Woman suffocates under piles of clutter in home

Ew! When I worked for a nursing outfit, we ran into stuff like this. One lady's foot was so infected it required inhome IV for several weeks. When the nurse arrived at the home, he called me and was SCREAMING into the phone that the stove was on full blast because there was no electrical power, the piles of stuff and paper were stacked over his head, she had no working plumbing and was doing her business outside in the planters and he wasn't gonna run no IV no way in that house. So, calmly, I asked if her spouse or some family member was there who could be taught (that's what we're suppose to say). The nurse said "hell no there isn't anyone here but an old mangy cocker spaniel and her husband's dead. But he's probably propped up around here some place....."

We ended up having to call adult protective services, but it took a good two weeks to get her out of there. You see, they said she was in her right mind. There with her dog, peeing in the bushes, 85 year old woman with the stove on full blast and a third world infection in her foot right smack in the middle of Encino, California..... eesh.

I didn't read through the whole thread so if this has been brought up I'm sorry. I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It is misery. I take my medication and I do my best. I don't hoard but I do have an endless repeating chain of horrible thoughts that run through my mind. I used to hoard some, but I don't anymore. this is a terrible affliction. It drains all the happiness and security from your life. I hate the thought that this disorder took a woman's life. Me and all the other "live like pigs" will pray for the others like us.

A neighbor's sons just rented a flatbed trailer and parked it in front of the house after their dad died. When they cleaned the place out, they put the stuff they did not want on the trailer, and put up signs on the main streets advertising "free stuff". They only made one trip to the dump, and made a bunch of new friends.

A few years ago when I lived up North I took care of the yard for a woman that lived by the river in an old one story house.

Some time before her pet rats had escaped from their cages and at the end of her house she would feed them, there were dozens (maybe hundreds) of them after a while.

Her house has "paths" in it, made from the cardboard boxes and misc junk she had around. There was one place on a couch to sit.

When I had to go to the kitchen to fix the stove I had to maneuver the trails to get to the stove.

One day her house burned down completely, rats and all.

So she got a trailer and more stuff. And more boxes. In a matter of weeks she had the trailer full of junk and boxes.

Last I heard (last year) she hasn't suffocated yet.

Oh, and where she worked she collected lots of dollar bills. She would spend her wait time ironing them.

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