The Secret Lives of Hoarders: True Stories of Tackling Extreme Clutter

On the front lines with extreme hoarders

The Secret Lives of Hoarders is much more than harrowing tales of attacking the ugliest, dirtiest, and most shocking hoarding cases in the country. It is a behind-the-scenes look at this hidden epidemic- what it means, how to recognize it before it gets out of hand, and how to deal with it.

Through his work with hundreds of clients in the worst circumstances- from the giant ＂rat’s nest＂ that hid more than ＄13,000 in cash to a vast cache of cartoon pornography to twenty-five years’ worth of unopened mail-Matt Paxton has learned to understand this disorder and his clients’ impulses to collect, to speak the hoarders’ language, and to reach out to them with compassion and concern while avoiding criticism and judgment. Most important, he guides compulsive hoarders successfully through every step of the clean-up and healing process.

The Secret Lives of Hoarders is an engrossing and sometimes unsettling look at extreme clutter but one that helps hoarders, their families, and their friends to find meaning in the chaos.

The idea for Clutter Cleaner came to Matt Paxton as a way to pay rent, with the first project being his own grandmother’s basement. As the business grew, Matt’s philosophy of ＂no job too extreme＂ took hold. Paxton and eventually garnered a following large enough to land him and his tell-it-like-it-is approach onto A&E’s hit reality series Hoarders. Before moving to television, Paxton worked as a Federal Reserve Analyst and an inventor.

A freelance writer and editor, Phaedra Hise specializes in her cultural writings. She has worked for CNN Money, was a former staff writer for Inc., and a popular food editor for Virginia Living. Her work has been collected in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Glamour, Salon, Forbes, Popular Mechanics and Smithsonian. She lives in Virginia, with her husband.