That is certainly an extreme case. In cases like where more than one person tolerates those conditions (and very often that's the case), it seems surprising that both of them would share the same mental illness. But maybe that shouldn't be a surprise. Or maybe they share more than mental illness.

I want to know how they balanced three feet of dirty dishes in the sink.

That case may be extreme but it is very common with hoarders for their homes to be in that extreme state.

As noted in the article, the wife blamed the elder dog for going to the bathroom in the house but when the police officer asked her why she didn't clean up after the dog, she had no answer.

Many hoarders are not discovered until a medical emergency pops up. You should hear the stories from funeral directors when they are called in to remove the dead.

How sad for their little girl to be living in those conditions. I hope everything works out for everyones best interest.

Wish there were photos.

I have seen firsthand a home like that... took us a while to figure out why our SIL never wanted us to stop by--too busy--not going to be home, etc. Her father passed away and we went to her house and about died. I was flabbergasted. I didn't know what to say. Finally I mentioned that I would help her clean house because she would be having lots of company and started in. We picked up 105 pop cans off the kitchen floor. How hard is it to hit the garbage can with an empty pop can? It took 5 hours to even get the small kitchen to look presentable.

At least she didn't have animals in the house because I can't imagine what it would have been like. We have 3 large dogs in our house and unless you happen to see them, you wouldn't know we even own them.

I think some people just get so overwhelmed that they don't know what to do and it escalates. There may be depression (my SIL's trouble) or other underlying problems and these people need our sympathy and help, instead of our judging of them. Hopefully a good social worker will take the family under her/his wings and get them the help they need.

Are hoarding and squalor always the same thing? I don't think so. My BIL's sister is a hoarder. It's very very sad. However her condo is not dirty. She hoards things like magazines, junk mail, boxes of stuff she orders from QVC and catalogs (and never even opens), etc.

She has neatly arranged piles everywhere. You can walk around the house but only in narrow "corridors" between all the stuff.

However, she does not hoard trash so inspite of piles of neatly arranged stuff everywhere, the condo is not filthy.

Hoarding is a very sad mental illness, IMHO.

How come hoarders always have pets?

I love both cats and dogs, yet our family does not have either. (Although we often dog-sit for family and friends). My schedule & hubby's schedule is quite volitile and we like to vacation extensively so we thought that we wouldn't have a dog until we're older. Yet, these hoarders will consider themselves animal lovers when they're not looking out after the best interests of the animal. There is no excuse not to clean up feces within minutes! It's part of the responsibility! I wouldn't care what kind of squalor they choose to live in except for the fact that it does impact the neighborhood also. Very sad.

Having been a hoarder. For me I think Hoarding was insecurity.

We always had animals. This is the first time having two dogs at the same time. WE are enjoying both of them very much and they are very well house broken. We also have two kitties. They also are house broken and only use the litter box in an emergency. I clean it as soon as I see they have used it. I use that clumping stuff.

I do know several animal hoarders and it makes me sick to see it.

I do not think hoarding is always squalor. I think having too much stuff tends to add to squalor because of the frustration of having to keep churning it and never really dealing with it as in getting rid of it.

Chris

Chris you are so right. My MIL is a terrible hoarder, but it's all in very neat, clean piles. You may only be able to walk a few steps into a bedroom, but everything on the floor is very neatly stacked. And, she doesn't hoard garbage or anything gross like that. Just years of shopping for crap and never even taking it out of the box. And you know, eventually everything comes back in style!

My MIL was very clean and neat,but she was definitely a hoarder. After her death, we found a desk in a spare bedroom packed with paperwork,like old bills from the 1950's. And all her clothes she ever owned were in zippered garment bags in the attic. Who keeps a bathrobe from 1940? it was a mess to clean up and revealed a very peculiar aspect to her personality.

Who keeps a bathrobe from 1940?

possibly someone who had forgotten they were there. Either bcs she couldn't actually see them, of bcs she had stopped seeing them.

And if it was in the attic, it was not in her way.

For the first year or two it's there, it might actually be reasonable t hold onto it. And by the time it has stopped being useful, she's stopped even noticing it.

There is an interesting series on elder care/abuse issues running this week in the Wisc. State Journal:

"These are nice people. They're not doing anything bad. They're just living their lives alone, a bit apart from other people. We're disrupting someone's whole world here. That's hard." Tommye Schneider, director of environmental health for the Madison-Dane County Health Department.

-Lena

Here is a link that might be useful: Case study: Hoarding: The shock behind closed doors can be fixed with treatment

How sad for all of them, especially the little girl and poor dog. I'm surprised no one called the humane society. I hope someone does to remove the poor dog from that filth also.