Hey Mack, I finally got the chance to name some foster kittens after your intro names. We have Cornbread Lovehog, orange boy, Scully Foxmulder, orange girl, and a very handsome ticked tabby named Dr. Ram Harddrive. When he gets out of the kitten room you'd better believe I walk around calling, "Dr. Harddrive? Paging Dr. Harddrive." It's dumb, but it makes me laugh and I hope it makes you laugh too
@@freya1598 My foster coordinator vetoed Biff Clownspanker and Chuck Floodhumper. She's probably right, the general public probably isn't ready for that 😆
❤ I want to sincerely THANK YOU for educating me! My best friend was a horder, shop aholic, alcoholic, and, and. I had NO IDEA what was going on for her, to my great regret! I would always clean, Organize, and help any way I could. She died in 2022, due to alcoholism. I never understood!! You can't Google what you don't know what to ask! You have also helped me to understand my daughter with her disabilities. MY OWN TOO! SO VERY THANKFUL FOR YOU HELPING ME, BESIDES ALL THE PEOPLE YOU HELP! #GODSEND❤
For the last 5 years, i thought I'd just become lazy. I've started projects to update my house and haven't finished one of them. I'm overwhelmed and at a stand still. Now I've given myself 2 things a day a must do. Whether it's a simple as taking the trash out or sorting laundry, i feel a sense of accomplishment. I'm grateful for you explaining how disorders work. ❤
Not a psychiatrist, but starting a project - like home repair - and not finishing could be a symptom of a large mental health issue. It might be worth looking into further. But it sounds like you've got an amazing start! Glad you're feeling empowered and everything you do counts. Keep up the hard work. Cheers!
@@kellyngrey4950It’s also textbook ADHD. He talks a lot about that. Be careful suggesting the possibility of mental health issues when you don’t have all the data.
You are winning! I got sick sick sick and lost a small human worth of weight. Sometimes just a little win is like a power ball lottery just because you got there!
One lesson I gather from these videos is just the sheer amount of stuff we consume over the course of a few years time. Rarely do we ever see a pile of all of our stuff (trash and otherwise) from a long period of time all in one place. It makes me realize what a consumer culture we have and I find myself pausing before I buy stuff and thinking about whether I really need it.
I always think about this when I watch these videos. I think part of the problem is our culture of consumerism. We’re told our lives will be so much better if we just buy x or y, and people with mental illness can get so desperate to feel better they start spending money they don’t have buying items that provide false promises of magically improving everything if they just shell out enough. If you buy all these clothes you’ll feel more confident, for example. And then they get the brief high of buying that new magical thing but after that wears off they’re right back where they started, if not worse off since they have less money and possibly more debt than they did before they bought it. It’s a nasty cycle for the person, for society and the environment.
I buy abandoned storage units, it feels much the same, just piles 8 feet tall and 10wide x 10 foot long of stuff. They all seem to have a microwave, crockpot/instapot, some random super old HP e-machine from Walmart, and clothes so many clothes. Don't store clothes, they aren't worth wasting your money on storing them. The elastic gets hot and rots, if you don't get an inside unit you will have spiders. The one that really gets me is Food. Its always so gross to clean out a unit with food that has been in there like 3-5 years. The smell, gag. And if the furniture came from Walmart, just throw it out. It'll just be cheaper to replace. Particle board also comes apart with moisture, and only the temperature controlled units are safe from drawing moisture.
Yes! That’s such a great point. Never thought of hoarding that way. I remember seeing a video showing many of the clothes being donated (from the USA) were being burned as the country they were donated to had no use for them. 😮 that’s the first time I had the same thought. 🫤
Moose druid sounds like the name of a heavy metal band that's been around for ages, gone their separate ways, and have now reunited again for a tour, and I kinda want tickets.
It's so eye-opening to see the sheer volume of stuff. If all the stuff I've bought, consumed, thrown away throughout my lifetime was all piled in front of me, it would be massive. Makes you think a lot about consumption and where all our crap goes once we are done with it.
After 3 years in my own mental health mess, I just cleaned up 50+ boxes and boxed-sized items (like a covered kitty litter box - we haven't had a cat in 2 years), out of my basement. I have believed for a long time that the state of our homes is a direct reflection of our own mental health. Mine is getting cleaner by the day.
I love the moose jokes! I heard a song many years ago at a Ren Faire Moose Mooose I love a Moose…and it makes me think of that song every time he starts talking about them lol
I am writing this so you know that what you do is very beneficial to a viewer. I found your channel maybe a year ago now and started watching, then subscribing to learn how to do this. My Mom is what you call a shopping hoarder, on top of that she grew up at a time when you threw nothing away. Follow that with some emotional trauma and depression and her house rivals any of those you show on your channel where it is clean but so filled up you cannot move without knocking things over. Her health has gotten very poor and we had to move her in with us while she is recovering. Not knowing if she will ever be able to go back to her house, we recently started clearing out here house by using a lot of the things you do when you start a house. We work with a smaller piece to get started, getting that 2'x2' square, sorting things into like items, and setting smaller goals, and we are actually starting to see progress. We live almost 4 hours away so we are going there every other weekend to clean & clear the house to make it safe for her in the event she is able to return. If she is not the house will finally be in a condition that can be sold. Without your channel, and your explanations of how the behavior works, we would not be able to tackle this project. We guess it will take us almost a year to get through everything (2 story, 4 bedroom, with basement and garage all packed at least 6' high in every direction) and thank to you we are able to treat her things and this entire situation with kindness and compassion. THANK YOU for all you do to help these people, and indirectly, thank you for also helping us. PS. We have yet to find a moose, but since we are in Northern Minnesota, I guess anything is possible. My husband did say if we find one he will spin kick it on your behalf. ;)
Hej. I'm from Germany. I have a friend who has horder disorder I think. I help her cleaning her home at least 3 times. And it was never possible to just throw out thinks! Everytime it toke me 1 week to clean three bedrooms, 1 kitchen and living room. What you doing for this people is incredible. Thank you for helping this people.
Hey you can check for selfhelp groups in your area. You can often get help there for yourself too. Sometimes it is more easy then getting therapy. Hey, du kannst mal nach Selbsthilfegruppen googlen. Es gibt oft Programme für Angehörige von betroffenen. Wahrscheinlich können die dich auch bezüglich deiner Freund*in beraten.
@@drkatbuchananbcba6759 I can't answer *fully* for him but he has said in the past that: 1) the full reset really helps a lot of people but that there is high likelihood it will trend toward this condition again and that it is active work to keep it at least partly cleaner than it was. 2) that there ARE resources from sometimes government, sometimes local churches to help out if family and friends aren't already. 3) Companies will charge (except cases such as his in extreme situations-- he does have a paid side!) but upkeep every 2 weeks or 1 month is WAY cheaper than cleaning from emergency states. 4) he encourages non judgemental approaches and promotes that this is typically Mental Health or situation related and is something that is uncontrollable and internal shame is a good teaching feeling but shaming them for being lazy isn't, and that he would help again if needed/if he could because he will not punish asking for help and that asking for help is vitally important and a scary step. That them getting help is actually TEACHING them how to be better, they get to LEARN how to keep things clean without being overwhelmed. Hope that helps! Edit: so I believe yes, and yes; more firm on the second one as he has had videos where he says the owner will become a regular client
Guten Tag! Ich war im Bavaria. Gut es ist that you are doing for them. It is a brain disorder. With specialty counselor it will get better. Auf weidersehen.
I don't usually comment on TH-cam videos, but I just wanted to thank you for what you do. I am autistic and my parents and sister are undiagnosed autistic/ADHD. My mom and sister are both hoarders with pathological demand avoidance, so they never cleaned, and if they were asked to, that 'demand' would be turned into a kind of fuel to make the mess pile higher, or it would be blamed on everyone else but themselves to avoid the responsibility. As children, my sister and I shared a room and the mess was always blamed on me. My parents never believed me that it wasn't, I'd be forced to clean up her mess as punishment. When we were old enough to have our own rooms, it surprised them that my room was always the tidy one and hers was the messy one. The rest of our house besides my room looked similar to this house, clothes and trash and black mold, but there was cleared paths for foot traffic. They also moved to another house to get out of the mess. I used to harbor a lot of ill feelings toward them for them making me out to be a liar my entire childhood despite finding it hard to lie as someone with autism, for their messes causing overstimulation and contributing heavily to my anxiety and depression, feeling out of control in my own home, for never being able to have friends over because I was so embarrassed. I now show symptoms of OCD, and being in uncleaned and unorganized spaces triggers me badly and actually causes panic attacks, even just a pair of pants on my floor makes me panic and feel dirty. Now as an adult, I gained a rough understanding of why they did the things they did after educating myself on neurodivergency post-diagnosis. But what really has helped me the most has been watching your videos and the way that you explain hoarders' and ADHD points of view. I've even offered them tips on organization and ways to keep clean that I've seen from your videos.
I grew up in a very clean home. My mom was neat and tidy. Her favorite saying was everything has a place, everything in their place. I’ve been assured my grandmother was the same way and my aunts were all very clean. Growing up, my younger sister was so messy. I shared a room with her. I kept my side tidy; my sister pushed everything under her bed. My mom would rake everything out and it would start again. She is now a hoarder. Ironically, she was diagnosed with ADHD in her late twenties. Thankfully her bf keeps her in check. He built her a garden and she puts a lot of time and effort into it. She can grow year round here in California (thankfully) and she has something to keep her busy, and not hoarding.
So glad she has resources to keep her on track. I have helped clean up plant hoarders’ and garden hoarders’ houses though so good thing her partner is supportive yet vigilant.
@@glauvie My mother had a good friend like that. You could barely wend your way from the driveway to the front door due to all the plants in pots. They covered most of her large front yard.
My grandpa would say that!!!! It's helped me with a lot of my own messes-sometimes things sit on the table because they don't have a place, a "home"; so I need to find it one. E.g., I bought a three-drawer stack and use the top drawer for new mail and things that need to be addressed, and the second drawer for things to be filed long-term, etc. :)
Jason’s little bundle is very blessed to have such a hardworking daddy and good housing 👶🏼. A tall smart granddad doesn’t hurt her chances in life either. 😊
Two things: 1) The mythical Moose Druids (Moosis Magicalis Druidicas) are known to usually inhabit regions of the British and Irish Isles as well as northern Europe. However, through the use of The Fey Court slipgates, and the fact they are still Moose, they often end up incorrectly setting the coordinates, and so, as you've noticed, they will often end up under piles of clutter throughout the world. 2) On the subjects of pitchforks, now I would like to see an artist rendering of the famous painting, "American Gothic", with you and Jason in place of the original couple - even if it's only a face swap.
Thank you so much for your help in removing the stigma of being autistic, ADD/ADHD, metal illness and depression. We all need to remember that we are all different and that’s okay. There’s nothing to be ashamed of to seek help or therapy ❤ thank you for you ❤
We have GOT to help vulnerable people better in this country, this problem is far too common and the people who need help will often never get it. If I was President I would expand disability benefits to home organizing and hire and train a bunch of people to clean homes like you do.
I wish we could at least afford to provide the elderly with home visits for basic cleaning. So many older people are just physically unable to care for their homes but want to stay in their homes. A cleaning service in the long run would be cheaper than a nursing home.
I don’t know if you’ve heard this lately, but, THANK YOU! For doing what you do to help people! Congratulations to Jason and to you , babies are precious!
Just recapping what you said about supporting Jason via PayPal to help with the repairs for his family, you’re so right. We do it and have done it because we love you guys. Weirdly enough saying that to someone we have never met. We are grateful, thankful and in awe of what you do to help others so isn’t it only fitting we give back to you? You’re a good person, we love you all. ❤
I think I might be watching too many cleaning videos... I had a very vivid dream last night that I helped a guy clean out his late mothers hoarded home. Her name was Susan and we had to check every box and bag because she stashed money in some of them, which the son really needed. The guy was crying a little when I kept refusing to take any of the money.
That dream is what I am living for the past 5 years, despite my own (undiagnosed) ADHD and my own messy apartment! My brother and I inherited our parents' house and they were massive hoarders: the house was full to the brim (basement, first floor, second floor, and the space under the roof too 😢). Luckily, we are not in a hurry to clear it out, because we don't want to sell it yet. There are no bugs, just tons of stuff (much of it in good condition, sometimes with price tags still attached!), but it's A LOT to deal with. We can only work on it every other weekend, because we have full time jobs and it's not nearby 🤷🏻♀️ We have to touch absolutely EVERYTHING because our sweet squirrel parents (that's what we call them now 😉) have hidden money, jewellery, important documents, and other valuable things in old handbags, in plastic bags, in cartons, and below furniture. But by now, all rooms are accessible and all windows can be opened 🎉 It took ages to get here - and we still have ages to go 😅
Modern Makeovers is one of the best furniture restoration channels on TH-cam, IMHO. Not only does he totally transform furniture that most people would send to the landfill, he does it with other materials he has salvaged from previous projects. And as you said, his humor and editing are 💯
It's really one of the great things to come out of social media that folks like yourself can get to a point financially where they can afford to provide free, much-needed services to the community. Who knew? Well done!
This is long but as a person with "hospital strength" hoarding disorder and other issues I wanted to give some more feedback on more ways I'm finding that what you do and how you do it is immensely helpful to me and I'm sure to others, that includes people being so supportive in their comments, and something I say may turn out to be helpful to someone somehow. You and your family, your crew (and assorted moose) do a fantastic job in so many ways. Thank you for keeping the nastiness out of the comments section, that alone must be a job and a half, and it's a huge, huge help, because reading so many people being supportive of others is helping me to gradually rewire my self-criticism and take the edge off of shame and humiliation and that goes a long way towards continuing to tackle cleaning up and to do all the things I need to do to keep afloat. Another unecpected benefit I've noticed is as you, and Jason or whoever may be with you, consistently work through the stuff, you're modeling that cleaning up can be done without judgement or negativity, grumbling or even pressure or expectation. To try to explain, I'm certain for most of us struggling with these sorts of issues, trying to clean up has long been heavily associated with receiving everything from exasperation and disdain to shaming, insults, arguments, rage and abusiveness (I'm not at all saying it's not understandable that people get frustrated), and that we've then used that same energy and language on ourselves just trying to do what everyone else seems to do easily and the more we struggle, the harder we berate ourselves, and it makes for associating doing the work (or tidying/cleaning at all) with horrible, distressing, self-defeating feelings and no sense of relief or accomplishment for any action, which makes it even harder to do at the best of times, let alone when you're pushing a boulder up a steep hill because you're unwell. Watching you and the other awesome people who do what you do has been helping me begin to rewire that, which has been helping me keep going and get more and more done. That's another really important effect of your content, and I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling at least some benefits from those things alone. Yet another important benefit I've realised is seeing you repeatedly and systematically work all the way through from mountains of dreadful to tidy and clean has been shifting the perception in my mind that my mess is some utterly impossible, impenetrable monolithic thing. That's hard for me to explain, it feels like it's part of the clutter-blindess/blocking perception distortion sort of thing, part of the "there's no one piece of stuff, it's one big mountain so it's impossible to move any of it" thing. But also, somehow it truly feels like the mass of stuff has become like an immovable part of the house, you feel like you can no more affect it than you could just knock out half of the building including the foundations on your own with a teaspoon, and if you did, half the actual house would be gone as if it's fallen down a sinkhole, so then you'd have a torn in half house to deal with. The stuff IS the house, the house is the stuff. It's a weird messed up perception. You end up not being able to imagine an alternate future where the stuff could even be dented, let alone gone, it's just a permanence that you may not even realise you're seeing that way, it's just part of the wall of imposibility, some part of you fully believes it's just not possible even as you're trying to work on it, you're living a lie even trying. I'm now working into more difficult areas that haven't been touched in more than 5 (some more than 10) years, and that immovable monolith feeling is different, shifting a bit more, and not just because I'm getting some areas done, it's also because while I feel like I'm chipping away at one edge at the base of my mountain and can't see my way through, I CAN see where YOU'VE moved different mountains, over and over again, some even bigger and more difficult than mine, and it's like you're the light at the end of another tunnel that shows me there could be light at the end of mine, and I'm copying what you do in my limited way in the hope I can see light at the end of the tunnel I'm working on, that maybe MY mountain really can be moved like so many of yours have. I would not be able to see that just shoveling in the dark with my teaspoon when my mind wants to convince me what I'm doing is futile and there's no way out or through. I think I mixed all my metaphors but I hope that makes some sort of sense. You're an important part of my recovery, thank you for everything you do for everyone, you're changing lives in so many ways.
As a parent of an adult child who suffers from serious mental illness, I compliment you for sharing. This channel has helped so many people. Glad to hear it's been so helpful for you, too.
Thank you for sharing your story. I have had tremendous anger towards hoarders in denial for years (long story), and I hate that anger. I love this channel because watching it regularly, I have been able to soften these emotions, especially due to posts like yours, and these days I am so proud of everyone like you who tries their hardest to combat this disorder. I am VERY proud of you, and I wish you every blessing. ❤
You do such an amazing job explaining how it feels when you go to do the thing everyone else around you says is easy when really all the negative associations make a hard job feel impossible. It's especially hard when you grow up in cluttered spaces and it just starts to feel normal. Kind of like going nose blind does to smells. Idk if I would be classified a hoarder but there are definitely some piles of clutter that need to be tackled. This channel and comments like yours make it seem less impossible and allow me to just start, which is always the hardest part for me.
@@jsabri6324 I understand your anger because I have felt that way at times toward some hoarders who were in my life (not family members). It’s hard to understand if you don’t have the disorder. I don’t have the disorder and I have a hard time understanding it. My ex-boyfriend and I split due to him not removing mold from his basement. He’s a hoarder and he’s from a family of hoarders.
I really like your voiceovers, you seem like such a nice guy. I also love your moose jokes and the "they call me xxx-johnny" jokes, cracks me up every time. Beyond that, i love that you advocate so much for people to be more empathetic. This is so important and often forgotten for the sake of views and subscriber counts. Personally i deal with a lot of anxiety (generalized, social and health anxiety) and have met so many people who will basically say "there's nothing to be afraid of, you are just being stupid". so i think i can imagine how people with other mental illnesses must feel when people see a house like that and call them "just lazy". It's really not that easy!
You are not the only one to get excited when the door can open/shut again...I did it with my closet door for the first time in 2 years! This channel has been really helpful in getting me to rethink how cleaning actually works (figuring out what you want to keep and shifting it around the room like a puzzle box until you've made places for it all) and I've ended up making lots of progress myself. Three trash bags just for my bedroom closet! Still more to do but I feel so hopeful now. Also made me realize how fragile our homes really are and that we are much closer to the edge than we think we are when it comes to holding on to stuff.
That's great! Several internet strangers are proud of you for your progress. You might like the channel Hoarder's Heart, as well. (Not that I think you're a hoarder; it helped me out, and I'm not a hoarder, either.)
Again, REALLY impressed how clean you got these bathrooms without water! You gave more than a "leg up" to the mold removal team and the deep cleaners. These 3 transformations were amazing! Thanks for the update on Jason's house! So glad it's coming along so well. Our prayers to him and all of his family 🙏
I've posted a few times, but I got adhd with autism, and I do have some bad issues, my house isn't an absolute disaster like many of the houses you feature, but it's bad enough(I got some hoarding issues, cleaning issues, stuff everywhere and unorganized, etc), and your vids have given me valuable guidance and motivation to organize and clean things. I still have an everest ahead of me, but I'm chipping away at it and I've become mindful of behaviors that are damaging and just make the situation worse. On top of that, your video cleanings are incredibly cathartic and keep proving to me that not only could my situation be infinitely worse than it is, I can actually get my place sorted if I just put effort into it and keep the right mindset.
Well done you chipping away regardless! 🎉 I've found it's best to do one small area at a time... Like a table top or a counter...so you feel you've accomplished something...that you're not just chipping away at a mountain and you don't get a visual reward for your efforts.... It also helped me to have a principle of if I bring something new to the house then I must also exit something from the house.... Oh, and speaking of rewards for your efforts, I reward myself with a beer. A small not too bad room is a one beer room...but like a kitchen with a mountain of dishes and not a clear countertop in sight, is probably a 3 beer room.
Love the "3-foot" guidance - keeps everything from feeling so overwhelming. We have a lot of neurodiversity in our household and get burnt out very easily. I use your videos to get amped up to clean my own house - virtual body doubling from afar! :)
Thank you for helping others to understand how difficult mental illness is to see. It is even harder to live with. Feeling depressed, anxious, and scared all the time is a horrible, difficult way to live. No one chooses this. Some just handle it better. Others will see the struggle and reach out help.
@@moon-moth1 Thank you for your kind words. It always amazes me that people only see the physical. The mental or emotional is scary or unknown, even intimidating. Also worth the jjourney.
Oh my gosh!! I feel so flattered!! Thank you! I love your channel and message and I hope to help more people out in the future in my videos, too. Thank you so much for the shoutout!
I have unwittingly inherited a hoarder with ptsd yikes. I am selling the house.I gave him a 6 week vacate notice before I knew about his ptsd..When that seemed impossible for him I extended his stay Now it's evident that no one in town wants to rent to him. So I found a way for him to stay at least 2 more months... Mostly I need the time to find people to help him. I live out-of-state He served as a paratrooper in Afghanistan. It is heartbreaking
My daughter's room gets in such a similar state every month. Even though she lives with us. She has ADHD, autism, BPD, CFS, and depression, and even though I have to deep clean it every month back to clean, she does not maintain it. She gets overwhelmed when she tries to clean herself and asks me for help. I tried to clean daily or even weekly, but she is a stay-at-home and dwells in her room because of illness type, and she gets very stressed with me coming in and moving things. It's a vicious cycle. So now I have to let it get bad until she asks me for help, and each time, it's a full day of emptying trash, washing, food and dishes, and deep cleaning. We have tried many methods to get her to learn to upkeep. Until my daughter, I was one of those people who thought relatives were lazy (we have many issues in our family). As a kid, I was the one who would visit relatives to clean their homes (I am autistic, and I am like you, and cleaning is my hobby). I would ask my mum to accompany her to visit our relatives, and while she helped them with cooking or doing things in their main room, I would go pick the worst rooms and plow into them. I started doing it when I was about 12 and throughout my teens. I have cleaned some pretty bad places. Now I have a kid who I see struggles, and even though I still cannot relate to it (again, autism), I have way more compassion now as it's not how she was raised. Her brother and I have OCD, and we are meticulous about having neat spaces. I need control of organization and tidiness to feel calm, so her room is closed until she asks me to deal with it.
I hope your daughter can get some help long term! You won't be around forever to help her. That combination of diagnoses sounds really rough, and I hope that if she has been through any kind of trauma that proceeded things like the BPD or CFS, that she can work on healing. Usually clutter on the outside is a reflection of clutter on the inside. It sounds like she has held onto a lot of pain.
So I've autism, adhd, cptsd, depression, cfs, pots, eds, and fibromyalgia (basically a terrible cocktail of mental, physical, and neurological things goin on), I think it might help her to speak more positively when you clean for her. One of my big issues and why I am not as clean as I would like is because I feel like a burden and a fuck up. I have trauma around cleaning on top of trauma around judgement and being the family scapegoat. Now I'm obviously not saying that your daughter has my exact issues, but shame may be a part of what keeps her from accepting help or working on it herself. Guilt is when we feel we've done something bad whereas shame is when we think we *are* something bad. So if she's filled with shame like I am (over my living quarters, over my health, over my waisted "potential," etc), it may benefit her if you tell her how proud you are of her asking for help and for expressing her needs so directly. If she receives enough positive feedback, it might start to rewire the trauma brain. Good luck to you both! 💕
You can tell what a close bond you & Jason have by watching you guys work together. The few moments that one of you is working and the other isn't, the one who's watching is antsy and can't NOT help. It's awesome to see the love between you two.
I really am SO amazed at the lack of bugs and rodents in this house for all the food containers that were in the space. At least the owner of this house had that reprieve in what I can imagine was a stressful situation. I grew up with an aunt with hoarding disorder, and I only wish this channel existed when I was younger so I could understand and pass on the empathy to my father and extended family. Congrats to Jason and the family's future new bundle of joy! I think your collective regular viewers will agree she's coming into a great support team.
Thanks for mentioning AP and his Clean The City channel. He needs lots of support. His message is so important! Also, thank you for doing what you do as well! Love your videos!
I cant say thank you enough for what you and your family do to leave your mark on this world. Not only your heartfelt and empathetic free cleanings, but also helping to educate people on mental health disorders and their side effects. ❤
It’s so great that your audience has been able to help Jason fix up his house like that! My husband and I just had a baby and we’re moving into a house that needs some work lol, so I know how thrilled he must be to have that taken care of. 😊 Congratulations on your new granddaughter!!
Yaay, an Early Bird Special! I'm still amazed that the floor isn't destroyed. I would have thought the sheer weight of the stuff would have collapsed the floor, but it's intact. How ironic that the hoard actually protected the floor from more severe damage. You guys got really lucky on that house. That ceiling in the bathroom looks evil, but that's for the professionals to deal with. We watch you for your empathy, compassion, and dad jokes. The haters can go stuff it.
Thank you so much for cleaning this enormous mess! Thank you for bringing light and clarity to a difficult situation and helping this family move forward!!!
I'm glad how you never judge someone's circumstances and always understand. ADHD and hoarding are two serious mental health matters. One of my relatives has this issue and I'm a clean freak, but I know if I went through his house it would make things much worse because they would refill it even more aggressively. They are getting help and therapy. Thanks for being understanding. I love your channel. Edit: Al Bladez is awesome! Makes me want to start mowing random fields lol. He does great helping the elderly.
I love Al Bladez too! I love how he is open and honest about his depression. I think you are a young man, Giancarlo? I was very tidy and clean in my younger years. Now I’m getting older some chores seem insurmountable and my standards have relaxed a lot. Peace to you.
I got into bed and snuggled in…turned on TH-cam…and the best notification came up…you and a new video!! Thank you for being so empathetic and understanding to these people you are helping as well as making us as viewers laugh and learn. You are one of a kind for sure. ❤
Watching you both work to get these peoples lives back on track and help them begin again is wonderful. Thank you both. P.s. dancing with the Moose Druids on a full moon is good luck!
you mentioned the central ac vents being covered by trash, at which point i realized youre doing all this is in likely very uncomfortable heat. such hard work!
Jessica from How to ADHD recommended your channel! The work you did on this house is incredible. Thank you for being an advocate for understanding and empathy with mental health conditions. I have ADHD and it made it difficult for a long time to keep things as clean as I wanted them to be. Getting a diagnosis, medications, and therapy have helped a LOT. Please keep up the great work!
I LOVE your opening statement. Thank you for helping to bring awareness to laziness vs. being overwhelmed and not knowing where to start. No person likes to live this way, but the struggle to start cleaning up is real.
I have had a lifetime of trauma, treatment resistant depression, CPTSD, and brain changes. This home could easily have been me. I'm fortunate to have an aide during the week because the simplest task is overwhelming. Your understanding attitude and the pile of Filth help me so much.
I truly admire what you do for folks. Years ago in another city a friend and I would go to homes that had sales and normally estate people come in and do their thing but sometimes not and those are the homes that had housed hoarders. My friend had cancer and passed and I moved away and no longer go to estate sales. But I do remember some really interesting situations. I cared for my mother in her home for 8 years. She was the opposite from a hoarder. The home was always spotless and she threw away so much it dismayed me. I had to grab things like letters and documents otherwise she would say who needs this old stuff and throw into the garbage. She is gone now. My niece lives with me and has adhd and three times I had to call for ambulance and they would go into her room and it was a disaster zone. Now she qualifies for home health care help, as she is disabled and I am 83 and she refuses to let me come in her room.
So great what you guys do there. I also help some (nice) people in need for free, even if they did not ask for it or suspected it. You should see their surprised face when they come home! That's what makes me happy, to know that they are truly happy! No disapproval, judging, blaming or disgusting feelings whatso-ever , just helping.
Love your positive attitude. Every time I went back to visit my family in West Virginia. I’d have to do the similar cleaning. Thanks for doing the biggest favor you could for anyone.
I’m so impressed with your dedication to helping people in need!!! This family has been courageous and I love how you are able to give them a chance to move forward on a better path!
“3 feet at a time” has been what works for me with ADHD. When my room gets into a state, I approach the 4 corners. My closet first, then the corner where that door is. Then the back left. Then a back right. Then my desk. If I can only do one corner of the room, that’s a corner that wasn’t clean before, and the difference a single clean section of room can make on the whole space is incredible. Step by step is always the best way to go.
Your absurd take on everything is really refreshing. I fully understand autism, add, adhd and depression. All these disabilities run in my family. We all have discovered that humor really does break the "spell" and I suppose that is why I find your particular sense of humor so delightful. Your willingness to help those who really need it is your "halo" and we need more of your kind of human in this world.
I get super stunned seeing all the accumulation of clothes and trash and think "oh my goodness, who does that?" Then a tiny voice in my brain says "Um, maybe you?". I don't throw takeaway boxes, juice bottles, empty food containers etc on the floor but boy oh boy can stack magazine's, ornaments, empty ice cream containers, those "cute" little fruit holders and those kind of things. Not on the floor but in overflowing cupboards 😮. My son and his wife have a thing of moving every 2 years sooooo....they do clutter control for me. Boom bam bang and everything is chucked out. I actually don't miss anything because I can't remember what was there. You guys are awesome and thank you for your caring and not condemning anothers weaknesses. And a BIG thank you for mentioning AP and Clean the City. Just love him, Al Bladz. Also love Kevin from Juggernaut. Thank you guys. Enjoy being a grandfather❤ 😊.
Great job, Mack and Jason. That must be so physically exhausting, shovelling trash interweaved with heavy clothing. I wouldn't know where to start, it looks so overwhelming and such a massive clean up. I'm glad the floors weren't ruined. The owner must feel a wonderful sense of relief and gratitude towards you and Jason for your work and help. Mental/physical illness can easily lead to this type of situation. I'm happy the family had your help. Great video!!❤
My Cleaning Angel. Job well done. The world needs more people like you. You are so special you are. Jason, I'm so glad people helped you to get your home in order for this little bundle of joy who's on the way. She already has great parents, and her grandpa will spoil her, and that's okay. I'm so glad this woman asked you for help. All the best to her. My Cleaning Angel ❤
I just LOVE your attitude, Mack! You and Jason are so very understanding and compassionate. I feel great that I'm privy to the way you two work. As always, thanks to both you and J. All my best to you, Em, J and your whole family. 🫎♥️♥️
I have Schizoaffective Disorder, GAD, depression and Chronic Fatigue syndrome. I’m lucky if my home stays clean for 2 days. I’m currently in an appeals process to get a PCA in my home which was denied by my insurance. Bless you for what you do!
Mack...Yes, I've watched Auri and she is amazing! She claims she is the best Cleaner in the World In my eyes that makes you the best Cleaner in the Universe!! 🤩 Seriously, you, Auri, Barbie, and Bonnie are 4 of the hardest-working and empathetic people on TH-cam. I will look at the sites you mentioned in the last few videos. Glad to know the donations have helped out Jason and his family...having a child is enough work to not have to add home improvement to the daily routines. Bless you and thanks again for sharing all your wise words! 💜🙏
As someone with ADHD, autism, and hoarding tendencies I wanna thank you for your kind words. I'm using your videos as background noise while I try to sort my place out now that I'm properly medicated and it's been a huge help.
Wow such an accomplishment on this one! Also I think I said it before, but I'll say it again, thanks for making sure your comment section is a safe space for all parties involved (us, you, and the client). I think people underestimate how important that is, but I have unsubscribed from channels that let their comment sections become a cesspool of hate, so I greatly appreciate the community you have cultivated and your no nonsense approach!
Hey Mack, I finally got the chance to name some foster kittens after your intro names. We have Cornbread Lovehog, orange boy, Scully Foxmulder, orange girl, and a very handsome ticked tabby named Dr. Ram Harddrive. When he gets out of the kitten room you'd better believe I walk around calling, "Dr. Harddrive? Paging Dr. Harddrive." It's dumb, but it makes me laugh and I hope it makes you laugh too
Love it! 😂 My next cat will definitely be named Biff Clownspanker. Greetings from Germany ❤
@@freya1598 My foster coordinator vetoed Biff Clownspanker and Chuck Floodhumper. She's probably right, the general public probably isn't ready for that 😆
@@katphish30Mack is so incredibly funny, he cracks me up every time. Especially with his intros and the Johnny thing.
❤ I want to sincerely THANK YOU for educating me! My best friend was a horder, shop aholic, alcoholic, and, and. I had NO IDEA what was going on for her, to my great regret! I would always clean, Organize, and help any way I could. She died in 2022, due to alcoholism. I never understood!! You can't Google what you don't know what to ask! You have also helped me to understand my daughter with her disabilities. MY OWN TOO! SO VERY THANKFUL FOR YOU HELPING ME, BESIDES ALL THE PEOPLE YOU HELP! #GODSEND❤
@katphish30 It might give the vet spasms of laughter!
For the last 5 years, i thought I'd just become lazy. I've started projects to update my house and haven't finished one of them. I'm overwhelmed and at a stand still. Now I've given myself 2 things a day a must do. Whether it's a simple as taking the trash out or sorting laundry, i feel a sense of accomplishment. I'm grateful for you explaining how disorders work. ❤
Not a psychiatrist, but starting a project - like home repair - and not finishing could be a symptom of a large mental health issue. It might be worth looking into further.
But it sounds like you've got an amazing start! Glad you're feeling empowered and everything you do counts. Keep up the hard work. Cheers!
Progress is more important than perfection. 2 things a day is huge! Keep it up. It will get easier. Little by little. ❤
@@kellyngrey4950It’s also textbook ADHD. He talks a lot about that. Be careful suggesting the possibility of mental health issues when you don’t have all the data.
You've got a great plan. Good luck.
You are winning! I got sick sick sick and lost a small human worth of weight. Sometimes just a little win is like a power ball lottery just because you got there!
One lesson I gather from these videos is just the sheer amount of stuff we consume over the course of a few years time. Rarely do we ever see a pile of all of our stuff (trash and otherwise) from a long period of time all in one place. It makes me realize what a consumer culture we have and I find myself pausing before I buy stuff and thinking about whether I really need it.
I always think about this when I watch these videos. I think part of the problem is our culture of consumerism. We’re told our lives will be so much better if we just buy x or y, and people with mental illness can get so desperate to feel better they start spending money they don’t have buying items that provide false promises of magically improving everything if they just shell out enough. If you buy all these clothes you’ll feel more confident, for example. And then they get the brief high of buying that new magical thing but after that wears off they’re right back where they started, if not worse off since they have less money and possibly more debt than they did before they bought it. It’s a nasty cycle for the person, for society and the environment.
I buy abandoned storage units, it feels much the same, just piles 8 feet tall and 10wide x 10 foot long of stuff. They all seem to have a microwave, crockpot/instapot, some random super old HP e-machine from Walmart, and clothes so many clothes. Don't store clothes, they aren't worth wasting your money on storing them. The elastic gets hot and rots, if you don't get an inside unit you will have spiders. The one that really gets me is Food. Its always so gross to clean out a unit with food that has been in there like 3-5 years. The smell, gag. And if the furniture came from Walmart, just throw it out. It'll just be cheaper to replace. Particle board also comes apart with moisture, and only the temperature controlled units are safe from drawing moisture.
Oh yes. I was homeless at 16. Then again when I was 22 w/3 yr old. OCD CLEANING TO WTF HAPPENED?
Yes! That’s such a great point. Never thought of hoarding that way.
I remember seeing a video showing many of the clothes being donated (from the USA) were being burned as the country they were donated to had no use for them. 😮 that’s the first time I had the same thought. 🫤
💯
Moose druid sounds like the name of a heavy metal band that's been around for ages, gone their separate ways, and have now reunited again for a tour, and I kinda want tickets.
For real tho 😆
Most of us watch because of your empathy, humor, and skills... You and filth there
You and lovely Jason ❤😉
@@christawe1876 totally what I meant to say lol, it was the druid moose that made me do it
Trashalanche - hilarious ❤
You guys crack me up. I can't believe Mr. Filth has got his own family and will be a father soon, too.
Moose jokes and fast motion cleanup got me
It's so eye-opening to see the sheer volume of stuff. If all the stuff I've bought, consumed, thrown away throughout my lifetime was all piled in front of me, it would be massive. Makes you think a lot about consumption and where all our crap goes once we are done with it.
After 3 years in my own mental health mess, I just cleaned up 50+ boxes and boxed-sized items (like a covered kitty litter box - we haven't had a cat in 2 years), out of my basement.
I have believed for a long time that the state of our homes is a direct reflection of our own mental health. Mine is getting cleaner by the day.
"A thriving colony of moose druids."
Brilliant.
Almost fell on the floor laughing. 😂
I read this as he said it 😂
I love the moose jokes! I heard a song many years ago at a Ren Faire Moose Mooose I love a Moose…and it makes me think of that song every time he starts talking about them lol
Don't bash my religion son! Jk. I'm not a moose. Yeah, certainly not a moose...
...Moo-ids? 🥁
I am writing this so you know that what you do is very beneficial to a viewer.
I found your channel maybe a year ago now and started watching, then subscribing to learn how to do this. My Mom is what you call a shopping hoarder, on top of that she grew up at a time when you threw nothing away. Follow that with some emotional trauma and depression and her house rivals any of those you show on your channel where it is clean but so filled up you cannot move without knocking things over. Her health has gotten very poor and we had to move her in with us while she is recovering.
Not knowing if she will ever be able to go back to her house, we recently started clearing out here house by using a lot of the things you do when you start a house. We work with a smaller piece to get started, getting that 2'x2' square, sorting things into like items, and setting smaller goals, and we are actually starting to see progress. We live almost 4 hours away so we are going there every other weekend to clean & clear the house to make it safe for her in the event she is able to return. If she is not the house will finally be in a condition that can be sold.
Without your channel, and your explanations of how the behavior works, we would not be able to tackle this project. We guess it will take us almost a year to get through everything (2 story, 4 bedroom, with basement and garage all packed at least 6' high in every direction) and thank to you we are able to treat her things and this entire situation with kindness and compassion.
THANK YOU for all you do to help these people, and indirectly, thank you for also helping us.
PS. We have yet to find a moose, but since we are in Northern Minnesota, I guess anything is possible. My husband did say if we find one he will spin kick it on your behalf. ;)
❤️❤️🫎
Hej.
I'm from Germany. I have a friend who has horder disorder I think.
I help her cleaning her home at least 3 times.
And it was never possible to just throw out thinks!
Everytime it toke me 1 week to clean three bedrooms, 1 kitchen and living room.
What you doing for this people is incredible.
Thank you for helping this people.
Do the people get any other help so this doesn't repeat? Have you ever followed up with people later to see how it's going?
Hey you can check for selfhelp groups in your area. You can often get help there for yourself too. Sometimes it is more easy then getting therapy.
Hey, du kannst mal nach Selbsthilfegruppen googlen. Es gibt oft Programme für Angehörige von betroffenen. Wahrscheinlich können die dich auch bezüglich deiner Freund*in beraten.
She is lucky you have you. It must be so hard.
@@drkatbuchananbcba6759 I can't answer *fully* for him but he has said in the past that:
1) the full reset really helps a lot of people but that there is high likelihood it will trend toward this condition again and that it is active work to keep it at least partly cleaner than it was.
2) that there ARE resources from sometimes government, sometimes local churches to help out if family and friends aren't already.
3) Companies will charge (except cases such as his in extreme situations-- he does have a paid side!) but upkeep every 2 weeks or 1 month is WAY cheaper than cleaning from emergency states.
4) he encourages non judgemental approaches and promotes that this is typically Mental Health or situation related and is something that is uncontrollable and internal shame is a good teaching feeling but shaming them for being lazy isn't, and that he would help again if needed/if he could because he will not punish asking for help and that asking for help is vitally important and a scary step. That them getting help is actually TEACHING them how to be better, they get to LEARN how to keep things clean without being overwhelmed.
Hope that helps!
Edit: so I believe yes, and yes; more firm on the second one as he has had videos where he says the owner will become a regular client
Guten Tag! Ich war im Bavaria.
Gut es ist that you are doing for them. It is a brain disorder. With specialty counselor it will get better.
Auf weidersehen.
I don't usually comment on TH-cam videos, but I just wanted to thank you for what you do.
I am autistic and my parents and sister are undiagnosed autistic/ADHD. My mom and sister are both hoarders with pathological demand avoidance, so they never cleaned, and if they were asked to, that 'demand' would be turned into a kind of fuel to make the mess pile higher, or it would be blamed on everyone else but themselves to avoid the responsibility.
As children, my sister and I shared a room and the mess was always blamed on me. My parents never believed me that it wasn't, I'd be forced to clean up her mess as punishment. When we were old enough to have our own rooms, it surprised them that my room was always the tidy one and hers was the messy one. The rest of our house besides my room looked similar to this house, clothes and trash and black mold, but there was cleared paths for foot traffic. They also moved to another house to get out of the mess.
I used to harbor a lot of ill feelings toward them for them making me out to be a liar my entire childhood despite finding it hard to lie as someone with autism, for their messes causing overstimulation and contributing heavily to my anxiety and depression, feeling out of control in my own home, for never being able to have friends over because I was so embarrassed. I now show symptoms of OCD, and being in uncleaned and unorganized spaces triggers me badly and actually causes panic attacks, even just a pair of pants on my floor makes me panic and feel dirty.
Now as an adult, I gained a rough understanding of why they did the things they did after educating myself on neurodivergency post-diagnosis. But what really has helped me the most has been watching your videos and the way that you explain hoarders' and ADHD points of view. I've even offered them tips on organization and ways to keep clean that I've seen from your videos.
I grew up in a very clean home. My mom was neat and tidy. Her favorite saying was everything has a place, everything in their place. I’ve been assured my grandmother was the same way and my aunts were all very clean. Growing up, my younger sister was so messy. I shared a room with her. I kept my side tidy; my sister pushed everything under her bed. My mom would rake everything out and it would start again. She is now a hoarder. Ironically, she was diagnosed with ADHD in her late twenties. Thankfully her bf keeps her in check. He built her a garden and she puts a lot of time and effort into it. She can grow year round here in California (thankfully) and she has something to keep her busy, and not hoarding.
So glad she has resources to keep her on track. I have helped clean up plant hoarders’ and garden hoarders’ houses though so good thing her partner is supportive yet vigilant.
@@glauvie My mother had a good friend like that. You could barely wend your way from the driveway to the front door due to all the plants in pots. They covered most of her large front yard.
Gardening is good for your soul.
My grandpa would say that!!!! It's helped me with a lot of my own messes-sometimes things sit on the table because they don't have a place, a "home"; so I need to find it one. E.g., I bought a three-drawer stack and use the top drawer for new mail and things that need to be addressed, and the second drawer for things to be filed long-term, etc. :)
Jason’s little bundle is very blessed to have such a hardworking daddy and good housing 👶🏼. A tall smart granddad doesn’t hurt her chances in life either. 😊
I am so glad that you don't use a pitchfork. Because if you did you could easily poke a moose. Poor mooses! Have a great day!!
Mac, you are so right about the haters! Most of us see that you're trying to help people that truly need it. And the Moose are just an added bonus!
There are people who hate on this guy? Let me fight them.
Two things:
1) The mythical Moose Druids (Moosis Magicalis Druidicas) are known to usually inhabit regions of the British and Irish Isles as well as northern Europe. However, through the use of The Fey Court slipgates, and the fact they are still Moose, they often end up incorrectly setting the coordinates, and so, as you've noticed, they will often end up under piles of clutter throughout the world.
2) On the subjects of pitchforks, now I would like to see an artist rendering of the famous painting, "American Gothic", with you and Jason in place of the original couple - even if it's only a face swap.
The new American Gothic, needs to be their profile pic!
@@michaelk8860 ai can show it to you
I am Scottish living in Scotland and YES!! FROLICKING MOOSE DRUIDS ARE HERE!
They hate stalkers and lurking tourists so I will send pics... 😅
Thank you so much for your help in removing the stigma of being autistic, ADD/ADHD, metal illness and depression. We all need to remember that we are all different and that’s okay. There’s nothing to be ashamed of to seek help or therapy ❤ thank you for you ❤
What a great team you are! Fantastic work. Those floors were surprisingly beautiful.
As someone with mental illness and ADHD, I like this term "metal illness" better😆🧠🤟
I love that your viewer community has been helping Jason and his family get their house fixed up! Another fantastic video!
We have GOT to help vulnerable people better in this country, this problem is far too common and the people who need help will often never get it. If I was President I would expand disability benefits to home organizing and hire and train a bunch of people to clean homes like you do.
I wish we could at least afford to provide the elderly with home visits for basic cleaning. So many older people are just physically unable to care for their homes but want to stay in their homes. A cleaning service in the long run would be cheaper than a nursing home.
@@ncfriend5233 would be great... but the way the world is right now, can't trust strangers to do that.
❤Wonderful Idea❤
wonderful idea!
still recovering from my hoarding tendencies. having someone to help like you do can be life changing.
I don’t know if you’ve heard this lately, but, THANK YOU! For doing what you do to help people! Congratulations to Jason and to you , babies are precious!
Just recapping what you said about supporting Jason via PayPal to help with the repairs for his family, you’re so right. We do it and have done it because we love you guys. Weirdly enough saying that to someone we have never met. We are grateful, thankful and in awe of what you do to help others so isn’t it only fitting we give back to you? You’re a good person, we love you all. ❤
I think I might be watching too many cleaning videos... I had a very vivid dream last night that I helped a guy clean out his late mothers hoarded home. Her name was Susan and we had to check every box and bag because she stashed money in some of them, which the son really needed. The guy was crying a little when I kept refusing to take any of the money.
Hilarious 😂
What a great dream! I think you may have internalized the compassion of this work, and that’s a good thing. 💜
Weird! I had that SAME DREAM! Yeah, Susan!
😂😂😂
This is both really funny and heartwarming. Dreaming of helping someone clean is a pretty neat thing.
Edit: skipped a word 😅
That dream is what I am living for the past 5 years, despite my own (undiagnosed) ADHD and my own messy apartment! My brother and I inherited our parents' house and they were massive hoarders: the house was full to the brim (basement, first floor, second floor, and the space under the roof too 😢). Luckily, we are not in a hurry to clear it out, because we don't want to sell it yet. There are no bugs, just tons of stuff (much of it in good condition, sometimes with price tags still attached!), but it's A LOT to deal with. We can only work on it every other weekend, because we have full time jobs and it's not nearby 🤷🏻♀️ We have to touch absolutely EVERYTHING because our sweet squirrel parents (that's what we call them now 😉) have hidden money, jewellery, important documents, and other valuable things in old handbags, in plastic bags, in cartons, and below furniture. But by now, all rooms are accessible and all windows can be opened 🎉 It took ages to get here - and we still have ages to go 😅
You inspired me to reach out for help. I made the first phone call in weeks and spoke to someone who came out that day. Now I have hope. Thank you x
Modern Makeovers is one of the best furniture restoration channels on TH-cam, IMHO. Not only does he totally transform furniture that most people would send to the landfill, he does it with other materials he has salvaged from previous projects. And as you said, his humor and editing are 💯
Dashner Design and Restoration is good as well. As with Mack, he has a soothing voice.
It's really one of the great things to come out of social media that folks like yourself can get to a point financially where they can afford to provide free, much-needed services to the community. Who knew? Well done!
You are an angel sent from heaven. Thank you for doing what you do with so much empathy, kindness, and understanding.
This is long but as a person with "hospital strength" hoarding disorder and other issues I wanted to give some more feedback on more ways I'm finding that what you do and how you do it is immensely helpful to me and I'm sure to others, that includes people being so supportive in their comments, and something I say may turn out to be helpful to someone somehow. You and your family, your crew (and assorted moose) do a fantastic job in so many ways. Thank you for keeping the nastiness out of the comments section, that alone must be a job and a half, and it's a huge, huge help, because reading so many people being supportive of others is helping me to gradually rewire my self-criticism and take the edge off of shame and humiliation and that goes a long way towards continuing to tackle cleaning up and to do all the things I need to do to keep afloat.
Another unecpected benefit I've noticed is as you, and Jason or whoever may be with you, consistently work through the stuff, you're modeling that cleaning up can be done without judgement or negativity, grumbling or even pressure or expectation. To try to explain, I'm certain for most of us struggling with these sorts of issues, trying to clean up has long been heavily associated with receiving everything from exasperation and disdain to shaming, insults, arguments, rage and abusiveness (I'm not at all saying it's not understandable that people get frustrated), and that we've then used that same energy and language on ourselves just trying to do what everyone else seems to do easily and the more we struggle, the harder we berate ourselves, and it makes for associating doing the work (or tidying/cleaning at all) with horrible, distressing, self-defeating feelings and no sense of relief or accomplishment for any action, which makes it even harder to do at the best of times, let alone when you're pushing a boulder up a steep hill because you're unwell. Watching you and the other awesome people who do what you do has been helping me begin to rewire that, which has been helping me keep going and get more and more done. That's another really important effect of your content, and I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling at least some benefits from those things alone.
Yet another important benefit I've realised is seeing you repeatedly and systematically work all the way through from mountains of dreadful to tidy and clean has been shifting the perception in my mind that my mess is some utterly impossible, impenetrable monolithic thing. That's hard for me to explain, it feels like it's part of the clutter-blindess/blocking perception distortion sort of thing, part of the "there's no one piece of stuff, it's one big mountain so it's impossible to move any of it" thing. But also, somehow it truly feels like the mass of stuff has become like an immovable part of the house, you feel like you can no more affect it than you could just knock out half of the building including the foundations on your own with a teaspoon, and if you did, half the actual house would be gone as if it's fallen down a sinkhole, so then you'd have a torn in half house to deal with. The stuff IS the house, the house is the stuff. It's a weird messed up perception. You end up not being able to imagine an alternate future where the stuff could even be dented, let alone gone, it's just a permanence that you may not even realise you're seeing that way, it's just part of the wall of imposibility, some part of you fully believes it's just not possible even as you're trying to work on it, you're living a lie even trying. I'm now working into more difficult areas that haven't been touched in more than 5 (some more than 10) years, and that immovable monolith feeling is different, shifting a bit more, and not just because I'm getting some areas done, it's also because while I feel like I'm chipping away at one edge at the base of my mountain and can't see my way through, I CAN see where YOU'VE moved different mountains, over and over again, some even bigger and more difficult than mine, and it's like you're the light at the end of another tunnel that shows me there could be light at the end of mine, and I'm copying what you do in my limited way in the hope I can see light at the end of the tunnel I'm working on, that maybe MY mountain really can be moved like so many of yours have. I would not be able to see that just shoveling in the dark with my teaspoon when my mind wants to convince me what I'm doing is futile and there's no way out or through. I think I mixed all my metaphors but I hope that makes some sort of sense.
You're an important part of my recovery, thank you for everything you do for everyone, you're changing lives in so many ways.
Thanks for these observations and for amplifying on them. This is helpful.
As a parent of an adult child who suffers from serious mental illness, I compliment you for sharing. This channel has helped so many people. Glad to hear it's been so helpful for you, too.
Thank you for sharing your story. I have had tremendous anger towards hoarders in denial for years (long story), and I hate that anger.
I love this channel because watching it regularly, I have been able to soften these emotions, especially due to posts like yours, and these days I am so proud of everyone like you who tries their hardest to combat this disorder.
I am VERY proud of you, and I wish you every blessing. ❤
You do such an amazing job explaining how it feels when you go to do the thing everyone else around you says is easy when really all the negative associations make a hard job feel impossible. It's especially hard when you grow up in cluttered spaces and it just starts to feel normal. Kind of like going nose blind does to smells. Idk if I would be classified a hoarder but there are definitely some piles of clutter that need to be tackled. This channel and comments like yours make it seem less impossible and allow me to just start, which is always the hardest part for me.
@@jsabri6324 I understand your anger because I have felt that way at times toward some hoarders who were in my life (not family members). It’s hard to understand if you don’t have the disorder. I don’t have the disorder and I have a hard time understanding it. My ex-boyfriend and I split due to him not removing mold from his basement. He’s a hoarder and he’s from a family of hoarders.
I really like your voiceovers, you seem like such a nice guy. I also love your moose jokes and the "they call me xxx-johnny" jokes, cracks me up every time.
Beyond that, i love that you advocate so much for people to be more empathetic. This is so important and often forgotten for the sake of views and subscriber counts. Personally i deal with a lot of anxiety (generalized, social and health anxiety) and have met so many people who will basically say "there's nothing to be afraid of, you are just being stupid". so i think i can imagine how people with other mental illnesses must feel when people see a house like that and call them "just lazy". It's really not that easy!
It seems like Jason is getting better and better at cleaning with every video.
All i can think of is "ohhh i want to stack all the cups and see how tall the stack is going to be" Good job both of you! ❤
We did in the 2nd video
@@MidwestMagicCleaning I know, and it was soooo satisfying 😍🤪
You are not the only one to get excited when the door can open/shut again...I did it with my closet door for the first time in 2 years!
This channel has been really helpful in getting me to rethink how cleaning actually works (figuring out what you want to keep and shifting it around the room like a puzzle box until you've made places for it all) and I've ended up making lots of progress myself. Three trash bags just for my bedroom closet! Still more to do but I feel so hopeful now. Also made me realize how fragile our homes really are and that we are much closer to the edge than we think we are when it comes to holding on to stuff.
That's great! Several internet strangers are proud of you for your progress.
You might like the channel Hoarder's Heart, as well. (Not that I think you're a hoarder; it helped me out, and I'm not a hoarder, either.)
Again, REALLY impressed how clean you got these bathrooms without water! You gave more than a "leg up" to the mold removal team and the deep cleaners. These 3 transformations were amazing! Thanks for the update on Jason's house! So glad it's coming along so well. Our prayers to him and all of his family 🙏
I've posted a few times, but I got adhd with autism, and I do have some bad issues, my house isn't an absolute disaster like many of the houses you feature, but it's bad enough(I got some hoarding issues, cleaning issues, stuff everywhere and unorganized, etc), and your vids have given me valuable guidance and motivation to organize and clean things. I still have an everest ahead of me, but I'm chipping away at it and I've become mindful of behaviors that are damaging and just make the situation worse. On top of that, your video cleanings are incredibly cathartic and keep proving to me that not only could my situation be infinitely worse than it is, I can actually get my place sorted if I just put effort into it and keep the right mindset.
Well done you chipping away regardless! 🎉 I've found it's best to do one small area at a time... Like a table top or a counter...so you feel you've accomplished something...that you're not just chipping away at a mountain and you don't get a visual reward for your efforts.... It also helped me to have a principle of if I bring something new to the house then I must also exit something from the house.... Oh, and speaking of rewards for your efforts, I reward myself with a beer. A small not too bad room is a one beer room...but like a kitchen with a mountain of dishes and not a clear countertop in sight, is probably a 3 beer room.
Just wanna encourage you to keep going... you're doing awesomely ❤❤
Keep up the good work, every little bit is a great accomplishment!
@endeavor3d - ditto
Love the update......thank you. Donating to fix Jason's house instead of shower gifts is genius. We'll done Grandpa.
Understanding my mental health issue in relation to my home environment issue is so so helpful.
I love the way you chat with us and the topics you bring. It's very unique, honest and gentle 💚
Amazing transformation. And thank you for relocating the moose druids; they are a critical part of the enchanted ecosystem!
Love the "3-foot" guidance - keeps everything from feeling so overwhelming. We have a lot of neurodiversity in our household and get burnt out very easily. I use your videos to get amped up to clean my own house - virtual body doubling from afar! :)
Thank you for helping others to understand how difficult mental illness is to see. It is even harder to live with. Feeling depressed, anxious, and scared all the time is a horrible, difficult way to live. No one chooses this. Some just handle it better. Others will see the struggle and reach out help.
@@moon-moth1 Thank you for your kind words. It always amazes me that people only see the physical. The mental or emotional is scary or unknown, even intimidating.
Also worth the jjourney.
Oh my gosh!! I feel so flattered!! Thank you! I love your channel and message and I hope to help more people out in the future in my videos, too. Thank you so much for the shoutout!
❤️❤️🫎
I have unwittingly inherited a hoarder with ptsd yikes. I am selling the house.I gave him a 6 week vacate notice before I knew about his ptsd..When that seemed impossible for him I extended his stay
Now it's evident that no one in town wants to rent to him.
So I found a way for him to stay at least 2 more months... Mostly I need the time to find people to help him. I live out-of-state He served as a paratrooper in Afghanistan. It is heartbreaking
Unbelievable transformation
Ooh. You might be his only hope of not being homeless. What a rough situation for you, but also a rough situation for him.
This owner does enjoy nice things because there are a lot of Longaberger baskets there. You are such a blessing to this family!
My daughter's room gets in such a similar state every month. Even though she lives with us. She has ADHD, autism, BPD, CFS, and depression, and even though I have to deep clean it every month back to clean, she does not maintain it. She gets overwhelmed when she tries to clean herself and asks me for help. I tried to clean daily or even weekly, but she is a stay-at-home and dwells in her room because of illness type, and she gets very stressed with me coming in and moving things. It's a vicious cycle. So now I have to let it get bad until she asks me for help, and each time, it's a full day of emptying trash, washing, food and dishes, and deep cleaning. We have tried many methods to get her to learn to upkeep. Until my daughter, I was one of those people who thought relatives were lazy (we have many issues in our family). As a kid, I was the one who would visit relatives to clean their homes (I am autistic, and I am like you, and cleaning is my hobby). I would ask my mum to accompany her to visit our relatives, and while she helped them with cooking or doing things in their main room, I would go pick the worst rooms and plow into them. I started doing it when I was about 12 and throughout my teens. I have cleaned some pretty bad places. Now I have a kid who I see struggles, and even though I still cannot relate to it (again, autism), I have way more compassion now as it's not how she was raised. Her brother and I have OCD, and we are meticulous about having neat spaces. I need control of organization and tidiness to feel calm, so her room is closed until she asks me to deal with it.
I hope your daughter can get some help long term! You won't be around forever to help her. That combination of diagnoses sounds really rough, and I hope that if she has been through any kind of trauma that proceeded things like the BPD or CFS, that she can work on healing. Usually clutter on the outside is a reflection of clutter on the inside. It sounds like she has held onto a lot of pain.
As a person just under 5’, clean a bathtub is hard. I can’t reach the top or to the other side. I need to stand a the ledge of the tub.
So I've autism, adhd, cptsd, depression, cfs, pots, eds, and fibromyalgia (basically a terrible cocktail of mental, physical, and neurological things goin on), I think it might help her to speak more positively when you clean for her. One of my big issues and why I am not as clean as I would like is because I feel like a burden and a fuck up. I have trauma around cleaning on top of trauma around judgement and being the family scapegoat. Now I'm obviously not saying that your daughter has my exact issues, but shame may be a part of what keeps her from accepting help or working on it herself. Guilt is when we feel we've done something bad whereas shame is when we think we *are* something bad. So if she's filled with shame like I am (over my living quarters, over my health, over my waisted "potential," etc), it may benefit her if you tell her how proud you are of her asking for help and for expressing her needs so directly. If she receives enough positive feedback, it might start to rewire the trauma brain. Good luck to you both! 💕
Thank you for being so kind. The world needs more people who are as non judgemental as you.
Thank you for respecting us where we are at and not judging us. This is by far the best channel that covers these topics.
Congratulations on the new baby! Such a beautiful name! Soooo awesome about Jason's house. Baby blessings galore!🙏❤️🍼🎀👣
You can tell what a close bond you & Jason have by watching you guys work together. The few moments that one of you is working and the other isn't, the one who's watching is antsy and can't NOT help. It's awesome to see the love between you two.
I really am SO amazed at the lack of bugs and rodents in this house for all the food containers that were in the space. At least the owner of this house had that reprieve in what I can imagine was a stressful situation. I grew up with an aunt with hoarding disorder, and I only wish this channel existed when I was younger so I could understand and pass on the empathy to my father and extended family.
Congrats to Jason and the family's future new bundle of joy! I think your collective regular viewers will agree she's coming into a great support team.
Thanks for mentioning AP and his Clean The City channel. He needs lots of support. His message is so important! Also, thank you for doing what you do as well! Love your videos!
There is no. Cold dead black heart in you Mack and we’ve all learned about giving from you - glad Jason’s home is getting better ❤
I’m going to write a letter to Mr. Clean corporate to ask them to sponsor your channel for the awesome work you’re doing!
In the past Mack has said he doesn't want sponsors because he doesn't want to be policed or censored (my words, not his).
They should send him free products no sponsorship needed.
I cant say thank you enough for what you and your family do to leave your mark on this world. Not only your heartfelt and empathetic free cleanings, but also helping to educate people on mental health disorders and their side effects. ❤
So surprised see your notification pop up so late, which means you're up late working. Thank you for all you and Jason do. ❤😊
It’s so great that your audience has been able to help Jason fix up his house like that! My husband and I just had a baby and we’re moving into a house that needs some work lol, so I know how thrilled he must be to have that taken care of. 😊 Congratulations on your new granddaughter!!
Yaay, an Early Bird Special! I'm still amazed that the floor isn't destroyed. I would have thought the sheer weight of the stuff would have collapsed the floor, but it's intact. How ironic that the hoard actually protected the floor from more severe damage. You guys got really lucky on that house. That ceiling in the bathroom looks evil, but that's for the professionals to deal with.
We watch you for your empathy, compassion, and dad jokes. The haters can go stuff it.
Thank you so much for cleaning this enormous mess! Thank you for bringing light and clarity to a difficult situation and helping this family move forward!!!
I'm glad how you never judge someone's circumstances and always understand. ADHD and hoarding are two serious mental health matters. One of my relatives has this issue and I'm a clean freak, but I know if I went through his house it would make things much worse because they would refill it even more aggressively. They are getting help and therapy.
Thanks for being understanding. I love your channel.
Edit: Al Bladez is awesome! Makes me want to start mowing random fields lol. He does great helping the elderly.
I love Al Bladez too! I love how he is open and honest about his depression. I think you are a young man, Giancarlo? I was very tidy and clean in my younger years. Now I’m getting older some chores seem insurmountable and my standards have relaxed a lot. Peace to you.
I never knew how desperately I needed to hear that my ADHD and depression are not my fault. Bless you, Mack. ❤
The reason you are my favorite cleaning channel is what you have to say. And the way you say it. Watching you from Poland 🇵🇱
I respect the heck out of anyone trying to raise the love and compassion quotient on Earth❤
I got into bed and snuggled in…turned on TH-cam…and the best notification came up…you and a new video!! Thank you for being so empathetic and understanding to these people you are helping as well as making us as viewers laugh and learn. You are one of a kind for sure. ❤
So happy to hear about Jason, his house and the new baby!! Congrats to your entire family on the new baby!!
Watching you both work to get these peoples lives back on track and help them begin again is wonderful. Thank you both. P.s. dancing with the Moose Druids on a full moon is good luck!
I appreciate your advocacy for mental health knowledge and people who are impacted.
you mentioned the central ac vents being covered by trash, at which point i realized youre doing all this is in likely very uncomfortable heat. such hard work!
Thanks for showing kindness to those in need.
You are truly a blessing to so many!!
A MMC video on a Wednesday night. What a treat!
Jessica from How to ADHD recommended your channel! The work you did on this house is incredible. Thank you for being an advocate for understanding and empathy with mental health conditions. I have ADHD and it made it difficult for a long time to keep things as clean as I wanted them to be. Getting a diagnosis, medications, and therapy have helped a LOT. Please keep up the great work!
Where did she mention me? Trying to track it down.
@@MidwestMagicCleaning I'm not for sure. I could be wrong and I might have just seen this video pop up on my TH-cam feed. I'll see if I can find it!
I love that you praise other TH-camrs. I will definitely look them up. Ty. 🇬🇧
I LOVE your opening statement. Thank you for helping to bring awareness to laziness vs. being overwhelmed and not knowing where to start. No person likes to live this way, but the struggle to start cleaning up is real.
I have had a lifetime of trauma, treatment resistant depression, CPTSD, and brain changes. This home could easily have been me. I'm fortunate to have an aide during the week because the simplest task is overwhelming. Your understanding attitude and the pile of Filth help me so much.
I truly admire what you do for folks. Years ago in another city a friend and I would go to homes that had sales and normally estate people come in and do their thing but sometimes not and those are the homes that had housed hoarders. My friend had cancer and passed and I moved away and no longer go to estate sales. But I do remember some really interesting situations. I cared for my mother in her home for 8 years. She was the opposite from a hoarder. The home was always spotless and she threw away so much it dismayed me. I had to grab things like letters and documents otherwise she would say who needs this old stuff and throw into the garbage. She is gone now. My niece lives with me and has adhd and three times I had to call for ambulance and they would go into her room and it was a disaster zone. Now she qualifies for home health care help, as she is disabled and I am 83 and she refuses to let me come in her room.
So great what you guys do there. I also help some (nice) people in need for free, even if they did not ask for it or suspected it. You should see their surprised face when they come home! That's what makes me happy, to know that they are truly happy! No disapproval, judging, blaming or disgusting feelings whatso-ever , just helping.
Late night Midwest magic cleaning post! My house always looked similar to this growing up, lovely to see such an amazing and compassionate job 🙌❤
Love your positive attitude. Every time I went back to visit my family in West Virginia. I’d have to do the similar cleaning. Thanks for doing the biggest favor you could for anyone.
I’m so impressed with your dedication to helping people in need!!! This family has been courageous and I love how you are able to give them a chance to move forward on a better path!
“3 feet at a time” has been what works for me with ADHD. When my room gets into a state, I approach the 4 corners. My closet first, then the corner where that door is. Then the back left. Then a back right. Then my desk. If I can only do one corner of the room, that’s a corner that wasn’t clean before, and the difference a single clean section of room can make on the whole space is incredible.
Step by step is always the best way to go.
You and your family are an inspiration! I’m sure this family cannot wait until they can move back in. Thanks for all you do!
Your absurd take on everything is really refreshing. I fully understand autism, add, adhd and depression. All these disabilities run in my family. We all have discovered that humor really does break the "spell" and I suppose that is why I find your particular sense of humor so delightful. Your willingness to help those who really need it is your "halo" and we need more of your kind of human in this world.
Wow what a challenging job. Thank you for what you do for these folks ❤
I get super stunned seeing all the accumulation of clothes and trash and think "oh my goodness, who does that?" Then a tiny voice in my brain says "Um, maybe you?". I don't throw takeaway boxes, juice bottles, empty food containers etc on the floor but boy oh boy can stack magazine's, ornaments, empty ice cream containers, those "cute" little fruit holders and those kind of things. Not on the floor but in overflowing cupboards 😮. My son and his wife have a thing of moving every 2 years sooooo....they do clutter control for me. Boom bam bang and everything is chucked out. I actually don't miss anything because I can't remember what was there. You guys are awesome and thank you for your caring and not condemning anothers weaknesses. And a BIG thank you for mentioning AP and Clean the City. Just love him, Al Bladz. Also love Kevin from Juggernaut. Thank you guys. Enjoy being a grandfather❤ 😊.
Great job, Mack and Jason. That must be so physically exhausting, shovelling trash interweaved with heavy clothing. I wouldn't know where to start, it looks so overwhelming and such a massive clean up. I'm glad the floors weren't ruined. The owner must feel a wonderful sense of relief and gratitude towards you and Jason for your work and help. Mental/physical illness can easily lead to this type of situation. I'm happy the family had your help. Great video!!❤
My Cleaning Angel.
Job well done. The world needs more people like you.
You are so special you are.
Jason, I'm so glad people helped you to get your home in order for this little bundle of joy who's on the way. She already has great parents, and her grandpa will spoil her, and that's okay.
I'm so glad this woman asked you for help. All the best to her.
My Cleaning Angel ❤
I just LOVE your attitude, Mack! You and Jason are so very understanding and compassionate. I feel great that I'm privy to the way you two work. As always, thanks to both you and J. All my best to you, Em, J and your whole family.
🫎♥️♥️
You and Jason do a great service for so many people. Thank you for caring for others.
I really appreciate y'all for helping people that need ❤ Thank you.
You are such a blessing to those people who need your service. I love watching the changes you make.
I have Schizoaffective Disorder, GAD, depression and Chronic Fatigue syndrome. I’m lucky if my home stays clean for 2 days. I’m currently in an appeals process to get a PCA in my home which was denied by my insurance. Bless you for what you do!
Mack...Yes, I've watched Auri and she is amazing! She claims she is the best Cleaner in the World In my eyes that makes you the best Cleaner in the Universe!! 🤩
Seriously, you, Auri, Barbie, and Bonnie are 4 of the hardest-working and empathetic people on TH-cam. I will look at the sites you mentioned in the last few videos. Glad to know the donations have helped out Jason and his family...having a child is enough work to not have to add home improvement to the daily routines. Bless you and thanks again for sharing all your wise words! 💜🙏
I so want to see the before and after pictures of Jason's house. I also completely understand if he's not okay with sharing.
I love your sense of humor. Watching you help people and having such a great attitude makes my day.
👽👽👽Between my counselor i just started seeing, ya'll are helping me purge all my stuff and get moved finally
Watching you clean that very dirty bathroom sink was so satisfying. Keep up the good work!
It was the Moose Druids. They cast the pests out
As someone with ADHD, autism, and hoarding tendencies I wanna thank you for your kind words. I'm using your videos as background noise while I try to sort my place out now that I'm properly medicated and it's been a huge help.
I think I have just accepted that this is my favorite channel on TH-cam right now 😂😂😂
What a mammoth effort!!!
So happy for Jason and his new family being able to get their house fixed up 🎉
Frolicking Moose Druids. Excellent band name! 😂
Sounds like an ice cream from Ben and Jerry’s
Wow such an accomplishment on this one!
Also I think I said it before, but I'll say it again, thanks for making sure your comment section is a safe space for all parties involved (us, you, and the client). I think people underestimate how important that is, but I have unsubscribed from channels that let their comment sections become a cesspool of hate, so I greatly appreciate the community you have cultivated and your no nonsense approach!
Thank you for explaining. I appreciate you and your son. 🌺