Hoarding blamed on QVC

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stratobuddy

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There is a new TV programme on tonight about hoarding.

One of the participants has every room filled with about 5 foot deep of stuff, which she has to crawl over and sleep on top of.

She said it all started when the TV shopping channel started. She didn't specifically mention QVC, but a lot of the boxes looked familiar like QVC use.

She was ordering things EVERY day, including lots of stuff she said she knew she would never use.

The cleaners were finding loads of unopened and unused items, such as brand-new shoes which mice were nesting in.
 
Just finished watching, but unlike most hoarders, who don't want to let anything go, in this case, it seems that everything was just thrown away into a number of skips.

And the hoarder died this year aged 65.

I will have to watch the series as I believe that someone I know vaguely is going to be featured, he is well known around Plymouth as the local rag keeps featuring him.

And I have also known 2 other hoarders quite well.
 
There is a new TV programme on tonight about hoarding.

One of the participants has every room filled with about 5 foot deep of stuff, which she has to crawl over and sleep on top of.

She said it all started when the TV shopping channel started. She didn't specifically mention QVC, but a lot of the boxes looked familiar like QVC use.

She was ordering things EVERY day, including lots of stuff she said she knew she would never use.

The cleaners were finding loads of unopened and unused items, such as brand-new shoes which mice were nesting in.

How sad. Is it the series with the Greek/Cypriot counsellor, which was on a few years ago?
 
Just finished watching, but unlike most hoarders, who don't want to let anything go, in this case, it seems that everything was just thrown away into a number of skips.

And the hoarder died this year aged 65.

I will have to watch the series as I believe that someone I know vaguely is going to be featured, he is well known around Plymouth as the local rag keeps featuring him.

And I have also known 2 other hoarders quite well.

Which channel was this Strato? I have to watch on playback. Mice!!!! Oh Yuk!!!

Skipping all the good stuff is a crime!! (landfill grrrrr)

Mr B was chatting to a house clearance guy based around Gloucestershire recently, who took 5 Luton vans of stuff out from an old ladies home after she died. Apparently even the stairs were completely hidden & filled with things! It's such a massive fire risk!
 
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This is not totally new , I remember in the early years of QVC a woman blaming QVC for her over spending and hoarding.
 
I read the QVC US forum(yes they actually have a proper forum on their site), and remember clearly a post by a woman whose Mum had passed away quite recently. The family went into the house to clear it out and found boxes and boxes in walk-in cupboards all unopened of stuff from QVC. If I remember over 20 boxes!

Other posters told her to contact QVC and ask if they would take the products back or the other suggestion was give the stuff to shelters.

The woman thought her Mum looked at QVC and presenters as her friends and just kept buying stuff she did not need because they said how great the products were.
 
its sad isn't it when people get lonely and this is the result...QVC do present in a style that is making customers feel secure and happy shopping with them I can see that happening a lot.
 
LONELINESS that is the scourge of our nation now. And yes I 'get' why this apparent hoarding can happen. Its so easy to watch the tele and be sucked into buying 'stuff', especially living on your own, because there is no-one to tell you not to. No-one to tell you 'you dont need it', and the only excitement in your life is when a parcel arrives at the door.

Most of us are not lonely or living on our own by choice. Circumstances have dictated it. We fear of getting ill with no-one to bring us a cup of tea, or worse, being taken ill in the middle of the night, or passing away and not being found for weeks. Despite being reasonably 'fit', our only contact is the lady in the paper shop or other dog walkers to pass the time of day. We read and hear about the lonely elderly and infirm who cant get out and only see a carer for 15 minutes a day, but social isolation is not just the domain of those.

Relatives 'pop' in now and again, but actually haven't a clue what its like to just have the tele for company - and hope they never do, they get in the car and drive off knowing they've done their 'bit' and live their life, like we have done. So yes I totally 'get' how and why there are those who have become so mentally depressed, that they have resorted to becoming 'friends' with QVC.
 
Which channel was this Strato? I have to watch on playback. Mice!!!! Oh Yuk!!!

Skipping all the good stuff is a crime!! (landfill grrrrr)

Mr B was chatting to a house clearance guy based around Gloucestershire recently, who took 5 Luton vans of stuff out from an old ladies home after she died. Apparently even the stairs were completely hidden & filled with things! It's such a massive fire risk!

I am fairly sure this is a new series.

I recorded it, but erased it after watching, so can no longer check what channel it was on, but I think it was Ch4 at 9pm on Tues 10th.
 
I remember a similar show years ago, not hoarding to the same extent, just overspending on stuff you don't need from shopping channels.

The presenter was Alvin Hall, and one woman had boxes and boxes of Tova perfumes.
He asked her why she had so much of it, she replied that Tova had said that 'men knock themselves out on telephone poles' when you wear it.
 
It’s not just the lonely who hoard.

My late father was in so many organisations he kept every piece of paper (often in duplicate/triplicate and more)dating back years (one lot went back to 1963] and on top of that a houseful of useless rubbish.

Every piece of paper had to be inspected and then confidentially shredded (4rooms floor to ceiling boxes and bags) After months of processing old paper I had enough and got someone in to clear all the other stuff, I never even looked in the roof space!

I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
 
LONELINESS that is the scourge of our nation now. And yes I 'get' why this apparent hoarding can happen. Its so easy to watch the tele and be sucked into buying 'stuff', especially living on your own, because there is no-one to tell you not to. No-one to tell you 'you dont need it', and the only excitement in your life is when a parcel arrives at the door.

Most of us are not lonely or living on our own by choice. Circumstances have dictated it. We fear of getting ill with no-one to bring us a cup of tea, or worse, being taken ill in the middle of the night, or passing away and not being found for weeks. Despite being reasonably 'fit', our only contact is the lady in the paper shop or other dog walkers to pass the time of day. We read and hear about the lonely elderly and infirm who cant get out and only see a carer for 15 minutes a day, but social isolation is not just the domain of those.

Relatives 'pop' in now and again, but actually haven't a clue what its like to just have the tele for company - and hope they never do, they get in the car and drive off knowing they've done their 'bit' and live their life, like we have done. So yes I totally 'get' how and why there are those who have become so mentally depressed, that they have resorted to becoming 'friends' with QVC.

Your post has moved me more than I can say & it's obvious that it was all from your heart. Bless you.
 
I just remembered about another friend with a hoarding problem, as we have been trying not to think about it.

I and a friend tried to help him a few years ago.

You could hardly open the door because of many years worth of unopened letters, which he just walked over.

We spent 3 days clearing part of it, and he said he would then continue after we left, but of course he didn't.

Eventually neighbours complained to the council because of the smell of rotten food. They inspected the house (which he OWNED) and declared it unsafe because of rotten floors and other problems.

They got it cleared by professionals, which cost £1000's, and was put as a charge on the house (so they will get the money back when the house is sold).

He was banned from re-entering the property (because of the danger) so he was made homeless from his own house!

He lives about 50 miles away, and we have no idea where he is sleeping at the moment, and we can't contact him either.
 
Hmmm, hoarding, of which I am guilty. I too am guilty of being on my own for large parts of my life, watching everyone else going home from work to their families while you have not much to do (no pets either when you work full time). So you go home, sit there, have tea, have a drink, watch shopping, buy stuff (that you neither want nor need) and so it goes on. You won't get rid of this stuff because you've bought and paid for it but it's crap that just lies about. Took me a while to break out of it to be honest and I still get sucked in even now.

You hoard because you want to hold on to the past and don't want to chuck things out that you should because they have no use. And if you clear out your previous comfort blanket life then aaarrrrggghhhh you're going to have to face a different future. But that future is not so scary actually, you just need to order the skip and get going :sm5ile:

Now, back to the Laphroig. Cheers!

CC
 
I come from a family of hoarders, sentimentality can be a curse as well as a blessing. What I don’t understand about these hoarders featured is the squalor they live in. Not being able to throw out/pass on possessions that act as comfort blankets is different to not cleaning up. I think a distinction should be made on these programmes.
 
Your post has moved me more than I can say & it's obvious that it was all from your heart. Bless you.

I echo this xxxxx


You always have 'us' & certainly me (of course you'd have to be pretty hard up) for keyboard pals - lol!)
 
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I come from a family of hoarders, sentimentality can be a curse as well as a blessing. What I don’t understand about these hoarders featured is the squalor they live in. Not being able to throw out/pass on possessions that act as comfort blankets is different to not cleaning up. I think a distinction should be made on these programmes.


It's really hard to clean round when every single surface, table & chair are covered with stuff. When things have built & built for years, it's a huge effort to find the cleaning kit, or anything with which to make a start, which, in fact means clearing a space to move, which means chucking/sorting/which they cannot, or will not do It just becomes a mammoth effort & these people are depressed anyway & totally lack motivation, It's very upsetting.
 
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I just remembered about another friend with a hoarding problem, as we have been trying not to think about it.

I and a friend tried to help him a few years ago.

You could hardly open the door because of many years worth of unopened letters, which he just walked over.

We spent 3 days clearing part of it, and he said he would then continue after we left, but of course he didn't.

Eventually neighbours complained to the council because of the smell of rotten food. They inspected the house (which he OWNED) and declared it unsafe because of rotten floors and other problems.

They got it cleared by professionals, which cost £1000's, and was put as a charge on the house (so they will get the money back when the house is sold).

He was banned from re-entering the property (because of the danger) so he was made homeless from his own house!

He lives about 50 miles away, and we have no idea where he is sleeping at the moment, and we can't contact him either.

Seems that the council have, in effect, just 'moved the problem on' & probably off their patch.
 
I'm claustropobic & watching these programmes makes me really uncomfortable. We all have 'stuff' & there's a degree of sentimentality in everyone. However, it's those of us who live in richer nations that surround ourselves with possessions & it doesn't mean we're happy. The people whose homes have become safety hazards must have additional mental health issues, what difficult lives they endure.
 

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