Why we're not convinced by Kirstie Allsopp and Kirstie's Fill Your Home For Free
It’s fair to say that I’m all for
recycling. Most of my clothes come from charity shops, I’ve donated items to my
local Freecycle group and I always (well, nearly always) separate out my
plastics, glass, cardboard etc from my kitchen rubbish.
Then there’s my (albeit small) involvement
in Reloved Vintage. The whole ethos of the business is to take good quality
vintage items and ensure they get a new home for years to come, rather than
becoming landfill, so I completely agree with and applaud the sentiment behind
Channel 4 show Kirstie’s Fill Your House For Free (which has a second series in
the pipeline).
What a great idea – bringing upcycling and
recycling into the mainstream. We should all be encouraged to turn our backs on
our throwaway society and invest in quality products that eliminate the need
for harmful manufacturing processes, or shown ideas for repurposing stuff that
would otherwise get dumped.
It’s great in principle, even if it will
drive up prices in charity shops (good for the charities, not good for bargain
hunters like me).
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| A lovely wool tie, 75p from a charity shop |
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| Another charity shop gem... |
But there’s something about KFYHFF which
doesn’t quite ring true. First, I have to try to eliminate the Allsopp element
from my appraisal. I’m not a fan. Laura loves watching Location, Location,
Location, but I find the forced banter between Kirstie and Phil painful – not
to mention the smug couples who we’re supposed to empathise for when they
reveal they can only afford a £450,000
mortgage.
Then there are the Kirstie craft shows, in
which she enlists the country’s leading crafters to give up hundreds of pounds
worth of their time to create a bespoke gift – then tells us we can all do that
too!
So, putting The Allsopp to one side, here’s
my beef with Kirstie’s Fill Your House For Free: they never fill anyone’s house
for free.
That’s a pretty major flaw for me. It’s
like John Humphrys not bothering to ask any questions on Mastermind, or Gregg
Wallace and John Torode telling the Masterchef contestants they can just get a
takeaway in if they like.
In the last series, people from all over
the country (including a very middle class lady whose very expensive home
needed some new furniture after her ‘snug’ was flooded – poor her), were
invited to look around Kirstie’ shop full of free stuff, in Glasgow and invited
to help themselves. So in this case, to get something for free, they have to
travel hundreds of miles to a shop that doesn’t exist in real life. Brilliant.
Then there were the objects sourced by
Kirstie and her elves from Freecycle groups – meaning a couple from Coventry
(or somewhere equally bleak, I forget where) were matched up with a ‘free’
fireplace from Dundee (or somewhere equally distant – you don’t expect me to
research this do you?).
Firstly, the KFYHFF production team were
scouring Freecycle, to nab the best bits, in order to make a TV show, in order
to make money. That’s surely against the spirit of freecycling.
Secondly, they were taking things from all
over the country and giving them to people from miles away – that doesn’t work
outside the confines of a TV show.
Thirdly, I’ve never seen such good quality,
and obviously worth a few quid, items offered on my local Freecycle groups…
And then there were the items, sourced from
antiques shops and reclamation yards which they PAID for. Yes, in a programme
called ‘Fill Your House For Free’ they paid for items to fill their house.
And I haven’t even mentioned Kirstie’s repeated
suggestion of “go to a house clearance”. How, Kirstie? Should I quit my job to set
up a house clearance firm, then turn up at a dead man’s house, help myself to an
old sideboard and bugger off? Be more helpful with your suggestions!
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| "Give us stuff so we can make money!" |
So why am I blogging about it now, months
after it was broadcast? Well, I’ve just seen an appeal on Twitter, from Kirstie
and Phil’s production company, Raise The Roof, appealing for donations of furniture
and furnishings, specifically copper piping, for the upcoming series.
Now, call me a jaded old cycnic, but if an
item like copper piping is in such short supply that a TV production company
with experience of sourcing items for free can’t get hold of any, then it’s
probably pretty unlikely that Joe and Jo Bloggs from Walsall are going to find
a load on their local Freecycle group.
In fact, appealing for people to give you
free furniture for your TV show, so you can show the British public how easy it
is to get free furniture, is slightly disingenuous, if you ask me.
Kirstie’s Fill Your House For Free? More
like Kirstie’s Fill Your House By Appearing On A TV Show That Has Run A National PR Campaign,
Fronted By A Famous Face, Appealing For Donations Of Furniture, Or, Like In The
Last Series, By Appearing On A TV Show That Sources Items From Freecycle Groups
Hundreds Of Miles From Your House, Or Pays For Items, Thus Not Making Them Free
Anymore...
Not so catchy though,
that one…
As always, tell me
below if you agree, or if you think I’m being a pillock
