If you haven’t, you should. It’s hilarious and disturbing at the same time. Basically, two quirky British cleaning experts go into the most disgusting homes you’ve ever seen and clean them up. I have never seen such filth in my life. On some recent episodes: one family’s house was basically a litterbox. There was cat shit and cat piss everywhere. (And four children lived in this house!) In one woman’s house, there was even cat shit in her bed. Another woman’s house had dried cat vomit EVERYWHERE. She never cleaned it up, ever. (I felt sooo bad for those poor animals having to live like that.)
One house had so many spiderwebs, spiders and insects crawling everywhere. In most of the houses, it looked like they had never ever vacuumed. What they do is, they steam clean the carpets and show the waste water. They get gallons and gallons of BLACK water out of the carpets. SICKENING!
Some of the kitchens were utterly horrifying. Dirty dishes piled feet high, rotten food, mold… The women go into the refrigerators and swab them and test the results. They also test other surfaces. You’d be amazed at the levels of bacteria in these homes. One woman’s refrigerator had more fecal bacteria in it than her toilet (which was literally brown from never being cleaned). You’ve never seen so much rotten food and mold in your life.
And of course there is the trash. Trash piled everywhere. Empty food containers and just junk everywhere. Bathrooms were pretty bad two. One woman had nasty dirty underwear strewn everywhere. It was sooo gross! One woman was a chewing gum addict, and had chewing gum plastered everywhere in her house. On the carpets, walls, furniture.
Anyway, after watching this show several times, I just get so disgusted with people. How can anyone live in such filth? It’s so so so disgusting I can hardly believe my eyes. Can anyone share their tales of gross houses (yours or people they know) so we can gain some insight into this?
I actually had the displeasure of visiting the home of a very dirty person recently, and it left me wondering, what are people thinking? Please help me understand!
So I recently started dating this guy and I went to his house. Eeeewwwwww! We were chillin in his bedroom, sitting on his bed, and I don’t think he has ever washed his bed linens in the whole 2 years he has lived there. They were filthy dirty. If the dark blue sheets were white, they would be brown. The comforter is blue on the front and white on the back – or was white at one time, it is now dark brown from dirt.
This is not the first time I have encountered single guys who never wash their bedsheets. What is up with this phenomenon?? It’s absolutely gross.
His bathroom was worse. Again, it looked like he has never cleaned it in the 2 years he lived there. The sink was utterly crusted with gunk, and I didn’t even want to look in the shower, but I couldn’t see through the door due to the amount of soapscum. The toilet and floor was filthy.
I’ve seen the show once, when the PMS Channel aired a repeat episode at a decent hour. I wish they’d show it at an earlier hour like maybe 5 or 6 PM instead of those same old reruns of “The Harpy” and “The Wrinkled Girls.” Really they could show a repeat of the original at an earlier time. I enjoyed it. Like you nyctea scandiaca, I was both fascinated and thoroughly grossed out at the same time.
Part of my job is to inspect things like accessible ramps, toilets and other such moodifications made in homes to accomodate persons with disabilities. I get to go into some lovely :eek: homes! I remember one in particular where I was supposed to inspect a remodeled bathroom. The house stunk so bad (cat pee, cat poo, dog pee, dog poo, people pee, people poo) I gagged just stepping inside. I could not go any further. I just said I had to leave. I threw up out beside my truck. I came back to the office and said I would not enter that house until it was cleaned. The contractor who did the work said his crew complained daily about the stench and wore gloves, goggles and masks while working there. I did not go back until it was “cleaned.” By “clean” I mean that I could go in without wretching up everything I had eaten for the past three weeks.
My gf’s brother and family are the most disturbingly disgusting people I have ever known. They built a huge 3 story house (4500 sq ft I think). Took well over $200k to build 5 years ago. My gf and her brother do not get along so I had never been to his house until about 3 weeks ago when he filed bankruptcy. He moved into a much smaller house and a bunch of furniture and stuff he said we could have if we just go get it.
Off we go I mean free furniture. Woohoo. We get to the house and open the garage door. The smell no stench literally made me step back. What the hell is that? Cat piss and an attic ac unit that has leaked and rotted the dry wall ceiling. We go on into the house and the smell is worse. At this point i know why the furniture was going to be free. I don’t want it but morbid curiosity makes me look at the rest of the house. On the kitchen table is a plate of something that used to be a hamburger? Crawling with bugs. How long ago did they move out? I ask. 3 days ago. Holy crap but it gets worse. Much worse.
There was food and garbage on the floor in every room. Every bathroom was black with mold and mildew. The sinks all coated with shaving filth. You know that mixture of stubble and shaving cream. Everywhere. Alright I’m sick but the kids live down in the basement let’s go see it. Bad, bad idea.
Walk down stairs and it’s more of the same but worse. Half eaten food everywhere. McD’s bags scattered still half full. THE SMELL is overpowering. That’s it I’m going to hurl. Time to go. I turn to see the back room where the cats live. The floor is covered with shit. Pee stains by the gallon. I take 2 steps toward the room and i notice my leg is itching. Scratch while saying something to my GF not paying attention. Hmmm still itches. Look down. My ankles are black with fleas. FLEAS! FLEAS! HOLY F@#$ I HAVE FLEAS!!!
I dance around while wildly slapping at my ankles. MY gf is like :dubious: What is wrong with you? ** I got f@#$ing fleas!!!**
I get itchy just thinking about it. :eek: :eek: :eek:
Needless to say we left empty handed and took a long shower the second we got back. I have no idea how people live like that.
Grant, you ought to report them to the animal welfare people. If they humans want to live in filth, let them, but they are not supposed to keep their animals in it. Poor things didn’t choose to be there.
Years ago, I (briefly) cleaned people’s homes for a living. When I first began I only took new customers by referral (someone knew someone, etc.). When “Norma” camed recommended to me by another client I had, I arranged to do a home visit at her house. The thing was that Norma worked ungodly hours and wouldn’t be there during my visit. No problem for me–I preferred working in a house where the homeowners weren’t underfoot offering helpful hints (“Vaccuum in the other direction so the shag of the carpeting goes north/south, instead of east/west.”). On the appointment day, Norma leaves the key under the front porch mat (no kidding) and I left myself in.
Norma had a three bedroom, one bath house. She lived there with her husband and 10 year old son, without pets. I shudder to think how bad it could have been if she’d had pets. Usually, clients would leave me lists of anything specific they wanted me to do (beyond the usual stuff, like cleaning the bathrooms, mopping the floors, etc.), however, with Norma’s place that was impossible. Rotting food all over the house, bed sheets that hadn’t been changed in God only knows how long, dishes piled dangerously in the kitchen, towells that I mistook for rags (they wre so dirty and disgusting) and laundry piled everywhere all over the house. And that was the Not So Bad Stuff. Her house was absolutely disgusting.
That day, I worked twice the amount of time just clearing stuff out. That day I also threw out crap that should have never have been left in the house. Norma called me that evening to rave about what a fantastic job I’d done (even though I didn’t even finish what I’d been working on!). Over the next year, I worked one a week in just trying to work my way through Norma’s house. I cleaned out the linen closet (and threw away all the expired medicines), reorganized her pantry (and threw out the expired, stale, and/or rotten foods), cleaned closets and dresser drawers, in addition to the usual vaccuuming, dusting, mopping and scrubbing.
I’d bet that the week after I stopped cleaning Norma’s house, it looked very much like it had when I first began.
I watch this show! It’s very motivating. I prefer my house to be clean, of course, and this gets me going. Also, I like the hammy British lady personas they have.
I think people just get slowly used to it, and don’t realize how horrifying their filth is. And all that dirt and clutter is very depressing, so they get overwhelmed and feel helpless in the face of all that junk and trash; it takes over, and they feel that there’s nothing they can do. Why pick up the cat poo when there will be 5x more tomorrow, and it’s all hopeless anyway?
For me, mess is like a heavy psychic weight on my shoulders, but you get used to it and don’t realize how lovely a feeling it is to have a clean, comfortable home. Not that I’m a perfect housekeeper by any means!
I agree completely. You slowly get used to it. And it becomes habit to just step over the pile of dirty clothes you left lying outside the bathroom door because you were too lazy to bring 'em to the hamper. When my apt gets really disorganized, I forget what it’s like to not have to dodge stacks of books. My place was at it’s absolute worst when I think I may have been experiencing a mild depression. But I always cleaned up the cat poo (actually I have good cats and except for one instance involving my suitcase - and said cat was pitted soundly - they use the litter box) although I have let stuff int he fridge get pretty elderly.
I’ve never actually watched the show in the OP although I’ve seen ads. I’m scared to… :eek:
Single guys are terrible. I had mentioned in my thread the slovenly habit of the first guy I met over the Internet. While he wasn’t on the order of some of the things mentioned here, but his house was a scary place. He let the dog use his sweatshirts as chew toys. There were layers of dust on all everything except the couch and the bed - the two places he would sit. Those had dog hair instead. He left a glass of water next to the bed for at least three weeks - could have been longer - that was just when I started counting. He had stuff scattered everywhere - papers, books, CDs, guns, ammo - he left the binoculars right next to the front window, which I found creepy. He didn’t even have sheets on his bed - used a sleeping bag. Apparently change would fall out of his pockets and he would just leave it where ever it fell. I think I could have collected at least $10 in change just by picking it up off the various floors.
The next guy only had a room in a friend’s house, and while his room was fairly clean, he was not, and so neither was his bed. Very stinky. Very icky.
The next guy was actually fairly neat (except clutter in the kitchen), but the holes he had punched in the door and the walls were unsettling…
I don’t get it. I don’t know how people can live like that.
Question: is the show you’re seeing a rerun of the UK version, thus perpetuating the myth/truth that we’re all stinking scumbags, or has it been redone with American dirty ol’ bastards?
And I’ve seen one episode of ‘Too Posh To Wash’, where a rather cute posh girl was revealed to stink really bad, which disturbed me somewhat.
No it’s not a rerun, they’re new episodes with dirty Americans…
At least I have something to be relieved about with the new (but sloppy) guy I am dating. At least he showers and washes his hair everyday, unlike some other guys I have dated… Greasy hair? Not cool. (Thank god I have been lucky enough to not have had a skid-mark guy!)
I don’t know what it is about single guys! Don’t they see the dust and hair and gunk all over their bathroom floor? Don’t they see the mildew? Don’t they see the ring in their toilet? Doesn’t it disturb them that they are sleeping in sheets (if they even have sheets) that have not been washed in a year?
jjimm it’s the same two ladies but they go to homes in the US. If I looked around BBC America enough I might find the UK version. Maybe even “Too Posh To Wash”, which I read at first as “Too Poo To Wash” and really really thought, I don’t wanna know.
Off to search the BBCAmerica website to see if I can find those shows.
I dunno, I think this is a wildly inaccurate stereotype - one that I used to buy into myself (female). One of my best friends is absolutely immaculate - I tell him the only way you can tell it’s a bachelor’s apartment is the fact that there’s no food in the fridge. And my brother is a major neat freak - he lives in the basement apartment, and the place just sparkles. He’s one of the neatest people I know. Just about all the single guys I’ve ever known have been very neat, clean people(actually, sometimes I wonder if this obsessive cleanliness isn’t maybe part of why they’re single ).
).