Hoarders (2009– ) User Reviews

Hoarders and interventions; valuable tool for facing one's own hoarding

[shayg · 7/10 · 7 September 2011]

Having a full-blown hoarding mother and some tendencies myself, a friend suggested I watch a few episodes in order to better see how it affected me as a child and how serious it is. At first I thought it might be the typical exploitative program, but after watching the first episode I was having useful insights. In each episode one or two situations are introduced. Then, some kind of intervention is attempted, usually in response to some external event like threatened eviction or the city being called in. We are able to see how professional organizers approach the hoarders, and how the hoarders respond. In particular, we see all the ways they deny or minimize the problem and thus stay stuck in it.

After watching several episodes, I brought my mother over so we could watch together. Each episode turned into a few hours of regular pausing and discussion of what we were seeing. It allowed more objectivity, since we were partly discussing other people rather than ourselves. My mother reported that she had felt enthusiasm and done some cleaning of her own house later that day. There was one professional organizer who had an amazing attitude of respect for the hoarder, not pressuring but simply assisting where possible, in order to achieve the most long-term change. I will always remember her as the model for how I can be towards my mother, rather than judgmental and ultimately harmful towards her progress, not that feeling such things isn't completely understandable.

Even though the show is probably mere entertainment for most people (nothing wrong with that!), it's great that it also serves such a valuable role for viewers who also deal with hoarding as well.

The only reality TV show that sucks me in...

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 4 September 2016]

... I guess because it is so common, plus my late mother in law was a hoarder. She had one shopping channel on her TV so much that its initials were burned into the thing. No matter what channel you changed to, there was the logo.

The thing is, and maybe the show is picking subjects based on how well they will interest the audience, not whether or not they are true hoarders - some of these people are not true hoarders, they are just lazy or they have energy sapping diseases.

I remember one subject in particular, a diabetic lady who had a couple of children, and her house was hideous. She had roaches, she had used diabetic needles just thrown on the carpet, unusable kitchen and bathrooms due to the filth, etc. Her husband had actually moved to a different residence, although I think he was not planning on divorcing the woman. The "Hoarders Cleanup Crew" came in and was throwing things away left and right and the lady did not care. Only when she was being reproached by the hoarder counselor did she react and then she would just storm out and sit in her truck.

Hoarding is when you cannot bear to part with objects, even years old papers and pieces of string, because of some weird attachment. Hoarders are often shopaholics too, buying things that they do not need or even really want. If I know this, then I'm sure the psychologists on Hoarders know this.

I remembered this one particular show with the diabetic because I am a diabetic and I recognize the indifference and total lack of motivation and energy that seems to come with type two diabetes, you just have to force yourself to do things and you cannot explain this to people who do not have this disease and have them understand it. None of this was mentioned as a mitigating factor on the show, because I think they wanted people to just see a fat lazy woman who would not help herself and who was endangering children so that people would get angry and not tune out and thus garner ratings.

It really is repetitive after awhile, but for some reason it always interests me, like a bad accident you can't look away from.

Ethically questionable but compelling drama

[joncheskin · 6/10 · 30 September 2021]

Hoarders is a well-crafted reality TV show that follows sufferers of hoarding disorder as they face a personal crisis that forces them to clean up their hoard. The show offers the help of a cleanup crew and psychologist and in return the hoarder agrees to have his or her personal circumstances utilized for entertainment purposes. The stories are compelling on two levels--first there is the battle against the hoard itself, generally the cleanup crew has only a few days to eliminate the hoard. More importantly, however, there is the battle that the hoarder wages in his/her own psyche to let all the stuff go and overcome their mental illness.

Hoarders is the type of show that you watch and wonder why you can't turn it off--it is all about garbage, after all. The reason however, is that it is about much more--there is real drama, because if these people do not get over their problems their lives are wrecked. Thus, the conflicts are real and compelling and draw you in.

The big problem with the show, however, is that it is likely not advisable to treat a mental illness this way--shock therapy and radical eradication of the hoard. Usually this just causes big trauma. It is quite telling that the majority of the hoarders seem to fail in their quest to get over their illness and relapse often without even partaking of the aftercare therapy that is offered. There is of course no ethical dilemma in cleaning up a hoard, but their certainly is if you are a licensed therapist and you engage in questionable treatment in pursuit of a different interest. I guess that in many cases, the hoarders on the show have reached a crisis point and the show does offer a way out, so perhaps the show is redeemable in that aspect.

This show is perfectly valid as compelling reality TV, and can certainly be watched that way. It also certainly raises awareness of hoarding. Beyond that however, you can't help but feel a little guilty for watching a person's life disintegrate because they had no other choice but call the Hoarders crew or face horrible consequences.

A good reminder to clean out your garage

[TwistedCyberChik · 7/10 · 16 March 2021]

I think this should be required viewing every few years. A dose of reality that things are just things and that relationships are what truly matter. Both of my grandmothers are/were hoarders. My father is a hoarder just on a smaller scale. It's in my blood and something I very much wish to avoid. This series does a pretty decent job of showing the various types and degrees of hoarding and the emotional turmoil it causes everyone close to it. Get some help. Don't be a hoarder.

Interesting and disturbing at the same time

[noodnix · 8/10 · 26 July 2011]

When I first tuned in to this show, I wasn't sure what to expect. After getting a degree in psychology I thought we would see more on screen therapy. The stories of these people are amazing. While some fully acknowledge their illness, the really compelling stories are the ones where the person is in complete denial about their hoarding. I would like to see more of the cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) being done with the people to see how effective cleaning up the hoard over such a short amount of time is for their psyche. Nonetheless - this is definitely worth a watch. It can be downright disgusting and disturbing (people who hoard animals drives me bonkers) -but it gives you insight in to the world of hoarding and obsessive compulsive disorders. I think many of the participants (unwilling and willing) have plenty of other psychiatric illnesses which make it more difficult to deal with, so it's interesting to see if the two can be teased apart.

OK start but declining continuously

[sihaja-1 · 6/10 · 1 June 2015]

OCDs and especially hoarding fascinate me. As this is a US reality TV series, I didn't have high hopes to begin with. However, the concept of involving a psychologist into the process and providing after care funds for the participants gave me a positive surprise.

In the first few seasons, the series really focuses on the mental part of the hoarding. You can see how hard it is for people to let go and they even fail some times. There isn't always success. I really did like that part.

However, in the following seasons it gets worse and worse. The show is trying to have more sensational cases, more extreme filth or huge family fights. The last season is not a show about hoarding anymore, but a very weird mash up of not well done Horror, Home Remodel, Makeover, Family Crisis. While I found it not helpful to show the family the "stat the house is in" in season 5, in my opinion it is completely useless to spend a night in the home and explain to a shaky hand cam how scary and disgusting it is.

The first few seasons are a nice watch, but I would recommend to stop after Season 4. Nothing good coming after that.

The therapist

[tracyseibert · 21 April 2021]

I love everyone on the show with one exception. The therapist Dave tollin has no compassion for the people.. he is not likeable person.. I can see he really upsets people.. he needs to learn personality traits. He could take lessons fron the other doctors...

Hard to look away – but shouldn't we?

[adamwhite · 4/10 · 8 July 2011]

After watching a handful of episodes of this show, I have concluded that many, if not all of the subjects suffer from serious mental illness and are being exploited. I know there is an on-screen disclaimer explaining the psychological condition of hoarding, but I don't feel that it justifies what follows in each episode.

At first I was skeptical, thinking they were just slobs who had given up on cleaning their homes. But as I watched Adella in Episode One refusing to surrender any of her junk (and actually going out and collecting MORE out of dumpsters at night to replace what was being thrown away) and Gaye in Episode Two facing similar struggles, I realized that these people have deep-rooted and very tragic mental problems. I feel like the program is a bit sympathetic (in terms of the "experts" it brings in to help – though part of every episode is a mini-commercial for 1-800-GOT-JUNK), but shows its true colors through the editing style and ultimate presentation of these scenarios.

"Hoarders" is, I believe, more interested in exploiting these situations for their entertainment value than truly helping people. The heartbreaking story of Sir Patrick in Episode Two is the perfect example; that man needs serious counseling, not to have a camera zoomed in on his face every time he breaks down in tears or struggles to rationalize some aspect of his very lonely life.

I came away feeling like I had been rubber-necking alongside a car accident on the interstate, and I don't believe I want to play any further role in perpetuating programming like this by watching more.

The Most Undervalued Doc Series

[kathschneck · 10/10 · 4 August 2020]

I'm honestly so surprised that Hoarders doesn't have more awards or recognition. This program has been around for YEARS and the doctors, organizers and others have been there since season one. These people go and help real people and have been consistent in their care and empathy. All of the Doctors and therapists have grown so much through this show. It's so viscerally shot and edited, you get to know these people and professionals. Cory, Matt, and Dorothy are literally the loveliest people. I don't know how they do what they do and for years. Can't imagine that amount of kindness. This series is truly wonderful and fascinating.

I'm glad it's back.

[toniava · 7/10 · 9 May 2020]

I like this show. It helps a few people And their families who need help. It also shows that it is a mental disease so hopefully people will have more compassion for the disorder.

When it was originally filmed I always wanted them to help the families paint and fix the house a bit. But I am in 3 episodes of the 2019 episodes and so far that hasn't happened. I hope there are some happy episodes. That's what I liked to see from earlier episodes. When the family triumphs.

I understand why this show might make people feel depressed. My sister is an early stage hoarder and she says it gives her anxiety to watch. For me it motivates me to clean and declutter.

Exploitive

[angecyx · 1/10 · 21 May 2021]

I understood why the family/friends are angry towards the hoarders. But after I watched the first episodes, I felt the show gives no compassion towards the compulsive hoarders. They have a compulsive disorder, and they cannot control it and they need help, rather than a documentary crew profitting off their massive collections. I saw wounds not healed, but the show has never gone there to help them. The hoarders are painted as horrible perpetrators, and the show does not dig into their struggle at all.

We're all one tragedy away

[grecianspurn · 8/10 · 17 September 2019]

I've paraphrased one of my favourite quotes from this show, because as outrageous as it sounds, there's a sharp sting of truth to it.

While it can be a difficult watch, Hoarders - much like its sister-show, Intervention - gives great insight into the many reasons people succumb to the disorder.

Watch enough episodes and you find a common theme: The catalyst is typically some deeply ingrained trauma that has been long-buried. And when burying it psychologically got too hard, these people turned to stuff - physically burying themselves (and their unfortunate family members) in objectively meaningless crap, barricading themselves in from the world outside.

I first saw the show in 2007, not long after a family member - a self-described 'packrat' - died unexpectedly, and left a lot of crap behind. I found it oddly comforting to watch 'Hoarders' while I sifted through the remnants of their life.

Ten years later, after a series of unfortunate events - the GFC, unemployment, financial loss, more deaths and family issues surrounding Life-threatening illness, disability, addiction, alcoholism, depression etc. - the show helped me seek treatment that I doubt would even exist without the awareness programs like this have raised.

When I began watching it, I did so with a smug sense of complacency that there was no way I, or anyone around me, could end up like that. And while it never got to the extremes depicted on the show - I now understand how something that seems so unthinkable can potentially affect anyone of us. Definitely food for thought.

Addicting, funny, sad trash.

[braininacat · 7/10 · 7 April 2022]

This show takes you on a trip. A very repetitive trip but a trip non the less. I found myself watching a ton of these with my wife recently before bed and we love it. You are very aware that it's easily digestible reality tv but the stores are interesting and sad and the cleaning is very satisfying if your into that kind of thing. I wanna give it more stars but I don't at the same time. I think 7 is appropriate all things considered.

So if you like reality tv that's easy to watch and repetitive and you also like to see people argue about tho nft a they don't need and see rat poop cleaned up off the floor for 100 episodes then this show is for you.

Robin Zasio is a Disgrace to the Profession of Psychology

[siragateiii · 2/10 · 7 June 2020]

Robin Zasio does not use a single best practice ever. She is so horrible that 25 % of the way into the 2nd episode of watching her I accurately guessed that she was a PsyD. Then I guessed 2 possible colleges she went to . . . Alliant was one.

What a terrible shame to have an opportunity to teach the public about a serious disorder in a competent manner with nothing lost in entertainment value.

This woman is an embarrassment to qualified psychologists who provide evidence based, non judgmental, trauma informed treatment.

Please people of the world who watch this show know that this is not how a psychologist behaves.

If she ever was therapeutic, those skills appear to have been lost well before the episodes I saw - and "that is not a judgement it's a fact."

Can Get Boring

[rccfhhh · 6/10 · 7 July 2023]

Not a bad show but once watch a dozen or so episodes it can get boring. The one issue I have is even if you cleaned up there living area they are probably just going to fill it up again I believe these individuals need therapy first and then when progress is made through that process then help with a clean up crew with their regular therapist who at that point hopefully they trust to be there with them otherwise I don't think in the long run this helps anybody except for the purpose of entertainment and shock value. On a personal note I did have a grandmother who was a hoarder but she lived during the Great Depression and I couldn't possibly understand what the men woman and children experienced during that time except by watching documentaries. I hope that the individuals on this show do get help through actual therapy and not by some media hounds who call themselves therapists I go to therapy and I wouldn't want any of the therapists on this show.

Compulsive and sometimes scary

[opsbooks · 9/10 · 4 May 2011]

Although I've one seen one episode, "Patty and Bill", this show will have me watching from now on, if I don't buy the DVDs first. Reality shows aren't my thing usually, but the situations shown here seem real enough and I really felt for the participants and more so, for their families.

There's a lot compressed into "Patty and Bill", and the crew certainly put together something both engrossing and scary. The matter of fact way the team carried out the job to clean out the properties, with interruptions from Patty and Bill, must sure have taken a lot out of them. Of all those shown, I felt the most for Bill's daughter with her beautifully clean and tidy room amid what seemed like a builder's wreckers yard.

As someone who's helped to similarly clean out properties though not to such a necessary degree of size and in such a short time, I salute all concerned. What they achieved in three days seemed amazing, despite the final results not bringing satisfactory conclusions in either case.

The rats have taken over his home....

[dakjets · 7/10 · 25 January 2024]

A friend of mine who is a social worker told me in despair about a client who was a collector. The house totally overcrowded. Rats inside and outside the house. Massive complaints. She did not know how to manage to communicate with the client about these problems. I actually recommended her to watch this series, because it gives an insight into what this problem is like. There are deep psychological issues that lead to such problems for these people.

Still, I have some misgivings after watching several episodes. It is, of course, whether these people are able to assess what they are exposed to. That their lifestyle is exposed as entertainment.

But for me the most problematic are the episodes dealing with animal husbandry. Some of these extreme collectors have many livestock and pets. It is clear that they are exposed to gross neglect. In some episodes, I think this is not properly addressed. In one specific episode, it was about an elderly woman who had chickens in small animals indoors. Ducks that were enclosed in cages outdoors, without access to water, etc. In this episode, more consideration is given to the collector than to the welfare of the animals. This really provokes me. Animal welfare must always be taken seriously, even if the main characters in the series get upset when they are taken care of. In other episodes about animals, it is admittedly taken seriously. But here there is a lot of improvement potential for the creators of the series.

Are You Kidding?

[leftbanker-1 · 1/10 · 30 May 2023]

How is this entertainment? It's basically people picking over the garbage of severely mentally ill people who have no control over their lives. What is astounding to me is that this series is now into its 14th season. It seems like it must be the same thing, episode after episode. Maybe they should make it a competitive series, like who can be the most disgusting human being on the planet.

It's hilarious that IMDb requires contributors to state whether or not their review contains spoilers. Here's a spoiler: watching this will turn your brain into a place as filthy and useless as the piles of trash these folks call home.

Love the new season

[elorasyaya · 9/10 · 3 April 2019]

This would be a ten rating because I love this show! I do think they're not showing enough after clean up scene's. They used to show the cleaning crew before as well, but that's omitted. The cast spends a little too much time repeating the obvious issues and scenes

Over dramatically american series

[cathras-57650 · 6/10 · 7 June 2022]

I like the hoarders show in terms of seeing the hoard, the process and how they help them clean it out. That said, the dramatic music and the drama editing, -awful! The music is so annoying that it's almost unwatchable! Are americans really like that, it is only american programs that are produced like that. Drama and all in your face! A clear example is kitchen nightmares where the US VERSION is awful, but the UK VERSION is incredible good!

In a mad world, sane people are deemed mad

[VHSdynamite · 4/10 · 3 December 2020]

We live in a world with overproduction and overconsumption. The lifecycle of stuff is as short as ever. We learn to trash stuff with only minor faults, because buying new stuff is easier than repairing.

Hoarders see this madness. Like hundreds of generations before us they see the value in things. A simple plastic bag is an engineering marvel with a thousand uses. How can you trash something like that?

Sadly, there isn't room for this frugality today. You have to learn to trash useful stuff to survive, it's all turned upside down. And that's the mentality the show is forcing upon the poor hoarders.

Their houses are always put on stake to make the process as fast and hurtful as possible for maximum entertainment. And alternative idea for a show: Going through things with them, talking about their memories attached to their things and planning what do do with the things. This approach would fill a whole season out of every case and be much more supportive and interesting.

This show is all about creating conflict and entertaining. The cleaning is a fast and traumatic process that doesn't really help people, but just gives them space to start anew. Helpful downsizing must be a gradual process with time to reflect, mourn and change.

Hoarding! A Fascinating Look at a Secret World!

[Sylviastel · 10/10 · 14 March 2017]

Most hoarders would keep their hoarding a secret from families and friends for years. The hoarding becomes intense and the hoarder often risks losing their home or relationships over it. Every episode has two hoarders in two different parts of the country. When they finally reach out to help, the hoarder gets a psychological help and a professional cleaner. The hoarder must decide to what to keep and get rid of. For most of us who don't have a hoarding problem, we don't understand why they can't get rid of obvious garbage. After the hoarder finally gets rid of the first item to the garbage, there is a breakthrough. Often, the hoarders end up fighting over little pieces of items. The hoarders and their loved ones must face the issue of the hoarding. Usually hoarding has nothing to do with the item itself, the underlying issues beneath the hoarder is usually to cover up the pain and agony. Hoarding has become more open in today's society. The relatives are often at their wit's end sometimes in dealing with the hoarder. They can't understand how difficult it must be for the hoarder to let something go.

Step right up and be amazed: observe the person who lives in a pigsty!

[take2docs · 7/10 · 4 December 2022]

I recall watching this docuseries when it first aired on TV and am presently in the process of re-viewing it so as to refresh my memory.

One thing I've never forgotten since the first time I viewed it is how disgustingly untidy the majority of the hoarders in this are shown to be. It's almost as if the filmmakers went out of their way to find the most slobbish and disorderly of hoarders, in an attempt at sensationalizing this phenomenon. After all, hoarding is simply the psychological need to collect and store things and needn't involve unsanitary living conditions. Yet, most of the hoarders showcased in this series are so messy and unclean that watching this, I practically had to have a bucket handy as their filmed domestic interiors quite literally caused me to feel sick.

Here are folks who would probably feel right at home living in a dumpster and who seem to have every imaginable item in their dwelling place, save a vacuum. Welcome to people who find it hard to part with anything that enters their (often incommodious) living spaces. One can only imagine what the toilet bowls of some of these compulsive savers must look like.

To their credit, I suppose, one thing that definitely cannot be said of these hoarders is that they're wasteful. Something which, incidentally, cannot be said of the 'professional organizers' who're invited into the homes of these pack rats to dispose of their stuff.

One cleaner-upper is shown demolishing a children's toy with a sledgehammer with such seeming enthusiasm that it makes you wonder whether some of the workers on these cleanup crews have deep-rooted psychological issues of their own. Indeed, you almost have to be heartless to hammer to pieces something that once belonged to a little child, who stands there curbside, sobbing, as he watches you destroy his beloved playhouse.

Still, these cleanup crews are the least concern for many of these obsessive-compulsive eccentrics featured in this series. Many of them find themselves running into problems with landlords, municipal health departments, and in some cases even child protective services. Unwilling to part with their kids, and faced with the ultimate ultimatum, some of these hoarders are forced to do the almost unthinkable and end up having to pay their last respects to many creature comforts.

For me, watching HOARDERS was/is more fun than attending any circus or carnival sideshow. Granted, after so many seasons, episodes do start to get a little repetitive and formulaic after a while. Keep in mind that these are people who are basically housebound do-nothings and, as such, do not make for the most exciting of human subjects. They also all tend to be of the lower-income bracket. Surely hoarding goes on within the middle and upper classes and isn't just a behavioral abnormality restricted to the poor?

In sum, although I've yet to read any material written by experts in the field of this study, I can only assume that some hoarders are more open to the idea of nonhuman objects being ensouled, than many of their strictly material-minded contemporaries, who tend to view paraphernalia as inanimate and thus easily disposable. For many of the likable subjects in this series, sentimental value plays a major part in their refusal to let go of their belongings. A case could be made that for some hoarders it's not so much that they're unhealthily 'possessive' or 'pathological' as, perhaps, spiritually evolved.

When one woman in this who has kept eggs for over a year is asked why they've yet to be consumed, her response is because "they're too pretty to eat." Spoken like a child of God, if you ask me.

Provoking emotion and the sad music are not necessary!

[tracyhenson-53575 · 2/10 · 31 January 2024]

Of all the therapists they've had on the show, Dr. Tolin is the most tolerable. I usually don't finish an episode any more because of Dr. Zasio. She will say whatever it takes to draw more emotion out of ppl, and not for their good! It's for the drama for the show. It's obvious at times that she goes to far to provoke emotion. Shame on her! I can't stand to listen to her! Dr. Tolin tried to tell ppl like it is when he was first on there but he changed. I believe he changed because he was told how to act. That's too bad, I liked him the way he was, himself.

The organizer Dorothy is tied with Dr. Zasio for first place for most annoying person on the show. She is ridiculously over the top with her acting and she, like Dr. Zasio, work hard to make it as dramatic as possible. I like when Matt and Corey are there.

The award for "look at me, look at me!" goes to Dr. Zasio and Dorothy. If they've been directed to act the way they do, shame on them for going along with it just to be on this show!

Opinion

[Eveseden3 · 28 April 2015]

I think these people definitely need therapy but the bottom line is that most of them are overweight and just plain lazy! We all have problems and even tragedies in life. Perhaps we all manifest these problems differently. How can you sit in a pike of garbage all day and not lift a finger to throw out a soda can or spoiled food. Most of them just stare at the mess and give up. Again they know it's wrong and it is just plain lazy not to clean it up. I feel sorry for them but not that sorry. You need to help yourself. They should throw them on the street so they are forced to face the consequences of their behavior, One episode had a woman smiling the whole time. Most of them laugh it off. Maybe a nervous response to their situation but they know what they are doing.