Hoarding is for Humans
Image from hoarderhelpline.com For the first time in many years, Josette Buchman entered her sister-in-law’s home and discovered a fully-clothed skeleton lying face-up on a bedroom floor. Josette was there to get some things for Rita, her blind sister-in-law who had earlier been rushed to the hospital. The authorities indicated that the deceased had died of natural causes and was assumed to be Rita’s son Louis, who disappeared 20 years ago at the age of 29. The police said the bedroom looked like “a garbage truck had dumped its load.” Image from wordpress.com The most well-known hoarders were of course the Collyer brothers of New York City . Homer and Langley Collyer spent decades as hermits amassing 140 tons of stuff in a four-story brownstone in Harlem. The brothers lived together in seclusion until 1947 yet disputes with local authorities periodically drew them into the public eye and ultimately the term "Collyer" (meaning "mess") became pa