We have some type of show here in Finland and I don't know which one it is, American at least, but anyway, it is so completely repulsive that I have to be in a certain mood to even be able to watch an episode.

I can't watch this show. One, because I'm a complete neat freak and the other is because it astounds me how people will risk losing their family over keeping their garbage. I'd rather see the show that focuses more on the mental health problems that these people are obviously suffering from, and how they treat it. Just going in there and cleaning the place up solves nothing.

@cathie it solves them haveing a place to live since most are to the point their home is about to be condemed. I'm sure their other issues are worked out later.

I work with people with mental illness and many of them are hoarders. They don't see their belongings as garbage, and that's why they don't want to just get rid of it. I would probably be frustrated if someone wanted me to just dump all my stuff in the garbage too. There are many layers to the individuals who keep so many treasures, mostly they are traumatized and the stuff makes them feel comfortable. Helping them to release the items they don't need is a long process, and certainly can't be done in two days. Just going into someone's space and throwing everything away will likely just traumatize them further and will do nothing to change the pattern. The homes will just go back to how they looked before, just with new things. It's an interesting disorder to deal with.

I've only seen either of these shows a handful of times (watching them makes me uncomfortable, I can't fathom living like that), but I prefer the approach of the TLC version since it helps people address why they behave the way they do, so the people on that show are probably more likely to make a lasting change in their lifestyle. I'd suspect that the folks on Hoarders go back to their old ways pretty quickly.

I'm at a point in my life where I'm dangerously toeing the line between packrat and hoarder. I keep everything, and I hate throwing things away, but I'm getting better.

I feel like watching shows like this and going to homes of packrat/hoarder friends who are worse off than me is helping. It'll also help once I have a place that's MINE, no roommates, no rent. I don't have that yet, and it's much easier to keep my crap in a series of Rubbermaids than unpack, sort, and throw away.

But I'm getting better.

I watched one episode and it was horrible. I can't stand clutter and go into throwing-away frenzies every few months.

I was at my MIL's for the weekend. Was in the mood for something sweet. So I open a cupboard and see a box of chocolates (of course crammed on top of many things). I eat one piece and it tastes weird. It expired in 2007 (o_O) I'm really starting to think her clutter problem is a real "hoarding" problem. I've already put the brakes on her buying but-it-was-a-great-deal for us but now we're at the point where if she finds out I'm throwing something away, she tells me that she'll keep it for me in her basement in case I need it :(

I stopped watching the A&E program because it became too frustrating to me. Sometimes I have issues with "Intervention" for the same reason. I totally understand what boogers is saying about how the process needs to be therapeutic, but I don't have the patience to watch some of the families on "Hoarders." Adult children who leave their parents to rot in these filthy and disgusting conditions and then act amazed when they come back for the first time in years and find that the conditions are even worse? It's maddening and those people should be ashamed of themselves. The episode that comes to mind in this instance is the one where the mother resorted to wearing adult diapers and strapping herself into a toilet chair at night to sleep, and then almost died when she fell out of the chair and got wedged among all the garbage, which included her dirty diapers. Her daughter was heartless and clearly just wanted the problem to disappear, despite the fact that her mother was clearly exhibiting symptoms of mental illness. And while I don't think the problem can be solved in two days, I think there is an incredible amount of "babying" that goes on with the hoarders. They need to be TOLD that this behavior is unacceptable and needs to change, even if it has to change over a period of time. The younger hoarders who actually had minor children in their homes? They shouldn't have custody of those kids and anyone who says differently has no concept of what "neglect" actually is. I used to work in the foster care system and some of the homes that we saw were worse than any other form of neglect you could imagine.

That being said, I do like the TLC show more because it delves into what causes people to hoard. It's a hard issue to understand, and to empathize with, so giving a little background on the condition is way more helpful than just an hour of throwing away the person's stuff.

I have see a few episodes, but I can't watch regularly, either.

I feel so sad for these people, but I just don't get the psychology that allows the problem to get started -- if clutter makes the floor difficult to traverse, I'd have to make a path or I'd hurt myself, and that appears to be true for some of these folks, too. I have seen episodes involving counseling (for the two days it takes to film the shows -- I don't know if local counselors continue afterward, but I seriously hope so...) and it's obvious that many of these people lost parents or others and can't let go of their stuff... but how that escalates into what they end up with baffles me. (How much money do they spend accumulating, anyhow?)

Oh well -- I never understood how people start smoking, either... guess it's good I'm not a psychological professional!

i've seen both and prefer the TLC version because it feels like they really try and address the mental issues that cause the hoarding. I only saw one episode but it was heartbreaking. After lots of talking, they finally got to the real issue. The mom was an army child who grew up moving from place to place on a yearly basis. She would have to leave her friends behind so the only continuity for her were her things. These accumulated so that before yet another move, her father gathered all her things and burned them in a fire. Her husband or children had never heard this before. Knowing what the issue was actually helped her to deal with it and also made her family much more understanding. They showed the family and house 8 months later and all looked fantastic and happy. It was really uplifting. That said though, I wouldn't watch it regularly.

I honestly don't understand the purpose of these shows. I certainly don't understand why people watch them. Yes, if you're a hoarder, and the shows help you to deal with your disorder, then that's understandable. But for entertainment? (I've heard people say, "Oh, I watch this and just want to clean all day!") No, that's just wrong. It's like watching a show about drug addicts, or alcoholics, or schizophrenics. Truly, I think it's exploitation. Why put these unfortunate people on display? Because other people take pleasure out of witnessing a train wreck??? I find the whole thing disturbing.

Watching these programs is interesting because it gives me a mirror to reflect upon when I think about purchasing something. Each time I watch the program, i walk around the house looking for something to throw or give away.

I can't watch these shows...they are just so sad to me. These people become consumed and overwhelmed by their possessions. As someone with a mentally ill person in the family (thank god not a hoarder like this) I just see all of that stuff, mess, and waste as such a horrible physical manifestation of personal pain and problems.

I also do not judge the family members. All of these hoarders obviously have significant mental illness that needs to be addressed and is manifesting itself in their physical environment. If you have someone with a mental illness in your family you know that it is extremely difficult for family members to get a person to modify his/her behavior.

I've never seen either show, but am pretty certain that taking a hoarder away from their home for a couple days and completely cleaning it out will achieve nothing - except enormous anxiety, distrust, and probably a huge hoarding backlash. I've known people who have tried to help a hoarding friend, and it is an exercise in futility. Hoarders have a mental illness and need (and *want* to need) professional help.

My apartment was being to get sort of crowded with stuff. I justified it by saying that I didn't have any real storage space and it was really just kind of eccentric. Down deep, I didn't want to face the work of having to sort the junk.

One day, I was home from work after having had a root canal. The doctor gave me a prescription for rather strong painkiller. Instead of making me sleep, it made me feel weird, kind of shaky, and very awake. I was sitting on the sofa watching TV and thinking that I shouldn't take anymore of this stuff when one of the first episodes of Horders came on. I wasn't nearly as bad as the person shown on the show, but I was shocked. All my weird energy from that painkiller kicked in and I worked like a demon all day. At the end, I had a big pile to go to Goodwill, bags going out to recycling and trash, and my apartment was MUCH better. I try now, in addition to any regular cleaning, to spend 15 min each evening when I get home from work sorting something, such as a shelf in a closet or mail on the coffee table. I'm at the point where it's hard to find 15 minutes worth of things to sort. :)

I'm a Horders and Hording shows fan. I watch them both and they reenforce for me why I really shouldn't let those old magazines pile up by the sofa. I also had another oral surgery proceedure since then and skipped the prescription and just took over the counter pain medicine and slept my way through that first day or two. MUCH preferable.

I really noticed that on Hoarding: Buried Alive, they are working on actually fixing the problem and trying to work through the disporder, where Hoarding is just eliminating the waste. Everyone knows if you just go into a hoarders home and throw out everything they will be devestated, and more than likely continue to hoard the minute the cleaning crew is gone. When the Hoarders crew comes and just throws out the hoarders' prized possessions I always feel a bit bad for them - not only do they have this terrible disorder, but they are being robbed of everything they have spent so much time to collect. In Buried Alive the hoarder is the one who chooses what to dump and what to keep, and by having to face the consequences of keeping their things, they go through a learning and healing process of their disease.

While the show Hoarders is a bit more 'entertaining' to watch, 'Buried Alive' is much more human and realistic. If they are really trying to help the hoarder learn, Buried Alive is doing it's job, and Hoarders is not.

Both are great to watch though! Every time I watch either show I get the cleaning itch...I would love to go to a Hoarders' home and help them sort things! Call me crazy but organizing is one of the most therapeutic things ever.

http://www.abbeycatchat.com

I watch both because I am obsessed with hoarding...I have two extremes in my family and I guess I am afraid that I could inherit either one as I age. My maternal grandmother has been a hoarder her entire life - her house is crammed full of piles of junk mail and newspapers, plastic butter tubs, food is left sitting out, etc. She regularly has rodent issues and most rooms are inaccessable. My mother has tried everything...cleaning her house and throwing things out when she is on vacation, using the 'guilt card', but nothing has ever lasted. I have not been to her home in almost 5 years because it is so disgusting, and my mother is under strict orders from me to not take my children there while they are in her care. It would be dangerous for them to be there.
Meanwhile, my paternal grandmother throws something out if she hasn't used it in a month. Perfectly good things too. She will take up a hobby (the last was painting), then when it has run it's course, throw everything in the trash.
I agree that watching the shows does make me want to purge, but yet at the same time, I think our society is too quick to dispose of possessions. I am hoping to find that perfect balance.

I can't watch the show, but I did see a preview of one where a nice looking couple were dating and he was the hoarder.

He got up the nerve to take her to his house and after she reached the top of the mountain of trash near the front door, she cried out in horror, "You live here??"

Anyone know if he ever saw her again?

the difference btw the shows is simple: hoarders focuses on people with an imminent need to declutter their homes. they are facing eviction, condemning by the city or loss of their children to the authorities. a professional counselor and a professional organizer - both hoarding experts - are brought in to assist. the family doesn't move out. they live on site throughout the two-day process and have authority over all that is removed. which is why sometimes not much progress is made.

hoarders: buried alive focuses on people who seek long-term treatment. these people have the time to sort slowly, on their own terms, with professional guidance. since more time is spent focusing on the hoarder and their story, we learn a lot more about the disease.

clearly the disorder itself is a serious mental illness. these shows serve the simple purpose of teaching viewers about it. a lot of people still like terms like pack rat or slob. but now that the disorder is so prevalent it gives people the chance to recognize that they abominable slob in their life is actually not in control of their behavior. and they will not get control without intense therapy.

it's pretty easy to see how someone close to a hoarder could give up and leave them to their mess. you cannot make mentally ill people do what you want them to. and if you try to force them, the resistance is pretty awful. just being near a hoarder's stuff makes them upset. and if every time you came over, they freaked. every time you touched something, they freaked. every time you helped them clean - at their request - you came back to whole new, possibly worse mess, you'd stop dealing with it too. the hoarder fights like hell to stay in control, which is to say they firmly refuse to clean up. and that becomes unbearable. how can you keep visiting a filthy house? your own mental health is assaulted.

i'm not sure that i know a full-blown hoarder, but i'm close to someone who's house has been a dirty mess for decades. i cannot make you know how painful it is to see someone i love live like hell. it's exhausting to repeatedly help them clean, and dispiriting to watch them insist on cluttering it up again. and it is just beyond words to know that they are aware how f-d up this is but are powerless to make a lasting change.

bodicegoddess, stay in the fight. good luck!

I don't know that I really LIKE either of the programs...
...it's kinda like watching a train-wreck: fascinating, yet repulsive at the same time - and it makes you thankful that you're not on that train.

However when I'm busy painting the kitchen or doing something else and this happens to be on, I soon get the itch to start tossing things out - even if it's just taking the trash out and getting rid of a pile of old catalogs and magazines - I immediately have the compulsion to get rid of something because I really don't want to end up like those poor people!

I've watched Hoarders:Buried Alive twice. It was so exhausting watching these poor people face their issues (or in one case, not face them at all.)

It's very sad, but I'd like to make the distinction between hoarders and cluttered homes. There's definitely some cross over in the way people get like this, from a mental standpoint, but the difference comes when the cleanup happens - true hoarders have a very difficult time giving up ANYTHING, including trash or newspapers. People who have out of control clutter are happy to have someone help them get rid of it. And that's a really big difference.

I can't bear to watch either. I'm not condemning anyone, but pictures like these terrify me. I am unable to understand both the extremes of consumption and compulsive upgrading as well as that of hoarding.

Has anyone watched Clean House on the Style Network?

I have watched hoarders, but not the buried alive one mostly because it is too stressful for me and breaks my heart. My mother is a hoarder but refuses to admit she has problems. She has currently moved out of 2 houses because they are so filled with clutter they are unlivable. All of the "storage areas" are empty in the house, but the rooms you should live in are full of stuff. She currently goes to a dumpster outside of the local thrift store DAILY to collect new treasures. Some of the things in there are good, but she has no use for them. I gave her a book on hoarding that was self-help. She got very angry and told me I was losing my mind. She complains that she has so much stuff and it's so annoying to her, but she continues to accumulate more and more. If you try to clean anything, she becomes irate and accuses you of "taking over" even if i just put it in a box so we can eat at the table. Hoarding is not a fun issue and the hoarders cannot be helped if they refuse to be helped. It is sad to me that her stuff that she doesn't even want means more to her than any of her family. I know she would pick her stuff over me any day. My father had to move out because there was nowhere to sit in the house and she pretends that just never happened. Amazing what people will block out.

I just watched a couple of episodes out of curiosity for this post.

And i thought "the swan" was degrading.... How low can tv producers go to make profit out of peoples' misery. These shows don't even have that morbid hollywood voyeuristic feel as "celebrity rehab". It's just misery from opening credits to the very end of this torture.

I'm pretty involved in the hoarding community and both shows serve to get the 'secret' out there. I think they're particularly good for showing people, particularly the children of hoarders, that they're not alone. Once you start talking about it, it is shocking how many people know a hoarder or have one in their families.

One of the first films on the subject is called My Mother's Garden by Cynthia Lester. It was a documentary about her mother's hoarding that came out a few years ago. Totally heartbreaking.

I am the adult child of hoarding parents. Not the dirty diaper/molding food/cat crap everywhere kind of hoarders, thank god, but the "I MUST HAVE THIS STUFF!" and then never use it, pile it away in a forgotten room kind of hoarders. I have tried everything I can think of -- including taking things away myself -- to get my parents to stop living like they do, but nothing changes. They always say they're going to work on it, but it seems every time I go to their house it's worse. I have recently threatened them that they will never be allowed to keep their future grandchildren in that house. That's their greatest dream, getting to keep the grandkids for the weekend, and they still aren't listening to me. So for the poser who said the children of hoarders just want the problem to go away and they let their parents live in horrible conditions, I must say, some of us are trying and if you had parents like mine you wouldn't be so quick to condemn someone in my situation.

To all of you who don't get this, please listen. I am not a hoarder by any stretch of the imagination. But I think I get this.

I watched one episode where there were children involved. I actually don't know if it was the A&E show or the TLC. I sat in judgment. I am not a neat freak but the idea of doing that to your children was totally repulsive to me. I thought "how can anyone do that to their children, even if it's something really important to them or soothing to them?" And then something clicked...

I realized this compulsion is similar to other compulsions that lots of people who would judge these hoarders or be completely repulsed by them actually have themselves.

Take me, for example. I am overweight. I haven't always been but even when I was skinny I was a complusive eater. It's very, very hard for me to understand why anyone would want to live in a house that's so full they can't function - and yet, I am in a body that's not always as functional as I would like. Maybe I have not let it get to the point where I don't fit in a roller coaster seat, but that doesn't make me any better than someone whose compulsion is more controlling or has been with them longer.

How can someone buy more stuff because it's soothing and calming to them and forget how bad it is at home? Well, how can I eat anything at all unhealthy and forget what I look like.

I hope you see what I'm saying. I know many here would probably sit in judgment of me as well, since I also have a very visible and somewhat repulsive problem.

Just remember that even though not everyone has a shameful compulsion, there are many, many people out there with compulsions that are easier to hide or less socially shameful but potentially harmful. I have a friend who compulsively cleans. Not in a standout way that most would think was mentally ill, but it's something that gives her a lot of sadness to not be able to let go and enjoy more things. Many people would admire her since it's not nearly as shameful to have a sparkling home than a disgusting one - however, I don't think she chose this compulsion over another one. Compulsive behaviors may change over time for a person, but I don't think we get to choose which ones we have.

If you have no compulsive behavior or addictions, then I am honestly very happy for you but please don't sit in judgment of those who do. Unless you have been there yourself, just watch and learn, or change the channel and go on your merry way.

Thank you.

In answer to KatSD re: the nice-looking couple and the girlfriend who reacted in horror. I know her interviews were edited and may have left out any sensitive comments, but I thought she was extremely insensitive and almost nasty about what she said. She claimed to love him but said she had no room in her life for something like that, the she is a "big girl" and doesn't need him. I can understand not being with someone who has this kind of obvious mental illness, but to publicly degrade them and say she doesn't think he will ever change was just not right. Especially with a man who she previously thought was wonderful, and a man who gave every impression on camera as being a very nice and sensitive guy. A man who trusted her enough to show her his very vulnerable self on camera.

In answer to your question, the little blurb at the top (btw I do not like those blurbs they just started adding and think they are very distracting) said they no longer date but are "in touch."

There has already been much said on this subject...but I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents...

I have always been fascinated with people who have tons of stuff and don't have issues having their homes in somewhat of a disarray. I was always plagued with wanting to have my house "museum ready" at all times...which is probably a different kind of mental illness :)

When I was a child, I had several friends whose parents could be considered hoarders. In a couple of cases, I helped clean up their homes - they were not impressed.

I watch both shows and I agree that the "Buried Alive" version is more empathetic.

What really bothers me is when these people are threatened with losing their homes. I put myself into their shoes. They have been paying for their home like any other good American - maybe even have it paid off, and some stranger is going to come in and take away their home that they worked hard to acquire??? Whose business is it really how tidy they keep their house. As long as it doesn't become an eye-sore on the outside,...who cares? Who SHOULD care? They are fine living this way and whose business is it to tell them any different?

I can understand if there are minors in the home, but that is about it.

I also have issues with these programs because they say right at the beginning of the program that the person will be able to look at everything and decide what they want to throw out...and of course, it never happens. Maybe that is intentional so that some "drama" is created for our entertainment, but I think that really stinks.

Also, all the stuff they throw away...I'm a bit of an environmentalist and think that a lot of the stuff could be recycled and not just tossed into a landfill.

One more thing - my husband is from France and he claims that he has never experienced someone doing this in his country - it seems that it is mostly an "American" thing (I include Canada in my wide brush of "America")...does this say something to our (money, etc.) wasting tendencies and our spoiled nature?

The thing that bothers me about these shows is that the producers could be helping viewing hoarders and the show hoarders by putting into the script a systematic de-hoarders and staying organized system, the same one, in every show.

For example, the let the hoarders seem to start just any place, but the viewing audience as well as the hoarder should be talk to pick a corner spot in either the kitchen or bathroom and work in a circular motion around the room. The viewers should always be showed, every week, the same containers, 1-DONATE 2- KEEP 3- TRASH. As each room's items are put into the appropriate new 33 gal. trash can lined with black bag the processes becomes ritualistic for the hoarder and disorganized or hoarding viewers.

When the first room is sorted in this manner, then organizing items (shelves, drawers, etc) are purchased and the KEEP items that belong in that room are organized back into it. KEEP items that do not belong in that room wait in their labeled black bag until the appropriate room is cleared out.

Today I saw a hoarder step putting items in a black bag and ask her husband to take out a broken microwave in the kitchen. Then while he's trying to do that, she starts getting angry at him for inadvertently knocking over items piled high. If the woman had been working in a more systematic method that would have happened.

Understandably, I get real frustrated watching both the shows go in circles both in terms of arugments and organizing techniques or lack thereof.