Hey, Put Down that Broom, You Have To See This

I recently got digital cable TV service. Like most Americans with such a service, I have a million channels and watch about 10. I truly believe that the days of paying for access to shows that you don't watch is going to be a thing of the past as people get more and more of their content from services like YouTube and Hulu. In the meantime, I stumble onto stuff that I would never otherwise interest me by doing some old fashioned channel surfing.

This morning I saw a show on BBC America called "How Clean is Your House?" in which two affable British women come into homes (in the UK and the US apparently) and tell the people they're living like pigs, complete with taking lab samples of bacteria! The filthy conditions the homeowners live in in these shows are appalling. On Style TV, they have a similar show called "Clean House" which is pretty much the same premise except they have a yard sale to get rid of the junk in the house and then do a fabulous makeover. (They've apparently upped the ante with their search for the messiest home in America.) You can still catch reruns of TLC's "Clean Sweep" which is basically a less over-the-top version of Clean House. On FIT TV they have a show "Neat" in which a persnickety Canadian organizer lady comes in criticizes how people live in filth and then they clean the place up and fill it with baskets from IKEA. We have an obsession with gawking at obscenely disgusting homes, and then revel in watching them get transformed.

Now why on earth are people all over America sitting on their couches watching this stuff? I think it is part of the reality TV phenomenon were we feel better about ourselves if we can see less fortunate losers on TV expose their weaknesses to us. It is totally disturbing to me to think that behind the closed doors of suburban streets all over the country are houses brimming with crap and dirty toilets. What does it say about us as a society that we are drowning in consumer goods and trash? What is equally disturbing is that people are probably sitting in those dirty houses amusing themselves watching shows about people with dirty houses. Wouldn't this be a better world if people turned off the TV and actually cleaned their houses for an hour with no commercial interruptions? People should do what I do: live clutter free ... by leaving all their clutter in their parents' basement, like I did.

I think I'm going to go read a book. And then clean the house.