Hoarding Fact: Since the OMG (Oh My God) series’ have appeared on TV, the internet has exploded with all sorts of underemployed opportunists, who proclaim that they are the experts in all Hoarding matters.

To name a few. Flea Market vendors, Junk and scrap dealers, Carpet Cleaners, Maid Services, Clean-out services, Amateur Organizers, Professional Organizers, Social Workers, Therapists and we have even seen several Psychiatrists who offer undefined results.

Copious books have been written, seminars have been given, relatives have gone up in arms and today the producers on national TV are making a killing exhibiting people who have been led to believe that they can get free services from the TV producers, and their 15 seconds of TV fame.

Hoarding Fact: What you see on TV is carefully scripted and edited and rarely provides any good for the victims. The Hoarders TV show and many like them have millions of viewers. What viewers rarely realize is that these shows are shot in just 1 to 3 days, by several cameras, and then this film is taken to the studio where it is edited to maximize the impact on the audience.

Hoarding Fact: Example articles on hoarding clutter etc. will have the container store and big box stores like Wal-Mart Target, etc., advertising all sorts of containers, shelving and “how to” books on hoarding, organizing and clutter management, including moving companies, packing and the big winners are Self-storage companies.

Hoarding Fact: Self-storage companies are amongst the fastest growing businesses in the US today. Tens of thousands of rows and rows of these cheap garages that cost hundreds of dollars a month, to store peoples stuff stretch out for miles and miles. In urban areas like NY Metro, they have converted 10 story factory buildings into vaults and crypts to house peoples stuff. The higher-end facilities have heat and air conditioning to keep your stuff at room temperature. Some even have carpeted walkways to make your visit to your stuff like going to the morgue.

Hoarding Fact: The self-storage obsession has gotten so out of hand that there are now TV shows, to entertain consumers seeing the all-out junk people store in these vaults, and the vultures and seagull’s who bid on this stuff to sell it all over again. One of the most prolific advocates of organizing you and your stuff is “Fly Lady”.

Amongst the million plus words of erroneous advice written by other space filling writers and volunteers, she sells all sorts of things that hoarders and dysfunctional people could do without.

Hoarding Fact: We do not need to write tens of thousands of words or books on this subject, because none of them work.

Hoarding Fact: You can never learn to play tennis by reading a book.