Ever Done a Show in a Dirty House?

[supergirljennie]

That's why I like throwing parties at my house...it MAKES me clean...LOL!

I feel exactly the same way! In fact, I need to clean right now.

Also, the mold in the fridge and the spillage in the freezer: What probably happened was the power was out for a period of time, and things defrosted and such. That happened to me when I was on vacation for a week. I was not happy to come home to a nasty fridge!

 

[hoosierchef]

Ok, so after reading this.....remind me to never invite anyone over to my house.

 

[julesh]

I mean, I'm not the best housekeeper by any means, but I do clean up for company. That's why I like throwing parties at my house...it MAKES me clean...LOL!

I hear ya! I'm the same way. Sometimes I'll invite people to dinner just to make myself do a deep cleaning!

Jules

 

[tlennhoff]

That's what the spare room is for- shove the clutter in there when you've got people coming over, then sort it out later.

I've tried that. Its the sorting out later than never happens. My house is pretty messy right now. But the workers are almost done with the construction (they promise today is it) and I decided to bring in a real profession cleaning service. Monday 4 cleaners will come and clean the house top to bottom, as well as they can with all the boxes of stuff and Larry's papers everywhere. At least it will be done before my MIL visits next week and it solved the passover cleaning.

 

[ChefBeckyD]

I feel exactly the same way! In fact, I need to clean right now. Also, the mold in the fridge and the spillage in the freezer: What probably happened was the power was out for a period of time, and things defrosted and such. That happened to me when I was on vacation for a week. I was not happy to come home to a nasty fridge!

I would excuse it as just a power outage if it was a one-time thing.....but I cooked at their house every 6 weeks for a year - and things never looked any different.....I think the only time they saw their kitchen counters was right after I left from my day of cooking.....in fact, I would move things so I could cook, and when I would come back 6 weeks later, they would still be sitting where I had piled them (on chairs, end tables, etc....)

 

[supergirljennie]

I would excuse it as just a power outage if it was a one-time thing.....but I cooked at their house every 6 weeks for a year - and things never looked any different.....I think the only time they saw their kitchen counters was right after I left from my day of cooking.....in fact, I would move things so I could cook, and when I would come back 6 weeks later, they would still be sitting where I had piled them (on chairs, end tables, etc....)

I'm surprised you kept coming back! Was she a good host? Other than the state of the house, of course.

I've been fortunate not to have a dirty house... yet. I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

 

[pampermemelody]

Oohhhhh...I had an AWEFUL one! Smokey, cat poo and pee ALL over the living room I was using! AT LEAST a week's worth of dishes (complete with smelly rotten food) stacked all over the counters. It was so hard to serve FOOD in conditions like that! I have a lot of kid clutter, the occasional dog hair dust bunny and I will admit that. My work space looks like a paper and PC explosion. BUT EEEEWWWWW! Then, she re-booked! I was sick. So I offered my home saying that it would be easier to prepare this recipe in my space....

 

[BethCooks4U]

That's why I quit my day job - to be able to clean my house. -Just kidding.

I did have a couple shows at filthy houses and it was all I could do to finish and leave without saying something or making a face. One house had ants all over the counter and dirty dishes in the sink (that stayed there throughout the show - in the kitchen). Another seemed okay but during the show I saw a BUG crawling toward my crate! (I have never seen a ****roach but I would bet it was.) Everything stayed outside and I cleared out my crate one piece at a time! Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

 

[yummy4tummy]

One house had ants all over the counter

Now that I can relate to. My house IS clean but I have had the worst ant problem for the past 2 yrs (seasonally). I have tried a long list of home remedies to no avail. If I get invaded again this year I guess I will have to call an exterminator. I am just afraid to because of the amount of animals that I have including a bird. I don't want them to die.

 

[ChefBeckyD]

I'm surprised you kept coming back! Was she a good host? Other than the state of the house, of course.

I've been fortunate not to have a dirty house... yet. I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

They weren't hosts...they were cooking clients for my business as a personal chef, and I had a contract to cook 10 meals for them every 6 weeks for a year.
I did not renew my contract.

 

[rennea]

I was at a house one time trying to set up and there was used Q-tips everywhere. Don't ask me why?? They were on the kitchen counters, floors you name it. I ask her very nicely if should could dispose of them for me

 

[pckelly]

OK...after reading this thread, I think I have to go into the bathroom!! LOL!! I guess I have been blessed so far. I can't believe it. I am a clean freak, and I think...seriously think I would leave if a host's house looked as bad as all of you have described. I don't think I could do it!! O MY GOODNESS!!

 

[mommyhugz1978]

Generally, most of my hosts' homes are clean. Some are a little cluttered, but that's different from dirty.

BUT-- I did have a show (with someone who was a coworker at the time) that was in a filthy house! We planned to have it in the garage, but a cold snap started and she moved it into the house. She had 5 cats, and I'm allergic. Because I expected to be outside, I hadn't taken any allergy medicine, so I was sniffing the whole time. Which wasn't good because I think the 5 cats shared 1 litter box, so the house was pretty stinky.

We made some raspberry lemonade in the QSP before the show (she had some concentrate from Schwann's or someplace). When I opened the fridge to put in in to chill, there was mold growing on the inside of the fridge! Eeeuuuwww! There was cat hair everywhere. I was very careful to put everything down on my tablecloth, and not use anything that had touched her bare counters.

We ended up having half of the lemonade leftover, and she wanted to just bring the pitcher to me at work on Monday (it was a Saturday show). I lied and told her I had a family function the next day for which I needed the pitcher, so she'd have to find something for me to pour the leftovers into. There was no way I was leaving my products in her moldy fridge!

OMG....... ewwwwwwwww that just about made me launch it big time..... I havent' had the problem of host having dirtry houses... cluttered yes filthy no!!

 

[DebbieSAChef]

Not yetI once had a show at a young girl's apartment, she was like maybe 20 and married. Her apartment was a mess. Clothes all over the living room, dishes everywhere, dirty dishes in the sink (I at least hide them in the dishwasher when I have unexpected company, she knew I was coming for like a month),
dirty clothes piled in the hallway, and a cluttered dining room table that I had to work on.
I made due the best I could and at least she had a good $400 show for me. Not bad since she only had 4 guests! Being pregnant, I really get nauseous quickly so I hope I don't get a really nasty house to work in. I might not make it!!
Debbie

 

[raebates]

I just had a flashback; not to a PC show, but to when I saw my SIL's new home. Now, I will admit that I'm not the best housekeeper in the world. Things are clean, but if you're looking for dust or clutter, you will definitly find it.That said, I was going to be in Indy for the day. My SIL and her family live in a suburb and had just moved into a new home. I made plans with her to stop by to see the new house. She was expecting me. She showed me through the house. There was a bit of clutter, but I'm family. I didn't expect her to spruce it up like you would if you were doing a PC party. http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/happy0050.gifWe get to the master bedroom. There, in the middle of the floor, I see a pair of her husband's dirty undershorts. Ewwwww. She never even flinched. I would have been apologizing all over myself. I would have picked them up and tossed them in the hamper. Heck, if it's a running argument between them, she could have said, "Sorry about the skivvies. I refuse to pick up after a man who's perfectly capable of doing it himself." Something. Anything. I know she saw them because she stepped over them to show me the built-in linen closet. Some people!Meanwhile, back at the original topic . . .

 

[AJPratt]

I took someone from my DL to a FR show... The woman's house smelled bad, the kitchen had crap all over, but the oven... OMG... the oven. It looked like the inside of a cast iron skillet. My recruit made a brownie on the stone, well for some reason it ran a little over... who knows. While I was finishing the recipe, she was trying to remove the charred remain of the brownie of the bottom of the oven. As I am standing in the living room talking, all I can hear is "clank, clank, clank..." as she is working on it. LOL Then she comes out with this weird smile on her face and says ,"I got it, I got it!" People must have thought she was nuts.

 

[etteluap70PC]

First let me say no one I know would ever call me a neat freak. I kinda wish I was. My house always looks lived in. Toys, clutter etc. That being said I try my best not to have a "dirty" house. I do do extra cleaning when I am having people over. Like someone else said Having parties was always good for me it made me do the extra stuff.
I have had a few dirty houses but nothing so far that has thrown me over the edge.
The one that did bug me was the home of a former PC consultant. she had all her stones on her counter in a rack and all the glazed ones were gross looking. I tried to figure out a way to tell nicely her the baking soda paste trick.

Old run down homes don't really bother me I grew up in them. MY Gram is a classic pack rat. Her friends know that about her and accept it. When I was a kid I do not really remember it being dirty so much as cluttered and dusty. Yet as she gets older it has gotten much worse. Even thought I lived there for 7 years (before Marriage) I do not now like to stay there with my kids.

When I see people with homes like this I guess I just know that it is a personality thing. I know with My gram (who learned from her parents) alot of it was growing up in the depression. They saved and used everything!

As for the people with the extremely gross homes. Alot of that can be depression or some type of pathological thing.

Anyway, just wanted to share my take on things.
Have a great weekend all!!!

 

[raebates]

I have a sign on my refrigerator that says:

Sexy women have messy kitchens.

Some days I'm just sexier than others.

 

[letscook04]

I have a sign on my refrigerator that says:

Sexy women have messy kitchens.

Some days I'm just sexier than others.

I like that saying!

My DH always tells me that I am a terrific cook but a messy one. lol

 

[Paige Dixon]

That's exactly why I don't eat things at a potluck if I don't know who made it!

Jules

Or bake sales!!

 

[Paige Dixon]

Now that I can relate to. My house IS clean but I have had the worst ant problem for the past 2 yrs (seasonally). I have tried a long list of home remedies to no avail. If I get invaded again this year I guess I will have to call an exterminator. I am just afraid to because of the amount of animals that I have including a bird. I don't want them to die.

Orkin has some little octogonal things that you set in the ant area and they magically disappear!

 

[BethCooks4U]

Orkin has some little octogonal things that you set in the ant area and they magically disappear!

Terro also works well. Just a drop on a piece of cardboard where you see them. Don't watch though, you get a TON of ants coming to eat it but then in no time they are gone.

 

[MeesMom3]

I had a lady with 3 guests who had her party at someone else's house because it was "better suited" for a party. It was absolutely disgusting! She had 3 miniature chihuahua's that were NOT house trained. It's smelled terrible! There was dog doo-doo on the floor in a couple of different places. The counter tops were filthy and she had to wipe them down before I could even set any of my things down. But here is the real doozy, at the end of the show, I had my tub with dirty items on the floor and I was packing up my catalogs and pens. I turned around and one of the dogs was INSIDE the tub, INSIDE my cranberry oval baker LICKING the leftover bean dip out of it! Needless to say, that baker went in the trash and I replaced it. Anyway, as I previously mentioned, she said that this house was better for parties than her own, so I don't even want to think about what her own house was like! The lady had a ton of outside orders so she ended up with a $700+ show, but from now on, she will be on my CATALOG show hosts list.

 

[bbauman07]

i have had one show like this. I pull up to the house there is garbage all over the front porch, (diapers, mattress, boxes, food, etc) I remind myself that she just moved in and decide to go inside. I get inside and she hadn't vacuumed, swept or cleaned any surface in the month they had lived there, dishes piled to the ceiling, the microwave was beyond a science experiment, her kids didn't look like they had a bath in days, her 2 year old answered the door in a poopy diaper, which she was still in when I left.

All of that and only 1 guest showed, got 2 orders and had to add them to another show!!!!!

 

[britishchef]

her 2 year old answered the door in a poopy diaper, which she was still in when I left.

That poor baby!

 

[jenpottratz]

I did a show with a gal who had something like a dozen cats inside - 30-40 dogs between the inside and oustide - birds - the whole shebang. It smelled like ammonia soooo bad. Everything stunk! While I was demo-ing I had chicken cooking on the stove - the cats were trying to get into it. The cats were in the sink when I was trying to clean off a utensil - it was DISGUSTING! Luckily - I think she has decided to do catalog shows from now on because of poor attendance (wonder why?). That's the worst I've had though. Everything else has been good.
I love seeing other people's kitchen. It makes me sort of design my dream kitchen in my head
Jen <><

 

[ChefBeckyD]

I have a sign on my refrigerator that says:

Sexy women have messy kitchens.

Some days I'm just sexier than others.

Along the same line - I have a magnet on my refrigerator that says:

DULL WOMEN HAVE IMMACULATE HOUSES!

It makes me feel better to walk by and read this once in a while!

 

[Kitchen2u]

I had my worst nasty show in October. The host hadn't even started picking up before I got there. There was no counterspace for me to put my crate down, and barely room on the floor for it. She was unloading her dishwasher to get the dishes in the sink out of the way, then started rearranging her living room furniture and vacuuming underneath (exposing dirty sock, toys, old food, etc.) and this is at 6:45 for a 7pm show!! I did my demo and put the recipe in the oven. Not 5 mins later the oven is smoking because there is so much burnt on food and crap in the oven that it constantly burns off-

PLEASE, PLEASE pray for me because she re-booked for next week! She didn't even hand out her invites last time and ended up with less than $200 in sales. She always wants Thursdays, so I am going to miss Grey's to hang out with her and the 3 people that she does invite in her nasty house for $50! YUCK!!

Are you sure you didn't do a show for my past host? LOL It was a bt worse though...6 loads of laundry piled high in the family room (where the demo was), the table where she put food (she prepared) was FILTY and she didn't wash it off ~ just put the plates and all right on the mess. The counter top looked like it had't been washed in MONTHS. The floor had food ALL OVER it, nope she didn't sweep it up ~ we're talking CHUNKS of food OBVIOUSLY been there for a while. She allowed the kids to color on the walls (all OVER) ~ looked liked the carpets hadn't been vacuumed she moved in (18 months). What a shame, this was a BRAND new house 18 months ago. Filthy mess! She kept talking about re-booking ~ she was actually my recruit's friend (she signed AFTER this show) ~ so I told her she should book with her friend!

Ginny

 

[Kitchen2u]

Forgot to mention...it was so filthy, I was afraid to put my crate down!

Ginny

I'm no Martha Stewart by no means, but I guess this lady had no shame. I'm devastated if I forgot to clean something, especially when folks are coming by ~

 

[yummy4tummy]

Terro also works well. Just a drop on a piece of cardboard where you see them. Don't watch though, you get a TON of ants coming to eat it but then in no time they are gone.

I have used the Terro for the big fire ants outside and it works wonders. I tried it inside and around the parimenter of my kitchen outside and it didn't work for the "sugar ants" I'm not sure if there are different ingredients for the different types of ants. We have a lot of evergreen type plants out front where they love to nest. We spent the weekend pulling out a few of the junipers and stirred up the nests. GRRR.