Woman Found Dead Under 8 Feet of Garbage In Her Home

hi angrykittyMSV I ought to show that to my best friend'but she might get angry at me. she is the ultimate hoarder. when a while back we were in a situation where we needed a place to stay we asked her if we could bed down in her living room and she said she had no room. I went to visit her one day and was apalled to see just what she meant. Her living room had a pathway to the computer and to her chair but the rest of the room was full of everything,not garbage,but stuff from pieces of furniture to hobby craft stuff to welljust about anything you could imagine. there was not a square foot of space so you could walk to their television and thus she controlled it with her hand held controller. I have never seen wall to wall stuff before,,she has to be a bona fide hoarder. The place was clean but it was full of every sort of belongings imaginable. I was so shocked to see that I was almost speechless. she is the neatest cleanest person with her own being, and to live like that wow. She needs help but how to tell her without hurting her?

This is a very sad and disturbing story. It also helps to verify my thought that most people in the mental health care profession get into that profession in order to help themselves. Unfortunately, it apparently did not help this poor woman. I don't know any hoarders, but I did worry about my oldest son at one time. He kept everything, even used tissues. I warned him plenty of times that, if he did not clean up his room, I would. It usually motivated him enough to get his mess down to a manageable level. Seeing that he was just lazy and not a hoarder relieved me quite a lot! He's much better these days, now that he has his own house. I've watched that show about hoarders. I'm always torn between two emotions: disgust and pity. These people do have a very real medical problem. They can't see just how bad things are, either. I hope that this story helps, even if just one person, to get help for this disorder. Living in such filth has to depress them even more than their condition alone creates. If I were a caretaker of a hoarder, there would be no way I'd help them if I was kept outside. That should have been the first clue that something was horribly wrong. I'd have to tell the hoarder that, unless they let me in to help them, I would not help at all. If they still refused, I'd probably do my best to become legal guardian and have them removed from the house for psychiatric care.

Wow!! This is unreal. But I have known many people who hoard so much stuff and never want to get rid of stuff that it is piled high. I also know a couple of people who never throw out their Trash, etc. and have it piled 4 ft. or higher with no where to walk as well. Personally even though most people tend to ignore these situations there needs to be a solution and help before something like this happens to more people like this for sure.

That's just terribly sad. What's worse is that her relatives allowed her to get that bad. There are medications and people who can help her. What's even worse is that it didn't say how long she had been in there. I saw where someone left food outside for her on a Sunday and it was still there on THursday, but still. That's just sad. Truly sad. My heart breaks for people like this. She needed help and no one helped her.

I knew a hoarder once. Our neighbor lady. When she went in the hospital, she asked my mother to water her plants. Mother had me do it. I was appalled when I went in her house. It used to be a ncie 3 bedroom with a family room and living room. She had started hoarding stuff after her kid moved out and she got divorced. There were boxes and stacks of books EVERYWHERE! You couldn't sit down if you wanted to. If someone I knew was a hoarder and didn't get the food I had left for them, I wouldn't wait several days. The first day it didn't get picked up, I would have been on the phone. I've never seen the show you mention.

Thats a really sad story. I am not a hoarder. I don't really like clutter because it makes me look really messy and I would be embarrassed to be seen by others. I had a pile of clutter before and then I found bugs under it. It scared me to keep clean all the time and not be a clutter bug.

It's really sad that no one thought to intervene much, much, earlier. I realise that there's a line between helping and interfearing, but when it gets to this state, intervention might have saved her life or at the least, given her a better qualiy of life.

I am a hoarder, or at least could be called one. I live in a one bedroom apartment with over 4,500 books (Last time I counted there were about 3,800, and I've gotten lots since then.) When I'm done with a book, I give it away, but I buy books a lot too. I have a few thrift stores that have sales for cheap books and ever now and then I will go and come home with a bag of fifty or so. Most of the books I have from when I worked at the library and I used to bring home all the discards- my collection basically started then. My apartment is cluttered, but I don't keep trash or leave out food, so I have never had a bug or rodent problem or anything. And there is room- All the books are in boxes, except for the ones on tables and things, or in shelves- the boxes are piled up pretty high behind my futon, but there is certainly room to get around and room for company when they come. So yes, I am a hoarder, but I enjoy having a big book collection. And people? Well, my friends just have to deal with it. It's my place, its my choice, I worked long and hard to get my own apartment where I can live the way I want to, and it's nobody's business but my own. The house is not filthy by any means, there is no junk, there are just a crapload of books. I don't think I have a problem. Ok, maybe I am obsessive compulsive, but its not hurting anyone, and there is no health hazard involved. Though I can imagine that if a bookshelf fell on me, I'd be crushed and buried just like this poor lady :-( But I will just be careful pulling my books down.

that is really sad. why did her relatives not realise something was amiss earlier? i know people that hate throwing things out but never to that degree.