“My house looks like a tsunami or tornado or anything that picks things up and spins it around and lands.” – Renee
Renee has lived in Vallejo, California for 30 years, but it’s been some months since she has actually lived in her house.
Unlike other situations I’ve seen so far on Hoarding: Buried Alive, this is a case where the authorities were forced to step in and shut down the power, gas, and water.
When we get a peek inside the house, it looks like a garbage truck emptied a huge, teeming load inside the front door.
“My house looks like a tsunami or tornado or anything that picks things up and spins it around and lands,” Renee admits.
She also says that she didn’t realize the house was unlivable until the city took action to force her to move out.
Amidst the massive piles of stuff, Renee points out a collection of San Francisco 49ers paraphernalia, and we learn that she’s a season ticket holder.
“I guess I’m a collector of clothes,” she adds, “because that’s what you’ll see all around the house.”
We also learn that she used to be a physical education teacher and would wear a different pair of shoes everyday “because it matched the outfits that I have, perfectly to the color.”
Renee adds that she has between 700 and 800 pairs of shoes. We also learn that she was laid off from her job two years earlier, but “that hasn’t stopped her from her compulsive shopping sprees.”
Every hoarder house that we get to see on Hoarding: Buried Alive is kind of horrifying, but the most unsettling part of this episode is the way that Renee calmly and placidly describes the rooms that she’s in, saying things like, “This area goes almost up to the ceiling.”
Another example is that we get a view of how Renee “started” a “used bottles and cans drive” that she was “going to set up for her nephew.” The result is a massive pile of bottles and cans inside the house, not surprisingly.
Unlike some hoarders, Renee is aware of her problem. “It bothers me that it’s gone this far,” she says.
Fire Marshall Bill Tweedy is the person who condemned Renee’s house initially, and now he’s back to check on progress. “In my 26 years of firefighting, this is the worst I’ve ever seen,” he tells the camera.
During his visit, Tweedy calmly explains to Renee that his “main concern” is that in a house as cluttered as this, “it can burn so fast.” And from the camera angle, it looks like the house is so overloaded with junk that it’s ready to implode on the two of them.
“Oh,” Renee says. “So I’m literally locked in here with my mess.”
“There could also be animals living amongst your stuff,” Tweedy kindly adds.
It’s interesting – and quite sad, of course – to see how family and friends deal with hoarders. Renee’s sister Regina talks about how the family has gone through rounds of pleading, screaming, and doing what they can to persuade her to change her ways, to no avail.
We also learn that Renee was forced to live elsewhere after a medical emergency caused Regina to call an ambulance, whereupon they rightfully alerted the authorities that Renee’s house was neither safe nor livable. This prompted Renee to live with her friend, Eileen, and her current focus is to clean up her house to the point where she can move back in.
“When I went there, I felt like I was at the dump,” Regina says, and I guarantee you that she is in no way exaggerating.
“I’m not real curious about other people’s opinions,” Renee says soon after in what’s a stark and telling statement.
Renee will admit that her mother’s death may have been a catalyst for the acceleration of her hoarding behaviors.
While Renee’s personality is placid much of the time, she gets riled up when Eileen very kindly tries to help her work on the hoarder house (which, you must understand, would require a massive and nearly Herculean effort).
Dr. Julie Pike, clinical psychologist, then tells us that Renee has a condition called “clutter blindness,” which is when someone denies or completely ignores the seriousness of her problem. That seems completely evident here. Dr. Pike also notes that Renee has a compulsion for touching items.
“Unless she copes with her feelings,” Dr. Pike says, “she’s going to have a very hard time recovering.”
Next up to try and help Renee: professional organizer Kathleen Crombie. Kathleen and Dr. Pike both work with Renee in her house through both Renee’s many issues and the insane prospect of un-hoarder-ing the hoarder house.
An example of what a long road Renee has: they have an extended conversation about what to do with multiple packages of dryer balls… even though laundry will not be done in that house for the foreseeable future.
Eventually, Kathleen is ready to bring in a hauling crew and a garbage truck to haul things away. The kitchen is particularly rancid, with gunk and rotting food items everywhere. And then meanwhile, the process of patiently talking Renee through the decision to keep or throw away individual items continues.
“So stuffed animals are all keeps,” Kathleen says at one point patiently.
Somewhat predictably, Renee gets stressed when she sees the hauling crew walk out of the house with filled up garbage bags that she did not personally get involved with.
When the refrigerator in the kitchen is eventually opened, Kathleen notes, “There are animals… bugs moving around.” Later, we see the hauling crew hauling the entire refrigerator out of the house.
Bill Tweedy visits to see the progress, and relays that while a nice amount of stuff has now been removed from the house, he estimates that five or six more truckloads would need to happen before Renee’s home could once again to be deemed livable.
What gets particularly sad is when we see Renee getting curt and defensive with Dr. Pike when she’s asked late in the day, “How are you feeling about things went?”
And then it feels seriously bleak as we see a wide shot of Renee standing inside a room that still has the visceral feel of a garbage dump.
However, progress: we learn that several weeks later, four tons of garbage/junk have been removed, and the house looks much improved in parts of the house. Kathleen notes that Renee has taken the lead on much of the cleanup herself, representing a marked improvement from her.
Bill Tweedy stops by and tells Renee that things are looking much closer to the point where he can greenlight turning the electricity and utilities back on and allow her to move back in, but there is still more work to be done.
Most encouragingly, Renee talks about how moving home has become the most important goal in her life.