Buzz
Struggle with parting ways with your belongings? Can't seem to toss out that old remote for a TV that’s been gathering dust in your basement, just in case you might need it someday? You might be dealing with disposophobia, also known as pathological hoarding. There's a fine line between managing clutter and hoarding on a compulsive level. Disposophobia is a serious manifestation of OCD, and it's not something to be taken lightly, as the following seven individuals clearly demonstrate.
1. & 2. Homer and Langley Collyer
The Collyer brothers have been the inspiration for movies, plays, and even a recent novel by E.L. Doctorow. With ancestry tracing back to the Mayflower, Homer and Langley Collyer were affluent members of New York City's elite. Following the death of their parents in the 1920s, the brothers isolated themselves from society, spending their days in their family’s brownstones in Manhattan and Harlem. It’s no surprise that the term ‘Collyer brothers syndrome’ is sometimes used to describe disposophobia, thanks to Homer (who was also blind and physically disabled) and his brother Langley.
Why? As the Collyer brothers grew more reclusive, rumors spread that their homes were filled with hidden treasures, and that they had set up booby traps to guard their valuable possessions. Then, in 1947, a neighbor reported a foul odor to the police. Inside their Harlem brownstone, authorities found Homer Collyer’s body, surrounded by heaps of clutter, including an old X-ray machine, a horse's jawbone, and countless bundles of old newspapers.
Langley, his brother, was nowhere to be found, sparking a nationwide search. Weeks later, after clearing half of the brownstone’s 180 tons of junk, a worker stumbled upon Langley’s decomposed body, buried beneath a mountain of newspapers. He had been dead for weeks, and rats had consumed much of his remains. It was eventually concluded that Homer had died from starvation when Langley, the one who cared for his disabled and blind brother, was tragically crushed by—what else?—a pile of junk.
3. & 4. The women of Grey Gardens
In the early 1970s, two women with ties to Jackie Onassis became the focus of the acclaimed documentary, Grey Gardens, which shed light on their bizarre, reclusive lifestyles. Edith Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith Ewing Bouvier, were once prominent New York socialites, but they spent their later years holed up in a decaying mansion in East Hampton.
When authorities from the Suffolk County Board of Health raided their property, they discovered mountains of trash alongside human and animal waste. Only three of the mansion's 28 rooms were in use, while the rest were overrun with hundreds of cats, possums, and raccoons.
When word about the horrifying living conditions reached Jackie-O, she and her then-husband, Aristotle Onassis, spent $32,000 to clean up the mansion, install a new furnace, fix the plumbing, and remove 1,000 bags of trash. When the filmmakers Albert and David Maysles began filming Grey Gardens in 1973, the mansion was so infested with fleas that the crew had to wear flea collars around their ankles.
5. Edmund Trebus
TV viewers across the UK recognized compulsive hoarder Edmund Trebus for his quirky habits and sharp English wit. He was featured in the 1999 documentary A Life of Grime, where Trebus would often tell his friends and neighbors to "stick it up your chuffer!" particularly when they complained about the smell coming from his home. Much of his hoarded items came from his neighbors’ trash, but Trebus was particularly obsessed with collecting anything related to his idol, Elvis Presley. His expansive collection included many of the King's original records. However, the real clutter took over his five-bedroom Victorian house in Crouch End, North London: window frames, motorbikes, scaffolding poles, tree trunks, For Sale signs (with posts), fridge-freezers, and even a mortuary table.
The stench that neighbors often complained about was caused by piles of rotting vegetables (mostly grown in his own garden!) that reached from floor to ceiling in every room. By the time of his death, Trebus’s home was so overcrowded with junk that he could only occupy a small patch of floor.
6. Ida Mayfield Wood
In the late 19th century, Ida Mayfield was a well-known figure in New York's high society. Her beauty and charm drew many admirers, and she eventually married Benjamin Wood, the publisher of the New York Daily News. However, their marriage was filled with discord, and Benjamin fathered a child with another woman.
To compensate for his infidelities, Benjamin would give Ida large sums of money to put into her personal savings account. By the time of his death in 1900, Ida had become a wealthy and influential woman. She had taken control of the powerful pages of the New York Daily News. Yet, after the financial panic of 1907, Ida became increasingly suspicious of her finances and withdrew from public life.
She lived in isolation and squalor in a few rooms at the Herald Square Hotel in New York, never venturing outside. When she died in 1932, Ida had hoarded nearly $1 million in cash, stashed inside pots and pans in her hotel room. Among her hidden treasures was a diamond necklace concealed inside a Cracker Jack box. Ida was also discovered to have $10,000 in cash sewn around her waist.
7. Bettina Grossman
The legendary Chelsea Hotel in New York, once home to figures like Mark Twain and Janis Joplin, also housed an artist by the name of Bettina Grossman. Bettina had lived there for 30 years as one of its resident artists and accumulated a lifetime’s worth of artwork. She stored her creative works in hundreds of boxes packed inside her tiny two-room apartment.
Filmmaker Sam Bassett, another artist-in-residence at the Chelsea, discovered Bettina Grossman living in the hallway, where she was literally sleeping on a deck chair. Moved by her unique artwork, Bassett encouraged her to showcase her collages and mixed media portraits. He even helped her build shelves to keep everything organized. Bettina agreed, and Bassett's 2007 documentary, Bettina, tells the story of the artist's journey toward personal recovery.
Last year, Ms. Grossman suffered a fall and broke her hip, and she is now residing in a nursing home in Brooklyn. Yet, her art remains close to her. She brought along several boxes of her creations to the home.
