Hoarders...?

R Q

R Q

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Location
Charlotte
So sitting here on my a$$ healing up my knee I watch some TV at times. I settled on Hoarders this time. I understand the people are mentally ill to an extent. But some of this has to be staged. I had an exwife that would sit stuff down and never touch it again. Shes the mother of my son so I kept tabs on her house and its condition for when he visited there. If it got bad I would threaten to or keep him from there until it was better so I was able to control the situation to an extent.
When you have to crawl over junk to get thru a room and have actual trash all over it would seem that you would consider taking some crap to the curb. The families of these people are to blame too. You cannot sit back and just say that they're sick. If you allow children to live in this situation then you are guilty of abuse as well
 
Not staged. I have looked in one in real life. Not to the level of maggots and human feces, but narrow pathways thru and over junk, and about 30 cats.

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All reality TV is staged at some point or another. I don't know why people like that style of entertainment so much but they do. Personally I can't stand it and won't watch any of it. But, to each their own
 
TV shows are staged bullshit. However, hoarders do exist. I can tell you it is bad.
 
I spent about 3 years installing alarm systems in peoples homes while in college and briefly after graduating.
You would be shocked at the myriad of ways people lived.

The worst ever was a lady in Monroe, NC. Nice house out in the country on a couple acres. Super nice lady met us outside seemed normal. Had a cat in her arms and another on the porch. She was dressed nice enough and very polite. We walked in and the smell made me gag. I apologized but couldnt stop coughing and nearly vomiting. The house was cluttered but not hoarder level (saw that too other places though) but she had a bunch of cats. Maybe 20 Litter boxes lined the wall in the attached garage missing a garage to house door and all were cleaned and maintained. Went into a back bedroom and there was a ...collection? of dead kittens neatly stacked. This collection had been there a while. They ranged from skeletons to very recent. The lady calmly explained that dead kittens were so sad and since she frequently had litters it was natural that some kittens didnt make it. She couldnt bring herself to bury them or throw them out so she just stacked them there. If I had to guess there were 100 dead kittens. Maybe many more. That was the source of the stench.
 
The only way true reality tv could exist is if no one knew they were being filmed. Most reality is boring....some, not so much.
 
I discover hoarders in all walks of life at work when I'm working on people's AT&T services. There seems to be no boundaries for a hoarder i.e. Race, creed, color, gender, rich, poor. If the place is dirty or a safety hazard I don't go in and tell them once it's cleaned up call us and we will take care of what they need.
 
Ron's story tops anything I've got by miles. The worst one I've been to was an old couple out in Wagner SC. The old man reloaded ammo, the woman canned food, and between him and the lady they both had probably 30+ dogs ranging in size from poodle to St Bernard. We went there to do a duct cleaning as recommended by an HVAC company. The HVAC sales woman got violently ill immediately upon entry and refused to go back in. It wasn't the dogs, the feces, the maggot infested food or the mountains of garbage piled to the ceiling that made it rough on everyone. It was the wretched smell and Roach infestations that made it unbearable. Anyone who went inside the house had to wear a full tyvek suit and respirator at all times (those that could still stomach the sights). The old couple sat there choking down cigarettes like it was any other day.
 
I had an aunt, my uncle's second wife. They were a pretty good Match! He seldom threw anything away. When they met, she owned some rental properties. She Loved going to yard sales, & estate sales. My uncle was fine with that! They Both would pinch a Buffalo nickle til it Crapped! She had one rental house, Full, of the trinkets & things she had picked up at the Sales. Then Their house started filling. I never went in, but Mom & Dad had, & found their was 1 path between the kitchen, bedroom, & front & back doors. It was stacked nearly to the ceiling! Both of them had MONEY, but that was the way they lived, & they were Fine with their Addiction. Mom threatened to call the Fire Dept. on them, if they didn't make More Space in Their home! They somewhat cooperated, & filled a second rental house. I finally got my uncle to sell me one of his cars [junkers], as they had 4 cars for the 2 of them. Two cars had been bought from Estate sales, & 1 Caddy, from a Funeral Home. He opened the trunk as he cleaned out his belongs, of the car I was buying, & he had 8 empty antifreeze jugs in there. That's just the way he thought, He Might need them some day. When ever I asked about their assets, he'd always say, "Were going to have a big sale someday"! Naturally, they Both died, before Sale day ever came! then his 2 out-of-town Daughters, got the Job of disposing of nearly 3 house-fulls of Crap! :shaking:
 
Went on a tour of a new fire department a few years ago. They said that when they make a medical call, if it is a hoarder house, they stay afterwards and take info and put in their computer in case they ever have to go back for an emergency. Info like routes thru the house, types of stuff being hoarded (flammable or not). And what windows they can make an extraction from if doors are blocked.
 
VortecJeep said:
Went on a tour of a new fire department a few years ago. They said that when they make a medical call, if it is a hoarder house, they stay afterwards and take info and put in their computer in case they ever have to go back for an emergency. Info like routes thru the house, types of stuff being hoarded (flammable or not). And what windows they can make an extraction from if doors are blocked.
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Exactly. I have been in several houses that way. The fire load is extremely dangerous.
 
Grew up with a kid who's mom was a drunk and a hoarder. They lived in a really old house where you had to watch your step on the porch so you didn't fall through the rotten boards. He and his brother had rooms on the second floor and there was a path from the front door to the steps and then up to their doors. Even in their rooms, there were stacks of boxes. Everything wasn't up to the ceilings (which were 10' on both floors), but there was crap everywhere. The place was heated with kerosene heaters, it was terrifying.
 
trailhugger said:
Grew up with a kid who's mom was a drunk and a hoarder. They lived in a really old house where you had to watch your step on the porch so you didn't fall through the rotten boards. He and his brother had rooms on the second floor and there was a path from the front door to the steps and then up to their doors. Even in their rooms, there were stacks of boxes. Everything wasn't up to the ceilings (which were 10' on both floors), but there was crap everywhere. The place was heated with kerosene heaters, it was terrifying.
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Wow.


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Had a neighbor growing up, renters, which in itself is ok, we all did or do at some point. Real nice guy, hired me to mow the yard. Came in to collect one day and saw all his "crap" news papers, magazines, boxes and boxes of 'stuff'. I had been in this house before, the room where we were was easily 20x30 8ft ceiling, a path leading off to the rest of the house couldn't see the rest of the house. Garage was packed slam full (24x36 dream sized garage)

I asked him about all the stuff " oh, it's all very important, can't mess with any of it"

Well, Alright then...paid me every week to mow, never an issue. One day they were gone. Everything. Just. gone.

Save for a few scraps of paper here and there, couldn't tell they had been there.

People are strange.
 
I'm not as bad as these stories, but I do find myself a bit of a hoarder. Usually because if I throw something away, a week later I'll need it. Never fails.....


Had a friend when I lived in Columbia SC though... his mom was a hoarder. The typical old newspapers and dirt.... I swear this woman never cleaned. One night we were out drinking and decided to just crash at his moms place. She lived just a few blocks from 5 points. Woke up with the smell of cat piss and just total stench! I had laid my coat down on the couch and slept on top of it.... tried washing the smell out but wound up throwing away the coat and the clothes I had on that night. Funny thing is he swears to this day that she didn't have any cats....
 
Pretty sure my bosses are hoarders to an level. We have 4 building all about 80x120 three packed full of used doors windows cabinets weird stuff no one wanted like a table for autopsies. One building is full of reclaimed log cabins. Three 53' trailers full of stuff plus a lumber storage area that's full stacks and stacks of old rusty tin and on and on

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I find myself leaning more toward the hoarder side of things. Primarily on the automotive side of things though...3 barns and a 30x40 full of parts that I know I'll probably never use, but just in case I need that one part again or decide to build a vehicle that needs that super cool grille. And then I find myself getting really sentimental about things, filing cabinets full of old recruiting mail...old 'lucky' tshirts...old liquor bottles, etc etc. Everything has a place and is put away in the house, so it's not like you're tunneling. I generally just buy another building to expand the 'collection' and then it has to be filled up too. Pretty sure the wife throws most of the stuff away these days, and I wouldn't/don't even know.
 
I've heard stories of a co-worker who is a hoarder and has the small walk way paths throughout his house because junk is stacked up everywhere. He is the kind of person who buys lots of stuff because he cannot refuse a great deal, even if he doesn't really need the item. Also, a friend told me his inlaws live like that too, and have a travel trailer in the back yard absolutely full of junk. I watched several episodes of the show maybe 5 yrs ago or more. It was shocking. I had never seen anything like that before. The ones that are the most shocking are the people who won't even throw real trash out like a styrofoam food container. One episode, an older woman who was a retired accountant bought the house next to her to store stuff in when it came up for sale. She slept in a small spot on the floor of one bedroom because the bed was completely covered and stacked high with junk. Crazy
 
I think a lot of people are ''garage" hoarders. You know those who fill the garage with crap and can't park in it? I have one customer that does fit their new Cherokee in there but that's all that will fit in a 3 car garage. I have to walk a path to get to the sprinkler controller. I've never seen the inside of their house and really don't care too.
 
R Q said:
I think a lot of people are ''garage" hoarders. You know those who fill the garage with crap and can't park in it? I have one customer that does fit their new Cherokee in there but that's all that will fit in a 3 car garage. I have to walk a path to get to the sprinkler controller. I've never seen the inside of their house and really don't care too.
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I'm that guy. We have an oversized 3 car garage, and the only vehicle in it is my Samurai. That is why I am building a 14x24 storage building/shed right now.
 
We don't pull any punches when we encounter a hoarder at the FD. We tell them straight up that if the place catches on fire, we're not coming to get you. We then hand the address over to another person who tries to offer assistance with these individuals.
 
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