[dramatic music]
- When I walk into my house, I do think,
"Oh my God, all this stuff."
- Linda living with us is the closest thing
to a nightmare, a living nightmare.
- You can't live here. You cannot stay in this.
- Am I over there?
- [Cory] Linda, don't get nasty to us.
- I want that. - I know.
I heard the first time.
- Don't talk to me, Mackenzie.
Get somebody else over here besides her.
This is not the way I want it out.
[dramatic music]
- There's mold, there's insects, rodents.
So we have to deal with all of this
while we get the home cleaned out.
And I really am afraid when we're done
of what's gonna be left of an actual home.
- Having your stuff, your things
has been more important than me
living in a clean house. - I took you everywhere.
- I don't think you took me everywhere.
That doesn't mean (bleep)-- - Okay.
- To what I've had to live in and grow up in.
- Okay.
- I had enough of it growing up.
I'm sick of this (bleep).
[pensive music]
- I'm Linda and I live in Satellite Beach, Florida.
I have been a hoarder for a while.
[dramatic music]
Well, we moved here in '94,
so I started collecting some things
and trying to give them to people.
But, nobody wants this crap.
When I walk into my house, I do think,
oh my God, you know, all this stuff.
And still, I go out and buy more.
I just throw it on the pile, outta sight outta mind.
I have all kinds of things.
I mean, clothes. I love clothes.
I love jewelry.
I have a lot of ceramic,
a lot of beautiful collectible things.
They're valuable.
I'm always in this fantasy world of,
you know, thinking I'm gonna be able to display them
and live in a nice place.
And I guess that's in the back of my head,
even though reality, I know that
that's not what I'm going home to.
Of accumulating all this and doing it for so long
and having so much, it's not a good feeling.
It's a good thing to feel like you've got this great deal
and it's something so nice when you buy it.
But then it fades.
A few seconds of feeling good and then gone.
- I'm Zach. I'm Linda's son.
Unfortunately, yes, my mother is a hoarder.
Been a struggle, at least my whole life.
Today my mom's house is in,
it's in ruin.
When you walk in,
there's a little cleared space in the living room
that I cleaned up recently,
but you don't have to go very far
before you're climbing up a mountain of garbage
to every corner, end of the house, everywhere.
Kitchen, walking on a pile of garbage and cans,
hallway, you get elevated.
Then you try to go to my room and you're so elevated
that your head's basically touching the ceiling.
It's just overwhelming.
[tense music]
- I would feed the wild cats.
- The cats that lived in and out of the place as well,
and having animals defecate and use the restroom in there.
It just
turned into a solidified pile of garbage.
It's almost like you're walking into a landfill.
- I'm Scott, I'm 60 years old,
and I used to be married to Linda.
I came in there one time
to find her sleeping underneath the blanket.
She would, you know, 'cause there were bugs
running around everywhere, on top of this stuff.
And she had laid a sheet out on top of the pile in the room
where she was staying in.
And then she would cover herself up with another sheet,
I guess, to keep bugs from running over top of her.
You know, that's when I found her
in that most horrible condition.
Said, "You can't live here. You cannot stay in this."
- I'm Mackenzie and I am Zach's fiance.
Zach and I were concerned about many hazards.
We weren't sure how well the electric was working.
We didn't know where she was going to the bathroom.
We saw what she was walking on
and had no idea what she could possibly be sleeping on.
And it finally came to term where we were like,
she can't stay here.
We saw that she had a really bad cough
and she was having difficulty walking.
She just didn't look like she was okay.
Like she was feeling okay.
And we said, you know,
"We might not have a lot of space,
but it's safer and we can monitor her physical condition
if she's with us."
[somber music]
- Yes, they are affected by my hoarding
because I am living with them.
- Linda living with us is the closest thing to a nightmare,
a living nightmare.
She has no respect of any boundaries that we put down.
And anytime we confront her about certain issues,
such as keeping her bed clean,
or putting things in the closet,
or putting dishes away, it's a fight.
It's always going to break out into some sort of argument.
- It's extremely frustrating to have her living with us,
you know, but there's not much I can do about it
'cause she can't live in that house.
[tense music]
- I found out that there was a Code Enforcement issue
that did get dealt with back in 2009
and another one at some point, I think maybe it was 2012.
And I found out from other people
that if they have fines against you,
they could turn into liens and they add interest onto it.
You could end up having huge liens from the county.
- Recently, Code Enforcement has gotten onto Linda
about the foliage and coverage of the house
and the fact that it has not been maintained,
and about the condition of the front of the house
and the state that it looks in.
[tense music]
- I went to my boyfriend's condo.
Somebody opened the door.
He had somebody in there with him and it made me very upset
and I was yelling at him
and he was yelling at me and he hit me.
And that's how the eye injury occurred,
which blocked out my vision.
It affected me psychologically very seriously
because I never took my vision for granted.
Even the doctor that I was sent to
wasn't very sympathetic or kind to me.
He didn't even tell me that,
I was thinking that maybe it was gonna heal
and it was a tear in the center of the vision.
So it was never going to heal.
[tense music]
I had carried him for about three months
and looking forward to having, you know,
very much looking so excited
as I found myself in the hospital,
all of a sudden, you know,
they're delivering this very premature baby.
At the time, wasn't any kind of machines.
You pumped the air into the baby.
So there, you know,
he died.
[somber music]
Soon after I married Scott,
I realized that I couldn't help him
get control of his drinking, that he wasn't going to stop.
And I realized that I made an awful, horrible mistake,
but didn't do anything about it.
I think that that had a lot to contribute to it.
Yes, I do.
'Cause I wanted to get away
and that was the only
outlet I had.
- It didn't matter if I was drinking or I was staying sober,
her behavior continued.
You know, if I drank, it was just a disaster
because, you know,
one mental obsession feeds off the other one
like codependency, you know.
- The way he grew up with everything neat,
tidy and in order.
He didn't do well with that hoarding stuff.
And so that would,
it certainly didn't help his drinking problem.
It probably exacerbated it.
And so they would fight and argue.
[solemn music]
I used to have a lot of resentment
towards both my parents.
Felt like I never had a normal childhood,
like a lot of my friends who lived in clean houses
that didn't look anything like mine.
- We couldn't invite people over 'cause our house was a disaster.
His clothes had smelled, you know,
that smell gets into everything
and people can smell it, you know?
And yeah, he was embarrassed all the time
and I felt so bad for him.
And I was like, I felt, you know,
like I was failing him a lot of times.
- Zach was too embarrassed to bring his friends home
because of the hoarding situation.
I felt ashamed of what I was doing,
but yet it was like I was just driven to buy.
[tense music]
- If she doesn't clean this place up,
most likely the county will condemn the house
and she'll lose everything.
The house was paid off,
the mortgage was just paid off recently last year.
And it seems like it all for nothing
to have it just taken away.
- I don't want my house condemned.
I really want it cleaned up and fixed for my son
and future daughter-in-law and my grandson,
so that they could live here close to the beach.
It's a very nice location.
[dramatic music]
- Hi. - Hi.
- How are you?
- Linda? - Yes.
- I'm Dr. Dinorah Nieves, how are you?
- I'm fine. It's so nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.
You can call me Dr. D. - Okay, I will.
- Everybody does. - Alright.
- My name is Dr. Dinorah Nieves and I'm a behavioral scientist.
So I wanted to come and knock on your door,
but I heard you're not living here?
- No, I've been staying at my son's
for a little over a year.
- Okay. Why are we not living in our home?
- Because my house is full of clutter
and it's really not livable anymore
for me to be in the home.
- Not livable? - Not really.
- How long have you lived in this home?
- We bought the home in 1994.
- Okay. So you lived here for a decent amount of time
before you actually moved out to your son's house.
- Right, right.
It was just time to get me out.
And my son is very kind.
- Yeah. - Good person.
He didn't want me to be here and I shouldn't be here.
- I heard, "My house is cluttered."
- Yes. - I heard, "It's unlivable."
I heard, "I don't feel comfortable."
- Right. - I heard, "My son is very kind
and he knew I couldn't stay here."
- Yes. - So what's in the house?
Because I feel like there's something you're not--
There's a lot of things you said,
there's some things you're not saying.
- Well, there's a lot of things that, you know,
I've collected over the years
and I just sort of throw them on top of each other.
- So I have my boots, I have my mask.
Why don't you take me in and let's take a peek?
- Okay. If we can get through there, you know,
I just want you to be safe.
- Take me into the living room. Let's see where we can start.
- Okay, yeah. You can see from there.
- Okay. - Come on in, now.
Ugh. It's worse than I could possibly imagine,
than I remembered.
- I want you to stay there
because I'm gonna look at you. - Okay.
- Because I'm here to support you.
And you're gonna look at what you've created.
- [Linda] I'm looking and I'm grossed out.
- When we were outside, you said to me,
"Dr. D, the living room's not so bad."
- No, its bad.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
It's worse than I could even imagine.
It's worse than I recall.
Looking at it now, it's horrible.
Very, very, very painful
to look at all this garbage everywhere.
- One of the things that Linda repeated over and over
when we spoke is that she's in pain.
That this is very painful for her.
And she continued to use that to describe her experience,
looking at the hoard.
And it was just very saddening to me
to watch her look at this hoard,
come to terms with what she's created
and describe her experience in her own home as painful.
So I wanna respect that you said,
"I don't wanna be in here,"
but part of this process is gonna be
sitting in the discomfort.
- [Linda] Right.
- Because what makes it easy for this to get outta hand
is the lie we tell ourselves about how it's not that bad.
- Right. - Right?
Which is easy to do when you're not in it.
- It's beyond belief.
- Are you seeing the dead possum that I'm seeing?
- [Linda] I don't. I don't see him.
- Do you wanna come closer? - Not really.
- [Dr. D.] Or do wanna trust my opinion?
- [Linda] I trust you.
- Linda, I want you to hear me, hold my hand.
I want you to hear me
because I need you to understand why I'm pointing this out.
This is not to shame you.
Hear me. - Okay.
- This is not to shame you.
- Okay, I am ashamed. - Don't be ashamed.
- I'm extremely ashamed. - Okay.
Well, be whatever you need to be.
But you don't have to be ashamed.
But, if we don't face the truth,
we can't make a change. - Right.
- And if you don't take responsibility,
which you are. - Yeah.
- But if you don't take responsibility,
you can't lead the change.
So that's what this process is about.
Not to shame you.
What's done is done. - Okay.
- What we need to do is engrave it in our minds.
Don't look away. Look at it. - Yeah.
- Engrave it in your mind.
- Yeah. It's disturbing.
- So that it never occurs again.
- [Linda] Right.
- So, you and I are gonna spend a little time
over the next few days really unpacking
what's going on in here,
that got you here. - Okay.
- In the meantime, before we start talking about it,
I wanna introduce you to Cory, who's outside with Zach,
because he's really gonna lead the charge
of coming in here and clearing this home out.
So, I get that it's tough
to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
- Yes. - But that's why we're here.
We're gonna light it and walk through it with you.
Let's go see Cory. - Thank you, okay.
- Linda, this is Cory.
- Hi. Nice to meet you, Linda.
- Also known as my magician. - Nice to meet you.
- I'm Cory Chalmers, an extreme cleaner
that specializes in biohazard and hoarding.
- And Zach, I'm Dr. D. - Dr. D, pleasure meet you.
- So we're gonna work to help you with this hoard.
I'm gonna help your mom unpack this situation.
Cory's gonna help you figure out that situation.
- Bless you.
- Well, what are you thinking right now?
Why are you saying that?
You just spent some time with her in there?
- It's just-- - What came up?
- I'm really in a lot of pain right now
and it's really gross and upsetting.
- Okay. What kind of pain? - Too overwhelming.
- Physical, emotional? Both?
- Both. - Okay. That's good.
I mean not, I don't mean that in a bad way.
- No, I know. - But if you came out happy
and loving the situation,
we probably would have a much harder time,
you know, over the next few days.
So, the fact that you're not happy
with what you're seeing in there is great.
- So how are you feeling about all of this?
- I'm ready for it to go.
After I left for college, I avoided this place
and for over 10 years,
I couldn't even really step foot on this property.
Anytime I got near here,
I would start like shaking a little bit, you know,
just 'cause I-- - The trauma of it.
- I knew it was bad.
I just didn't know how bad it had gotten.
She can't live in a situation like that any longer.
- What's the goal? - Ultimately the goal is
to make this a home again. - Okay.
Ideally, you come home, you guys stay in your home.
You have two separate homes.
- [Linda] Well, they'll probably live here, you know.
- Oh, you guys will move here too?
- Oh, if-- - Maybe.
- If we ever got the place all fixed up.
- Okay. - Who's you guys?
- Me and my wife Mackenzie and our son.
- I love 'em to pieces. Yeah.
- Well, that's another reason. - Yeah.
- I know that you have hanging in front of you.
- Oh, yeah, yeah. - To get through this.
Okay. Go sit down. I know you're tired.
- Yep. - Yeah, I need--
- [Cory] You've been through a lot.
- Yeah. I need to sit down.
- Okay. - Let's get you off your feet.
- Sounds good, you bet.
And it was nice meeting you, alright?
We'll get this taken care of,
I promise. - Thank you.
- If you let us. - Thank you.
- [Cory] There are severe issues with this home.
- Thank you. - Not just the hoarding.
It hasn't had utilities for several years.
It has biohazard.
There's holes in the roof, there's mold,
there's insects, rodents.
So we have to deal with all of this
while we get the home cleaned out.
It's gonna be a slow, methodical process
and I really am afraid when we're done,
of what's gonna be left of an actual home for them.
[dramatic music]
- Good morning, everyone. - [All] Good morning.
- First of all, thank you all for being here.
It's a big day for Linda.
I want to ask why we're here.
- You're here to help me, you know, get this done
so I can live a normal, decent life.
- Okay, and how possible do you think that's gonna be?
- I think it's possible.
Right now it seems very difficult.
- 'Cause you're currently living
with your son and daughter-in-law, right?
Can she stay with you guys forever?
- No. - Let's answer that question.
- No, I don't want to. - [Cory] Okay.
So no one wants that option?
- No. I want--
- Do you think you're gonna be able
to move back here after we clean it out?
- Hopefully.
- Okay. Well, the answer is no. I'll answer that right now.
So let's get that off the table.
- I believe, temporarily, it'll be fine
for her to stay with us
because as long as she understands the boundaries
and rules that we have set
and they need to stay that way for our safety
and the safety of our child.
- Cory is really gonna help you unpack
what's going on in the home.
And I'm gonna try my best to help you all
unpack what's going on in the family,
'cause this really is a family crisis.
But I really wanna get to the bottom
of how this happened,
how it continued to happen,
how we can keep it from reoccurring, right?
Because all of those things are important.
- All we're gonna ask of each of you this week
is to be very open, honest with your communication,
and understand that a lot of times
we're gonna stop cleaning
so that Dr. D can have those conversations as they come up.
'Cause they will come up.
They should come up, right?
Because if we don't resolve that,
the cleaning is meaningless.
We're only here a short time.
Let us help you understand
how to not live this life anymore.
You've said your life is full of regrets.
Don't let these next three or four days be another regret.
Okay? We can easily empty this house.
That is no question.
If you weren't here, we could have these people
empty it in a day, maybe a day and a half.
So we have plenty of time.
The sticking point is gonna be you, decision making,
speed of decision making and what you want to keep.
- So, Linda, yesterday we talked
and we got to 90% of what's in that home can go
with the exception of jewelry
and ceramics or porcelain. - Yes.
- Is that correct? - Yes.
- If we find a hundred dollar bill,
we're not gonna throw it away.
If we find a photo album, we're not gonna throw it away.
- Mm-hmm. - Right.
You're gonna see eight Steri-Clean people
carrying stuff, making decisions on your behalf.
We will set you up out here at a table.
Glassware, all the things that you want
will come by you and you can make the decision out here.
- No, I'd almost prefer to go through
my library bags myself, but.
- When we go in, in a little bit,
let's talk about these things. - Okay.
- Okay? And we can make sure that we're all on the same page
with the plan we want, the plan you want.
And hopefully we can merge the two together.
- Okay. - Okay?
- Okay. - Alright. Is everyone ready?
- Yeah, let's go. - Yes, sir.
- Let's get to work.
[intense music]
Let's act like it's cleanup time.
What are we gonna do with this?
- Throw it out. - Okay. Good.
- Lamp, out. - What you gonna do with this?
- Out.
Those pants are mine and that shirt is mine.
- Okay. Is this something you just found in here?
- Yeah. - So we're keeping it?
- Not the bag. - No, the clothes,
'cause that wasn't, again, that wasn't on your list.
- Yeah. If I can wash it, I don't know.
- Let's go through one of these bags
like we're going to.
- Probably got jewelry in it.
- Okay. So costume jewelry.
- Want it. - Want it?
- All my jewelry.
- Okay. That's easy. - It's not just costume.
- But that makes it easy and that's what I want.
I want establish all of this.
- [Linda] It's expensive costume jewelry.
- And I want you to go through that real quick
and kind of verbalize stuff, so I know what you're thinking.
- Well, I like this.
I'm gonna, you know, hang it up eventually for keys.
That I will keep. - Okay.
I'm gonna start challenging you
if we continue down this path, okay?
- Okay.
- [Cory] What worries me is clothing,
that are just a couple things we just came across
and you're already keeping them
and that's not falling into the category.
- What isn't?
- The clothing and that monkey key holder.
- Definitely need the wallet.
Like it much better than mine.
- That's three things.
- We'll give her away.
- No, I already told you,
no one is gonna take this smelly stuff
that came from a house with mold spores
and everything else in it.
I can throw it away? Okay.
Is that painful? - No.
- To do? Okay. - No.
- Where's it from? - The thrift store.
- [Linda] What state?
- That is from Breckenridge, Colorado
Ski Resort. - Yes.
- Keeping it? - Yeah.
- Okay. - Been there, myself.
- At least that one falls into the category,
so I'll give it to you.
See anything else in there?
Or can we just make a decision that we can let it go.
- Keep the camera. - Why are we keeping this?
- 'Cause it's a good one.
- A good one that you're gonna use or it's just a good one?
- It's a good one, I might use.
I did use it, it's my Olympus.
May have film in it.
- [Cory] Well, that's not a film camera,
that's a digital camera.
- Okay. - Put that in here.
- It's not cheap jewelry. - I don't care.
We're not here to put a value on anything.
I'm here to challenge what you told us earlier.
- Throw away. - Okay.
So I guess what I'm gonna ask you now is
the rules that we set.
We have this, we have this.
- Yeah, - We have these.
We have electronics.
None of this falls into the rule that you set earlier
and we didn't get rid of 90% of the stuff.
- No, I want those things, though.
- Making decisions like this
is what got your house like this.
Okay? You don't want a life of regret.
And if we hold onto, I'll say you let go of, let's say 65%.
If I keep 35% of the stuff in here,
one, it stinks.
Where is this gonna go?
Are you gonna bring this back into your house
after you remodel it?
Best case scenario.
You can't wash a digital camera.
So what are you gonna do with this?
- Well, put it in there for now and I'll think about it.
- Okay, if we don't change our thinking,
you're gonna have boxes and boxes and boxes full
of about 35 to 40% of the stuff in here.
Where's it gonna go?
Are we gonna store it back in the house?
Are you gonna take it to the apartment?
Do you wanna put it in the garage?
- No, I get, no, I get storage for now.
- Okay. I've worked with hoarders for 30 years
and "for now" ends up being forever.
I think Linda is kind of stuck.
I think she's struggling letting go of control
and that's the biggest thing we see in all hoarders.
So, we can expect that.
But we have three days to get through this house.
- How are you gonna do that? - By you giving up control.
It's quite simple for us.
It's more difficult for you.
- Code Enforcement is on their way here.
They wanna see the car.
We need to empty it out real quick. Okay?
You can sit right here and stay here while we do it.
Can we empty this car real quick?
- On the side. - We gotta come out this way
because she wants to go through it all, so.
- Drag it over here to me.
Just drag a whole bunch of, drag it on the ground.
- Calm down. Calm down. - Am I over there? Thank you.
- [Cory] Linda, don't get nasty to us.
- [Mackenzie] And especially not to the crew
that's trying to help you.
There's clothes that has mouse droppings on it.
There's not a lot but they are there.
- You have my jewelry?
Do not! - This is not jewelry.
Calm the-- God, calm down.
- [Linda] That's not jewelry? It looks like jewelry to me.
- [Zach] Jewelry? It looks like a worthless watch.
- Give me my bag of jewelry.
- [Zach] It's not a bag of jewelry.
It's a bag of-- - You got a bag.
- [Zach] You want this with your other 100 pairs of glasses
floating around at our house?
- [Cory] We saved about 20 pair inside.
- [Zach] She has a lot of glasses.
None of 'em are her prescription.
She refuses to get her prescription.
She just wears random glasses
and puts them on top of each other, it's...
[intense music]
Mom, we're not keeping any clothes.
None of these clothes are good.
They are ruined.
They are covered in animal and bug--
- She's keeping clothes. - No, dude.
- But these were wrapped up and I'm keeping them.
- It all is coming from the same car.
It's all got rodent droppings on it.
Rodent urine on it.
- Favorite jeans, Democracy. - Huh?
- Favorite brand. I don't have any at home.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yay, yay. Gold Rolex.
Come look at it, it's the real thing.
- Needle in the haystack, they found it.
Do you believe that they'll search stuff now?
- Look here, I had to take the thing out.
- Okay. I am super happy.
- God, they're worth about $14,000 now.
- I was so happy that our Steri-clean crew
was able to find the Rolex watch in the car.
This should build a lot of trust with her
in allowing us to work
when she doesn't see everything that we're doing.
- I wanted to come check on you.
Look at you. You found the watch.
So it was in the car after all? Okay.
Are you going through all of this too?
- Well, I'm gonna throw the clothes out.
- She just said she's gonna throw the clothes out.
Let's start getting the clothes out.
Can we get rid of movies?
Oh and this has bugs.
Can I get rid of movies with bugs?
Yep, bye.
- I don't think there's anything eligible.
- Me either. Good girl.
Are these usable?
- No. I don't like the look of them.
- Yeah, okay.
Linda, you're doing very good.
Look at you, guiding things to the garbage.
This is what I like to see.
I actually think that Linda's doing quite well.
I walked over and started to see
what she was sifting and sorting through
and she seems to be making good progress.
I'm curious to see if that will continue.
- No, this one looked good.
I don't have any clothes to wear.
[intense music] [junk clattering]
- Hi there. - Hi.
- I'm Cory. - Amanda Kirk.
- Amanda? - Yep.
- Thank you for coming out. - Yep.
- We just want to clarify some things.
We want you to see what we have done.
- Okay. - The biggest issue is,
kind of, the clarity on the car issue.
Because I wanna make sure what she's telling us is accurate
and we wanna know going into court tomorrow
if we've met all the goals
or if there's still some things that have to be done.
- Okay, sure. - Okay?
So let's go over and talk to Linda and
see what there is to say.
- Hi, how are you? - Hi, good. How are you?
- Fine. - Amanda, nice to meet you.
- Hi Amanda, I'm Linda. - So you guys have never met?
- Yeah, we've never met.
- Gotcha, okay. - No.
- Talked to her on the phone.
- So it's all gonna be nice and clean.
- [Amanda] Good, great.
- Yeah, I'm excited about it. - Yeah.
- And I'm gonna have the car,
I'm going to sell it for like 250 or something.
Get it towed out as soon as I get the rest of my stuff out,
which is gonna be today.
- Okay. - And then tomorrow,
call somebody and have them come pick it up.
- Okay.
- Okay. Before we get to that though,
can we just go over what the violations actually are
to make sure that we're all on the same page?
The yard had to be mowed.
Is this--? - The yard had to be mowed.
- Minus the trash, I know. - Its mowed.
- Does the yard look okay?
- [Amanda] I couldn't even walk through here.
So, that looks great.
- Okay. So, is that it? The car's the last piece?
- So how long do I have to remove it?
'Cause, you know, I mean I want it gone
and I'm going to call somebody,
but because I'm in the middle of all this-
- Sure. - I want this done first.
I really don't wanna have to leave here to go to court.
So what's gonna happen tomorrow, should I go to court?
- Well, you are going to court, right?
You do have to go to court.
The timeframe has already passed for it to come into compliance.
So that's why you're going into a hearing.
But when you go to the hearing,
you just tell the magistrate what's happened.
And I will say that I've, you know, come here--
- Witness it and it's gonna be gone.
- And then, she'll tell you.
- Well they'll make sure for me. - Right.
- But are they gonna set another date
to prove that this is gone?
Or do you just come back and look and say--
- Yeah, I would need to come back
and just verify that it's gone.
- Okay. - Okay.
- What time would you be coming back?
- When you call me, I'll come back.
- Okay.
- Do you want us to find a scrap yard
in the next couple days and get it outta here?
A lot of charities that'll come
and take this off their hands like that.
- No, they won't take it. - Yes, they will.
I do this for a living. No, gimme a yes that we can call
and find a scrap yard or a charity to come get it.
- [Mackenzie] You have to give them permission.
- Everything's gonna be out.
- There is, you call these people,
they'll give you 250 or $300.
- I know how it works, I got it.
- Can Cory call and have a scrap yard come get this car?
- Yeah, for 250. - Awesome. Go for it.
Did you hear that? - Yay!
- Do you think you'd get someone do it for 250?
- I will do my best.
- Cory's gonna do his best.
- I'll pitch in the difference
as long as you're willing to let it go.
- Well, Linda, if Cory cannot remove it for 250,
are you willing to let it go?
- I can have it-- I've done it before.
That's what they give you for the price of the metal.
- If they can't find one. - No, you can find one.
- Amanda, everything that you've seen
other than the car starting and still being here.
- Yep. - We're good?
- Yes. - Okay, okay.
- [Amanda] I just need to take pictures
once everything's gone but. - Okay, sounds good.
We'll get this taken care of.
Tomorrow, we'll try to get someone to pick it up tomorrow.
Okay, on another note,
tomorrow we can continue working on
kitchen, dining room, living room.
Right?
If you're not back and we're done, would you be okay
with us emptying out your garage since that's all ruined?
Same rules apply, glass,
all that same stuff will come to the table.
- [Linda] All glass is sorted in boxes.
- Right, we'll put that over the sorting table.
- If you can get new boxes, yeah.
- [Cory] But can we empty the garage while you're not here?
- Of course. - Perfect.
- Nice. - Then we got it.
- Look at you, look at you! - We got a plan.
- I'm gonna see if Andy's willing to--
- We found her Rolex, so she's happy.
- Right. - Alright.
Thank you so much for coming by.
I appreciate it.
And she will see you tomorrow.
Again, Linda surprised me by giving us permission tomorrow
when she's gonna be at court.
Not only can we continue cleaning
the living room, dining room, and kitchen,
she's allowing us to clean the garage as well
until she gets back, that's huge.
[dramatic music]
- Good morning, everyone.
We're gonna go ahead and start today's proceeding.
Please state your name. - Belinda Connor.
- Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth
before the special magistrate? - I do.
I just wanted to say that, you know, I wasn't here.
I was very ill for the past year
and I apologize for having these violations,
but I would appreciate it very much if you did not,
you know, fine me if you just charge me court costs
because I get very little money in social security.
- So, the way the fines work
is that once the vehicle has been towed,
then you can seek a reduction in the fines
and there's a process to do that.
So I appreciate your coming in and resolving it today.
And that's going to end this matter for today.
Thank you. - Alright, thank you so much.
[intense music]
[junk clattering]
- Good morning, Linda. - Good morning.
How are you, Dr. D? - It's good to see you.
So, tell me about this morning.
How did it go?
You had the court date? Yeah? - I did.
I guess it went okay. I'm not exactly sure.
I don't know if I was fined or not fined
or how much I'll be paying.
- All right.
- Okay, so let's recap where we're at.
We didn't get to the garage yet,
actually Scott started a little bit, did great.
But we've been finishing up in the house.
We have just 20 minutes left at max to get the kitchen done.
Okay? While we're doing that,
I'd love for you to sit out here,
start sorting, okay, with your family.
Start going through this stuff.
Asking yourself the difficult question.
Is it something I really need to keep?
Is it valuable?
Is it sentimental, or am I gonna use it?
And if it's legitimate,
we wrap it in paper, it goes in a box.
Is that fair? - Yeah.
Unless it's something I really want,
- Linda. - Well, that's the caveat.
- Let me go this way and see if it's helpful.
What's your emotional health worth,
your family, your relationships,
your ability to sit peacefully in your home?
What is that worth?
What's the monetary value of that?
- It's worth everything, - Right!
So, if you have to let go of thousands and thousands
and thousands of stuff
to get something that's priceless back,
is that not a good investment?
Are you willing to let go of your stuff
to get back your people?
- I wanna sell a lot of my stuff.
You know, I've got valuable things.
- You've got valuable people.
- Mom, let me-- - You got a grandchild
you can't bring in your home.
- By the grace of God, had we not had "Hoarders",
all these people come to help us, what would've happened?
I will not touched this place.
This would've sat here
until the house was eventually taken from you.
- Okay. - For inaction.
- I'm still getting rid of a lot of stuff
But my collectibles, I want. - Okay.
- Let's put it to the test. - Yeah.
- There are things on that table that I know you will let go.
So let's start that process, okay?
And we're gonna get back to cleaning
before we run outta time today.
[intense music]
[junk clattering]
- All she's ever cared about was her things.
- This I want, I bought it.
I didn't buy it at a garage sale.
- No, you remember that?
We got that on-- - What is it worth?
- We bought that the first year we were together, remember that?
- I want that!
- I know. I heard the first time.
Treat me like crap the whole time, I don't want do this.
Trash? The decals are coming off of this.
That's chipped on the bottom.
It's not worth anything.
You can't sell it for anything.
- It's enamel.
- Yeah, and the enamel's chipped.
You can't repair that.
You can't-- What, you're gonna sell that?
You're gonna keep it?
- Don't talk to me, Mackenzie.
Get somebody else over here besides her.
- It's a Starbucks cup.
Everybody has plenty of these.
It's trash. - Want it.
Collect them.
Give it to me!
You know, get her away from me or I'm gonna walk off.
- What? I don't know what I'm supposed to do here.
My opinion is, yeah, keep that.
Keep grandmother's urn.
I guess that and the rest of this
looks like (bleep) garbage to me.
You might be able to sell that thing for something.
I don't know. Maybe.
But the thing is, you're not gonna do that.
You've talked about selling things my whole entire life
and you sold nothing.
Remember when dad got you that storefront
to start selling stuff
and you just turned it into a storage unit?
Do you remember that, at all?
No, you're gonna ignore me?
All right, cool.
I don't need to be here then.
- Giving up? - No, it's just...
(bleep), my whole life,
all she's cared about is her (bleep).
"No, I need it." Or, "I'm gonna sell it."
When? she's never sold a thing my whole entire damn life.
- "All my life, all she cared about was her things.
She loves me too, but she put that ahead of me."
- Yeah.
- Have you had that conversation with her?
- Oh, yeah. Plenty of times.
- Well, not with all the other theatrics.
Just that. - Yeah.
- "Mom, the entire time that I've been alive,
I feel like all you cared about was your things,
even above and beyond me." - Yeah.
- [Dr. D.] And what does she say to you?
- She ignores me, sometimes she says sorry and cries,
but it doesn't really mean anything
when you go back and it's like she's holding onto garbage
and it's like, this is gonna put fines on us,
get us in trouble.
And it's just frustrating, it's extremely frustrating.
- It's frustrating.
- And that's why there was a long period of time
where I had little to do with her.
I talked to her on the phone occasionally,
but I had no interest in coming back here.
I had no interest of being any part of her chaos.
Because when you're around her,
she sucks you into her chaotic realm of existence.
And I just had enough of it growing up
and I don't want it in my life.
I don't want it for my child.
I have a 17-month-old son.
I just don't want it. - Yeah.
- I had enough of it growing up.
I'm sick of this (bleep).
- I have been a hoarder for a while.
- Are you seeing the dead possum?
- I don't. I don't see it.
- Don't look away. Look at it.
Engrave it in your mind.
- [Linda] Yeah, it's disturbing.
- So that it never occurs again.
- Right.
- [Zach] Mom, we're not keeping any clothes.
None of these clothes are good. They are ruined.
They are covered in animal and bug--
- She's keeping clothes.
- These were wrapped up and I'm keeping them.
[dramatic music]
- We have three days to get through this house.
- How are you gonna do that? - By you giving up control.
It's quite simple for us.
It's more difficult for you.
- Are you willing to let go of your stuff
to get back your people?
- I wanna sell a lot of my stuff.
You know, I've got valuable things.
- You've got valuable people.
- It's a Starbucks cup.
Everybody has plenty of these.
It's trash. - Want it.
Collect them.
Give it to me!
[intense music]
- I do not want you going through my stuff.
- Better get used to it. That's disgusting.
You want that? - I'm not talking to you.
- Okay, well then I'm gonna toss it.
[ceramic shattering]
I'm the person who's here to help you.
But you gotta start by helping yourself.
- Want it.
You know, get her away from me or I'm gonna walk off.
I'm gonna just (bleep) walk off. - Linda?
Linda, don't walk off.
- No, I'm walking off if she's gonna be here.
- Remember we talked about the power struggles
that if you do this, I'm gonna do that.
That's threatening to leave.
That's part of that power struggle.
What is this thing
that I'm seeing between the two of you?
- This thing is that I brought her in my home
for her protection, for her safety from this,
because I saw that she struggled
and the entire time that I had attempted to be nice to her,
she had just done nothing
but treat me like gum stuck in the bottom of her shoe.
- Okay, take a breath.
- What is this thing for you?
- She's not really nice.
- What is she? - Not anymore.
- She's mean as hell. - Okay.
What do you mean by that? - Like a viper.
- Gimme an example.
Is she being mean right now?
- I don't wanna be talking.
- I understand that.
None of us wanna be talking, it's hot.
None of us wanna be doing any of this.
- No, I just don't want to be talking to her.
- Why do you think we are gathered here, Linda?
She's helping you.
Is there not even a tidbit of grace you can extend to her?
I'm just gonna leave that there.
You, my love.
No, take a breath.
You, my love,
she could be all the things you accuse her of doing.
that's your husband's mother.
You made a choice to bring her into your home
and you made a choice to come here and help her with this.
This is hard!
Strangers coming in your house to get rid of all your stuff
wouldn't be easy for you either.
It's gonna be 10 times harder for her
when she's been collecting and hoarding
and cluttering and keeping for decades.
Can you see how hard that might be?
- Yeah.
- Can you extend a tidbit of grace?
- Yeah. - Take a breath.
I'm back to you, 'cause that's not easy.
- She didn't mean that. - No, no. You don't know that.
- I do.
- You're having a difficult enough time
working out your feelings.
You don't get to talk about other people's feelings.
You don't know she didn't mean that.
Can you just extend her a tidbit of grace?
That's a yes or no question. - Yes, I can.
- Linda and Mackenzie seem to be going at it.
They were pretty nasty to one another.
They get kind of mean,
very petty in the way that they handle the items.
And I really hope that they started to notice
that if they just extend a little grace to one another,
they could get through this process
in a more peaceful and productive way.
- Does this go? - Yes.
- And these two as well?
- That pitcher, that bowl, that cup.
- Take the wins. Here we go.
[intense music] [junk clattering]
- Linda, we just wanted to bring you in here.
We have, pretty much, three rooms cleaned out.
What do you think about the open space
and just feeling this much room again?
- I'm happy for that. I'm just--
- Okay. - Good.
- Yeah, I just still see all the, you know,
the dirt and crap.
- Zach, when was the last time
you remember this much open space in this house?
- As far as when the last time
this was clean and nice,
I was still a child. - Okay.
- So yeah, I can still remember.
I still have images in my head
of when it was clean and orderly.
It's just, they're more like a few still images
and far and few between.
- I want you to remember all these images
and these good times in the house
because it can be that again.
But if we wanna get the whole house done,
we need to not be looking for the minutia in it.
And that includes little pieces of jewelry.
Is there gonna be a lot of jewelry in these bedrooms?
- There's gonna be some,
but I'll know it right away in bags.
- You'll know it? - I'll just put them aside.
- But that means everything has to come by you.
And that's the slow part of this process.
If we have to go through these rooms that are so full
and look for the little things like this,
they're not gonna change your life at all.
They've been buried for years.
- Please let us clean the place
because the alternative is they don't finish
and all this stuff stays here and the house gets taken away
and you still don't have it anyway.
So I don't even understand why you care about it.
- The request is, "Please let these people help me."
This is not just about the house,
we're trying to repair this relationship.
- Right. - What did you tell me, Zach?
What's been the most important thing
to your mother, you growing up?
- Your stuff, your things have always been number one.
You having your stuff, your things
has been more important than me
living in a clean house. - I took you everywhere.
- I don't think you took me everywhere.
That doesn't mean (bleep)-- - Okay.
- To what I've had to live in and grow up in.
- Okay.
- Take a breath. - It's beyond embarrassing.
- Take a breath.
Linda, your son is saying,
"I grew up in a home that was embarrassing.
And even though you gave me everything
and you took me everywhere,
I always felt like your stuff mattered more to you than me."
And now, he's saying to you,
"Please don't leave me stuck with your stuff.
Let these people help me."
So the question is, can you do that?
Can you say here and now, "Get rid of the stuff?"
- When we got here this morning, Zach was already cleaning
and as soon as he saw me, he was on attack,
claiming that we are not moving fast enough,
we're never gonna get done.
He's frustrated. I get it.
But don't attack the one person that's here to help you.
- I'm familiar with cleaning.
- And what happened when you, when you tried it alone?
- It's just slower because I'm by myself.
- [Cory] Right. - I was literally,
I had her help me a little bit one day.
- So we have an entire team here and you keep going off on me.
You don't want to piss me off 'cause I'm on your side. Okay?
But the more you poke at me,
and say you guys are terrible,
and you're not doing your job...
- I didn't say y'all are terrible. I just said...
- [Cory] That's what I'm hearing when you do that.
- I just feel we're not doing a lot of cleaning.
We're just...
- Right. Because we're here to solve a bigger problem
than just clutter.
It's this. It's the communication.
It's all of it.
And if this is how you communicate,
maybe that's part of the problem too.
Maybe it's not just her, you all need to work on it.
When you lash out at me
because stuff's not getting done fast enough,
do you think that motivates me?
No, it pisses me off.
Just like when she talks to you that way.
Come, come at me with respect. We are working our ass off.
I do this for a living. We're gonna get this done. Okay?
Don't panic. Trust the process.
Just like I tell her, trust the process.
Give us the opportunity to get it done.
Okay? Don't panic, that's all I'm asking you.
- Sorry for blowing up.
I'm just, my blood pressure's been high.
- I get it. - Since yesterday
and I'm just having so much anxiety right now. It's just...
- I get it.
You have been wanting to do this for a decade,
15 years, whatever.
And you, you got the green light right now,
so I get you want to go, go, go.
We have taken about what we took five, six tons?
- Yeah. It takes so much to even...
- This is another four tons that's in the dumpster.
- It takes a few hours to even make a dent in the place.
That's... - So let's regroup.
Let's stop talking about it so we can get back in there
and get the house empty.
- Yes, sir. - Keeping her in mind. Okay?
Linda, yesterday we made a lot of decisions.
We let a lot of stuff go. You did a lot of sorting.
How are you feeling today?
- I just, I just wanna get it done and over with. I wanna...
- I just wanna know what is your vision of done?
When you say I just want it done, what is done?
- Well, I mean...
- Is the house empty when it's done?
- Yeah.
- Okay. So that's the goal is to get this house emptied.
- If Cory's team opens a box or a bag,
looks through it and there's any kind of jewelry,
that will come to you.
- Okay.
- If they open the box or the bag
and there's no jewelry visible, they will dump it.
Can we agree on that? 'Cause this is what we're facing.
Either you all trust us and we get it done,
and by we, I mean Cory and his team,
or you don't trust us and then we work at your pace,
but it will not get completed.
So option A, trust us, we're going to do our best.
Don't trust us, that's fine.
But the house does not get cleared out.
This is the goal you asked for.
This is the way we get there.
- And the more you hesitate, the less time we have.
- So we just need a yes, I agree.
And my goal, like you said, is to get it done.
- Okay, okay, okay. - Porcelain and photos.
- Okay, okay. - Okay. Perfect.
[dramatic music]
- Got turquoise? - Real turquoise.
- If we leave and you have all these things still,
what do you want us to do with them?
Before we leave.
All of these ceramics and stuff? What's your plan with it?
- All right. I'll get a very small storage.
- What are you storing it for?
- 'Cause I wanna sell it.
- No one's gonna take it in this condition.
And I'm not, I don't wanna get into a bickering match with you.
I'm not lecturing you.
I just wanna honestly understand your mindset
on how you're gonna sell all this.
Hello?
- I, I don't know what you're...
- [Cory] I know, 'cause you're not really paying attention.
- Well, what? I don't know what you're talking about.
- [Cory] No. So stop.
- I can only make a small amount.
- [Cory] Have the moment. - My jewelry is expensive.
I'm not gonna make a small amount.
- I'm talking about this stuff.
This stuff that definitely needs to be cleaned.
It's gonna be packed. It's gonna be wrapped up.
Someone's gonna have to unpack it all,
find it all in a storage unit with 30, 40 boxes.
Clean it all, and then sell it all.
I don't see you doing that.
Do you agree? - I don't know.
- You don't know?
Because you don't want to have this conversation?
You just wanna box it all up?
All right, we're gonna go make some progress
in the bigger picture.
[dramatic music]
How you doing? Cory. - Hi, Christy with 321 Homes.
- Nice to meet you, Christy. - Nice to meet you.
- Thank you for first taking my call and this short notice.
Our concern really is that the family plans on living here.
- Okay.
- Not right away. They understand that now.
But what we're really looking for are, you know,
answers and options for them.
Either they sell it as is,
or they hire a contractor like yourself
to come in and, and make it livable.
But we just need to know kind of, we don't need exact,
I know that's tough, but kind of
what your best guess would be on to fix this place up,
how much would you have to invest into it?
To make it livable and safe, basically.
You can go in the front door, you can go in the garage,
wherever you, wherever you wanna look.
- I guess we could go in through the front door.
- A couple rooms are still inaccessible.
- Okay. - Just so you know.
- What are we looking at? What is this?
This is you and your mom?
- Oh my god. I worshiped my mother. I worshiped my mother.
- When did you lose your mom?
- Oh God, I just can't think of the year right now.
It's been...
- Were you married? Were you not married?
Did you have children? - I was married.
Yeah. No, she adored Zach.
- Yeah.
- I miss her.
- I know you do. I know you miss her.
So this is your mom's urn. Where are the...
- Nothing was...
- Where are the ashes of the child that you lost?
- In the dresser in that room.
Main bedroom.
In those drawers.
In a brass container.
- Alright, let me talk to Cory and see if we can get those.
Hey, Cory.
So I think you remember Scott sharing with us
that they lost a child early on in their marriage.
Linda was just telling me
that the ashes of that child are in a...
- Copper.
I'm pretty sure it's copper with the top on it.
And it was in the drawers in that room.
- I was told it's in the apartment in the closet,
safe where you're at now.
Mackenzie and Zach both said it's in the closet.
- Oh, okay. Could I ask 'em again please?
- No, we have, we've confirmed and they said they,
they know exactly where it is in the closet.
- I have a quick question for you.
- Mom and dad.
- Beautiful. - Boats.
- Quick question. Stop avoiding my questions.
How would you feel about like a beach service
for the ashes of your child?
Because Mr. Scott said to me that you all
just put 'em in a drawer and you never really dealt with it.
Would that be helpful?
Would that give you some closure maybe
for you and your ex-husband? - I don't know about that.
- I mean, really honest to God,
I'm not thinking about it right now.
- Okay.
- My ear hurts and I can't talk about it right now.
- What worries me most about Linda is the fact
that she hasn't been willing to go into the deep
and dark places that may have caused the hoarding.
And without her willing to do that,
without her even willing to open up a little bit,
I'm just not sure that she can stop hoarding moving forward.
- My name's Cory. - Hi Cory.
- And you can see this is... - This is a lot of stuff.
- Yeah.
- A lot of costume. I see silver. Yeah.
- We tried grouping it together, but it's really hard.
- Yes, it is.
- So I just think we need to determine
if there's really value to this stuff.
I asked her what she thought it was all worth
and she said, oh, 30 to 40,000.
And I said, well if I write you a check
for 30,000 right now,
then will you let it all go?
And she wouldn't.
So I, I don't know that the money is really that important
or if it's just having the stuff.
But we do need to know.
- Sure. - I'm gonna go back in.
I'll give you some time to look around,
and when you're ready just let me know.
We can talk after that. Okay?
- Alright.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you.
[tense music]
- Hi.
- Weren't supposed to be here 'til I got here.
This is not the way I want it out.
- This is the safest way it can be done.
- No. - Yes.
- I have gone through just one, this one box.
All this is gold right here. And this is 18 karat.
- Try not to be upset. Okay?
We just wanted to give her a moment
to be able to look at the stuff. Okay?
- Okay, sorry. - Do you wanna take a seat?
- Yeah.
- So this was in one box,
and I found all this gold here and it's probably,
I would say eight to $10,000 right here.
How does that feel?
- I knew, I know.
- Well of course you know, but you couldn't get to it.
So how does it feel to be able to actually touch it,
and have someone else touch it?
Forget about you knew.
- Yeah.
- Yeah. Okay, let's go with that.
- We, we can put all of that in it's nice,
separate bag, box, whatever you want.
So you know where that strict, like,
actual gold, good stuff is.
What would your estimate be in silver?
- In silver? Well that's, yeah, you would have to weigh it,
but I, well, 16 ounces is a pound,
and, oh, I don't know.
There's so much here.
- Well, and there's still more in the bags over there.
Don't forget. - Oh my gosh.
- We haven't gone through all this.
- Right, right.
So I mean, it might be, you know, $2,000 in silver,
which is only, you know, $24 an ounce.
- [Cory] How much was it in gold?
- This pile right here? About 10 grand.
- I think the silver's worth more
because it's something you're not gonna find online.
- Plus a lot of things are signed. So you are right.
- [Cory] She's giving you pure silver value, I think.
- Yeah. I'm just telling you what it is.
If we stuck it on the scale. - Melted down.
- Yep. Yep. Just for the metal content.
- Not the, not the...
- Not the signatures or any of the...
- Style. - Yes.
- Can I ask you a logistical question?
- Of course. - For someone like this,
all this stuff that our team is finding and bringing out,
how does someone like her deal with this?
What does she do?
Can she hire someone like you to sort through
and make sense for a fee or...
- Yeah.
- Because she's never gonna be able to...
- That's what I do,
I go through people's things and you know, I don't buy/sell.
I just tell you what you have.
- I'm sorry. Can I interrupt you for a second? Linda.
- Uh-huh.
- Linda just said to me,
"You don't think I know how to do this?
It pisses me off."
- I mean that I know the value of my jewelry.
- I hear you. - Yeah.
- This is not a question of your competence.
This is a question of you becoming overwhelmed
by the sheer volume of things you would have to go through.
And I keep saying this to you,
us supporting you is not us saying you can't do it.
It's us saying no one should have to do it alone.
Letting other people help you
doesn't mean you couldn't do it.
- Yeah. - Yeah?
And while Cory's here, I wanna give him a quick shout out
and his team, look how seriously they took your request.
There's a bracelet over there with a $2 tag.
But Stericlean did not throw that out.
Cory and his team did not throw out the $2 bracelet.
They heard you.
And everything they could dig up,
they brought you and there's still bags and boxes
over there of things.
Again, a testament to what happens
when you trust people to support you.
- I have to give you credit because
you haven't stepped foot in that house probably
because physically you can't, and it's not healthy.
- Well, I wanna stay outta your way in there.
- That's what I'm saying. - Yes!
- You gave up all control and when you trust us,
this is the result.
I am completely blown away that Linda's jewelry
is actually worth what it's worth.
I don't know what the final number was,
but it was like $40,000 just on that table.
We don't have a lot of time left.
The dumpster's actually getting picked up any minute,
but it is completely full.
And you can look at the top of it. It's overflowing.
I had good news with the dumpster.
You guys have great news over here.
So let's see if this contractor can't give us
a third bit of good news today.
Christy just did a walkthrough.
She is the contractor I told you was coming.
I'm gonna let Christy kind of tell you what she found,
what she thinks, you might wanna sit down.
Sorry. But it's, it's not pretty as you know. Okay?
- There's a lot of mold that we know of that you could see.
So that would need to be mitigated.
Your electrical is very aged.
So that needs to be all done
and brought up to the current building code.
- Right.
- Your drain lines are collapsed.
- Uh-huh. - You could tell that,
which is why you've had stuff coming up.
They were cast iron. So those would all need to be replaced.
In my opinion, I would gut the entire house to studs.
That includes the roof, the windows, all the doors.
All the walls, the ceiling installation, everything.
Where you're looking at block and maybe a couple walls,
and do a complete rebuild.
To do a complete rebuild,
you're looking probably close to $450,000.
It's not gonna be, it's not cheap.
- Zach, you're really quiet.
So I know this is not good news. What are you thinking?
- Well, it's just a lot to take in and think about,
and weigh the options and see what's available.
- Get it to code. That was the biggest thing that she said.
It's, it's not to code right now.
- Of course.
- But other than that, it's structurally sound.
The block walls aren't, you know, crumbling,
and so it has good bones,
and she said it's, it is a safe house
once it's rebuilt and up to code.
- Yeah. - Okay?
- We knew from the start the place most likely
was going to have to be gutted and was a possibility.
We kept it in the back of our minds and our hearts,
hearing her give us the estimate
of $400,000 was still gut-wrenching.
We weren't expecting it to be such a high price.
And it really makes us have to consider
what are we actually going to do with this house?
- Good morning, family.
So you'll notice we're short two people today.
Scott can't be here 'cause he's at work,
but hopefully we'll have him later today.
And Cory unfortunately had a family emergency,
couldn't be here.
But we are in great hands because Lee is here.
You know, he's been working with us the entire time,
and he's been leading the team as well.
And so Lee's gonna give us a little bit of information
about what we've done, where we are,
where we still have to go. Yeah?
- Yeah, absolutely. Well, good morning, family.
Just want to thank you for inviting us into your home
and, you know, to, to be part of your journey. Today's...
- Thank you so much.
- Sure. Well, today's the last push, right?
So at this point we have two bedrooms left.
We have a, a room off of the kitchen
that we're working to clean out,
and then one bedroom that we're working to clean out.
And everybody is making that last push
to get it done for you.
- So because it's the last push,
everybody's gonna have to work a little quicker today.
But don't worry, same rules apply.
Anything that's ceramic, porcelain, glass, photography,
or jewelry will of course be brought to you.
- Right. But they, they pack those immediately
from the cabinets and just put 'em in that thing, right?
- Yes. Okay.
So are we good to go? Team ready?
- Ready. - Yes.
- Ready. Absolutely.
Everybody's energized for the last push and ready to go.
- [Dr. D] All right.
- Take it from the front.
[dramatic music]
- So Linda, I wanted to have some one-on-one time with you.
- Okay.
- Without the distraction of sorting through
and sifting through some of your belongings.
There's a few conversations that I wanna have.
I told you we would have.
The most important one is how to move forward from here.
I really, really want you to consider going into therapy.
- Yeah, I will. - Okay.
- I agree.
- Okay, good. Great. I'm glad to hear that.
So what I did was, I found you a few in this zip code
who will accept the Medicare,
who use cognitive behavioral therapy,
which is the best modality for hoarding.
But I put asterisks next to the people
who have specializations in grief and trauma.
- Okay.
- Why do you think I did that?
- Well, because you believe I was...
badly trauma-- you know, now that you mention it,
and see it from that perspective. So do I, but...
- Okay.
Yeah, that's, that's new and that's good
and that's interesting.
- Yeah.
- So you didn't see it before, but now you can see.
- Well I just covered it up with buying stuff
and keeping busy that way.
- My concern has been that in the time
that we've spent together, we've only started to open up
some of these areas that are important for you
to dig deep into
if you're not gonna hoard again.
If you don't really figure out what was driving that
to begin with,
you may start to get tempted again in the future.
And I just don't want that for you.
- And in the past I never really mentioned, you know, my...
how exactly bad things were with Scott,
and raving, keeping us up all night drinking.
- So Scott would drink and you would hoard,
and you would hoard and Scott would drink.
Scott would drink and you would hoard.
And you guys were kind of stuck in this weird cyclical,
codependent, toxic relationship. Right?
- Oh, he always drank. - Yeah.
- I didn't always hoard.
- Okay, I hear that. I hear that.
But if he always drank,
then that means that you married someone who drank.
- I did. I thought that he would be able to stop
and want to stop.
And especially, you know, when he had Zach.
- Yeah. - You know.
- So on the list of things to discuss
with your therapist moving forward, is codependency.
And what it means to go into a relationship
with somebody and think that you can change them
and make them better and it will stop and it will change.
And how you get sucked into a toxic process.
- Yeah.
- When things don't change, right?
In some ways it is really difficult
to let go of the trauma and the grief and the pain
that you associate with the marriage.
And it would be unfair for me to ask you to do it,
and ask you to do it at the drop of a dime.
Right? Because that's your pain and it's real,
and it's legitimate and it's valid.
That's why I want you to seek therapy
so that you can sit with someone
and talk about those events,
and talk about how they impacted you,
and talk about how you feel about them now,
thinking about them.
And talk about the way they changed
your perspective of yourself, of the other person.
Do you think there's an opportunity for you all
to come together and maybe have some, some more resolution,
or some more closure around that relationship?
- What do you mean?
Like, have a discussion about it?
- Maybe. Or maybe again, go to family therapy.
Or maybe we talked a little bit about the possibility
of spreading, you know, the ashes of the child
that you shared and lost,
so that you're not stuck in the past with him
and there's an opportunity to move forward together.
- I'm really not around him. So I don't think about him.
- Why do you think he came then?
If you all have no real solid relationship in this moment,
why do you think he came?
- For Zach, I hope, and I'm thankful for that.
- [Dr. D] Okay.
- And you're saying he came for me too
and that's nice to know.
- Yeah. Yeah.
Think about these things because again,
clearing out the house is one process.
We've taken you very far on that process.
Clearing out your heart, cleaning out that mind,
some of the ways you think, some of the ways you behave,
some of the ways you all interact,
that's a separate process.
- Right.
- And you all have to really commit
to taking it the rest of the way.
- Yeah? - Yes.
- Okay. - Thank you.
- Look at you. Was that gratitude?
Yes!
- Oh I'm very grateful for everybody here.
And working, worked so hard, all of you.
And I appreciate it.
From the bottom of my heart,
this is really gonna change my life for the better.
And I'm so thankful.
I feel good about the conversation
that I had with Linda.
We really got an opportunity to explore
some of the loss that she's experienced
and the impact that may have had on her hoarding.
I think that Linda's open to continuing
with individual therapy after this and some family therapy.
And I think that could be really helpful for her
and her loved ones moving forward.
- Whoa.
All cleared out.
[bright music]
- Haven't seen this floor for decades.
- It's a little different than when we started. No?
So family. This is our last day together as a team.
Well we have done a lot of work in this house.
And by we, I mean you all.
Lee, tell me a little bit about
what was accomplished here.
Where did we start? How bad was it?
- Well, we started in a place
where we really couldn't safely enter the home.
And then once we made our path into the home,
I estimate that we removed probably 20 to 24,000 tons
of trash from here.
It was a number of different full dumpsters.
We cleaned three bedrooms.
[bright music]
The two bathrooms.
The living room, the kitchen.
There's a little bit of the house yet to be done.
The back porch and the garage.
But for the most part the house is clean.
- Yeah. - Wow. So it's not pretty.
We haven't had maid service come, there's none of that.
But there are no dead animals. We can more or less breathe.
Right? We're in here. How does that feel? Family?
- It's different. As I was saying,
this is the first time I've ever seen it this empty.
It's been clean in the past when I was little,
but I've never seen it... - Empty.
- It's bittersweet. 'cause you see it empty,
and that's part of the process.
But then you see how much has to be done.
So, the excitement and the happiness
of having it clean is kind of dulled by--
- So thankful. - The mess.
- I definitely will admit that my stress
is through the roof, even though the cleaning is done.
And that has taken a huge load off of our shoulders.
We still have to consider what the house is worth,
and if we wanna keep it and attempt to rebuild,
or if we need to move on and settle in a different way.
- So I hear what you're saying Mackenzie.
Its a very difficult thing to see this house empty
and need so much repair.
And it can be deflating. I get that.
But I wanna remind you where we started.
Right? We had multiple code enforcement violations.
Right? Your mom was in court.
We had a bunch of mold and trash.
We were up against a lot. And in a very short time.
- Oh yes, a very short time. - Very short time.
Everybody here came together
and got this house completely cleared.
So it's a huge feat.
- Oh God, yes. - It's a huge feat.
- Oh gosh. Yes.
- Zach and I tried to tackle it ourselves a year ago
and barely put a dent in it and we're like,
there's no way this is ever gonna happen.
As far as the cleanup went, there was a lot
of outstanding progress made.
Zach and I took a shot at it last summer,
barely put a dent in it with a 20 yard dumpsters.
You filled up three forty yard dumpsters.
So it's amazing, you know, with,
even with the people we had, how much progress made.
- Not only did the team clear out the house,
in what became a treasure hunt in here,
we recovered something like $60,000 worth of jewelry.
- Uh-huh. - From Miss Linda,
who we doubted.
Right? [laughing]
So we eat our words.
- Yeah. Okay. - Linda?
- I love jewelry. I've been collecting it since I was 13.
It's just my favorite.
It was my favorite thing to, to collect.
I'm gonna sell a lot of the sterling silver
and probably the gold also.
And putting some money into the house.
Yeah. I'm looking forward to that.
- Obviously we have the, the house cleared out,
and hopefully either you'll be able to sell it or,
or move back into it.
But that's, that's a ways away. So what happens today?
Where does mom go today?
- She'll be coming back home with us.
- Is your partner's mom wanted in your home?
- I think as long as we can stick
to each other's boundaries, then yeah.
- Let's get it. Let's get it answered.
- Yes. Yes, yes.
A hundred percent. - Okay.
- And I will try... - Linda.
- To stick to those boundaries.
- Are you grateful to be welcomed into your son's home?
- Of course I am. - By him and his partner.
- Yes.
- I'm gonna try my best to mediate between my mother
and Mackenzie,
and even try to be a little more patient with my mother.
It's, it's probably not gonna be easy, to tell the truth.
- I think when we get home we need to all sit down
and have a discussion about what we're gonna do next.
- Okay, good. And in that same vein,
I had a chance to talk to Linda earlier.
I've asked her to consider
going to individual therapy after this.
She has agreed. She's excited to do that.
- Yeah.
- I've also suggested that you all go to counseling,
to family therapy together.
Okay? I think family therapy is very important for you.
There's a child in the middle now
that's gonna pick up all of the communication patterns
that he hears.
So if you all are ranting and raving and carrying on
and disrespecting one another, guess who's coming up?
- Oh yeah. - Right.
- So think about him first.
- So just think about that, and make sure that you all get
to family therapy after this as well. Yeah?
What happens from this point forward is a mystery.
It's really up to the family to continue with therapy
after this, as well as Linda committing to really,
really addressing the deep motives
for why she began hoarding in the first place.
I think they've made enough progress where I'm hopeful,
but there's really no way to know.
But what I want you all to do right now
is take a moment and look at the rest of the rooms,
and just see all of the work that has already been done.
Because that's an important place
for us to focus our attention. Right?
- I am so grateful to all of you.
So grateful, more than you know.
It's a really tough job.
Everybody worked so hard for me,
and I appreciate it so much from my heart, heart felt.
It's just wonderful what you did.
I know there's a lot more to do but,
oh my God, you did so much.
- So Lee and I are going to take our leave,
and we're gonna leave you to talk about
rebuilding the family and rebuilding the home. Yeah?
- Yeah. - Thank you.
- Thank you so much. Outstanding.
- Good luck. - Love you all.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you.
- We'll talk soon, okay? - Alright doc.
- All right.
- Thank you so much, Lee. - Sure.
[pensive music]