# New show "How Clean Is Your House": How do people live this way?!? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 30, 2004, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872 "2004-09-30T16:59:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/61 "2004-10-01T18:27:53Z")
For more inspiration, more [photos!](http://www.theplan.com/dmi/pix/examples.htm) My favorite photo is [this one](http://www.theplan.com/dmi/pix/tvanyone.htm). Evidently, there’s grand piano under there. I find these horrible rooms both oddly compelling and reassuring; I may be untidy, but I’m not that bad… ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/62 "2004-10-01T21:14:12Z")
Wow. It’s a little strange when you realize that your vehicle is cleaner than some people’s houses. My next door neighbor doesn’t have so much of a clutter problem as a pure filth problem. She washes her bath towels once a week or so; clothes are washed only after the third or fourth wearing. I don’t think the sheets get changed more than once a month. She also has a dog - a little toy breed with long hair. The dog looks like a little greaseball, and smells awful; I’ve been around dogs who lived their entire lives outside that didn’t smell like that. The dog is always on the furniture or in her bed, and frequently does “#2” in both places. (My neighbor seems to find this amusing. :dubious: ) I don’t go over to her house often; the last time I did, it was like walking into a solid wall of stink. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/63 "2004-10-02T09:05:54Z")
> [@Jeep's Phoenix](#): > > My next door neighbor doesn’t have so much of a clutter problem as a pure filth problem. She washes her bath towels once a week or so; clothes are washed only after the third or fourth wearing. Hmm…weird to see people have such different standards. I hang my towels out to dry after every use, so they keep smelling clean and fresh, so washing them once a week is fine with me. Also, I’m perfectly okay with wearing a sweater, jacket or pair of pants to the office four times before washing them. Sometimes even longer, especially if they’re new and I want to keep the new “finish” on them. Such clothes are not worn on the skin, like underwear. and I live in a temperate climate, hardly sweat, and do sedentary work anyway. I think there are many advantages to not becoming _overly_ hygenic. It’s no use to go from one extreme (the examples in this thread) to another. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/64 "2004-10-02T09:23:02Z")
What is it about these people (who have “disposiphobia” and the “holes punched in walls” thing? Is it fun to smash your fist through the walls? You would think that after your third trip to the hospital (to X-ray/set the broken bones in your hand), that you might find other ways of blowing off steam! ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/65 "2004-10-02T12:30:21Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > Hmm…weird to see people have such different standards. > > I hang my towels out to dry after every use, so they keep smelling clean and fresh, so washing them once a week is fine with me. > Also, I’m perfectly okay with wearing a sweater, jacket or pair of pants to the office four times before washing them. Sometimes even longer, especially if they’re new and I want to keep the new “finish” on them. > Such clothes are not worn on the skin, like underwear. and I live in a temperate climate, hardly sweat, and do sedentary work anyway. I was going to post the same thing in reponse to **Jeep’s Phoenix.** I know there have been threads about it before (the towel-washing thing), but I also wash bath towels once a week. I go by the “you’re drying clean water off your clean body” way of thinking. Yes, I know there’s skin flakes and bacteria, but the towels all get hung up and dry completely before the next shower, so IMO, they don’t need to be washed after one use. Cotton sweaters get washed after several wearings; heavy wool sweaters get “Dryel’ed” every so often, and might only get actually “washed” once or twice a season. At the other end of the spectrum, the litter boxes are scooped once a day, the dog poop is picked up in the yard every couple of days, I vacuum and dust and pick up clutter every couple of days (at least twice a week), the bathroom is cleaned every couple of days (the toilet gets swished out with the brush and some cleanser at least every other day). ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/66 "2004-10-02T13:36:57Z")
**Bibliocat** , your post prompted me to start a [new thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=278810) on standards for hygenic housekeeping. It would be interesting if more people are on Jeep’s Phoenix 's side of the spectrum, or in the sane middle, like us :D. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/67 "2004-10-02T13:44:09Z")
I feel better now. I look at my place and shake my head sometimes, but now I realize there is a big difference between clutter and squalor. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/68 "2004-10-02T15:32:26Z")
I’ve never inspired a new thread before. I’ll go back inside my plastic bubble now. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/69 "2004-10-02T16:31:07Z")
**Jeep’s Phoenix** , can’t you tell I’m just jealous? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/70 "2004-10-02T16:42:38Z")
:d ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/71 "2004-10-02T16:47:06Z")
I’m not sure what happened there…anyway… 😃 I wish I had that plastic bubble in some of the computer labs at school. There is one lab in particular where the keyboards are nearly black from filth. ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/72 "2004-10-02T17:44:18Z")
I imagine some of these people have mental problems. When I was in High School, I lived with my mom. She was too busy living inside her own head to care about how clean the house was. Whenever other members of the family wanted rid of junk, they would _give_ it to us, instead of Goodwill. If we said we didn’t want it, they’d get mad and not take us to the grocery store, (we didn’t have a car). So we had this small apartment with HUGE pieces of furniture that we practicly had to climb over. And a bedroom that was nothing but junk. (I kept my bedroom clean) I did the best I could with th the cleaning, but I was small and couldn’t move the stuff to clean around it. I had my hands full just making sure my mom didn’t try to kill herself or burn the house down. WARNING: The following is not for the squeamish. We had a cat. The cat had kittens. One day I noticed one of the kittens was missing. The mama cat didn’t seen too concerned. So I _knew_ it had died. I looked all over the place for it, but couldn’t find it. After a few days, I figured I was wrong because there was no odor. So, I forgot about it. 2 weeks later, I was looking for some money my dad had sent me. Mom would hide anything he sent. But I knew her hiding place was a tiny unused closet in the livingroom. There was a huge antique vanity dresser in front of the closet, and the vanity bench was shoved under it with some other junk on top of it. So the niche in the dresser was completely filled in with stuff. I pulled the bench out… and that’s when the smell almost knocked me down. I had unsealed the kitty crypt! Did I mention this was August? When the kitten had disappeared, he was 2 months old. Now his body was the size of an adult cat, and squishy. He had been so tightly sealed that their was no insect activity. ---
**Author:** ![Arien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arien)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/73 "2004-10-02T17:44:38Z")
This thread is appalling. It’s so sad that people end up living like that. Right now my face looks like this: :eek: And like several others, I was inspired to get up and vacuum, dust, and do a load of laundry. And my room is not even messy, it’s just a bit dusty. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/74 "2004-10-02T17:47:56Z")
> [@](#): > > See, this I don’t get. How can anyone live in squalor and not mind other people seeing it? I can understand it. I remember when my sister came to visit me for the first time in my new apartment (I had been there for maybe six months or so). For two weeks I cleaned and cleaned–trying my hardest to go against the tide of entrophy by the time she arrived. The end result–IMHO–was a “tidy” apartment. Not spic-n-span clean, but decent enough for my sister. It seemed like the first thing out of her mouth when she saw the place was how dirty everything was :(. So…I think it might be the case that people in third degree squalor may clean up in anticipation of a visitor, but only manage to reach second degree. And because that’s an improvement over the original situation (which is obviously not that severe to them to begin with) they think they’ve done a superb job. It may also be the case that these people don’t visit other people’s homes very often. I know that every time I visit my parents’ immaculate house, I feel ashamed of my apartment. Disclaimer: I am a slob but I’m nowhere as bad as the people discussed on this thread. The sensor that alerts me to clutter is not as sensitive as other people’s, but I do have one. And I’m anal about bathroom germs. For instance, I always take my shoes off when I walk into the bathroom. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/75 "2004-10-02T18:38:57Z")
I can understand how things get that way, you just get so lost and don’t see them building up. It’s easy to just leave it. Things got to second degree when I was younger after my parents divorced. Now it’s just really really cluttered… we don’t have bugs or mold or anything though. Now if you’ll excuse me I have the urge to declutter some… ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/76 "2004-10-02T18:55:28Z")
Yep, this thread is making me want to clean, too. I cleaned the stove and cleared off the cluttered counters yesterday (I hate cleaning the stove!). ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/77 "2004-10-02T19:08:42Z")
UGH! I mean, I’m messy somewhat-I have a LOT of books and clutter, but sheesh-animal shit? I’m keeping the kitten in my room for the time being, and I immediately scoop out the box if she takes a dump. (Unfortunately, she has a habit of batting the litter out of her box, so it’s all over the carpet-I try to vacuum a few times a week, but you know how animals are). Right now, my room is messy because I’ve had to put some stuff up out of her reach, but my room isn’t disgusting. Good god, these people have to be mentally ill, or something. BTW, anyone else remember Anna Anderson, the woman who thought she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia? Her house was like that-wall to wall cat shit, animals everywhere, piled up trash, etc. If one of her cats died, she cremated it in the fireplace! ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/78 "2004-10-02T19:44:44Z")
How about the famous Collyer brothers of the 1940’s? They were two old brothers, who turned into recluses…they had piled up newspapers in the NYC mansion, up to the height of the ceilings! In addition, the bedrooms were filled with junk that they dragged home from the street. They dies horribly: one bother was crushed to death when a massive pile of old newspapers collapsed on him. The other brother (who was an invalid) starved to death ,waiting for his brother to return from food shopping. Shows ya that being a pack rat can be hazardous! ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/79 "2004-10-02T20:19:15Z")
One of my aunts lives like this. I think. It’s really hard for me to know, exactly, because _I have never been to her house_. My family is fairly close, and my aunt lives in the same Southern California town as another of my aunts, with whom my family often stays when when we go to visit (my own immediate family lives in Northern California). Despite the regular visits and the proximity to her own house, she has never once invited us to her house. It’s always been like this, so no one really even thinks about it anymore, but my adult cousin recently moved back in with her mother and when I saw her in August at a wedding, she described my aunt’s house in frightening terms. I’m not a terrifically tidy person, but this thread has me feeling awfully good about my own cleaning habits. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872/80 "2004-10-02T20:19:42Z")
The Collyer Brothers’ sad tale is told in the book **Ghosty Men** by Franz Lidz. Interesting but very, very sad. Cluttering and hoarding are indeed OCDs and can be part of an OCD personality. There are quite a few chapters of Clutterers Anonymous around, but of course the affected people would have to be willing to go. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-show-how-clean-is-your-house-how-do-people-live-this-way/266872.md?page=5)