How Clean Is Your House?

Each week the Dirt Detective Aggie MacKenzie and the Clean Queen Kim Woodburn visit a house that has been nominated by the resident's family/friends in order to inspect it. The go through rooms, drawers, down behind things and around the person themselves and look for signs of poor hygiene or a lack of cleaning, tackling the dirt with gusto and trying to force the subject to see the error of their ways and clean their home.

British television has learnt a lot from a couple of programmes – Big Brother and Weakest Link to name two. The things producers learnt from these and similar shows is that: a) the British public like seeing real people and gossiping about them, and b) they like looking down on others at the same time. Hence we have a raft of programmes that allow us to sit in our homes and scoff at others while thinking 'well, I'm better than them' to comfort ourselves. This programme is yet another in that vein, where people desperate for TV exposure allow themselves to be inspected for the sort of hygiene that would make a tramp blush. How on earth anyone could be so desperate or shameless to show such inexcusable squalor in return for 25 minutes of fame is beyond me.

This series made 'stars' out of yet more c-grade celebs in the shape of the clucking and judgemental Aggie & Kim. Like all these shows, the hosts have to be over the top and harsh in order to make the grade and it should be enough to say that Aggie & Kim only intent to humiliate and react rather than help or educate. They do that well enough and the series was successful because people would watch it for something to talk about the next day at work. It is all a bit demeaning for the subjects and the audience if you ask me and, unlike Wife Swap for example, it has no basis in being about to spin itself as helpful or useful – it is just cruel and holds the subjects up to public ridicule under the pretence of helping them.

Overall this sort of programme has an audience and I'm rarely part of it. It is cheap television that is cruel and judgemental but both those things allow it to get talked about in offices by people who laugh down their sleeves at the subjects and comfort themselves that, no matter how they are living, they are better people that those they see on TV – as if that is any yard stick by which to judge your life.

I love this show but I don't think I've ever seen an entire episode because every time they give a cleaning tip I have to jump up and try it, and every time they show someone dusting under the bed or around the ceiling I go running for my Swiffer.

Seriously, though, what I really like about this show is that the homeowners are involved in the cleaning process and are shown how to clean properly, and then are given information about the nasty little bugs and germs that they've been living with due to their sheer laziness, and have you ever noticed that a good percentage of the homeowners are suffering from respiratory ailments that are easily cured or mitigated by nothing more complicated than a weekly dose of housecleaning? I also appreciate that the homeowners are not rewarded for their laziness and filthy living habits, as they are in similar American versions of this show, with new furniture and the services of a professional interior designer; all these people ever get is what they had to begin with, only cleaner.

I would love for this or any "clean-up" show to go back not two weeks later, but one year later, to see if anything they were told sunk in and if they did indeed change their way of life. Unfortunately I fear that with some of these people it's a little bit more than just not wanting to clean or not knowing how to clean; that there are underlying psychological problems that are not, and really cannot be addressed.

I know more than a few people here in the good ole US-of-A who could benefit from a visit from Kim and Aggie, but you'll have to excuse me now, because I just noticed a crumb on the floor that needs to be dealt with.

Not for the shock or gross out value but for the tips they give every episode. The tip they gave using instant coffee on my wood floor to stain it did the trick nicely! I have one bad spot from a chair that has wheels and that was amazingly simple and effective.

While I really don't care for the disgusting houses, I do find it incredible that they can do what they do. I would find it completely daunting (and I can relate to that daunting feeling now - and my house is nowhere near as bad as the best they've had!

I want this on DVD so I can study their tips. Simple, often ecologically friendly (sour milk as a brass cleaner?), and effective.

Brilliant show! I am hoping for the DVD version!

This show isn't for everyone; there are, for the most part, endings to the episodes that will seem similar to others. In fact, most endings are the same. But the show is a rarity--two interesting ladies who, from week to week, go into interesting situations and make things right. It need not get any more complex than that. Kim and Aggie are smart, pretty and funny and their personalities come through nicely. In short, it's 30 minutes that the whole family can safely watch that won't insult anyone's intelligence. If you're in search of something in a more dramatic and amusing genre, try Monk. Otherwise, this is as good as a lot of TV gets.

This show is not judgemental. Period. It's simply Kim and Aggie going into completely FILTHY homes and educating the inhabitants in cleanliness. These people, although seemingly very nice, are utter, disease and bacteria growing slobs. I knew there were people in this world who are hoarders and those that don't like to clean. I don't know anyone who likes to clean, but come on. I had no idea so many people live in pig sties. With babies even!

I love this show because I used to think I was a bad housekeeper. No, I'm just disorganized. And if Aggie ran a swab over my kitchen counter she would *not* find fecal streptococci. Ewww.

I also like the fact that Kim and Aggie, for all the camp of the show truly do understand people who are this dirty have an underlying problem or problems and are quite kind to them. Good cleaning tips anyone can do for "cheap and cheerful" as they say.