did I live like this?
I never wanna live like that again.
- This is really what you deserve.
- Absolutely.
- And that's why we came to help you
is because when we saw the way you were living,
we knew we had to come and help you.
(melancholy music)
- Thank you.
- This has really been a transformational journey
for all of you,
not just what Dorothy and her crew did with the home,
but for all of you emotionally, collectively as a family.
- It's amazing.
I think being able to go through everything
the way that we did, we're also able to process
so many emotions about our parents,
recovering memories that we thought were gone,
pictures, all kinds of things.
So, this has been an unbelievable experience.
It's changed my life.
I know it's changed my siblings lives
and it's definitely changed Destiny's life.
She can move forward without all of this
emotional and physical baggage weighing her down.
(upbeat music)
- Oh wow. - Oh, wow.
- Holy crap.
- Oh. - So much space.
- Right? - Amazing. Amazing.
I'd have forgotten how pretty this home could be.
And it all of a sudden feels like a home again.
You ready?
- Oh!
Oh my God. - Oh wow.
(lighthearted music)
- Oh! - That is beautiful.
- Oh wow.
(group laughing)
- [Doug] Goodness.
- Seeing my bedroom was such a beautiful moment.
I couldn't imagine having that much space in my room.
- Does it feel okay in here?
- Oh yeah.
Seriously, I'm this close to just diving in.
(group laughs)
- This special space needed to be created for Destiny
because she was living literally in a trash heap
and she has this whole new space to dream.
- This is me all over.
- I'm glad it feels good for you
because that's everything that we had hoped for, for you.
We have one more room to look at, okay?
Are you ready?
- Yeah.
(emotional music)
- Oh! - Oh!
- [Roddy] Oh my.
(Doug crying)
That's all of them.
- Walking into my mother's bedroom,
it was like a sledge hammer to the chest,
to see basically a memorial, not just to mom,
but to everybody that we've lost.
- Oh, that's beautiful. - Yeah it is.
- [Doug] I didn't even know that picture existed.
- Seeing that photograph and the chair was,
I think the most beautiful tribute anyone could have done.
I think we all needed it.
- I think you're gonna be okay.
(Destiny laughs)
I think we're all gonna be okay.
Yeah.
- After care is gonna be critical for Destiny.
She needs to deal with the emotional pain
of losing her mother.
In addition to that, she has a whole 'nother journey
that she's gonna embark on, which is to reclaim her life.
- Her entire path was truly hidden underneath this hoard.
And now her future is open.
Yeah, there's work to be done, but her metamorphosis
is just as grand or even more grand than the house itself.
- I'm not sure what's next.
But, I think the future is looking pretty bright
from where I'm sitting.
(upbeat music)
(music fades)