Families Consumed by clutter cleanup

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Pollack uses varied skills to help families de-clutter. (POSTMEDIA NEWS)

VANCOUVER -- The psychology degree certainly helped.

But it was 13 years spent as a TV producer for programs such as CBS News, the Rosie O'Donnell Show and Girls Behaving Badly that really prepared Jill Pollack for her new career as a de-cluttering expert. If you can keep a live broadcast running in order, setting a family mired in its own muck aright is a snap. Sort of.

Watching the member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) ply her trade on HGTV Canada's new series Consumed, it's clear that a wide-ranging skill set is needed.

"I like to think that running a TV show is like running a life, there are a lot of factors all going on at once and you need to have that slight OCD ability to assess things spatially and make them work," says Pollack. "As my grandmother said, 'You got the beauty and organization from me, but none of the cooking skill.' We all have our strengths and weaknesses."

Produced by Vancouver-based Paperny Films, the series shows Pollack putting real families such as the Welches and Fowlers through her "shock-therapy" approach to getting rid of their clutter and -- hopefully -- freeing up their lives in the process. If you've watched a messy closet spread out into a room and then ooze into the rest of your domicile on a seemingly endless quest to take over, this is a viewing experience you'll relate to. Pollack says it can happen to anyone and it doesn't happen overnight. Life situations happen and it "changes the stuff." When it hits the point of critical mass then it has to be fixed because it becomes a serious hindrance to living life.

"Where do you start? Anywhere will do," says Pollack. "I mean, when people are asking 'When is it a problem?,' and they are displaced from their own beds because of piles of unfolded clothes on it -- hello, way past problem. When you take all of it away from someone, it's different for everybody, but it's never not a powerful experience."

Watching families coming to terms with the environments they have created is somewhat shocking. These are regular folks who just became overwhelmed by daily life. One day it went from skipping dining together as a family because the table was covered with laundry to it becoming a permanent extension of the laundry room and the end of group meals.

"Everybody always complains that there isn't enough space. But there is always the ability to tailor your life to what is your reality. You have to be honest about what your life is, where you are living and how to make it work," Pollack says.

The debate around need-versus-want is an underlying theme in Consumed. As Pollack helps participants through re-introducing their "stuff" into their homes after clearing it all out and making them learn to live without, it becomes obvious that being happy is really about having your health, satisfying your basic needs and then "the rest is gravy."

Hoarders are a different breed. They have their own show and with good reason.

"Those people, it's like an addiction, and they need in-patient/out-patient therapy and sometimes chemical balancing."

Everyone has their "clutter issue." But at the heart of de-cluttering is self-improvement. The first thing you need to get rid of is "the guilt that slowly chips away at your soul because you don't want to hold onto your beloved dead aunt's rocking chair that needs fixing and you never use."

From there, it seems to be a series of skirmishes until the big battle is won (or lost).

-- Postmedia News

TV Preview

Consumed

HGTV, tonight at 9

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 30, 2011 D4