Posted on 01/09/2006 6:22:49 AM PST by plain talk
A woman in Shelton, Wash., who was reported missing by her husband, was found dead under piles of clutter in their home, where she suffocated to death, according to police. Shelton Police Chief Terry Davenport said the home was so cluttered that police officers' heads touched the ceiling as they climbed over the clutter.
Authorities found the body of 62-year-old Marie Rose buried under clothes after 10 hours of searching. She reportedly suffered from a condition known as hoarding. Rose's husband believes she fell while looking for the phone in the house this week and suffocated. There were so many piles of items that the man did not realize she was dead in the home.
(Excerpt) Read more at local6.com ...
Read this one to the wife. Made her feel good.
Why didn't the husband do something or didn't he realize they may have a problem?
I can relate to this. I've got three boys, and when they've been home all day (particularly after Christmas) toys are strewn and cluttering the house so bad that my head touches the ceiling while I'm crawling into the house.
Don't ever throw anything away. You might need it...........To hide your wife's body........
I worry about our son, his dorm room has dirty socks that migrate and pizza boxes with best if eaten dates in Roman Numerals and yet he has no problem finding the phone.
Clearly you have never tried to tell your wife something or do something.
If da mama ain't happy, nobody is happy!!!
>>Rose's husband believes she fell while looking for the phone in the house this week and suffocated.
I hate when that happens.
Never thought about it being fatal, though!
I'm keeping this story. May post it on the doors of the kids' rooms.
This is one of those stories that makes us feel maybe we're not in such bad shape, after all - kind of like reading about the 1,000 pound man who can't leave his house. This really is a strange disorder, though, this need to accumulate more and more junk. My family knows a woman like that and she just can't accept that she won't "take it with her" - she just has to have her piles of magazines and stuff around her.
As a professional organizer I have seen a lot of clutter but never heard of anyone dying under all the clutter.
We used to help people organize their homes now we prefer organizing offices specializing in medical offices.
LOL! Good one!
I know of a home like this; however, they have clear paths through the clutter to the bath, kitchen, and between the sofa and television. A visitor to the home was sitting with the husband on the sofa when a rabbit ran by. The husband threw a boot at it determined to knock out his daughter's pet that had been loose in the home for nearly a year. He missed. Can you just imagine how many rabbit pellets had accumulated throughout that house in a year's time? Yuck.
LOL! I guess we all have the same problem! Thank goodness for doors!
She definately needed to visit FlyLady.net
People who are hoarders are usually quite difficult to live with when you try to part them from their things. Hoarding is actually a symptom of obssessive compulsive disorder. I was a case manager for mentally ill people and I had a couple of hoarders on my caseload. For most hoarders the clutter makes them feel secure.
Too bad this lady didn't discover flylady.net. She is the queen of clutter busting.
Shelton Police Chief Terry Davenport said the home was so cluttered that police officers' heads touched the ceiling as they climbed over the clutter.
Think I will clean out my closets today.
It is best to leave at least a small amount of uneaten food sitting about. That way the rats don't bother you while your sleeping.
I guess they should have bought a bigger house before it was too late.
This reminds me, I'd better reinforce some of those shoring beams or you'll be reading about me in the newspaper.
The FlyLady rocks! lol
The Collyer brothers in New York are a well known example. My great-aunt Nell was a sufferer as well, but she didn't get squashed (my dad and other relatives moved her to an apartment in the Georgian Terrace Hotel and then cleaned out the house) so nobody knows about it but us.
I hate "estate" sales like that, I have been to many and the best thing to do with that sale is put a dumpster out front and empty the entire house into dumpster.
CHAOS can be deadly
Thank heavens! I was afraid my son & his roommates were the only ones!
Note to self: Clean house before it's too late!
bump
***...pizza boxes with best if eaten dates in Roman Numerals...***
FUNNY line.
Nothing like waking to a shiny sink!
Are you both Flybabies? I am.
My sister and dear friend are both FLYing now as well :)
(I sent Kelly a link to this story)
I highly recommend it. Her book Sink Reflections is excellent. I had forgotten all about it until your post. Now if I can just find it under all this clutter, maybe there is some hope for me.
It's hard to believe until you seen it. Had to help a relative with this condition move out of her apartment. My nephew and I couldn't get the door open to one of the rooms - stuffed with all kinds of crap - stacks of mail, newspapers, several hundred bars of soap and tuna fish, sweaters, dresses, blouses, purses, bought five at a time, still in their store boxes, and mega-expensive ballroom dancing outfits. Had to have my sister distract her while we wedged our way inside like cave divers, shut the door, opened up a window and loaded it directly out to a pickup. After five loads we got to the floor. I'll bet we threw away (to Goodwill)at least a hundred grand worth of stuff. Had to inch our way through the bottom feeders surrounding us like garbage dump seagulls to get the stuff safely to the back door of Goodwill.
Could have made her some money out of it on Ebay, but we flew into LA for this emergency two-day rescue effort to help after she got evicted for a very similar situation (passed out in apartment and nobody could reach her on the phone or get into the apartment), and we didn't have the luxury of time.
I know I’m a pack rat – but after reading this I think I will have to try to change my ways. But it’s so hard to toss anything. I might need it tomorrow, even stuff I haven’t used in years.
ROFL!
I suffered from CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrone) for years. I've been making use of the FlyLady.net website 2 years now and man.... life of the 'otherside' is MUCH better. Surpisingly, I found that I really DIDN'T need all the light bills from 1998! lol
"A condition known as hoarding"???? How about living like pigs? Let's tell it like it is.
Yep, all this stuff happens because of George Bush!
I think I will visit DU website to cheer me up.
Unhappiness has risen in the past decade
By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY
There's more misery in people's lives today than a decade ago — at least among those who will tell you their troubles.
So says a new study on life's negatives from the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center, which conducts social science research for government agencies, educational institutions, non-profit organizations and private corporations.
The researchers surveyed 1,340 people about negative life events and found that the 2004 respondents had more troubles than those who were surveyed in 1991, the last time the study was done.
"The anticipation would have been that problems would have been down," says Tom Smith, the study's author. He says good economic years during the '90s would have brought an expectation of fewer problems, not more.
Overall, the percentage who reported at least one significant negative life event increased from 88% to 92%. Most of the problems were related to increased incidents of illness and the inability to afford medical care; mounting bills; unemployment; and troubled romantic relationships.
On a more positive note, fewer of those surveyed reported having trouble with crime or the law.
The University of Chicago report is part of a larger study known as the larger General Social Survey, which is supported by the National Science Foundation and financed through grants. It includes in-person interviews with more than 2,800 randomly chosen people 18 and older.
Those questioned about their negative life events were asked about 60 specific problems, and they could each list up to two additional problems. By weighting each problem and using a formula, Smith says, the troubles could be compared.
Some of the problems outlined in the study were more complicated than just a single bad event. For instance, the inability to afford health care rose from 7% in 1991 to 11% in 2004. Those who said they lacked health insurance increased from 12% to 18%. On the romantic front, the percentage who reported breaking up with a steady partner doubled from 4% to 8%.
But people shouldn't despair even if there is trouble around them. Bad experiences don't necessarily make people unhappy, says Jonathan Haidt, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and author of the new book The Happiness Hypothesis.
"Happiness has a very weak relation to the events in our lives," Haidt says. "Your happiness level is determined mostly by the structure in your brain — not by whether good or bad things happen to you. Negative events hurt or feel bad, but they are not usually as bad as we think and don't last as long as we think."
Happiness is an individual thing, he says, like a thermostat in our brains with a baseline that's predetermined by genetics. "We all move around, up or down, around our set point" depending on life events, he says. "The key to the psychology of happiness is to move to the upper range of your potential."
He advises a three-point check-up on the state of personal relationships, the work environment and control over daily life, because improving those areas will boost happiness.
Darling husband will be home in a month, however, and I'm in the midst of some major Room Rescues. He's been living in a glorified broom closet with a bunkbed and a concrete floor for nearly a year and I need to have a beautiful environment for him to come home to. ("I can do anything for 15 minutes")
They found my mother-in-law!
I love flylady too. I recommend her to everyone who asks about how to organize.
I hated going to the homes of the hoarders, I would have to bathe in benadryl afterwards and the stench was god awful nasty. They were usually quite manipulative as far as promises went when working with them to get rid of at least the trash.
There was an Animal Precinct episode where the lady hoarded cats and she had over 250 in her small house. I was gagging at the thought of the smell. I know it had to permeate the neighbors home.
I did succeed in canceling all my magazine subscriptions shortly after discovering the internet – but I have electronics and tools stashed everywhere. I have stereo receivers that would qualify as antiques. I have reel to reel tape decks that I am told can not be repaired – but I keep hoping for a miracle. CDs have helped with the paper clutter – papers scanned and saved to disk, but I still have three file drawers full and papers stacked awaiting another file cabinet. I have several hundred books. The bookcases are crammed full with books squeezed in on top of books and more lying around the apartment. My desk in also crammed with “stuff” I may someday need. I am the only one who can find anything in it and I have trouble at times.
I did clean out a closet by taking a load of clothes to the DAV thrift store. That was no problem for me because it was clothing I had before losing 50 pounds.
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