How clean is YOUR house? Long read/sad tale.

[givemebackmycountry]

OK.
This is a long post, and it ain't pretty, so you are forewarned, and have been given the opportunity to bail out now.
I'm just compelled to write about this, because I've never seen anything like it, and I've been around for awhile.
And it's so over the top unbelievable that I can't help but to share it.
And I'm reluctant to post this.
But, I paid my dues, so screw it.

This ain't like me.
On impulse last week I saw 10 seconds of a promo for Oprah on her Friday afternoon show.
Looked like it had something to do with "people with messy houses".
They showed a brief clip, and it was so disgusting I said to myself... "I've GOT to see this".

I TIVO'd it and I forgot about it.
I just watched it.
OH MY GOD.
I cried.
I almost threw up.

OK, let's start with a linky-dinky.

http://www.lifetimetv.com/shows/clean/

The tie in, was with a show on Lifetime called "How clean is your house?" with these two broads from the UK. Kim and Aggie.
They clean peoples houses.
Not just any houses mind you.
Not like our houses.

Really, really, really, really, disgusting beyond belief, foul beyond description, peoples houses.

OK, you get it.
Typical Oprah set up, and then we go to the video tape.
With Kim and Aggie. The broads from the UK.
They go to one house, and it's bad.
Really, really bad, and they clean it up and everyone is happy.

Cut to commercial.

This poor, disturbed woman.
Her name was Carol Gibbons.
Divorced SIX times.
Little, tiny, cute, perfectly coiffed woman, with short snazzy brown hair, and big doe brown eyes.
Late 40's or early 50's.
Diamond watch, rings, bracelet.
Looked like she had it going on.

They went to clean this woman's house, after she wrote a letter to Oprah's producers saying "she needed help".

So, they flew them in and sent them to this woman's house.
To make an assessment, and to clean it up.
One of these broads said...
"GOD! I need a strong whiskey after that place!"
I think it was Aggie.

I was not ready for this.

When they got inside that house, they reacted with predictable horror.
Dog feces everywhere.
I mean dog turds EVERYWHERE. Hundreds, and hundreds.
She had two birds that had escaped from their cage because she never cleaned it.
They flew around free.
Dropping little piles of bird shit everywhere.

The dogs PISSED and SHIT in her bed.
IN HER BED.
WHERE SHE SLEPT.

She had a plastic plate of leftover food under her bed that was crawling with ants. Clothes everywhere. Leftover food everywhere.
Garbage everywhere. Feces (non-specified) everywhere.
In her bedroom.

Her bathroom, off of her bedroom, was disgusting beyond belief.
Her toilet looked like...
Nevermind.
You can't even imagine.
Maybe you can.
If you can, times that by ten.
Oh, and factor this in.
The bathroom floor was worse.
Much, much worse.

Her refrigerator was something out of a horror movie.
When they opened the door fruit flies flew out by the thousands.
Everything rotting, meat decaying, and a smell that caused the two women to almost vomit.
There was a Tupperware container that had something meaty-like in it that was...
I can't describe how nasty it was.
I know people will be screaming for "links/pics"
I did the link already.



That's a shot of the fridge.

She had a crock pot that had what looked like soup or chili that had maggots crawling in it. Her microwave oven was, well...as bad as the rest of the place.

I'm telling you that her house, was the most unbelievably disgusting array of maggot infested, rotting, feces strewn, million dog turd, dog piss soaked, fruit fly infested, HAZMAT area ever.

I mean this place was revolting.
Beyond revolting.

Oprah almost threw up on the stage when they went into her bathroom.

They brought in environmental specialists that found that her house was a "ticking time bomb" because of all the dog feces and urine in the house. The number of bacteria in the house rivaled most city dumps. Mold, allergen levels off the chart.

And she was the cutest, smilingest, sincere, bat shit insane woman I have ever seen on what...45 years of television?

Poor Carol said she was a "perfectionist" and her SIX divorces, and her job, and her "going to law school" (she's going to law school in her late 40's?) gave her little time.

"Once things got bad" she said, "I couldn't, I didn't, know where to start, so I just let it go".

It took a team of I don't know 12 or more people 24 hours to clean it to where they could make it livable and they did an amazing job.
Over 50 bags of trash.

This woman had a higher rate of feces (non-specified) matter on her dining room table then she did in her bathroom.

So of course, Oprah has a Doctor, an expert on this type of behavior, on to talk to this woman.
They pleaded with her to get professional help, and got her to admit that she was depressed.

It had been a few months since they had come in, and cleaned everything up.

She admitted that she "had let a few things go" but that she "was trying".

I'm done.
Go ahead and kill me.

This poor, sick woman just got to me.
She looked like any number of women I work with daily.
Secret lives.
You never know about them.

[dhinojosa]

1. Holy crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you have more images from your TiVO that you can post here or your website?

[SW FL Dem]

2. I;ve seen that show, I t makes me feel a lot better

about my house. I may have dog hair and a little clutter, but I do a thorough clean at least once every few weeks.

[msgadget]

3. So, bascially she had just enough energy daily to groom herself -

put on a mask - but that was it? She had to be WAY low for the smell and bugs not to move her to action. No friends or relatives...? That's SAD.

[givemebackmycountry]

4. It was the saddest thing I've ever seen.

She was so pretty, and so well groomed, and completely out of her mind crazy.

I felt so sorry for her.

[msgadget]

7. Did she SEEM depressed when they talked to her?

I don't think I could've faced the people who came to clean if conditions were that bad. Could you have shown someone around if you had poop all over the place?

[Skittles]

5. I feel very sorry for people who live like that

they are deeply disturbed and desperately need help.

[TroubleMan]

6. This makes me think about the one night stands I've had

When you don't know the person at all....damn.....nasty.

[tjdee]

8. She was probably VERY unhappy.

If all she had the energy and motivation to do was to get herself out of the house, that's pretty sad.

At least someone helped her.

And it's true, when it gets to a certain point, you don't even know where to start. I got a spare room like that :scared:

[Reverend_Smitty]

10. She was...

I saw that episode too, It was on at like 2am on Friday night...basically she told Oprah "I felt like garbage, so I lived in garbage" I hope she can get some psychological help

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. I feel better now...

My house is untidy and cluttered and dusty and sometimes I feel like the world's biggest slob. But there aren't any turds or bugs, and even though there's cat fur in the corners and some questionable stuff in the fridge, there's no serious health hazards. Dog turds in the BED? Man, that's scary....

[Starlight]

11. Did you ever see "Life Laundry"?

It's kind of like that. They clean/organize the family's space as well as deal with their psychological issues. I always feel very motivated to clean when I see that show. :P

http://www.bbcamerica.com/genre/home_living/life_laundry/life_laundry.jsp