'Hoarders' new season debuts Monday on A&E; Host Matt Paxton shares cleaning tips

CHICAGO (WLS) -- "Hoarders" host and extreme cleaning specialist Matt Paxton has been helping people deal with dangerous amounts of stuff for 20 years. He spoke with ABC7's Janet Davies ahead of "Hoarders" season premiere Monday night.

"Think about the worst thing about you, and all of the sudden put a TV camera on it," extreme cleaning specialist Matt Paxton said. "It's emotionally draining and I had some hoarders take their emotions out on me."

"It happens for a reason. It's always caused by some type of trauma," Paxton added. "So if someone holds onto stuff because they're looking for happiness and self-worth in their stuff, it's no different than someone looking for happiness and self-worth in exercise or faith or drugs or alcohol.

With the pandemic keeping many of us at home, he's seeing a lot of people get rid of clutter - but not all.

"People are cleaning out like they've never cleaned out before," Paxton said. "But then we're gonna have people that, we haven't even hit the worst of the economic parts of it and we're gonna have people that hoard food and clothes because they're afraid they're never gonna have a job again. I mean, this is gonna create like, a Depression-type hoarding scenario."

He offered some tips for cleaning and urged people to start small.

"If you're doing this at home, 10 minutes a night, that's it, 2 by 2 foot area," Paxton said. "If you can do 10 minutes a night for 5 nights a week, your house starts to get clean."

The season debut of "Hoarders" is Monday night on A & E. That network is partly owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC.