When does collecting become a compulsion? Hoarding is a disease, not a habit. And it can destroy homes and ruin lives.

From the outside, hoarders look like anyone else you'd pass on the street. Inside, however, they are hurting.

Their homes are disasters.

"Geri" is a hoarder. The Milwaukee County woman agreed to talk to us, in the hope of helping others.

"It just started to heap up," she explained simply.

But when we went into Geri's house, it was unimaginable.

The floor was covered with bags of stuffed animals, books, paperwork, pots, pans and garbage.

The sink hadn't been used in years.

The stairs were so heaped with debris that it was difficult to go up them.

The basement was also stuffed with garbage.

We asked Geri what happened. How did her home get this bad?

"It's like nature abhors a vacuum, and hoarders abhor a vacuum even more," she admitted.

Geri, a recently retired professional, lives a lonely life. She has no family in town, no close friends, and no pets.

She told us much of the stuff she collected was supposed to be recycled. She also said she's a great bargain shopper who does a lot of shopping.

"Being a hoarder means you don't like to turn loose of anything," she explained. "Things take on an emotional resonance."

Eventually, neighbors noticed. And one horrible evening, paramedics removed Geri from her home and the house was deemed unlivable.

Brenden McDaniel, a professional organizer and the owner of "Action Organizing Services," is helping Geri get back into her home. Helping hoarders is a personal mission to Brenden.

"My mother who lived 10 blocks away from here actually committed suicide because of her hoarding - it got so bad. I couldn't help her, as her son I was very embarrassed, how could it get like this?"

But he thinks he can help Geri. "She is just so sweet, you would never realize that she's hurting this much," he said. "I'm here to help her, not to take away her things."

Psychologist Brad Riemann runs the Obsessive Compulsive Disorders center at Rogers Memorial Hospital in Oconomowoc. He treats many hoarders and told us the reasons people start hoarding vary, but many are obsessive-compulsive.

"If it's kind of these classic OCD reasons, doubting their ability to sort properly, that can be treated fairly well," Dr. Riemann said. "We can get them back to a normalized situation."

Geri admits she's been depressed for years... And is very lonely. "Just all that junk was a barricade. No one in their right mind would have wanted to come in here," she said.

Two weeks after our first visit, we revisited Geri's home. Brenden and his crew have been working the whole time to clean things up. It was much cleaner, but still full. Neatly stacked books replace mounds of moldy paper. The kitchen sink is empty. And you can actually walk upstairs.

Geri seemed shocked by the changes but agreed it is for the best.

"I hope people don't come to the situation I found myself in," she said. "I hope they get help before it gets to that extreme."

Geri called Brenden her salvation. She now has hope for the future.

"If I can come through this without people looking at me and judging me, that will be just wonderful."

Geri hopes to return to her home to live soon... She still needs some plumbing and electrical work done-- pretty tough on her limited income.