Clean House
Clean House is one of my favorite TV programs. It's an hour long show that comes on the Style Network, and it's premise is that a family has
problems with clutter throughout their entire house, and one of the family members writes the show and asks for help.
Then the host, Niecy Nash, comes in along with three other people, evaluates, then works with the family to come up with items to sell at a yard
sale. You've got to love Niecy; bold and brash, she dresses very colorfully and stylishly, usually with a big red or pink rose in her hair. She can be
loud, and she's definitely direct, but funny and engaging, and she's got a pretty nice touch with people. She will occasionally give people an ultimatum;
work with us or we'll leave. That gets people's attention, and it needs to.
The money made at the yard sale is then matched, up to a thousand dollars, and the designer, Mark Brunetz, works with the other two to create a
whole new home environment. The other two people are Trish Suhr, who handles the demographics of the yard sale, and the muscle of the show is
named Matt Iseman.
One would think this entire process would move smoothly; after all, someone from the family, most of the time the wife, has contacted the people who
produce the show. However, each show has problems with the people in the household, including the person who contacted the show, because people
don't like giving up their stuff, no matter how much clutter and trash they have scattered all over the place. And therein lies the tension on the show.
I can be as much of a pack rat as anyone else, but if I had to push stuff out of my way just to take a step in any room of mine, I'd pay someone to come
clean it all out and leave the house so I wouldn't get in the way. Most of what these people want to hold on to have some kind of emotional value to
them, which Niecy and the rest of the staff have to work through, but I find it hard to believe people can have a lot of sympathy for broken items and
items they didn't even remember they had until it's been pointed out to them.
Niecy is also somewhat of a psychologist on the show, which is funny because that's obviously not her background (B.A in theater). For some, they
might know her better as a member of the comedy Reno 911, though I have to admit I've never seen the show, or the movie. She usually walks
members of the family off to another room to give them a serious talking to, or to find out what their emotional pain might be. It's good common
sense stuff that the families need to hear, and those of us watching probably need to hear also. After one of these shows I actually pulled a box out
and put away a bunch of books from my past.
Except for one show, when reveal day comes, which is 48 hours after the yard sale ends, the families are usually ecstatic with the results of the redesign.
And what's not to love; rooms are totally transformed, organized, and livened up. Best of all, they're clean and orderly, which is why Niecy and
company were invited in the first place.
I love shows like Clean House because it not only gives me ideas of things I'd like in my house, but it inspires me to work on removing more clutter out
of my own life. This is an easy show to recommend to everyone; course, you have to have cable.
