As I was flipping through the channels last month, I saw something that caught my attention. A woman with a British accent was explaining all the bacteria she’d found in a family’s home. The father looked a little frightened. The mother looked as if she were going to be sick. I stopped flipping, and sat down to watch. And after the show was over, I got up and cleaned house in fear of what nasty bacteria were lurking in our sinks.
This half hour show is called “How Clean is Your House” and can be seen on BBC and Lifetime. The stars of the show are Kim Woodburn and Aggie MacKenzie (who is actually Scottish – not British as I originally thought).
On the show Kim and Aggie enter into a home. It’s fun to see bits of London and surrounding areas. Sometimes these are messy, cluttered homes. Other times the homes are absolutely filthy. I’ve only seen about six shows now, but I’ve seen them deal with cat poop, a dead mouse, moldy food, and the worst toilets in the world. You don’t want to watch these shows while eating. They put their fingers and noses in places you could not pay me to! Aggie takes sample swabs from around the house and sends them off to the lab.
After a tongue lashing, Kim and Aggie show the homeowners how to clean. A lot of things they clean with are natural and green friendly. They love to use lemons, vinegar, borax, essential oils, and baking soda. The British-isms are fun too. Baking soda is called by its more official name of bicarbonate of soda, dish soap is called “washing up liquid”, and bathrooms are of course the “loo”. And I love when they say “proper” and “posh”. They have good ideas for keeping away moths, getting mold off window sills, defrosting freezers, cleaning stuffed animals, and getting rid of stains.
At the end of the show, the residents are shown back in to the sparkling homes. Kim and Aggie then leave, but return for a quick checkup in a couple of weeks. Sometimes the home owners have learned their lessons and kept the place “tidy”, other times they are sliding back into filth and get another scolding.
Ever show I’ve seen has inspired me want to clean, clean, clean – and even my children have been inspired.
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