[I Was Naked]
When I Wrote ThisTLC & Clean Sweep
2007-05-19
I have to admit, I watch the show with fascination.
Not because I live in the same conditions, I keep my house well tended, and face it, when you move every two to three years one has a tendency to get rid of crap. But I will explain later, what I have experienced in life.
I know how easy it is to accumulate a household full of items if you have been living in your home for years, raised children, and your house becomes the dumping ground.
But more often than not on this show, these are people in newer homes, that just keep moving their crap from place to place. Peter does a great job trying to get through to the perpertrators how to let go of the "things" that don't hold the meaning. Seriously, if you love someone you hold that in your heart, you don't need Great Aunt Sara's frying pan to remember her.
I love the reveals at the end, but what this show is missing is the crew going back in a year and seeing what the houses look like. I want that added, just as a surprise visit, camera crew shows up, knocks on the door and they bust in and update us. I'm watching the show right now, and seriously, the kitchen is disgusting. The oven doesn't open, been that way for years. No big deal, but they have a daughter, so you know they are living on take out, and no one is teaching the daughter how to cook or tend home. Adding to this debacle, the living room/dining room combo is filled with his crap to the point where they can't open the front door. "If they have a party, they don't let people indoors." Man would I hate to be a party guest there..where do you go to the bathroom?
Behavior modification takes more training than the two or so days the crew and producers are there. I know this. Back in the day, when I lived in "the compound" I was the only person from the age of 14-19 who cleaned the home. There was always an excuse why my friend whose house it was, couldn't clean. The oldest had asthma and allergies (like I don't?) and my girlfriend just didn't have to. (read spoiled)
When I eventually gained my escape and moved away I was summoned back years later, knowing the oldest was having a baby. In my heart and conscience I couldn't let anyone bring a new baby into a house that in my absence had degraded even further down. I know anyone reading this can't grasp how bad a house left unattended could be, with three people still living there. Lets just say, the one day I went there a long dead decaying cat was on the porch. It wasn't as if it was hidden, it was right by the front door. I got a shovel and buried it. My friend who had spent the last year of senior high barricaded in her room, never even leaving it for school, left at some point took what she wanted and left a disgusting mess in her room, including used feminine products tossed aside on the floor. This was to be the nursery. My other best friend joined me, as it wasn't a task for one person. I think we spent about 8 hours cleaning her room and the attached bath and went back the next day to paint and apply a border, and make it livable and presentable for a newborn. I went out two more times over the years to clean out another room for them, before I threw in the towel.
What always shocked me though, was that they could present themselves to the world in clean clothes and tidy appearance at work and church. Fricken Kreskin had nothing on that act. But the house? Beyond clutter. Floor to ceiling crap, shopping bags still full of purchases thrown into a room with other bags. Magazines, papers, everything they ever touched was kept. I checked out the mothers bedroom, where I had to room with the last two years I was there. King size bed, and there was a spot at the foot that wasn't covered where she must sleep. I did a quick sort and saw cancelled checks from 1955 on the bed. Seriously, even the IRS wants you to get rid of stuff after seven years.
I guess I sit here and watch this show, knowing if the truck pulled up to that house today, they'd have to level it. When I lived there I took care of the three dogs and twenty outdoor cats. I understand later the son in law shot the cats that didn't run off and become wild. The dogs had died. The had bought a keeshound that went everywhere with the son in law. Once the baby came the dog was negleted to the point of emaciation. I contacted a rescue society for them and saved the dog. I haven't been back since. Not even when I bought my last townhome, and I was less than a half a mile away. If I drove down the road to get to my house and I passed the driveway, I kept my head straight. Trust me it isn't easy driving past five acres of overgrown land, but emotionally I was done with that part of my life.
Saturday is my cleaning day again, once I got rid of my maids that I had twice a month. I was procrastinating starting my day until I watched this show and wrote this. Time to get my rear in gear, make the bed, do the wash, and tidy up the downstairs.
See, all television isn't bad as long as we remember to turn it off every once in a while. Oh yeah, and remember from whence we came.
scribbles (2007-05-19)
I like that show too. I do not think they are producing new episodes since most of the crew has moved on to other projects.
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