Miscellaneous

Hoarding is Such a Weird Psychological Condition

True story: Back in my legal services day, I had a client in a nursing home who had a terrible hoarding problem -- he'd go out into dumpsters and pull anything and everything out of them and drag them up into his room. That room was filled with trash, and the only spot in the entire room free of any debris was a small section of his bed, where he slept. The nursing home was trying to evict him because, not only did he bring in pounds and pounds of trash, but he smoked, presenting a clear fire hazard.

After some negotiation and a cleaning service, however, we were able to convince the nursing home to allow this old guy to stay in his room. We thought it was a success. A few months after I left the office, however, I asked my old boss whatever happened with that old guy?

He'd burned down the nursing home.

Nice.

Anyway, I mention this by way of introducing another hoarder: A pensioner in England, who was so bad, health officials were called in to clear 100 tons of trash from his home:

It's been a while since pensioner Merv Jones tidied up or vacuumed.

In fact, it's been so long that he might never have been able to find the Hoover amid the astonishing 100 tons of rubbish and bric-a-brac in his home - assuming he ever looked for it.

Every room in the terraced house was filled from floor to ceiling with mouldering junk. It was even piled up in the hall. Both front and back gardens were also a mess.

After years of complaints from neighbours, council officials finally moved in to empty the building in Grimsby, filling skip after skip.

The extraordinary array of bric-a-brac had been collected over decades by the 73-year-old, including old rifles, ammunition and swords, along with hundreds of more ordinary items, such as dolls, electrical equipment, toys, pictures, books and ornaments.

As well as all the junk, there was a great deal of household rubbish. Windows were broken, pigeons had moved into the loft and bait traps had to be laid for the rats.

Poor guy ... and the thing is, he won't be happy once they clean it up. He won't be happy unless it's a mess. I suspect that, once the place is cleared away, he'll just slowly start the process anew.

Full post as published by Quiz Law on November 07, 2008 (boomark / email).