I didn't catch the show.

My grandparents grew up during the depression. They were hoarders. I visited my aunt who bought their house. She felt bad because she and my other aunts and uncles had helped contribute to the situation over the years. She said when she was cleaning up, she found kid's clothes and other items that she brought during the 70's. She thought she was helping my grandparents by giving them things to share with the rest of the family, but they were stowing them away.

On the other hand, I always loved going through their stuff. You never knew what you were going to find. I can see where my grandfather felt like he had treasure.

My parents grew up in the Great Depression. Dad never threw anything away, and he scavenged things from other people's garbage. He would take any and all bicycle parts and lawn mower parts. After he died, my brother cleaned out the garage and threw out all of Dad's "finds". Mom and my brother (her son) now live together and Mom continues to hoard things. She may receive gifts of furniture or furnishings, but she never throws anything away. She got a new cupboard for the kitchen. I asked "What did you do with the old one?" she told me "Oh, I laid it on its' side in the living room" My sister bought her new kitchen curtains but Mom won't put them up. "The old ones are just fine." Yeah, full of cat scratches and yellow from tobacco smoke.

It is a very divisive disorder that can shatter family relationships. I had two great Aunts who were a year apart in age and went through school in the same grade and were very close. Once one of them went back to where they grew up to visit the other - she basically walked in to the house turned around and walked out and went to stay with my Grandmother (her sister in-law). They spoke but my Aunt who was visiting couldn't understand how her sister could live like that and they were never as close. They grew up poor and under quite difficult circumstances (poverty and anti-semitism) and my Aunt was very hurt that her sister would live like that. Both were very tough but very sweet ladies who cared a great deal about one another but the hoarding was too much. Most of us in the family are pack rats - we all have to be vigilant or things get away from us.