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@@acoffeewithsatan Whaaat? Are you one of those lesser people who don't order a mallet and a bag when they're out of ice (a substance not found anywhere in nature for free...) wow...
@@acoffeewithsatan People like the sense of the unknown. It's kinda the same as Christmas when you don't know what a person has gotten you or could even be compared to gambling. You may or may not get something you actually enjoy but that's part of the fun. At least that's how my friend who subscribes to several put it, I prefer to buy something I actually know what I'm getting but I can understand the concept of getting enjoyment out of the unknown.
@@acoffeewithsatan Very true but useless as they probably seem to us I doubt you'll find a decent quality cleaver or leather bag in pristine condition in a dumpster which is probably why. Still yeah in my opinion you could certainly make better use of your money, I'm just saying I understand where people who enjoy this sort of thing are coming from.
God, poor Homer! Sitting there stuck, paralyzed and blind, unable to get out of the house, able to smell his brother decomposing nearby, able to hear the rats scuttling around him... that has to be one of the worst deaths I've ever heard of. How awful.
The paralyzed brother had to sit there while his brother died just feet away. He was blind so he could not see it, but no doubt heard the noise and the calls for help from his brother.
@@d.e.waters883 Wow! I hadn’t thought about the details like that. That’s the stuff of nightmares. Assuming he didn’t die of the cold (not sure what NYC would be like in March), I guess he would have died of dehydration. Just awful.
Fun fact: having studied the Collyers and watched all the hoarding TV shows and documentaries, I'm still stunned to admit that the Collyer's case is the ONLY ONE I've found that was worse than my mother's hoarding house in a big Victorian in Peoria, IL. Since the house was beautifully preserved when we moved in, this was heart-breaking and incredibly difficult to deal with. We made a heroic effort to clean it out, but ultimately we lost the house entirely. Many professional crime scene and disaster cleanup companies will clean out a meth lab or worse, but will not touch a hoarding house. And once you learn what to look for, you realize there is at least one in every. neighborhood. in every. city. in America. It is an enormous unreported epidemic. :(
I dated a girl and was curious why we never visited her mother at her house always met at restaurants. I found out her mom was a hoarder and live with like 15 cats shitting and pissing everywgere all over the horde. Never went to the house but apparently it could be smelled while driving by in a car.
@@semaj_5022 Nope. I've had second degree burns. The pain is unimaginable. Accidentally touched glowing hot steel in the factory. Basically vaporized the skin that touched. Not as painful as electrocution. Got hit with 230 v, 16 amps in high humidity. Felt like burning but every cell in my body. Later realized the screaming I heard was my own. Luckily my heart was young back then.
@@RainbowFlowerCrow I was unlucky with the electricity. I didn't realize the washing machine was powered by a multisocket with a suicide cable in the first slot going downstairs. Pulles the plug never expecting it to be live and it stuck to my hand. That was in a pretty poor country where suicide cable into a multisocket is a common type of extension cord lol...
I have twice encountered a hoarder's home. First. when a neighbor who was a family friend, passed away. And second when I worked for a Time Warner Call Center. Part of our training was to spend a day in the field with installers. Gained a new respect for what those guys go through.
I had a man work on my heater recently. Not knowing when he would arrive, I was sorting laundry in the living room and was frantically trying to hide it away and apologizing for the mess when he arrived. He laughed and told me that I should see some of the homes he goes to. My piles of laundry didn't even phase him.
I'm not a hoarder (I don't fit the dx) but I have struggles that look the same to outsiders, I'm sorry you dealt with that. The times I've exposed people to my struggle that seems so easy to fix, I felt so guilty. That probably doesn't help, I just try to make sure the area they need is cleaned out and if cluttered all is sanitary.
@@trawlins396 To help understand what happens when we send out a tech to a customers homes. What all is required to get them back up and running. It helps by keeping unnecessary repair calls being sent out out for things that can be solved in house. Just wish the Techs could spend a day or so with our end.
Untreated is an two sided coin, if someone is outside the realm of "normal" first question is, is treatment beneficial to an degree worthwile. I think today the pendulum is a little to much on the treat everything no matter what side, for some time it was on the treat no one side. Booth is bad. The two probably would have benefitet from small intervention, but at large, they where probaly comfortable in there own world, so what? Because, public intervention in such matters is usual an very blunt instrument.
@@cidb.212 you can overdo it until your own trash heaps kill you, but i wonder if hoarding was not that belittled, would people go to such extremes. As soon people retreat and fear to have social interaction that hobby takes over to an unhealthy degree i think, kinda reinforcing it because of the stigma. If it was "yeah he like to hoard useless junk so what" I think most people would keep it to sane levels. There are examples of people hoarding very expensive things to extreme evels because they could afford it, but they are not insane, they just have that spleen you see? I think the stigma is an factor that makes it worse.
FINALLY a video on these guys that isn't like an hour long. I've been trying to get my mother to stop hoarding for years and I suspect these poor men's fate will scare her into at least hoarding a little less. But she refuses to watch videos more than like 15 minutes. Thank you for this. Might edit this comment later with results. Edit: the video didn't do much because she didn't realise I was trying to tell her something, but we've had a few serious conversations about them and her and she's agreed to go through a bunch of stuff to at least tidy her house more so long as I help. I'd rather not, but if that's what it takes I'm fine with it. I just want her to be healthy and in a clean house.
My father was a hoarder. He was also an exceptionally unpleasant person so I left home early and left him to it. But good luck with your mother and good luck to all children of hoarders.
My mom used to say "This place looks like Caller's Mansion!"(how I heard it anyway) whenever she saw a messy room. I always thought that was one of her many expressions until I read about them. Yikes! 😱
I am in my 30s and after watching Hoarders on TV I freak-out when the house is too messy and run around yelling "this house looks like it should be on Hoarders!!" ..I should start saying "this house looks like Collyers Mansion!" instead as that sounds much more sophisticated, heh.
Huh... Makes sense. I collect (hoard) a bunch of stuff and always somehat attributed that to my loneliness and melancholy. I lost my dear brother last year and I find it hard to throw away anything now.,
@@mcstabba Well... Not only have I heard this from a few psychologists but our family has hoarding issues related to the loss of loved ones. If you look at the brothers story they lost their parents and one brother lost his independence.
Was born in Harlem Hospital and raised, literally, seven block north in Lincoln Projects, 135th and 5th - and never heard this story! Thankyou Simon and crew! Great work you all do.
This put me in mind of my dad, who for example still has the box and the receipt for a cordless phone he owned for 6 months in the mid-90’s. I know that for a fact as he digs it out every couple of years to show it off. It’s kept in the same room as the broken Furby, a coconut he’s owned for over 50 years, the Commodore 64 cassette tape computer, and its user manual, and over 200 assorted cables, most of which are for items that were replaced or upgraded up to a couple of decades earlier. I think 1 or 2 of the cables are for items he owns, but he can never find them among the cabinet full of assorted useless cables. Basically he keeps the box and receipt for every item he purchases, and still has all of them - though if anyone else bought anything or received a Christmas present he insisted the box be thrown out within minutes, so much so that more than once he threw out a box that hadn’t been opened and still contained the newly-purchased or received item, and twice a still-wrapped present.
being nostalgic doesn't qualify as hoarding though, even with the boxes detail. it needs to truly get in the way of his day to day life (no, bothering you and showing off ain't enough and is ay this with a father that's exactly the same). People can show hoard-like (narcisist-like, deppressed-like, applies to basically any mental condition) attitudes without being full on hoarders.
Simon carving that chicken in the add made me really want to see him do something with Binging with babish. Maybe weird food facts while cooking? It would be fun to see babish with his British doppelganger.
A Minor history note. The second ship to arrive in Massachusetts after the Mayflower was The Fortune, which arrived a year later. The Speedwell set sail from England but had to turn back and never made the Voyage.
As a former mover, hoarding is incredibly sad to see. It's a very visual presentation of the troubles a lot of us go through, it's just people deal with it in more or less visible ways
@@rebekahlikesmusic2723 This is true, and we should all take it to heart and examine our own homes and bedrooms. While not as extreme, the subtlety with which a messy bedroom can reveal encroaching depression is what often leaves it unnoticed until things have gotten much further out of hand than they would have if we had recognized the issue and taken action earlier. It also creates a sort of feedback loop where depression = messy living space and messy living space = more depression (and anxiety).
ICD9 Code F42.3 The ICD9 is the standard in America for Mental Health Care diagnosis terminology. International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) I learned about the brothers in a workshop on mental health. Hoarding is listed in the ICD9 as a mental illness. In the USA, hoarding is officially & legally a mental illness. I feel this is important to state, because if you know someone like these brothers. They are suffering from a mental illness. And, should be treated with awareness & compassion.
I dont see it as warped, Unhealthy in their belief that they knew better than everyone else sure, but warped...eh. Theres no signs of it being anything other than taking it abit too far.
Yeah, this video left me with a lot of (very sad, very disturbing) questions. On the one hand, it's possible this was a folie a deux situation in which they were both equally mentally ill with the same shared delusions, and were both in agreement on what they were doing. Which is plenty tragic and disturbing enough. But it's also quite possible that Homer was essentially being held captive by his well-intentioned but deeply mentally disturbed brother. Or it could've been some of both; a degree of shared delusion, combined with Langley becoming increasingly paranoid and controlling. Homer was blind and bedbound; he may well not have even been aware of the full extent of his brother's hoarding. He may well have had no choice but to follow the "diet" his brother was convinced would restore him to health. His brother wouldn't even let anyone see him, which _could_ have been at Homer's request, but that's a lot to assume, under the circumstances. Honestly, this is one of the most sad and disturbing real-life stories I've ever heard. And the uncertainty about _exactly_ what went on within that house and the minds of it's two occupants only makes the whole thing more haunting.
I don't think so. Back in the day you relied on your family. Leaving your brother in a 1920's care home would have been a disgrace to your family. The affluent had to worry a lot about their status and pride. It's still like that in many parts of the world, Japan and the middle east for example.
@@scarletamazon3455 Considering what qualified as medicine and care during the course of their lives, I respect his decision, especially since they were wealthy. But he obviously took it too far.
So basically this video tells in the advert up front what to hoard (the mystery bespoke post), then tells the viewers what's expecting them if they do. Well done!
is it hoarding if you drink the fucking thing then be done with it though? 🤔i don't think consumerism and hoarding are on the same venue, even if both are bad.
Hearing all the sad details made my heart sick, but I couldn't bring myself to stop it. Thank you for this sad yet true historical story, and for all your work making so many videos, Simon.
I'm a bit torn on the way they lived their last years. On the one hand, I understand wanting to be left alone but on the other, the older brother was at the mercy of a clearly mentally unstable younger sibling. All communication happened only with the younger sibling and the younger brother kept anyone feom seeing the older brother, so who knows if the older brother really agreed with their living arrangement. Lots of hoarders are unfortunately very paranoid and then the shame of allowing someone to see the condition of their home or asking for help causes them to withdraw more. I don't know...all cases of hoarding are just really sad and unfortunate. I've seen enough episodes from the shows to know it never happens out of happiness but I suppose it's good they at least had each other.
This story very fittingly reminds me of another true story. The story about the Ward brothers - Delbert, Roscoe, and Lyman. I'd include a link, but nowadays, it seems that comments with links get deleted immediately. But no problem, you can easily find it with a simple search.
Aside from the hoarding and horrible deaths of course, I can relate to just wanting the world to leave you alone. I could easily become a hermit. The fact that I am not independently wealthy and have to go out and work has probably saved me from ending up this way!
Hoarding and reclusiveness (social anxiety and agoraphobia experienced in various degrees, sometimes extreme) usually go hand in hand. It's a devastating mental condition that affects not only the person affected but also their families and surroundings like neighbors because of the unpleasant smells and rodents, cockroaches and other infections, landlords because more often than not, they completely destroy the rented properties, the city council gets involved etc etc. It is a real problem for all involved specially if there are children living under those conditions. Really sad, difficult to treat and help the people affected. Moreover, apart from the hoarding itself, sometimes there are other aggravating issues like alcoholism and /or substance abuse.
Certainly a tragic tale. One has to wonder if it's a tale of mutual brotherly devotion or a tragic case of wilful neglect from mental disorder. Did anyone besides Langley ever see or talk to Homer after his stroke?
I think there were a couple of successful wellness visits…mostly from the fire department…and he was seen….but it’s been a long time since I read in depth about them and might be confusing it with something else.
“We have no income and don’t want to pay income taxes!” *PAYS TAXES* Modern billionaires: “We have enormous income and we don’t want to pay taxes” *PAYS NO TAXES* 🤔
Except the 1% of people with highest incomes pay over 40% of all taxes collected in the United States. The same 1% of people pay about 25% of their total income, while the lowest brackets pay about 4% of theirs... 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️ I'm broke as hell, and paying taxes sucks whether your rich or poor, but it's a necessary evil for our economy and democratic systems to continue functioning. Try educating yourself with more than sensationalized nonsense posted on social media.
Brownstones can be huge. The average is between 4000-5000 square feet and since their family was wealthy I doubt the had a small one. For scale the average American house built today is about half of that. Getting all that stuff up the stairs would have been the hard part
My parents say I am a hoarder. I disagree. Videos like this make me more sure I am correct and they just don't think my collections of books, board games, and art supplies (that I use and throw out when done) are actually of value. One mans trash is another man's mental health problem.
You sound like a collector with specific tastes and knowledge of the things you have. Your parents saying you are a hoarder tells me they just don't have the same hobbies as you do. Hoarders tend to have no particular subject for what they accumulate and just can't get rid of anything once they get it into their space.
Fun fact: When clearing the house, a human skeleton with rotting flesh on it was found. It was assumed to be an unfortunate burglar who, having entered the house, found it impossible to find his way out again.
I learned about this story in university, a friend was learning to become an actor and they made a play based on this story. It was one of the most gripping plays Ive seen
My late husband was as a hoarder. I used to kid him about it telling him that he had to be closely related to the Collyer Brothers. Fortunately, 23 years before he died he finally realized that the junk he collected was more trouble than it was worth and he was glad to dispose the f it. I made a deal with him and kept my end of the bargain when I told him I would quit smoking if he got rid and f the junk, and both of us were better off.
Would you cover Big Edie and Little Edie from Grey Gardens? Similar case of reclusive hoarders, but they had a lavish lifestyle decades before it went downhill. These eccentric brothers always remind me of that mother-daughter duo. Good video, fact boy 😊👍
Privacy be damned, Homer needed professional care and people just let his brother essentially keep him hostage. God knows how much he suffered through the years, not just in his last days.
A really interesting story. I'm sorry for both their lives ending so terrible. Glad even a small peice of good could come from it and that it's now a little park.
When having to move the uncle out of his last house, the evidence of his, and the other, deceased, uncle was really awful to deal with, to the point that a lot of his belongings were just left behind, cos there was no time or room to sort through it all, hoarding is a pretty bad state to get into, and an even worse one to get out of...
Some people do difficult things simply for the discipline of it. I owned two nice cars and lived in a neighborhood with six buses every hour across town but chose to don boots and backpack full of stones and jog four miles uphill to work and walk the same way home. Discipline is what makes us strong. It is those that shut themselves off from the world and do nothing are weak and poor of spirit.
A acquaintance's mother died and some friends agreed to help clean out the house. I had never seen anything like it before. Everything filthy, junk piled everywhere with small paths like mice burrows between the junk. Horrible.
I've never seen pictures of them or the inside of their house. Thank You for that. It was interesting. That picture of the chandelier looking like it was on the floor was eye-opening!!! I've heard this before but, the pictures were helpful!!! Take care and have fun!!! 😷😎☺️
Hoarding behavior is a danger to everyone. Retired code enforcement and have seen things no one else should see, smelled the stench that no one should have to smell. Last time I checked, rats don’t stay on site.
Anyone else find that's a little funny a video about hoarding has an advertisement for stuff you don't really need right at the beginning I'm not criticizing anyone I just think it's funny
Just guessing, but it was probably cheaper to build it that way. In a time when every transistor counted on a circuit broad checking a single digit was cheaper then checking 2.
I’ve often wondered if they might not be related to my mom’s side of the family. Her maiden name was Colyer which is unusual. So Collyer seems like it could be a slightly different spelling of the old family name.
Work in the storage industry and unfortunately this is a part of our business. Watching people of limited means pay rent they can’t afford for stuff they’ll never use again and decays with each passing year
This story makes me so sad. Really a grievous tale. Unfortunately in this day & age I believe this happens a lot more. We've lost alour neighborly connections. Rest in peace.
Has anyone else noticed how many of these stories told by Simon ( casual criminalist, etc ) start with someone in the story working in their local church?
9:36 "..appeared in court to testify against a young black man.." I understand you are probably quoting an original news story however I would put forward that the colour of the person was not a necessary detail to mention as it has no bearing on the story, "young man" would have been sufficient.
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Oh yeah, thanks, Sam! Right after a video about having your house piled with trash, all I want is a service delivering me a monthly box full of crap!
@@acoffeewithsatan Whaaat? Are you one of those lesser people who don't order a mallet and a bag when they're out of ice (a substance not found anywhere in nature for free...) wow...
@@acoffeewithsatan People like the sense of the unknown. It's kinda the same as Christmas when you don't know what a person has gotten you or could even be compared to gambling. You may or may not get something you actually enjoy but that's part of the fun. At least that's how my friend who subscribes to several put it, I prefer to buy something I actually know what I'm getting but I can understand the concept of getting enjoyment out of the unknown.
@@Goldenkitten1 well, and keeping on with the joke, the same could be said about dumpster diving
@@acoffeewithsatan Very true but useless as they probably seem to us I doubt you'll find a decent quality cleaver or leather bag in pristine condition in a dumpster which is probably why. Still yeah in my opinion you could certainly make better use of your money, I'm just saying I understand where people who enjoy this sort of thing are coming from.
The irony of publishing a video about hoarding sponsored by a company that sends you a box of random crap you didn't know you needed every month.
I like to think Simon is aware of the irony and is low key trolling us.
@@cleverusername9369 If youv seen brain blaze you know thats what hes doing.
random crap you don't need.
@@norsagion1230 Well, I was trying to be polite 😅
@@superspecky4eyes they aren't giving away their crap, so feel free to speak the truth
God, poor Homer! Sitting there stuck, paralyzed and blind, unable to get out of the house, able to smell his brother decomposing nearby, able to hear the rats scuttling around him... that has to be one of the worst deaths I've ever heard of.
How awful.
The paralyzed brother had to sit there while his brother died just feet away. He was blind so he could not see it, but no doubt heard the noise and the calls for help from his brother.
Paralyzed because he had to eat 11 oranges per day to "treat blindness" because they didn't need doctors :D
@@d.e.waters883 I wonder if he may have smelled the decomposition
@@d.e.waters883 Wow! I hadn’t thought about the details like that. That’s the stuff of nightmares. Assuming he didn’t die of the cold (not sure what NYC would be like in March), I guess he would have died of dehydration. Just awful.
Fun fact: having studied the Collyers and watched all the hoarding TV shows and documentaries, I'm still stunned to admit that the Collyer's case is the ONLY ONE I've found that was worse than my mother's hoarding house in a big Victorian in Peoria, IL. Since the house was beautifully preserved when we moved in, this was heart-breaking and incredibly difficult to deal with. We made a heroic effort to clean it out, but ultimately we lost the house entirely. Many professional crime scene and disaster cleanup companies will clean out a meth lab or worse, but will not touch a hoarding house. And once you learn what to look for, you realize there is at least one in every. neighborhood. in every. city. in America. It is an enormous unreported epidemic. :(
It's not unreported. There are tv shows dedicated to hoarders.
I dated a girl and was curious why we never visited her mother at her house always met at restaurants. I found out her mom was a hoarder and live with like 15 cats shitting and pissing everywgere all over the horde. Never went to the house but apparently it could be smelled while driving by in a car.
Oh dear god, paralysed and starving to death is officially on my list of “least favourite ways to die.”
For real. I think I'd rather burn to death in a fire than that.
Mere meters away from your dead brother. As he decays and you continue starving. Straight nightmare fuel for me.
@@semaj_5022 Nope. I've had second degree burns. The pain is unimaginable. Accidentally touched glowing hot steel in the factory. Basically vaporized the skin that touched. Not as painful as electrocution. Got hit with 230 v, 16 amps in high humidity. Felt like burning but every cell in my body. Later realized the screaming I heard was my own. Luckily my heart was young back then.
@@221b-l3t What have you been doing with your life?! Be careful, man!
@@RainbowFlowerCrow I was unlucky with the electricity. I didn't realize the washing machine was powered by a multisocket with a suicide cable in the first slot going downstairs. Pulles the plug never expecting it to be live and it stuck to my hand. That was in a pretty poor country where suicide cable into a multisocket is a common type of extension cord lol...
“We just want to be left alone!”
“Why? What are you hiding? We must find out!”
I have twice encountered a hoarder's home. First. when a neighbor who was a family friend, passed away. And second when I worked for a Time Warner Call Center. Part of our training was to spend a day in the field with installers. Gained a new respect for what those guys go through.
I had a man work on my heater recently. Not knowing when he would arrive, I was sorting laundry in the living room and was frantically trying to hide it away and apologizing for the mess when he arrived. He laughed and told me that I should see some of the homes he goes to. My piles of laundry didn't even phase him.
I'm not a hoarder (I don't fit the dx) but I have struggles that look the same to outsiders, I'm sorry you dealt with that. The times I've exposed people to my struggle that seems so easy to fix, I felt so guilty. That probably doesn't help, I just try to make sure the area they need is cleaned out and if cluttered all is sanitary.
Why would they make call center workers accompany repair men!?
@@trawlins396 To help understand what happens when we send out a tech to a customers homes. What all is required to get them back up and running. It helps by keeping unnecessary repair calls being sent out out for things that can be solved in house. Just wish the Techs could spend a day or so with our end.
The brotherly love and devotion is touching, the story in its entirety not so much - it is a tragic story of untreated mental illness
Untreated is an two sided coin, if someone is outside the realm of "normal" first question is, is treatment beneficial to an degree worthwile.
I think today the pendulum is a little to much on the treat everything no matter what side, for some time it was on the treat no one side.
Booth is bad.
The two probably would have benefitet from small intervention, but at large, they where probaly comfortable in there own world, so what? Because, public intervention in such matters is usual an very blunt instrument.
It's too bad hoarding has been so stigmatized (not to mention sensationalized by TV), it must be an awful way to live.
@@cidb.212 you can overdo it until your own trash heaps kill you, but i wonder if hoarding was not that belittled, would people go to such extremes.
As soon people retreat and fear to have social interaction that hobby takes over to an unhealthy degree i think, kinda reinforcing it because of the stigma.
If it was "yeah he like to hoard useless junk so what" I think most people would keep it to sane levels.
There are examples of people hoarding very expensive things to extreme evels because they could afford it, but they are not insane, they just have that spleen you see?
I think the stigma is an factor that makes it worse.
@@pouncepounce7417 I'm glad we agree. (P.S. Cute dog:)
Because not wanting to have anything to do with society leads to an automatic diagnosis of mental illness.
FINALLY a video on these guys that isn't like an hour long. I've been trying to get my mother to stop hoarding for years and I suspect these poor men's fate will scare her into at least hoarding a little less. But she refuses to watch videos more than like 15 minutes. Thank you for this. Might edit this comment later with results.
Edit: the video didn't do much because she didn't realise I was trying to tell her something, but we've had a few serious conversations about them and her and she's agreed to go through a bunch of stuff to at least tidy her house more so long as I help. I'd rather not, but if that's what it takes I'm fine with it. I just want her to be healthy and in a clean house.
Please do tell us how this goes. I wish you great luck with your mother.
It's been a whole day; OP, how is your mom?!
The irony that she has so much stuff and no patience tickles me
My father was a hoarder. He was also an exceptionally unpleasant person so I left home early and left him to it.
But good luck with your mother and good luck to all children of hoarders.
Prayin for your mother's recovery and happiness💚🙏🏼
This is one of the saddest tales told on this channel. I feel bad for these brothers. Rip homer and Langley
I read a book about hoarding some years ago now and these brothers were the first story in the book. What an interesting and exceptionally sad tale.
My mom used to say "This place looks like Caller's Mansion!"(how I heard it anyway) whenever she saw a messy room. I always thought that was one of her many expressions until I read about them. Yikes! 😱
Heard my gran say that! I asked her one day and she just brushed it off without explaining…
My Dad would say that every time we had to go to my grandparents “he’s living like a Collyer!”
You too, huh...scarcely thought I was the only one, but still...
@Marquis Brunson I think Collyer's Mansion was,for our parent's generation, the ultimate "Hoarding Horror Story".
I am in my 30s and after watching Hoarders on TV I freak-out when the house is too messy and run around yelling "this house looks like it should be on Hoarders!!" ..I should start saying "this house looks like Collyers Mansion!" instead as that sounds much more sophisticated, heh.
Hoarding is unfortunately connected to to loss of a loved one.
Because objects may break or be damaged but they don't die.
Huh... Makes sense. I collect (hoard) a bunch of stuff and always somehat attributed that to my loneliness and melancholy. I lost my dear brother last year and I find it hard to throw away anything now.,
@@mcstabba Well... Not only have I heard this from a few psychologists but our family has hoarding issues related to the loss of loved ones. If you look at the brothers story they lost their parents and one brother lost his independence.
Was born in Harlem Hospital and raised, literally, seven block north in Lincoln Projects, 135th and 5th - and never heard this story!
Thankyou Simon and crew! Great work you all do.
Such a heartbreaking story, both of them died awful deaths. Great video, very respectfully made.
Spoiler! 😮
All top commets are spoilers, I've noticed. From all channels.
I was looking like what. I expected it to have some comedy. Then I realized I wasn't watching Business ( Brain ) Blaze.
Ikr. Just imagine Homer blind and calling out to his brother. He never got an answer and he probably died unaware of his brother's fate
Another channel, Brew, did this story in a lot more detail. It was even sadder than Simon let on.
In the fire service, we used to call hoarding conditions “Collyer’s mansion conditions”. Now it’s just called “heavy fire load conditions”.
This put me in mind of my dad, who for example still has the box and the receipt for a cordless phone he owned for 6 months in the mid-90’s. I know that for a fact as he digs it out every couple of years to show it off.
It’s kept in the same room as the broken Furby, a coconut he’s owned for over 50 years, the Commodore 64 cassette tape computer, and its user manual, and over 200 assorted cables, most of which are for items that were replaced or upgraded up to a couple of decades earlier.
I think 1 or 2 of the cables are for items he owns, but he can never find them among the cabinet full of assorted useless cables.
Basically he keeps the box and receipt for every item he purchases, and still has all of them - though if anyone else bought anything or received a Christmas present he insisted the box be thrown out within minutes, so much so that more than once he threw out a box that hadn’t been opened and still contained the newly-purchased or received item, and twice a still-wrapped present.
being nostalgic doesn't qualify as hoarding though, even with the boxes detail. it needs to truly get in the way of his day to day life (no, bothering you and showing off ain't enough and is ay this with a father that's exactly the same). People can show hoard-like (narcisist-like, deppressed-like, applies to basically any mental condition) attitudes without being full on hoarders.
That coconut 🥥 sounds pretty cool, though. Have you asked its significance?
I'm a packrat, but I draw the line at human organs kept in jars.
Yes we've got to draw the line somewhere
Not even one little pickled kidney? Or maybe a couple of removed tonsils? An appendix in a jar perhaps could entice you to start collecting organs?
Pfft. What makes you think you're better than the rest of us?
* Shuffles Beloved Specimen Jars *
Simon carving that chicken in the add made me really want to see him do something with Binging with babish. Maybe weird food facts while cooking? It would be fun to see babish with his British doppelganger.
A Minor history note. The second ship to arrive in Massachusetts after the Mayflower was The Fortune, which arrived a year later. The Speedwell set sail from England but had to turn back and never made the Voyage.
That's true. Thank you.
Homer died about 10 hours before he was found, if only someone had smelled it earlier. Such a heartbreaking story!
I thought the English were the world's greatest hoarders. Their museums have everything.
True shit
Nice artifacts you've got there. We'll just hold on to it for safe keeping....
Dont think its exactly hording if all the things are stolen 😂 ah liberated I mean lol
Baa doom boom bash!!! 🥁
*raiders
As a former mover, hoarding is incredibly sad to see. It's a very visual presentation of the troubles a lot of us go through, it's just people deal with it in more or less visible ways
Yeah it's like a reflection of their minds
@@rebekahlikesmusic2723 This is true, and we should all take it to heart and examine our own homes and bedrooms. While not as extreme, the subtlety with which a messy bedroom can reveal encroaching depression is what often leaves it unnoticed until things have gotten much further out of hand than they would have if we had recognized the issue and taken action earlier. It also creates a sort of feedback loop where depression = messy living space and messy living space = more depression (and anxiety).
ICD9 Code F42.3
The ICD9 is the standard in America for Mental Health Care diagnosis terminology. International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) The International Classification of Diseases (ICD)
I learned about the brothers in a workshop on mental health. Hoarding is listed in the ICD9 as a mental illness. In the USA, hoarding is officially & legally a mental illness. I feel this is important to state, because if you know someone like these brothers. They are suffering from a mental illness. And, should be treated with awareness & compassion.
Let me move the papers off my desk to the side table so I can watch this.
I laughed out loud. 😂
I wouldn’t go so far as to say this is a “touching story” of “brotherly love.” The love displayed for his brother was just so warped.
I dont see it as warped, Unhealthy in their belief that they knew better than everyone else sure, but warped...eh. Theres no signs of it being anything other than taking it abit too far.
Yeah, this video left me with a lot of (very sad, very disturbing) questions. On the one hand, it's possible this was a folie a deux situation in which they were both equally mentally ill with the same shared delusions, and were both in agreement on what they were doing. Which is plenty tragic and disturbing enough. But it's also quite possible that Homer was essentially being held captive by his well-intentioned but deeply mentally disturbed brother. Or it could've been some of both; a degree of shared delusion, combined with Langley becoming increasingly paranoid and controlling. Homer was blind and bedbound; he may well not have even been aware of the full extent of his brother's hoarding. He may well have had no choice but to follow the "diet" his brother was convinced would restore him to health. His brother wouldn't even let anyone see him, which _could_ have been at Homer's request, but that's a lot to assume, under the circumstances. Honestly, this is one of the most sad and disturbing real-life stories I've ever heard. And the uncertainty about _exactly_ what went on within that house and the minds of it's two occupants only makes the whole thing more haunting.
I don't think so. Back in the day you relied on your family. Leaving your brother in a 1920's care home would have been a disgrace to your family. The affluent had to worry a lot about their status and pride. It's still like that in many parts of the world, Japan and the middle east for example.
@@98Zai It didn't have to be a care home, they had more than enough money to have doctors come to the house and employ full time nursing staff
@@scarletamazon3455 Considering what qualified as medicine and care during the course of their lives, I respect his decision, especially since they were wealthy. But he obviously took it too far.
So basically this video tells in the advert up front what to hoard (the mystery bespoke post), then tells the viewers what's expecting them if they do. Well done!
is it hoarding if you drink the fucking thing then be done with it though? 🤔i don't think consumerism and hoarding are on the same venue, even if both are bad.
Hearing all the sad details made my heart sick, but I couldn't bring myself to stop it. Thank you for this sad yet true historical story, and for all your work making so many videos, Simon.
I'm a bit torn on the way they lived their last years. On the one hand, I understand wanting to be left alone but on the other, the older brother was at the mercy of a clearly mentally unstable younger sibling. All communication happened only with the younger sibling and the younger brother kept anyone feom seeing the older brother, so who knows if the older brother really agreed with their living arrangement. Lots of hoarders are unfortunately very paranoid and then the shame of allowing someone to see the condition of their home or asking for help causes them to withdraw more. I don't know...all cases of hoarding are just really sad and unfortunate. I've seen enough episodes from the shows to know it never happens out of happiness but I suppose it's good they at least had each other.
This story very fittingly reminds me of another true story. The story about the Ward brothers - Delbert, Roscoe, and Lyman. I'd include a link, but nowadays, it seems that comments with links get deleted immediately. But no problem, you can easily find it with a simple search.
Aside from the hoarding and horrible deaths of course, I can relate to just wanting the world to leave you alone. I could easily become a hermit. The fact that I am not independently wealthy and have to go out and work has probably saved me from ending up this way!
And HOW do you know the older brother was consensually kept healthy, happy and sanitary?
I have known two hoarders, one had Alzheimers, the other was ecologically oriented, just couldn’t get around to recycling.
Hoarding and reclusiveness (social anxiety and agoraphobia experienced in various degrees, sometimes extreme) usually go hand in hand. It's a devastating mental condition that affects not only the person affected but also their families and surroundings like neighbors because of the unpleasant smells and rodents, cockroaches and other infections, landlords because more often than not, they completely destroy the rented properties, the city council gets involved etc etc. It is a real problem for all involved specially if there are children living under those conditions. Really sad, difficult to treat and help the people affected. Moreover, apart from the hoarding itself, sometimes there are other aggravating issues like alcoholism and /or substance abuse.
Certainly a tragic tale. One has to wonder if it's a tale of mutual brotherly devotion or a tragic case of wilful neglect from mental disorder. Did anyone besides Langley ever see or talk to Homer after his stroke?
I think there were a couple of successful wellness visits…mostly from the fire department…and he was seen….but it’s been a long time since I read in depth about them and might be confusing it with something else.
I've seen so many shows depicting these brothers story. I had no idea it was based on real people!
“We have no income and don’t want to pay income taxes!”
*PAYS TAXES*
Modern billionaires: “We have enormous income and we don’t want to pay taxes”
*PAYS NO TAXES*
🤔
Haha. Peasants are funny.
(Makes cash angels)
JK. I ain't got shit to my name.
This might be funny if it was in any way true
Except the 1% of people with highest incomes pay over 40% of all taxes collected in the United States. The same 1% of people pay about 25% of their total income, while the lowest brackets pay about 4% of theirs...
🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
I'm broke as hell, and paying taxes sucks whether your rich or poor, but it's a necessary evil for our economy and democratic systems to continue functioning. Try educating yourself with more than sensationalized nonsense posted on social media.
@@rainbowsXregrets Not enough. It should be 90%.
If they leave the country, then its treason.
@@rainbowsXregrets WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE BILLIONAIRES?
It's amazing that they were able to cram over 100 tons of material into a brownstone.
Brownstones can be huge. The average is between 4000-5000 square feet and since their family was wealthy I doubt the had a small one. For scale the average American house built today is about half of that. Getting all that stuff up the stairs would have been the hard part
@@juliadagnall5816 my worst enemy...stairs...
Geniuses are predisposed to mental illness.
"There's a fine line between genius and insanity" 💯
If you're interested in learning more about this down the rabbit hole had a good longer video on the subject. But always nice to hear Simon narrate
My parents say I am a hoarder. I disagree. Videos like this make me more sure I am correct and they just don't think my collections of books, board games, and art supplies (that I use and throw out when done) are actually of value. One mans trash is another man's mental health problem.
You sound like a collector with specific tastes and knowledge of the things you have. Your parents saying you are a hoarder tells me they just don't have the same hobbies as you do. Hoarders tend to have no particular subject for what they accumulate and just can't get rid of anything once they get it into their space.
Your stuff sounds like fun! 🌞
Skip to 1.40 to see the actual video.
Unbox, just what a hoarder needs.
“All we want is for people to leave us alone” …as they live in the middle of one of the world’s largest metro areas
So if you want to be all the hoarder you can be, get a monthly subscription service to bring you more stuff Every month!
Fun fact: When clearing the house, a human skeleton with rotting flesh on it was found. It was assumed to be an unfortunate burglar who, having entered the house, found it impossible to find his way out again.
touching but sounds like a horror story at the same time.
A very sad and tragic tale. But, as you said at the end of the video. This really is a story about two brothers who loved one another.
I learned about this story in university, a friend was learning to become an actor and they made a play based on this story. It was one of the most gripping plays Ive seen
My late husband was as a hoarder. I used to kid him about it telling him that he had to be closely related to the Collyer Brothers. Fortunately, 23 years before he died he finally realized that the junk he collected was more trouble than it was worth and he was glad to dispose the f it. I made a deal with him and kept my end of the bargain when I told him I would quit smoking if he got rid and f the junk, and both of us were better off.
Video starts at 1:40
Thanks friend👍🏼
a brit using spices in their food? impossible!
😂
Would you cover Big Edie and Little Edie from Grey Gardens? Similar case of reclusive hoarders, but they had a lavish lifestyle decades before it went downhill. These eccentric brothers always remind me of that mother-daughter duo. Good video, fact boy 😊👍
Exactly ❤
How incredibly touching and sad, in equal measure.
Privacy be damned, Homer needed professional care and people just let his brother essentially keep him hostage. God knows how much he suffered through the years, not just in his last days.
I learned of these guys watching Fredrik Knudsen. Interesting and sad people
A really interesting story. I'm sorry for both their lives ending so terrible. Glad even a small peice of good could come from it and that it's now a little park.
When having to move the uncle out of his last house, the evidence of his, and the other, deceased, uncle was really awful to deal with, to the point that a lot of his belongings were just left behind, cos there was no time or room to sort through it all, hoarding is a pretty bad state to get into, and an even worse one to get out of...
This is so sad!! Came for a quick UA-cam sesh as I couldn’t sleep … and now I’m just a sad insomniac 😢
Wish we could’ve seen the paintings the brother did of Homers visions of red buildings. Recon they got tossed with the trash though
They had probably been buried and so rotted away. Like my family photos that fell victim to my father's hoarder crap.
@@felicitybywater8012 I totally hadn’t thought about that 🙁
Some people do difficult things simply for the discipline of it. I owned two nice cars and lived in a neighborhood with six buses every hour across town but chose to don boots and backpack full of stones and jog four miles uphill to work and walk the same way home. Discipline is what makes us strong. It is those that shut themselves off from the world and do nothing are weak and poor of spirit.
A acquaintance's mother died and some friends agreed to help clean out the house. I had never seen anything like it before. Everything filthy, junk piled everywhere with small paths like mice burrows between the junk. Horrible.
I've never seen pictures of them or the inside of their house. Thank You for that. It was interesting. That picture of the chandelier looking like it was on the floor was eye-opening!!! I've heard this before but, the pictures were helpful!!! Take care and have fun!!! 😷😎☺️
1:43 for those that don't buy random junk they don't absolutely need.
1:17 Can't wait for Simon's version of Binging with Babish coming soon, to a new channel near you.
Hoarding behavior is a danger to everyone. Retired code enforcement and have seen things no one else should see, smelled the stench that no one should have to smell. Last time I checked, rats don’t stay on site.
Anyone else find that's a little funny a video about hoarding has an advertisement for stuff you don't really need right at the beginning
I'm not criticizing anyone I just think it's funny
If anyone wants another video in these two, there's an episode of "Down the Rabbit Hole" that also covers the brothers
"You're a crook, Captain Hook. Judge, won't you throw the book at the pirate..." - -Chareth Cutestory- Homer Collyer in elementary school, probably.
I’d love to know why the Snooze button on an alarm clock is 9 minutes. Who decided that? Why nine and not ten?
Just guessing, but it was probably cheaper to build it that way. In a time when every transistor counted on a circuit broad checking a single digit was cheaper then checking 2.
On an analog clock, the gears make a full cycle every nine minutes. One snooze equals one gear cycle
This was a truly sad, albeit fascinating, story.
I’ve often wondered if they might not be related to my mom’s side of the family. Her maiden name was Colyer which is unusual. So Collyer seems like it could be a slightly different spelling of the old family name.
‘Bought the house for $7k CASH’… ‘failed to pay the mortgage’ 🤩
Without watching past the ads I’m going to say this looks like the collier bros.
If the inside of those copper cups is actually copper acidic drinks can leach the copper and poison the drink
Work in the storage industry and unfortunately this is a part of our business. Watching people of limited means pay rent they can’t afford for stuff they’ll never use again and decays with each passing year
Simon starts off endorsing a line of products to *_hoard_*
Great vid, as always!
This story makes me so sad. Really a grievous tale. Unfortunately in this day & age I believe this happens a lot more. We've lost alour neighborly connections. Rest in peace.
Those poor gentlemen. How sad they’re ending was.
Wow, Simon knows how to spatchcock a chicken! Didn't expect to learn that today
“Hoarders”? Aren’t they called billionaires? Lmao!
I could listen to you talk all day, Simon :)
a sad story but a love of brothers that doesn't exist today.
This dude might be crazy but I can respect some of his logic
Has anyone else noticed how many of these stories told by Simon ( casual criminalist, etc ) start with someone in the story working in their local church?
Good video 👍
Surprised you weren't doing this about my great grandmother lol
Can we have a video on the worst most destructive hoarders, like Geoff bazos, Elon musk and Zuckerberg?
My opening ad started out, "They spent years accumulating their wealth"...
Kinda fitting.
i would LOVE to go through all that junk. bet there was some interesting stuff.
You always get the trash relatives that show up out of nowhere when someone with money dies.
When Simon started talking about privacy, I was expecting a segue to a VPN ad
Personal Privacy. The more Privacy you Exert in Life the more Completely you will Disappear when you Die.
15000 ancient medical texts worth about 2k. What a great deal.
Brain Blaze and Factboy are merging into one entity
A father thats a gynecologist with a wife named Suzie. Thats hilarious.
Why is it funny? Not trying to start anything, honestly curious. I'm guessing there's a pun or something?
@@seanrosenau2088 right i was wondering too lol
9:36 "..appeared in court to testify against a young black man.." I understand you are probably quoting an original news story however I would put forward that the colour of the person was not a necessary detail to mention as it has no bearing on the story, "young man" would have been sufficient.
Oh UA-cam captions " personal privacy is becoming a fast drinking commodity"