A Time to Clean

Carol Gibbons looks like she has it all together. But behind closed doors her life is a mess. "I have been married, let's see, six times. And divorced six times. I was always a really good wife: gourmet cooking, kept the house perfect. And so, after the last divorce, I was pretty irritated. I really decided to just rebel. And things have really gotten out of hand."

When they arrived, Aggie and Kim found: bird poop on the banister from Carol's pet birds; dog urine and feces all over the bathroom and even in Carol's bed; maggots in an unclean cooking pot; rotting food in the refrigerator; plates and napkins strewn all over the house; and a bathroom "that would make a frat boy blush."

Carol says that no one besides the air-conditioner repairman has been in her house to see how repulsive it is. And, even then, she lied to him. "I told him it wasn't my house," Carol says. "No one had been in there for two years, and I had him come over and I said, 'I'm only here to let you in because I have a cleaning crew coming in.' I fibbed."