How Clean Is Your House?

I have been watching the British show "How Clean Is Your House" on YouTube. (Sample) Basically I guess people nominate themselves as having repulsively dirty home, and the two hostesses come around and clean the place up (along with a team of hazmat-suited cleaners who do 90% of the work), dispensing dire warning based on biological analysis along with green cleaning tips. The appeal is partly just the sheer awfulness, and partly the fun of seeing the homeowners get hectored by the improbably blond woman. I have actually been in a house this gross, owned by a friend of my step-dad's. The bathtub was full of black goo, and every surface was covered in matted dog hair. So. Very. Evil. The girls watched with me last night and said, "you have to show Yaya Tena!!" So today I did, and she was totally engrossed. It is fascinating to think that someone who appears relatively normal might be going back to unholy filth every night, but having watched a few episodes I've realized that the people whose houses they do are mentally ill, like they have that hoarding disorder or something. Kind of takes the fun out of it a bit, but on the upside you can see that their lives will be tons better, at least for a while (they do go back and check after a bit. The bird-shit lady was pretty unrepentant, but actually seemed better adjusted than many--she's just a character and really doesn't care at all what other people think. Charming, in a way, from afar.)

Comments

[woof]

Yah, we applied to be one of those houses, but we weren't filthy enough to warrant intervention. We're trying to make it onto next year's, tho'...

[The Modesto Kid]

Charming, in a way, from afar

Note that birdshit lady is herself improbably blonde. Nice crossover value that she is a "successful Eurovision songwriter". "My little dickies, they love to be free..."

[bitchphd]

Agreed: addictive! Thanks for introducing me to this show.

I liked the birdshit lady; she and the cleaners all seemed pretty cheerful. The "ungrateful bitch" show, however, is depressing. I'd be ungrateful, too, if someone waltzed in and started lecturing me like that....

[peterborough cleaning]

I think to nominate yourself to be disgraced on tv is fine but when the kids are shown they are bound to be teased or bullied,which is not fair on the kids!!