As a junk removal company, we understand how easy it is to accumulate junk. It may start off innocent – a few boxes, jars, and a couple of old CD’s – and the next thing you know you have a tower of ticket stubs and junk where your floor used to be.

Reasons people hoard are varied – maybe you don’t have time to get rid of waste, maybe you think you’ll use the stuff at some point, or maybe you suffer from a hoarding disorder.

You may have heard about this condition on the TV show, Hoarders. Here, we list four episodes that will desperately make you want to purge your collection of junk:

Phyllis — Season 4

Hoarded: Dolls

Phyllis, a discount-savvy grandmother and Certified Nursing Assistant, kept an immense amount of dolls in her home. She had dolls of all shapes and sizes (with and without limbs), from floor to ceiling. To save space, she stuffed some in a collection of bags and boxes. Her obsession grew over the years, and her dolls kept many of her friends and family away (thousands of porcelain eyes staring at you while you have a cup of tea can be quite unsettling). In total, Phyllis hoarded around 50 000 dolls – taking over every room in her house.

Tip: Dolls can be donated to orphanages and children’s hospitals.

Theresa — Season 3

Hoarded: Purses and shoes

Hoarding handbags and shoes might not seem like such a big deal – but it can be pretty impractical when there are literally thousands of them. Theresa, a retired state worker from Alabama, had collected 3000 purses – with a pair of shoes to go along with each and every one of them. If you have a pile of bags keeping you from reaching your front door – it’s probably best to get some junk removal help and dispose of them correctly.

Tip: Purses are a hard item to recycle – but it can be reused or upcycled.

Randy — Season 4

Hoarded: Boardwalk memorabilia, slices of birthday cake

What would you do with a 20,000 square foot building? Randy, a ‘collector’ from New Jersey, filled his space up with hundreds of mannequins, several tractor-trailers, and numerous boardwalk memorabilia. His collection included thousands of vintage pinball machines, arcade games, as well as tokens and tickets – which is basically every 80’s kid’s dream (except for the mannequin part).  He also saved slices of birthday cake from past birthdays as a memory keepsake of the event.

Tip: Most of these items can be recycled and will be accepted at a landfill.

Claire and Vance — Season 5

Hoarded: Books

There’s nothing wrong with having an extensive collection of books – it suggests a passion for knowledge and an appreciation of literature. However, when there are towering stacks of books consuming your entire home, it might be time to be concerned. Claire and Vance, a married couple from Chicago, hoarded around 500 000 books. The books were stacked throughout their house, taking up so much space that they posed a physical threat to the couple.

Tip: You can resell your books or donate it to a charitable organization

Junk can be incredibly easy to accumulate – we’ve appeared in episodes of TLC's Hoarding: Buried Alive – so we’ve seen it all. Hoarding can be a serious condition that can make it very difficult to let go of possessions. However, with the right help, it’s an obstacle you can overcome. If you have trouble letting go, and need junk removal services, then contact us for a free on-site estimate. Junk King provides an efficient, safe, and eco-friendly junk removal service – and we make sure all your recyclable items are reused or recycled.