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I lived with a hoarder for almost two years before I finally managed to escape the situation.  Any other sane regular person would have jumped ship right away, but that was not an option available to me at the time. It was 2003, and I had just arrived to the United States with only two suitcases and $100 to my name. The person that I was to stay with was an old friend of my Uncle’s who was  allowing me to live with her partly out of charity.

At the time, I was just so grateful to finally be able to live in the US that I probably would have been happy living under a bridge in a cardboard box! Before I found out that I would be living in her house, I had a very naive image/dream of moving to either New York or Los Angeles and…