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Post by iguanamamma on Jul 6, 2009 13:40:55 GMT -5
I showed my daughter the pictures of the squalor in Boston. She and her husband used to have a pizza franchise and often she filled in for delivery drivers. She said that she saw alot worse than that when delivering to houses. Since I have been house hunting I have seen houses in just a little better shape than the Boston house being shown in that condition for sale.Check out some in Galveston- some of them still have debris and flooded items in them .The reason that the house we are buying is so cheap is that it smells so bad and is a cleaned out (the family stepped in) squalor house. We were talking about how houses in Texas are often squalored out because of the extreme heat and rural poverty Do you all think that squalor may be worse in certain regions of the country?
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Post by Script on Jul 6, 2009 14:32:37 GMT -5
It is MUCH HARDER to keep things clean when it is
*hot
*humid
*stormy (hurricane, lightning, changes in air pressure, often leading to headaches)
*bug-infested (because of heat)
*prone to mould-mildew (from heat & humidity).
Things rot away so easily in the tropics. I seem to recall some ghastly book (about Vietnam? colonial period?) where the characters' CLOTHES got mould on them from the damp.
PLUS: it can be exhausting to work in the heat and humidity.
ps: i am having the summer of my life: I LUV THIS ABNORMALLY COOL WEATHER. Yeah, I know: no one else likes this, but it is HEAVEN for me. Just like I remember summer camp when I was a kid: swimming in the freezing waters of Georgian Bay, shivering in the cheap sleeping bags at night YES!
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Post by 60isolderthanithot on Jul 6, 2009 17:56:13 GMT -5
Heat and humidity do make everything worse, organic things rot faster and the germs multiply more easily. Freezing temperatures are less hospitable to bacteria and rodents too. Even garbage smells less when it's cold.
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Post by SueDonym on Jul 6, 2009 23:17:39 GMT -5
Well, speaking for myself (howdy neighbor!) I don't feel like doing one d@mn thing when it's too hot!  And that is the excuse I have been using for most of the last 4 weeks during this freakin' heat wave! |
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Post by eagle on Jul 7, 2009 7:12:11 GMT -5
Do you all think that squalor may be worse in certain regions of the country? No, I don't think so. True, I haven't been everywhere, but I have been a lot of places. I have seen evidence of squalor everywhere I have been in the US, Mexico, England, Scotland, Paris, Canada. I have seen evidence of squalor in Hawaii, where I would not have expected it, in rural parts of California, where I would have expected it (native Californian here, so don't get in an uproar about that), in Washington, D.C., my nation's capital, in cities, in suburbs, in the country, along the gulf, in the rain forest, in the desert, in temperate climates, and sometimes right next door to the loveliest houses I've ever seen. I absolutely believe that squalor knows no bounds. |
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Post by rubyred on Jul 7, 2009 8:23:37 GMT -5
I think that poverty, which is all over our country, can contribute to squalor problems. When your house is falling down around you, where's the motivation to clean? If your roof is leaking, what can you do about the mold? When you have to wash clothes in the bathtub, are you going to keep up with the laundry? If your children go to bed hungry, what does a messy house matter?
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seraphina
New Member
Joined: July 2009
Posts: 34
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Post by seraphina on Jul 7, 2009 13:00:12 GMT -5
Disclaimer:This is a really long post, and I hope y'all don't mind a newbie jumping in with her opinion. I was born in Ohio, lived in Alaska for 3 years, and for 9 years have bumped around between Louisiana, North Carolina and now the GA/AL border. In my own experience, keeping the house clean in the south is harder because of all that script said below. Particularly the part about how hard it is on your body. *Just from my personal experience. Our A/C has always worked pretty great, when living in military housing, because 1)seems to be one of the only things they get right in enlisted housing and 2) there's no carpet in housing in the south, only tile, which helps with the heat. But once the temp reaches about 95, especially in LA and GA, and that heat index climbs into the 100's, you can have the a/c set as low as it can go and the house is in the 80's. And after a long day at work/school, trying to even do maintenance, or anything, in that is exhausting. Even stepping out the door is like being hit in the face with a wave of wet heat. If I don't do my daily stuff in the early am, it doesn't get done. *Plus there's the drive to and from the house. I drop my daughter off in Alabama before heading to school. (not a big deal because all I do is cross a bridge). But that bridge is so crowded it's absurd and stop and go traffic. When I leave GA to go pick her up after school it takes about ten minutes to cross a mile long bridge over the river, and than have to cross it again. And at 5:00 it's still 95 degrees out, than drive another 20 minutes home. To the hot house. And as with the house, the a/c in my car can only do so much, maybe because of the convertible top, I dont' know. So for those who don't have the above advantages,i.e a car with a/c, a house with a/c, I absolutely can imagine that the squalor could very quickly descend to uncontrollable levels. Factor in that southern states have the highest poverty level (I believe that Mississippi is the lowest), and the depression that must stem from that, that the south gets hit with hurricanes and tornadoes with devastating results all the time, yes I would bet that the south has the worst levels. It is MUCH HARDER to keep things clean when it is *hot *humid *stormy (hurricane, lightning, changes in air pressure, often leading to headaches) *bug-infested (because of heat) *prone to mould-mildew (from heat & humidity). Things rot away so easily in the tropics. I seem to recall some ghastly book (about Vietnam? colonial period?) where the characters' CLOTHES got mould on them from the damp. PLUS: it can be exhausting to work in the heat and humidity. ps: i am having the summer of my life: I LUV THIS ABNORMALLY COOL WEATHER. Yeah, I know: no one else likes this, but it is HEAVEN for me. Just like I remember summer camp when I was a kid: swimming in the freezing waters of Georgian Bay, shivering in the cheap sleeping bags at night YES! |
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Post by missjean on Jul 7, 2009 17:52:39 GMT -5
I LUV THIS ABNORMALLY COOL WEATHER. Yeah, I know: no one else likes this, but it is HEAVEN for me. Me, too! I actually e-mailed a friend in Toronto to ask if it were as cool as it has been here. So you answered my question.  I was able to use the self-cleaner on the oven today (never in July). Usually at this time of year, boxes are heavy with humidity, but not a problem today. I kept the windows open all day and barely broke a sweat even moving furniture and boxes. |
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Post by missjean on Jul 7, 2009 18:28:45 GMT -5
The reason that the house we are buying is so cheap is that it smells so bad and is a cleaned out (the family stepped in) squalor house. My house dropped into my price range (about $24K below the going rate back then) because the house was so crammed with stuff. The potlights were pushed out of the ceiling because of the weight in the attic. We were talking about how houses in Texas are often squalored out because of the extreme heat and rural poverty Do you all think that squalor may be worse in certain regions of the country? I think there's a culture of squalor that runs like an undercurrent. Some of it is related to having been poor, or being poor now. In my hometown, there were squalor houses on both sides of the spectrum - rich and poor. We had a family that had property spanning two townships; they threw a fit when one of them added a zoning ordinance about junk cars. They had cranes, boxcars, and other materials going all the way back to the Depression. They weren't poor any longer, but they still had the mentality that they needed to keep collecting scrap metal as a back-up "bank". Then you've got people who didn't have much growing up and have trouble now that they have so much. That's kind of where I was three years ago. |
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Post by iguanamamma on Jul 7, 2009 18:32:16 GMT -5
I think that the heat and humidity play a huge role in squalor. Also having a bad or nonexistant trash service doesn't help either! Sometimes in the horrible heat I think that this crap ain't worth dying for. I have high blood pressure and diabetes and a medicine that says not to get hot- yeah right.
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Post by slothzilla on Jul 7, 2009 18:52:30 GMT -5
I've never thought about it, but I guess heat and humidity are a factor. I've lived in Atlanta my entire life. I like hot weather, and the heat doesn't bother me nearly as much as most (the AC's out in my apt. AND my car right now, but it hasn't really bothered me much...but if I have a visitor or if someone rides in my car, its the first thing they comment on).
I lived in a basement apartment for 7 years without air-conditioning, and the mildew and humidity was awful. On top of that the place would flood about once a year, so mold was a constant problem as well. Boy, am I glad I don't live there anymore!
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Post by messyang on Jul 7, 2009 19:29:48 GMT -5
I agree with RubyRed. Poverty has alot to do with squalor. Who gives a crap about cleanliness if you don't have running water, enough to eat, etc. I work with a few semi-wealthy people, and they are very judgemental about cleanliness, but they live in big gorgeous homes with maids. And I have always lived in a half-delapidated mobile home.
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Post by Raspberry Jam on Jul 7, 2009 20:08:10 GMT -5
Well I am from Australia and I have to agree that when its hot my house is in a much worse state than in the cooler weather. I hate the hot weather and just can't get the energy to keep the place clean. In winter its so much easier.
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Post by slothzilla on Jul 7, 2009 20:48:55 GMT -5
Well I am from Australia and I have to agree that when its hot my house is in a much worse state than in the cooler weather. I hate the hot weather and just can't get the energy to keep the place clean. In winter its so much easier. That's just the opposite of me. I find it very hard to get up and to get moving when its cold...I guess I'm cold-blooded like a reptile, because when its cold I tend to stay just in one spot (the chair in front of the TV). I literally have a really hard time cleaning when its not at least 60 degrees outside, for some reason...even with the heat turned way up. |
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Post by Meme on Jul 7, 2009 21:16:04 GMT -5
I think it runs across the board of rich and poor and cold or hot, well and unwell and so on- because you will find non squalor amids the squalor. I think there is no way to really pin point why we get ourselves into a squalor disaster. We can spend a lot of time looking for reasons but often it is just something that happens with many personal individual life happenings- the hard part is digging our way out.
I know some folks that are just content with squalor and that is ok too- that is their choice but we at SooS have not been content and we want out of squalor and we don't want to fall back. Weather and the other things are only draw backs but not permanant reasons.
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