“My life will probably disgust some people.” – Rick
Rick works parttime at a junkyard outside of Vancouver, Canada, which I suppose might be the “ideal” profession for a hoarder. His home is described as one that could “easily be mistaken for another junk yard” as well.
His house has no electricity, and Rick himself admits that “it’s dark and dingy with that black, sooty ceiling.”
It becomes clear how drastic the consequences of being a hoarder can be when the narrator guy tells us, “Two months ago, the hoard in Rick’s kitchen caused a fire to break out, putting Rick, his house, and all of his belongings in serious jeopardy.”
When we see the remnants of Rick’s kitchen, it’s both completely burned up and also includes all of the now burned up junk that was in it when the fire started. Honestly, if we saw this in a post-apocalyptic movie or in The Walking Dead, we’d think it was way too over the top, not “realistic” enough even by zombie apocalypse show standards.
Rick, a neatly dressed and trim middle-aged guy, tells us, “I am a junkie. I am addicted to buying and storing of stuff until I can sell it or use it. I am a clutter junkie.”
We learn that even amidst the wreckage of his house, Rick is continuing to hoard.
When Rick’s adult kids, Teri and Darryl, visit his house that they had not seen in years, it’s a little heartbreaking as we see Rick’s young grandson recoil a bit in seeing how horrifying the conditions are inside.
We also learn that Rick divorcing Teri and Darryl’s mother was the point at which his hoarding began to accelerate.
It’s always both sad and fascinating to see how much hoarders recognize and rationalize their behavior. “I have this sickness… I’m a shopaholic,” he tells his grandchild.
Psychologist Dr. Rebecca Beaton meets with the family in the hope that they would confront their father with their obvious concerns, but they were reticent to do so.
“In fact, they were enabling,” Dr. Beaton adds. “Rick needs to basically stop shopping except for grocery items.”
When interviewed, both Teri and Darryl seem quite defensive about being asked about their father’s divorce and other family issues that may have contributed to Rick’s hoarding.
Later, Dr. Beaton and professional organizer Kim Watt-Senner bring in a crew with a huge dump truck for a “major haul away” to help Rick de-hoarder his house.
Dr. Beaton relays that people who hoard as Rick has have typically experienced “great loss and trauma in their lives.
During the cleanup, the typically placid Rick gets agitated about the way the cleanup is going. “Rick started feeling out of control immediately,” Dr. Beaton says.
Rick insists that he “has a plan” to review the enormous volume of items in his plan, which seems like a defensive maneuver to try and keep most of his possessions.
Eventually, Rick settles down and the crew is able to get to work packing the dump truck completely full of junk to haul away to the dump.
After that day, Teri worked with her dad over six weeks to continue to put Rick’s house back into a livable condition. It still looks pretty bad – especially from the aftereffects of the recent fire – but does seem much improved.
“It doesn’t smell as bad,” Darryl is able to admit.
It’s a touching moment when we see Teri give her dad a Father’s Day card.
Over in California, we learn that Linda lived quite a life before becoming a hoarder. She was homeless at one point but eventually was in a position to purchase a home. However, when we meet her in this episode, her home has been “yellow tagged” by the city because of its dangerous living conditions, and she is in danger of losing ownership of it within 60 days.
When we get a glimpse inside of the house, there are narrow paths through part of the house, but mostly it’s stacked floor to ceiling with stuff. I will say, after seeing a number of Hoarding: Buried Alive episodes, that she is somewhat neater and more organized (on the inside anyway – the backyard is a trash heap mess) than some other hoarders we’ve met. However, it’s still oppressive and unsafe by any standard.
We see Linda going through some of her possessions, and you can see the obvious joy she takes in each one – including a huge number of toys. Linda admits that “I don’t even know why” she has so many toys before reflecting, “Perhaps because I didn’t have many as a kid.”
While Linda is not supposed to be sleeping in her “yellow tagged” house, she still is anyway. Further, she admits that she’s still making new purchases even with the clock ticking on losing her home.
“I just went to a thrift store, hello!” she says, giggling.
When Linda’s friend, Cindy, sees Linda’s house for the first time in three years, we see her gasp and then quickly try to keep her emotions under wraps to be there for her friend.
Cindy recalls that at one time the house was nicely decorated. “It was a regular house,” she tells the camera.
“Today it was a dump,” she adds.
It’s also interesting and of course understandable that hoarders typically talk about not wanting to be judged for their behavior. “I don’t want that,” Linda emphasizes to the camera.
“She could just end up alone, dying,” Cindy tells the camera with tears in her eyes.
Susan Taylor, a code enforcement agent, visits Linda’s house to check up on its status with the “yellow tag” clock ticking down. Susan says that she sees some progress but there is a long way to go.
Susan tells the camera that hoarding conditions can lead to bacteria, mold, fire hazards, and other things that are dangerous to one’s health.
Linda herself recognizes that she’s in danger of becoming homeless once again due to her hoarding. It’s bracing and revealing later when she admits, “I’ve probably Dumpster dived 25 years of my life.”
Dr. Julie Pike, clinical psychologist, visits Linda next. She tells Linda about the important of “letting things go” when going through her vast number of possessions.
Dr. Pike puts Linda through an exercise of packing her most prized possessions with a ten-minute clock running as a means to teach her how to “tolerate distress.”
Next, Dr. Pike and professional organizer Sara Getzkin work with Linda to help her de-clutter her home and fight back against the outcome of her hoarding.
Conflict comes up soon when Linda gets upset about an attempt to get rid of a clearly broken coffee table.
“Who is talking here, the addiction or you?” Dr. Pike asks her.
When Linda pushes back about keeping the table, Dr. Pike tells her that when her addiction talks to her, “it’s okay to talk back to it.”
Weeks later, Susan Taylor heads back to Linda’s back to do an inspection. The progress in this case is remarkable – it looks far better than it had been when we first saw her house.
“I noticed immediately how much brighter it is in there,” Taylor says, and adds “I can see how much easier it is for her to get rid of things.”
It’s a huge moment for Linda when we see Susan remove the yellow tag, deeming the house inhabitable once again.
“I get to be home,” Linda says, clearly emotional.