If You Don't Behave I'll Trade You In For A Plastic Cup

Eric watched his first episode of A&E's Hoarders with me the other day. He was absolutely horrified. If you've never seen the show, you've got to watch at least one episode. It will blow your mind. You know, lots of people go through a "messy" stage in their life, I certainly had a long one (my husband would say I'm still in it, but he has no idea...). Depression can certainly cause someone to stop cleaning for awhile. And some people can live with more clutter than others, but these hoarders go above and beyond anything you've ever seen.

We watched an episode where a couple had lost their two young children because of the woman's hoarding. A neighbor had taken pictures of the interior of the house, and CPS came and removed the children, placing them in the grandparents' home until the house was cleaned. When the "hoarding interventionist" and the cleaning crew came to help this woman, it was unreal how difficult it was for her to throw things away. She freaked out when some of the cleaning crew threw some bags of trash away into the dumpster without her approval, and jumped into the back of the truck and started digging through the bags. She pulled out a used plastic slurpee cup, and held it in her hands as if it were the family jewels, trying to decide if she could part with it. After all, she "might need it in the future".



Eric was yelling at the screen at this point. "Look lady, do you want an old plastic cup, or YOUR DAUGHTER?? How is this hard???" Meanwhile I just wanted to jump through the screen and punch this woman in the face. Yes, I realize that hoarding is a mental disorder. But when someone is trying to decide between an old popsicle stick and their child, it's a little maddening...

(And oh yes, she ended up choosing the slurpee cup. She just couldn't throw it away. It went into the KEEP pile.)


After the show was over, Eric said, "I get upset when I see a little ink on the couch...can you imagine if I lived with a hoarder? Instead of yelling "Why is there ink on the couch!!!!!",I'd be yelling, "Why is there an old tractor trailer on the couch!!!??""

In the future, when he yells about ink on the couch, I'm going to remind Eric that slurpee cups don't ever draw on furniture. These hoarders might be on to something....