That’s okay. He thinks you’re crazy too. 
That’s okay. I think he’s crazy as well.
Trifecta!
She wears a fat suit on Reno 911. (This for example is not genuine Niecy bootybut a prosthetic.)
I LOVED when she quit even trying to be nice and told Daughter Baglien to “get your ungrateful ass out of that car and apologize now!” Didn’t work, but still liked it.
There have been a couple of times that I understood the point of the homeowner: if it’s something small like a highchair or even a bed that’s still useful which has been in my family forever, let 'em keep it. (The highchair takes up very little room and you’ll need a guest bed anyway.) However, I’ve learned from personal experience that you really do have to just let go of some things that have no monetary or practical value or you’ll get overloaded. Photos are by far the best keepsakes and they require very little storage and can be a great artistic challenge in digitizing and preserving.
My mother bordered on bibliomania: she would not throw away a book. She’d loan them or give them away, but she would not throw them away or donate them to Goodwill (because here- I understand other places are different- they’ll just lie forever on shelves at $.15 anyway). I inherited some of this probably more as a habit than as anything genetic, and I used to carry around boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of books that I never planned to read again (some I’d never read) but had acquired through yard sales, estate sales, clearance sales, etc…
In what I call my Goldilocks Year when I moved three times in about six months ("this one’s too run down/this one’s too small/this one’s just right) I got so frigging sick and tired of hauling around heavy ass boxes of books that had never even been unpacked since the last move I decided to hell with it.
I went through and selected my favorites, and the ones that had some value (monetary or sentimental) and that left about 3/4 of them. Of those left I donated about third or so to the library where I worked. Since other than perhaps John Grisham or Stephen King most books really don’t sell well at yard sales no matter how cheap they are, for the ones I had left that I didn’t the library would have any use for (novels and books in not great condition or books that I couldn’t conceive anyone ever checking out) I had a “come’n’get it” party for friends and student workers and pretty much anyone who knew me or knew someone who knew me while I was moving. (My big stuff was mostly packed and moved so I wasn’t afraid of being robbed.) This got rid of most of the books, and those that were left I did the unthinkable to- I put them in trash bags and threw them away. I felt like I was committing blasphemy, but I did it. (I should mention we’re not talking first editions of David Copperfield here but novels that never sold by authors you never heard of, or leftover textbooks that were outdated, or a water damaged photography book about chinchillas, etc.).
It felt blasphemous, but also kind of great. I remembered the stories about Alexander the Great burning his baggage train and his generals seeing the loot they’d plundered from Greece to Iran to Afghanistan to India go up on flames actually began cheering. (The baggage train had been slowing them down and the really valuable stuff like gold and jewels they either kept out or sent to their holdings in Babylon.)
Except mine was with books in garbage bags, and didn’t have as much yelling in approval. (Of course Alex the Great’s men would probably not dared have said “Damn! I wanted that handcarved ivory table for my breakfast nook!” once he gave the ‘burn notice’.) Anyway, getting rid of stuff is often not as traumatic as it seems.
Best line in the show. It was also quite telling that the daughter would not apologize afterward thinking she had done nothing wrong.
My thought on the Baglein women was that nothing would change with them. The mother never admitted a problem and the next day probably started filling up her house with junk again. Some families actually appear to realize their folly and seem to want to use the makeover as a starting over point. Viking Bitch (her words) never admitted she shopped too much, hoarded anything or even that her kitchen stank. She will not change.
I will like to see the “Clean House Comes Clean” where the cast gets to trash the family.
My name is Kolga, and I am a Clean House addict (“Hi, Kolga!”).
I love this show beyond reason. Part of it is schadenfreude, part of it is inspiration to get my own mayhem and foolishness under control (I don’t have a huge amount of that, but my books ohmygodhowmanybookscanonepersonown! and craft supplies).
There’s been quite the to-do on the Cincinnati Inquirer website about this episode. The daughter and her boyfriend have posted some stuff alleging that the cast and crew deliberately threw out valuable/sentimental stuff after promising not to, and edited the final show to make them look worse. Most of the daughter’s posts have been removed from the website due to violations of TOS, which I believe is telling.
And one poster is a neighbor of the Baglien’s who says the women started bringing bags of stuff into the house the day after Clean House left, and the garage is ALREADY back full to the brim.
I. cannot. WAIT. for that episode. I will have the popcorn and everything. It’ll be better than the “CHCC” about Toni Dragon.
I don’t know if Niecy is that way in real life, but I love her (or the character that she plays). Trish sometimes gets on my last nerve - I want to tell her to clear your damn throat! - and I think she’s the weakest cast member, but I don’t dislike her. Matt seems like a big ol’ goofball. I am sometimes :dubious: about Mark’s designs, but I’m that way about ALL the design shows - would people really LIVE in those rooms? But, some of the follow-up shows that they’ve done where Niecy goes back to see if the families have stayed clean have shown that the families have moved/altered some of Mark’s original designs to be something more that they want to live in, and I think he gives some good foundations for them to work with (most of the time - there was this one show where he did a whole BIG room in pale gray, fireplace brick surround and all, and it was a hot mess).
Do I like Clean House?
I wrote a frickin’ Clean House/Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover fanfic.
The worst thing about moving back in with my parents to help out is that their cable tv doesn’t have Style, and I haven’t seen Clean House in months!
I think part is the limited budget and the individual family’s he’s working for, but there was one I particularly couldn’t stand. I don’t know the name of the family- older black lady and her adult daughter as memory serves, both of whom loved blue. The living room looked exactly like the lobby of a funeral home when it was finished. However, they seemed to really like it, and like most of the people on the show it looked way better than before because of the new stuff/lack of clutter.
The farm family seemed to appreciate the new digs as well. (I loved Niecy saying of their son “Oh Earrings and me are gone get along quite well!” when he agreed with her on something.)
Do they ever do follow-ups? I’ve wondered how many people keep their houses neat (or at least neat-ish) after the makeover. For some it would be easy; for others less so probably.
The repeat last night was a Hispanic family- father, mother, and little girl- who lived in a tiny 1BR semi-detached house and the parents were giving up their bedroom to the little girl. That one I was watching with a “there’s no way they can keep it neat because it’s just too tiny and they’ve got a little girl”, plus since the combo LR/BR had a hideabed- well, I’ve never known anyone who slept in a hideabed who always bothered with folding it back in and putting the linens away each day. (Personally I’d have gone with a futon as IMO they’re a lot more comfortable and bedlike, or perhaps see if there’s any way to fit in a Murphy bed anywhere.)
With the Baeglins and the others for that matter, I seriously doubt CLEAN HOUSE can make you give up anything even after you sign the contract to be on the program. I’d love to see their contract just out of curiosity though; I’m guessing all kinds of releases and promises not to sue if disappointed (because you know Dragon and the Baeglins probably would).
I would have suspicions that people that resistant to cleaning would have a definition of “valuable/sentimental” that would make sense to average people.
I remember one person saying something like “It’s dear to me because it looks just like the one my grandmother had”.
I don’t remember if it was a doily, a davenport, a dresser or a dildo, but whatever it was it wasn’t even the one her grandmother had but it just looked like it.
They have done some follow-up shows where Niecy shows up to check up on the homeowners. I’ve only seen a couple of those, though, and in all of them, the homeowners did keep up. In some of the rooms, like I said, they’d moved some stuff around/out from Mark’s original design. Niecy had presents (massive ones, like big screen TVs or a trip to Disneyland) for everybody who’d been good at upkeep. I never saw any where the people didn’t keep up.
I remember that one, and thinking “there’s NO WAY this is going to work, that house is the size of my frigging closet.” Seriously, wasn’t that whole house, like, 500 sq. ft. or something? The little girl was adorable, though.
Apparently, the Baeglins are not allowing Clean House follow-up cameras back into the house, which may be in violation of the contract. The rumors are flying thick and fast.
Jesus, I REALLY need to get a life.
They had an awards showlast year. They followed up on everone, and the [del]pigs[/del] ones who reverted to their old ways were given “dirty” awards, as well as trophys for the best kept houses.
Life Laundry, an early model for Clean House, Clean Sweep & other shows, ran on BBC America some years ago. On each show, the organizer helped clear out clutter, the good stuff was sold (usually at a “car boot sale”) & the cleared out spaces were redecorated. The guests ranged from people who had just been overcome by circumstances to borderline mental cases. On How Clean Is Your House, the emphasis is more on cleaning than decluttering & the ladies don’t redecorate, although the result always looks much better.
Another BBC America favorite was House Doctor–similar to our own Sell This House or Designed To Sell. In which a sharp-tongued American lady critiqued the place for sale–& then ran the remodel. Emotions ran high. (Alistair Appleton was the non-working “host” for a couple of series; what a shock to see him killed by cybermen!)
Yes, I’m a fan of this stuff. Often watching when I ought to be cleaning my own house. So I think you’ll like Clean House.
I watch this show all the time, even have some DVR’d so I can catch an ep or two in case there’s “nothing else on”.
I like Trish and think it’s Matt who really brings nothing to the show, but different folks and strokes and all that.
What kills me is the amount of money these people spent on this stuff… and we’re not talking 6-figure executives here, we’re talking about teachers and detectives and the like. The Baeglin Bitch alone must have spent every last dime she owned on all her stuff - don’t forget they had a warehouse full of crap that they’ve been paying on for TEN YEARS! I can’t imagine what her credit score would be.
The Baeglins were horrible people, but really… they had some serious mental problems, especially Mom. It was something in her eyes… they were a bit wild and red, and her continual insistence that there wasn’t a problem was that of a woman who had issues with reality. (Remember how she said “Well, this warehouse isn’t full” right before the garage sale?) Her daughter was just sad - in some way, I picked up that Mom wanted her in an infantile state which is why she was forced to decorate her room in a manner more befitting a 7 year-old. And it wasn’t just “old stuff” that was accumulated - I noticed WALL-E and Eve toys in the room, and they weren’t exactly around in the early 90’s. No wonder she threw a hissy fit - she was a mental 12 year-old and she was probably stressed about all the hell that her mom was going to put her through once the cameras were gone… I’d probably snap too.
The Clean House quote that has entered our lexicon was from the previous “Messiest House in the Country”, the people in Pennsylvania, Mendy and Phil. My wife asks me to do something that I don’t want to do at that moment and I’ll say “I can’t because of my bad back.” The CHCC episode on them was quite revealing - it took 35 people a full month to get that house in shape, and they all commented on how horrible the place smelled.
Oh, and the funniest line was from a CHCC episode when Mark said “Well, I’m not gay… but my boyfriend is.” It was all in the delivery.
I like this show when I catch it, but I don’t keep track of when it’s on. I loved watching the Brit version–I remember one with this person who had many birds that she let fly free–there was bird poop everywhere with fungus and mold growing on the carpet where the poop had fallen (it was near a window or outside door so moisture was present).
I do get grossed out by the slovenliness of most of the people. IMO, people who are THAT cluttered or dirty tend to have mental problems.
I like the show and I like Niecy. Her voice drives me up a wall, though. Nails on a chalkboard.
I haven’t seen it in ages (we actually cancelled our cable) but I remember liking her, only… does she actually do anything on the show besides be the Sassy Black Lady? It seems a little, you know. You know.
Sure, Niecy does stuff other than being the Sassy Black Lady. She’s the ostensible host for the show, doing typical reality makeover show host stuff like voiceovers and such. She also pumps the homeowners for emotional revelations that get to the root of the problem with the house and the relationships therein, or at least make for good tv. You can’t underestimate the importance of that; it is, I think, the whole reason people actually watch these sorts of shows. Because let’s face it–we all look at these houses in the beginning and wonder how on earth people let it get that way because it seems almost pathological. Niecy’s little chats give us a glimpse into the inner workings of the minds behind the messes, letting us play armchair psychologist for a bit. So not only do we feel a whole lot better about our own housekeeping, but also about our own mental health. We might not be the cleanest, best organized, or most emotionally healthy, but at least we’re miles ahead of those poor suckers.
Hello, my name is Phall0106 and I’m a closet Clean House viewer.
::Hello, Phall0106!::
I have resorted to watching Clean House behind closed doors because…well, because I can’t let my kids know I’m watching it. I’ve been known to text the horrific examples of messy houses to my kids, torturing them with fine details. Whever I watch it, I tend to get so worked up, that I can spend hours, hours I tell you, cleaning, organizing and decluttering my own home.
Yes, it’s becomes a bad day in the Hall household when I turn on Clean House…