Extreme hoarding, as seen on A&E's Hoarders, is a terrible thing with which to contend, but what happens once all the clutter has been cleared?

First aired in 2009, A&E's Hoarders focused on the at-the-time relatively unknown of extreme hoarding. Those featured on the series often lived in houses loaded floor-to-ceiling with clutter, personal effects, and, most often, actual garbage. The docu-series offered a startling look into the lives of those living with the results of hoarding, and it shined a light on the unsung tragedies inherent in many of these situations.

Five years after the Hoarders first aired, A&E produces a series of follow-up episodes that detailed the lives of ex-hoarders, and it's left many fans wondering what happened to some of the show's most infamous figures.

Betty Wanted To Charge Gawkers

In the third episode of the inaugural season of Hoarders, Ohio-native Betty's hoarding habits were putting her sickly husband at risk. He was removed from the property, and a cleanup crew was sent in to take care of the mess.

Unfortunately, Betty was steadfast in her habits. She fought tooth and nail to keep as much of her collection as she could, and, according to Entertainment Weekly, she went to hoarding just a month after filming concluded. She also semi-sarcastically stated that she planned on charging passers-by for gawking at her property.

Lisa Returned To Hoarding

A season 4 episode of Hoarders featured Lisa, a Virginia resident harboring a dangerous stash of rotting food. Without a working refrigerator, much of her food became maggot-infested, and she resorted to hanging her shopping bangs from the ceiling so rats couldn't get into them.

In a short recap video from Matt Paxton posted in December 2020, the extreme cleaner mentioned that he believed Lisa to have been one of the most intelligent hoarders he'd ever met. Unfortunately, she passed away a few years after he worked with her, and her family once again called on ex-reality star Paxton to get rid of the extreme clutter she had managed to accumulate.

Jill Kept A Rotting Pumpkin In Her Living Room

During the first season of Hoarders, fans were introduced to Jill, a woman with an extreme food hoarding habit. Unable to determine for herself that her food was rotten and spoiled and existing as if she were a part of the world's most horrendous cooking reality TV series, she'd keep long-since-perished food out in the open, most memorably displaying a decaying pumpkin in her living room.

Unfortunately, as represented in a follow-up episode and as corroborated by Entertainment Weekly, Jill went back to her hoarding ways soon after her time on Hoarders. She even kept another rotting pumpkin in her house, indicating that she hadn't made any meaningful personal progress.

Fredd & Fuzzie Love Their Mess

An episode of the show's sixth season explored the lives of Fredd and Fuzzie, two eccentric artists who harbored a love for all things odd. Collecting things like mannequins, musical instruments, and broken sex toys, theirs was one of the strangest hoards ever showcased on A&E's reality TV series.

In a follow-up YouTube video released in February 2021, Matt Paxton revealed that he still kept in regular contact with the couple. He theorized that their hoarding was a byproduct of their atypical lifestyle, though he states that they have cleaned up somewhat since they were featured on the show.

Glen Brittner Was Murdered

Season three of Hoarders featured Glen Brittner, a California man with a troubling affinity for rats. His home was dangerously disheveled, and his situation made for one of the most shocking episodes of the season.

According to Distractify, Glen was tragically murdered in 2015 during a suspected home invasion, and, with little to go on, the case remains unsolved. It's perhaps the most unfortunate ending to a hoarding case in the A&E series' history.

The Stank House Was Demolished

Milwaukee resident Roger Stank was made to clean his property lest it be demolished. However, even after appearing on an episode of Hoarders, the Stank property never attained an adequate level of cleanliness, and the city issued a raze order.

Roger Stank stated in an interview with a local news station that he hadn't inhabited the home in several years and that vagrants had made the problem worse than it already was. However, despite his wishes to preserve the house, it was demolished in 2019.

Claire And Vance Have A Library-Sized Book Collection

Claire and Vance were a Chicago couple featured in the fifth season of Hoarders. Notorious for their massive book collection, thousands upon thousands of books were flooding their living space. After the city moved to obtain an inspection order and potentially condemn the property, the two had to make drastic changes.

However, as seen in a follow-up episode, Claire and Vance ultimately made very few lifestyle changes and still lived in a massive mound of books. The two were shown to be very defensive of their collection, and it didn't appear as if they were interested in changing their tune any time soon.

Verna Was Too Far Gone

Santa Cruz resident Verna was forced to sleep in her attic after her home became too cluttered to inhabit. She was featured in a season eight episode of Hoarders, but, by her own admission, the house was too far gone, and the clean-up crew may not have been prepared to tackle the challenge that was returning her home to a livable state.

According to The List, Verna eventually confided in her neighbor that she was dissatisfied with the cleanup process and that it was never adequately finished, causing some to believe that Hoarders isn't as real as it appears to be.

Deborah And Jim Were Forced To Move Out

Deborah and Jim, featured in the second season of the series, were caught in a vicious cycle; Jim struggled with alcohol abuse, a problem which he claimed was exacerbated by Deborah's hoarding. Meanwhile, Deborah claimed the inverse.

When the series producers caught up with the family after their experience on Hoarders, they seemed to be in a somewhat better position. Their house was marginally cleaner, and Jim had been sober for a year at that point. However, he had unfortunately lost his job, and the family ultimately had to move in with relatives.

Terry's Love For Cats Ended In Disaster

In season six, Hoarders tackled one of the most extreme hoarding situations in the series' history. Illinois native Terry lived with roughly fifty cats, many of which were in ill health, but vastly more troubling was her predilection for preserving her deceased pets in her refrigerators. As many as one hundred dead cats were discovered on her property during the Hoarders cleanup.

According to The List, tragically, only eighteen animals survived, as many had to be put down due to respiratory conditions contracted from the hazardous environment in which they lived. However, while some in similar situations faced criminal charges for animal abuse, Terry never faced such consequences.

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