Have you happened to catch the show Hoarders on the telly lately? The show is like a train wreck I tell ya. One of those things that completely grosses you out but you can’t NOT watch. It is amazing that a person or family can live in that much filth and clutter. I find myself at the edge of my seat for the last 45 minutes, waiting sooo patiently for someone to run into these houses with a Dr. Seuss size Cat in the Hat vacuum cleaner. You know, the kind that sucks up everything – even the spots! I wait in anticipation of the ‘big clean up’ at the end and rejoice with the people when they can finally sit at their dining room table after 8 long, junk filled years.
It is also amazing that some of the ‘hoarders’ look totally normal. Hair done, clean clothing, make up – the works. Where do some of these people get ready in the morning? Work? A hotel? I have seen the bathroom and there is no way someone can look that put together surrounding by that much yuck. Perhaps it’s a result of television camera crews following them around. Do they bring their make up people?
A friend and I had a little discussion the other day about this show. She confessed to being a hoader but not a ‘hoarder, hoarder’ (definition: obsessive keeper of things but not at the level of some of these poor, crazy people on the show). Don’t we all have a little hoarder in us? This show has caused my mother to watch religiously and deliberately get rid of a bag of stuff the next day. My fear is that in a couple of months I will show up at the old girls house and it will be completely empty. Is there a reverse hoarding disorder? If there is my mom’s got it.
What I want to know is if the network is going to do follow up shows? Are they going to go back in a years time and see if the hoarder is cured or have they begun the process of re-stocking the stuff and not tiding up? Does the network pay to have their therapy continue or do they run in with a fly-by-night psychologist, clean up the place and leave? Forever?
The bandwagon is calling. Time to start cleaning – one drawer at a time. Hey C – does the liquor cabinet count?
