Customer Reviews

How Clean Is Your House?: Seasons 1 and 2

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The DVD's for sale are produced by Lifetime TV, not BBC, and are episodes made here in the United States, not the ones made in Great Britain. These are just as good as the British episodes. It was great to have epsiodes to watch I had never seen before, and fun to see my hometown in one. Although I was expecting the BBC version, the American ones are worth the price as well. You get thirty-five shows on four discs. Kim & Aggie's charm translates just as well over here. Grime & clutter know no boundaries. I was tickled pink to see these DVD's available & will glady purchase more seasons, BBC or Lifetime.

Two British ladies, Kim Woodburn and Aggie MacKenzie, take on some of the messiest homes in the country. The results are sometimes hilarious and sometimes quite touching, but always entertaining and motivating.

The shows follow a formula wherein our heroines are called in to what have to be the filthiest homes in the country to perform a cleaning intervention. The home owners are invariably hoarders who couldn't find their floors even if they wanted to vacuum or dust. Often the situation is made much worse by multiple pets. At the beginning of each episode Kim and Aggie take us on a tour of the home's sad squalor. This is followed by a confrontation with the home owner about how they ever arrived at such a state. Kim affects an air of righteous, but comic, indignation as she takes them to task with colorful expressions like, "You filthy beggar, you!" or "Mucky pup!" Some people laugh it off while others seem genuinely contrite, but all appear to be at a total loss as to where to begin to remedy the situation. Then the cleaning begins!

The ladies show the "filth offender" a few interesting cleaning tips. For instance, did you know that hot sauce can be used to clean brass? Or that shaving cream is great to clean and shine a stainless steel sink? Once they get the home owners on the right track, they are sent away and Kim and Aggie bring in their cleaning crew. (Yes, sometimes it takes a village to clean a house!) At the end of each show, the owners are brought back in and taken on a tour of their now spotless and sparkling rooms. Some laugh with delight, others burst into tears of relief. All promise to do better in future and keep it clean. There is a follow up two weeks later to see if the owners are keeping their promise.

Kim and Aggie are engaging people who manage to make housecleaning entertaining and fun. They wear outrageously trimmed rubber work gloves as they go about their tasks. Kim is never less than perfectly coifed and bejeweled as she cleans toilets, tubs, and sinks. Her commentary is often laugh out loud funny. Aggie, the more serious of the two, takes swabs and samples which are sent off to a lab. She then has the chore of explaining to the owners just what is growing in their foul bathrooms, kitchens, or bedrooms.

The shows presented here are from the Lifetime series wherein the ladies tackle homes in the US (notably California and New York). Although they use some generic cleaning items (baking soda, vinegar, lemons, salt, bleach, etc.) the US series contains a lot of brand name product placement. By contrast, the episodes produced for the BBC rely exclusively on generic items.

It's really hard to sit through an entire episode of the show. You keep wanting to get up and try one of their cleaning tips, or you may discover an irresistible urge to see what the top of your own ceiling fans look like. Even already good housekeepers can learn something from these gals! If you're someone who needs a little nudge to get started on your cleaning, watching these shows should provide it!

The DVD set contains two seasons (thirty nine episodes) on four disks. There are no special features. The disks are packaged in a slim case, two on each side. The top disks are a bit of a challenge to get tightly on their spindles; two came loose during shipping but arrived undamaged.

the first seasons are made in america for lifetime tv. theyre not nearly as dirty and they have all these adds for cleaning products and product placement. once the bbc took it over it got 100 times better. i wouldnt bother with this unless you have the other seasons already. they dont use the natural methods and such, and the houses arent even half as dirty.

These are the episodes that aired on Lifetime in 2005 - 2006. They are not in the oringal state and are highly edited versions of the original broadcast. And the overly obnoxious plugs for cleaning products is almost unbearable. The British version is far superior to this, but still enjoyable for what it is.

I watched maybe 2 episodes of HCIYH? on lifetime a few years ago and never forgot how funny and disgusting this show was. I never seemed to catch any other episodes after that and then it went off the air on Lifetime. Recently I discovered season 1 and 2 dvd available and immediately bought it. I had a Kim and Aggie marathon this weekend. These shows are hilarious! The endorsements for the cleaning products are a bit cheesy but the hosts and the homes that are shown are unbelieveable! These homes are not only dirty but the clutter is unreal! No wonder the houses are so dirty-you can't even get past the clutter to clean. What cracks me up the most is that some of the people really didn't seem to know how to clean and were amazed what a simple paper towel could clean up. My fave episodes were the sludge sisters and the episode with the divorced man who lived in a garage. I really think they changed their lives! I learned a lot of great cleaning tips from these shows too. So it is entertaining and educational! The best part of the shows are how kim and aggie really get down and dirty and are actually smelling the nasty carpets and sheets and they touch the toilets with their bare hands. Incredible! Those are two brave women. The show will inspire you to have pride in your home and start cleaning up. Once the BBC episodes go to dvd, I will be buying it.

I love this show because it's funny and it always motivates me to clean my house. My house isn't as bad as the houses on this show thank goodness. After I watch these episodes, no matter what, I always get motivated to do more chores. I love watching when they're done and they show all the clutter put away, all the trash gone and they always finish it off with candles and you can tell the house must smell so good. Who wouldn't want that? Unlike other shows where they clean up your house and have carpenters and plumbers on hand to give it a true make-over, this show is just a team of people that get rid of your trash, clutter and scrub your house clean. They show you lots of tips on how to clean. It's always funny to watch Kim and Aggie scold the homeowners in a gentle and classy way like only they can do. You also learn what dangers can lurk in your house if you don't clean, so that's another motivator. I recommend this show if you're looking to get inspired to clean your house.

I love this show. I saw the US episodes before I even knew this show exsisted. I've since watched all the UK episodes as well. I like to see inside people's homes and how they live, and see how they clean all of these people and families up. I was so excited when they aired a few new shows from the UK here in the US recently. It does take a long time for that, I was sad when the new shows ended. I hope they have more soon! I also hope they come back to the US and go someplace other than California. I'd like to see them travel to all states to really clean across America!!! Get this DVD if you're a clean freak or a dirty bugger!

This was everything I thought it would be. Laugh out loud one minute and cringing the next recommend it to anyone 5 stars

I LOVE watching Kim and Aggie work their magic on some unimagineably FILTHY homes!! Some of the things that come out of Kim's mouth make me literally laugh out loud. Also, their zeal for cleanliness and helpful ( and easy!) tips really do give ME a " kick in the bum" too, and I always am in a mood to tidy up after watching their episodes. Additionally, I get a wee smug feeling seeing other peoples grime and clutter and realizing my OWN pad aint half so bad! Lisa in CT

...then this will have to do.

I was so excited to see this available. I didn't read the reviews until after the fact and had no idea this started in the U.S. on Lifetime. The BBC America version is FAR, FAR, FAR better. In the BBC version the houses are dirtier, the voiceover guy is better and they use home cleaning solutions (like vinegar and lemon juice) rather than any name brands. I don't think the product placement is as obnoxious as other reviewers and they did use beeswax on the wood so it isn't all about the product placement.

If you like the show and want a fix but do not have BBC America on cable this will suffice until the BBC releases DVD version of the REAL show that we have all come to know and love. This version is merely adequate.