Under court order, Clearwater mother and daughter begin cleaning home

Clearwater homeowners began cleaning their home after receiving a court order to do so on Thursday.

Rebecca Fancher and her mother started their day cleaning, but it's not a simple task because the home they're cleaning is a mess.

The mother and daughter are struggling to do it on their own and are now asking for help.

"We just don't have the resources," said Fancher. "We don't have a magic wand to wave and make it all perfect."

DCF investigators stopped by the home earlier Thursday morning and saw that the house is packed several feet high with belongings. However, Fancher doesn't consider the mess to be what many call "hoarding."

"We see the situation as a complicated messy salvage operation," she said. "We want to save what we can because we don't have a lot to replace it with."

Earlier this month, a judge gave the mother and daughter 60 days to clean up their Alton Drive home.

Wednesday night, county officials declared the house unfit to live in and took away the animals that were living in the house.

It's not the only challenge Fancher's mother Bobbie Hancock, 80, is trying to overcome.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago and hasn't gotten any official treatment.

"I just have to pace myself and do the best I can," Hancock said.

Fancher and Hancock say they are doing as much as they can. They have already loaded up plastic jugs on the roof of their car to recycle.

They say their roof has been leaking since 2004 and it's forced them to stack items up in the home.

However, it's not the first time it's happened. Neighbors say the county helped clean it up a few years ago.

This time around, the mother and daughter realize they've got a much bigger problem.

"It's a little bit like a slow tornado," Fancher said.

The home does not have an air conditioner, so the mother and daughter say they are staying up all night to do the work.

They are also currently looking for another place to stay since the county gave them 30 days to vacate.