I mentioned last week that I’ve been watching BBC America quite a bit lately, mostly out of boredom with what’s on the rest of the channels. Well, being a bit of a clean freak (which you’ve probably picked up if you read my other site, I Think Therefore I Blog), I couldn’t resist tuning in to How Clean Is Your House?.
Now, I figured I’d pick up a cleaning tip or two, maybe find some places in my home that I somehow over look during my semi-regular I-can’t-stand-this-clutter-anymore frenzies. What I didn’t expect was a glimpse inside some of the most horrific, cluttered, filth-infested homes I’ve ever seen.
We’re talking pack rats who skip the packing part and, instead, leave their dirty clothes, dishes, food wrappers, magazines and other unidentifiable items everywhere on their floors, counters, tables… even their beds.
One woman’s floor hadn’t been vacuumed in two years — TWO YEARS! — since she’d had new carpet installed. Beige carpet, as the show’s hostesses revealed when they moved the bed frame a bit. Except that it was no longer beige but more of a gray thanks to the quarter-inch of dog hair all over the place. Not surprisingly, that woman suffered from asthma.
In fact, as air- and swab-tests conducted by one of the show’s presenters shows, their homes are often filled with everything from e. Coli to toxic mold. Quite a few of the people appearing on the show suffer from allergies, asthma or other bronchial problems. But do they ever think to themselves, “Gee, perhaps this five years of rotting filth I’ve allowed to accumulate might have something to do with it?” No, no they do not. They live in pigstys, apparently oblivious — or unwilling — to do a damn thing about it.
Except sign up to be on the show.
I can’t, for the life of me, understand why someone living in that kind of putrefaction would volunteer to let strangers with inside when, quite often, they won’t even allow their friends and family to see how miserably they live. Then again, those strangers come armed with cleaning crews and tips on using natural products to keep up the place after they’ve left, so perhaps there’s some incentive to making one’s self a laughing stock.
Frankly, I want to see the Beeb do a spin off of the show featuring a return to those same project homes two or three years later. They could call it “How Hopeless Are You?” or something like that, with every show ending in a sound beating of the piggy home occupants, because you just know a good 80% of those folks went straight back to their old habits as soon as the show aired.
Monday, October 22nd, 2007, 4:41 pm | 
My Venomous Life | 
RSS feed
Comments and pings are currently closed.
October 22, 2007 at 5:30 pm
I think people like that have got some sort of mental illness… really I’m not joking. I know the ladies go in and clean things up – but I have a feeling that’s the last cleaning that place will see after they leave and go on to the next place.
Unless the person can be helped somehow to change that way of living – just cleaning things up will not do much except in the short term.
I think the show you want might be Operation Organization (HGTV). I don’t know when it’s on – but it’s far less of a show about people who are really nearly beyond help, and more about people who have usually one room with a clutter control issue. It has never been on regularly that I could tell, but check the web site and see if you can find out the times they’re showing it.
October 22, 2007 at 6:39 pm
I think you must be right on the mental illness aspect. That’s what’s so strangely fascinating about the show, too, I suppose. I mean, these people stand there clearly shame-faced, muttering about how long it’s been since they’ve cleaned, and you can tell they KNOW they should’ve done something about it. They just didn’t. It’s almost like they didn’t know how to even begin, not even by picking up some clothes, for instance, then giving them a wash.
It’s weird and it’s sad, and it’s also something I can’t stop watching now. Isn’t that horrible?
October 22, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Not really horrible. We all need to be reminded once in awhile that we really aren’t so bad at living our own lives.
October 23, 2007 at 10:17 am
I also think on these shows, they purposely either tell them to leave things alone (don’t touch anything) or even strew more crap around to make it look even worse if possible. In television you can never tell what’s real and what’s not.
However, there are people who do live in those situations. As lattegirl says, having a look in at their lives gives us a sense that we might just be normal.
October 23, 2007 at 11:28 am
I’ll have to agree with that, Teresa. Seeing the horrors of their homes has definitely made me feel better about my own house.