Britain’s worst hoarders revealed as man who burned down home twice & woman who kept roast dinner to rot in oven
BRITAIN’S worst hoarders include a man who burned down his home TWICE and a woman who kept a roast dinner in the oven, according to a shocking new documentary.
Channel 5’s Hoarders: Landfill in my Living Room reveals the struggles hoarders face – and sees two women known as the Declutter Divas enter homes determined to clean them up.
MOUNTAINS OF JUNK
The first episode sends them to the messy houses of Susan, from Kent; Cardiff-based Brian and his daughter, Heather; and eccentric Jake Mangle-Wurzel from Huddersfield.
Cancer-stricken Susan had been living under metres of junk for over ten years, but heartbreakingly the 64-year-old died after filming.
She had decided it was time to turn her life around, explaining to the crew how she crawls up a mountain of junk and beds down in amongst the rubbish as she can’t get into her bedroom.
She says: “I know to people it’s a big fat joke but it’s just hoarding.
“It’s quite comfortable – but it could be worse.”
The Declutter Divas swooped in to help Susan who was exhausted from her cancer treatment and years of the grubby lifestyle.
‘IT FEELS LIKE HOME AGAIN’
As they ploughed through the rotten rooms, they found half a roast dinner – crispy golden roast potatoes and from the looks of it, about 12 Aunt Bessie’s – that had been slowly going mouldy inside Susan’s oven for an unspecified amount of time.
When tackling the bathroom, one of the Divas discovers a rotting mouse, drowned in the thick black sludge that coats the toilet bowl.
By the end of the show Susan is ecstatic with her “transformed” house, and is finally able to sleep in her own bed.
She says: “It feels like home again.”
Over in Cardiff, elderly Brian has been living amongst mountains of old books, newspapers, magazines and other rubbish for as long as his daughter, Heather can remember.
Slamming the squalor and telling her dad it makes her uncomfortable to be inside his house, the pair embark on family counselling to get to the root of the issue.
‘FAMILY OVER JUNK’
Heather recounts how she used to be embarrassed by her dad’s weird habits as a child, adding: “He needs to prioritise what’s important – family over junk.”
Brian reveals his mum was also a hoarder and that he used to think she was strange living amongst years and years of newspapers.
He says: “I can’t throw anything away that could be useful – not necessarily to me, but to someone.
“I suppose I get that from my mother.”
In Huddersfield we meet the self-proclaimed King of the Eccentrics, Jake Mangle-Wurzel who lives in a caravan amongst the burnt-out remains of his old home after he burned his house down TWICE.
Jake dubs the weird space “Wonderful Wurzel Land,” which features a stack of cigarette butts at least a foot high and pots of brown sludge on the stove that he proclaims are tea.
MOST READ IN NEWS
He says: “Whenever I offer anyone tea… they say no Jakey, thank you we just had one” before hysterically laughing.
The luminous haired King of Eccentrics is visited by a Fire Prevention Officer who tells him some home-truths about his ramshackle surroundings.
You can watch Landfill in my Living Room on December 10 on Channel 5 at 9pm.
