Amanda Ripley: Have you ever stumbled across a room that fills you with dread in your parents or let's be honest, your own house? She doesn't want us to disclose where she grew up or any other identifying information because her family has a dirty secret. Rachel was one of 12 people in that small house which felt even more cramped than you can imagine. It wasn't just things but also garbage like what you would objectively look at as garbage. This is the first time I've used a public forum to talk about this and I'm a little bit nervous.
Usually when something enters Rachel’s parents’ home, it never leaves. Growing up, Rachel and her siblings tried to clean out the growing piles of junk, but her mom would often dig into the trash to retrieve whatever was tossed. Rachel finally escaped her parent’s over-stuffed house but she still worries about their safety and quality of life. On this episode of How To!, we bring on Jessie Sholl, author of Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother's Compulsive Hoarding. She knows what it’s like to spend hours decluttering a house teeming with stuff, only to have it come back with a vengeance. Many of us will eventually have to parent our parents, but how do you handle such an extreme case? Jessie explains that hoarding is a mental illness and advises Rachel on how to find agency in a situation that feels so helpless.
If you liked this episode, check out: “How To Avoid Becoming Your Mother.”
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