How clean are you?

Because I'm positively sanitary.

Published on September 21, 2004 By dharmagrl In Home & Family

I've been watching this show on Lifetime called 'How clean in your house'. These 2 British women go into people's houses and clean up after them, all the time making clucking noises and disparaging comments about "filth" and "pigstys".

And they're right. I'm not the worlds best housekeeper, but I'm not filthy, nor is my home dirty. I can sleep at night knowing there are a couple of plates and a mug in the sink, and I don't freak out over a little dust... sometimes my clothes don't hit the laundry hamper and I'm fine with that. I leave my wet towel on the bathroom floor occasionally, and I could care less if the CD's are in alphabetical order, so long as they're on the shelf.

But these homes...well, they made my lived-in habitat look like 'Home Beautiful' and postively sterile by comparison! I have to say I have never seen such...disgusting grossness before. It was, it was absolutely sickening. One lady had a cat that vomited perpetually and she didn't bother to clean up after it, so there was dried cat puke all over the carpet throughout her apartment. She had rampant mold and rotting vegetation in the fridge, and - get this - cat poo in her bed! Yes, you read that right. Feline turds, under her pillow. The cat pan itself was one big...well, you know. It was truly disgusting.

The next house they went to was worse. This lady had a beautiful condo...but had ankle deep garbage on the living room floor. And I do mean garbage. Rotting food on paper plates, cups and wrappers from fast food places, papers, dirty underwear......you couldn't see the floor for the garbage. The fridge was again a penicillin factory, the garbage can had overflowed and had taken up half the kitchen floor, and the microwave...well, it was coated and caked with some nondescript brown...stuff on the inside. You couldn't tell that the bathtub was supposed to be white because the soap scum was so thick and grey all around it, and the toilet...looked like someone had had explosive diarrhea in it 3 months ago and hadn't bothered to flush.

Neither of these women was nasty in their person...they both had clean hair, nice teeth and wore make-up and clean clothes. It just made me wonder how they could stand to live like that. How can you eat food out of a fridge that has things crawling around in it? How can you put your bottom on a toilet seat that has old poop smattered on it, and how the hell can you get yourself clean in a vile bathtub? Better still, how can you sleep with cat poo in your bed???

I just don't understand it.

Comments (Page 1)

trina_p

on Sep 21, 2004

Oh that's gross!!!

I know that show - it was either on cable when I lived with my parents or I saw it on Oprah - either way I know that show.

I wonder how bad those houses are now that they've been cleaned - do the people see the errors of their ways or do they just fall into their old patterns??

Phoenixboi

on Sep 21, 2004

What gets me is how can they show their faces on television???

I used to clean houses for a living. The things I used to see and smell was totally grosse and really opened my eyes to the way that people live. I remember one woman who wouldnt flush the toilet before I came to clean and she had dirty underware all over the floor and boy oh boy did it smell! hmm those were not good flash backs!

dharmagrl

on Sep 21, 2004

I wonder how bad those houses are now that they've been cleaned - do the people see the errors of their ways or do they just fall into their old patterns??

They went back to the one with the cat poo in the bed, and it wasn't too bad.

the condo one...they didn't show the inside, so I'm guessing it must not have been very nice.

P: that's just nasty. I think if I ever had a cleaning lady I'd want to clean before she came...so she wouldn't think we lived like pigs. You're right, how can people show their faces when they're living like that? And then laugh and joke about their nastiness? I'd be crying with shame....

Phoenixboi

on Sep 21, 2004

I think if I ever had a cleaning lady I'd want to clean before she came...so she wouldn't think we lived like pigs

That's what I would be doing as well ... so it wouldnt be worth me having a cleaner cause it would be clean by the time they got to doing it..

My mum tells me though that people who live like that are never sick, it's only the clean ones who get sick cause they are too sensitive to all the bugs. I was brought up to be clean, when I was living with my partner I used to have to walk away because I was too finiky.. Ive learned to calm down with it all now.

dharmagrl

on Sep 21, 2004

My mum tells me though that people who live like that are never sick, it's only the clean ones who get sick cause they are too sensitive to all the bugs

Yeah, that's what my mum said as well.

I've never been too finnicky about cleaning. I know people who always have to have things 'just so' and drive themselves into a frenzy. I'm clean, and tidy for the most part, but I'm not anal about things. I let myself have a day off every now and then. I do have a routine, a schedule...I have certain days to do the bathrooms, certain days to clean the stove, things like that. I find it helps me stay on top of things - there's nothing worse than feeling overwhelmed by a dirty house!

dharmagrl

on Sep 21, 2004

I had bad dreams about nastiness and filth last night. I'm not going to be watching that show right before I go to bed anymore....ugh.

Janders

on Sep 21, 2004

Ewwww.. That is sheer nastiness! I don't call myself a clean freak by any means. I am messy. There are often clothes on the bedroom floor, and mail left in random places. But the cat box is cleaned every day. The garbage gets taken out as it fills and the dishes are washed when they start to fill the sink.

I get embarrassed by the clothes on my bedroom floor, I can not even imagine living in actual filth. So gross.

KarmaGirl

on Sep 21, 2004

That's just nasty! I can't imagine living like that.

However, there was a house in my home town that burned to the ground when the garbage that was collecting spontaneously combusted. (I guess it was from the rotting processes which produces gas and heat). I just can't imagine that......

crimson

on Sep 21, 2004

Hmm... one show that did give me nightmares was a PBS special about microscopic bugs. It showed a couple sleeping in bed, and showed all these little bugs crawling all over them... and their house was clean! I don't even want to imagine about the cat-poo woman.

Phoenixboi

on Sep 21, 2004

There was a story tonight on one of the current affairs programs here in oz about the plague of bedbugs that has hit australia.. eww.. it is really freaky that for the last 50 years Australia has virtually been bed bug free ...and since the olympics there has been a 700 percent rise in bed bugs!

dharmagrl

on Sep 21, 2004

I can not even imagine living in actual filth. So gross

Wouldn't you just feel dirty and nasty all day? And how could you stand the stench?

Karma: That's terrible...not only that the house burned down, but that she had that much garbage in it!

We knew people when we were living in England who were just gross like that. They had cats, and they never emptied the litter box. Well, one day one of that cats was desperate to take a crap, and decided that instead of doing it in the nasty cat box he'd do it in Rob's beret that he had to wear to work. Rob only had one beret, so wasn't very happy about getting up to go to work at 5am and finding a big pile of cat turds in his head gear!

I personally though it was hilarious!

Texas Wahine

on Sep 21, 2004

he he he . . . I am in my dining room right now, and the rug needs vacuuming, on the table are: 3 cereal bowls, checkbook & pen, video game strategy guide & game, a marker, a worksheet, and a receipt. On the floor are: Chuck the Talking Truck, a children's "Learn Spanish" flip book, and a watergun. On my computer desk are: a stack of various papers and magazines, an empty Diet Vanilla Pepsi Can, a breakfast bar wrapper, a cup filled with pens & pencils, and a roll of masking tape. Think I should start cleaning up?

I have the tendency to be really messy, but I like neatness and order. I can't relax in a really messy house. It's very difficult keeping up with the boys' messes (people with small children will understand that statement!), but I try. I think there is a distinct difference between "messy" and "filthy." Filthy houses are dirty, scummy, and germy to the core. Messy houses are clean on a deeper level, but have loose items thrown around haphazardly. Even people with messy houses spend a lot of time cleaning . . . scrubbing toilets, folding laundry, mopping floors, cleaning out fridges . . . we just don't worry with the bra laying in the bathroom floor or the Power Ranger lodged in the couch cushion.

I think I will clean up now, though . . .

dharmagrl

on Sep 21, 2004

Filthy houses are dirty, scummy, and germy to the core. Messy houses are clean on a deeper level, but have loose items thrown around haphazardly. Even people with messy houses spend a lot of time cleaning . . . scrubbing toilets, folding laundry, mopping floors, cleaning out fridges . . . we just don't worry with the bra laying in the bathroom floor or the Power Ranger lodged in the couch cushion.

Yep.

Janders

on Sep 21, 2004

I think it's okay to have a mess and a bit of clutter, but filth and dirt and garbabge? Come on, that is sick.... I can't believe these people would show their faces.

dharmagrl

on Sep 22, 2004

I can't believe these people would show their faces.

That's the thing that got me too, Joey.....they were all happy and laughing and acting like it wasn't a big deal. The lady with the filthy condo was showing off her scrawny body and saying how muscular she was - she acted like it was no big deal that she had creepy crawlies in the fridge and poo-smeared and smattered toilet bowl.

How can people show their faces on national TV when their homes are like that? I'd be too ashamed - I'd have them blur my face out and alter my voice so no-one would know it was me. Actually, I don't think I;d have volunteered for the show in the first place!

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