"Hoarders"

My sister and I were talking on the phone last night and I told her to tune the TV to the A&E channel to watch “Hoarders.” We were aghast at the video of two people who never threw anything — even garbage — out. One guy was in danger of being evicted from his apartment and a woman wanted to sell her house but needed to “declutter,” shall we say?

The guy could open his apartment door a crack and squeeze through and then walk down a hall to his kitchen and bedroom. He walked on the side of the hall where the trash was not piled up quite so high, but he still had to walk on garbage.

The woman had junk packed to the rafters in the attic, her garage was filled with garbage as well as her house.

My sister said she used to babysit for a woman whose house was like that. There was a room or two that was cleared, but the rest of the house was piled with stuff. The woman was always fashionably dressed and you’d never know she and her children lived in a garbage house.

I said to my sister, who is in the mental health field, that it was a sickness and people have varying degrees of it. Then I said, but you can say that of anything — when is anyone accountable for what they do?

She said that was a good question.