wiping the floor with the teatowels

[robinw]

message withdrawn

[janh]

I think it's disgusting too but I would not have had the courage to say so. (My DH does it - I do tell him!)
Did you know that in a survey recently it was found that some outrageous figure like 40% of men and 30% of women do not automatically wash their hands after using the loo? And those are the ones who admit it!
There are some very VERY disgusting people out there. No wonder there are so many upset stomachs.

[MandyD]

Yuk! I guess she could have redeemed herself by throwing it straight in the washing machine!! I agree with you throwing it away though. My partner uses tea towels for everything (maybe 'cos he used to be a chef)? It drives me to distraction to have just washed them and hung them to dry, then finding them on the worktop covered in chip oil etc. The only time I've had to throw one away was when he used it to wipe the carpet after my son had had a wee wee accident! Oh gross!!

[jodee]

Ugh! I could maybe have understood if she threw it straight into the wash. I feel like a right nag in the kitchen but dh never hangs up a teatowel after he's used it, just leaves it on the worktop or, horror of horrors, in the place where I prepare the cat's dinner. I always change a teatowel every day anyway - oh to have a dishwater though!

[jodee]

you know I meant 'dishwasher' of course.

[Marina]

robinw, as Janh says, no you were not overreacting and yes, I would have been too chicken-hearted to say so directly. Good for you. We do occasionally lunge for the teatowel if there is a spill but it goes straight in the washing machine on boil wash afterwards.

[manky]

I don't use tea towels. Only kitchen roll and clothes to wipe down. Am I the only one? Even before we got a dishwasher (the best life improver gadget)I used to drip dry dishes etc. If you wash stuff in a 90 degree wash, wouldn't this kill all germs? What about the theory that now our houses are too clean and that kids are not building natural immunity and therefore developing asthma etc?

[SueDonim]

I rarely use tea-towels, Manky. And I go beserk if anyone uses a tea-towel as a hand towel! I'll only ever use a dishcloth once. I think it's a reaction to my mum who would use a tea-towel to dry a chicken before she put it in the oven. In all other respects, my mum is a fantastic 'housekeeper' while apart from in the kitchen, I'm a grade A slut!

[SueDonim]

Oh, and as regards the germs/asthma theory, my MIL, who grew up in India, says a layer of dirt keeps the germs out. Sometimes I think she's right.....

[jsmummy]

Manky, agree with you: I drip dry all dishes whilst maintaining a nice layer of dirt everywhere for immunity

[Tinker]

Oh God! I use the same tea towel for wiping surfaces, hands after the toilet and my daughter's mouth after messy eating! I clean the kitchen floor only when my feet are sticking to it and bleach the dish cloth when I've forgotten what the original colour was!

[ScummyMummy]

Snaparama Tinker but was too scared to admit it. I chose my Mumsnet nickname as a reflection of my poor housekeeping skills- it seemed particularly fitting. Sob.

[bloss]

Message withdrawn

[jasper]

Er..truth is that's the kind of thing I'd do at home, intending to chuck the teatowel in a hot wash later after mopping up some more spills which were no doubt about to happen.
Wouldn't do it outwith my own home/teatowels though.

[robinw]

message withdrawn

[Enid]

I also use teatowels for everything...have some half-baked thought that they are more enviro friendly than masses of paper towels...oh dear, and I only wash them at 40 degrees along with everything else in my house. 'Quick wash' too...

[jodee]

Phew, I feel I can now admit to my filthy kitchen floor, and the unspeakable state of my oven! I am gradually being 'flywashed' though, (a la Flylady) my kitchen sink has never been so shiny!

[Lindy]

Must join the slobs here - reminds me of when we shared a house with a (male) friend in the States - he had separate cloths for everything - floor, sink, dishes etc etc - woe betide anyone who used the wrong one!! Funny that he didn't see the layer of dust everywhere else in his house.

PS I do iron my tea towels though!!!

[janh]

Ironing sees off a lot of germs, Lindy!

I am semi-slovenly - mean with paper towels (because of the trees) and fairly careless about floorcloths/dish sponges, but I have a clean teatowel (only for hands, not for pots) every day and I'm fanatical about cleaning up around raw meat, washing hands during food preparation and after unhygienic activities etc. My house is far from clean, dustwise, but we rarely have tummy bugs.

(I do use used teatowels/bath towels for blotting up spills on carpet but they go straight into a very hot wash. It was the tossing the cloth onto the counter for someone else to deal with, or not, in a public area used for children, that I thought out of order. My DH would use the same teattowel for every kitchen job for WEEKS if I let him.)

I'm with Tinker on the sticky kitchen floor and jsmummy on the layer of dirt and Enid on not using paper towels and Jodee on the unspeakable oven!

[Selja]

We drip-dry the pots and I use tea towels to mop up any mess on the worktop and kitchen towels for the floor. I never dust as I find it disheartening that 10 minutes after dusting there's another layer on there and I've only just mopped my kitchen floor after a week and couldn't stand it any longer. I've given up worrying about germs and muck after I watched ds fish a piece of tuna quiche out of the bin and start eating before I could get to him ugh!

[jasper]

Selja, just be happy you can get your ds to eat tuna quiche!

[Tigermoth1]

As for me, mopping the kitchen floor is all about risk assessment. On the one hand, a quick dry with a teatowel reduces the risk of nastly falls on our tiles. On the other, we risk a stomach bug by using a tea towel as a mopper up.

Finding a window in my week to clean the floor is bad enough. Finding one that is minus both children and husband is almost impossible. Do they heed warnings to avoid a wet floor? No. The number of nasty near misses we have had - toddler's forehead meeting corner of kitchen table etc etc.

With my family I think the risk of injury is greater than the risk of a stomach bug. Trust me!!I never leave a kitchen floor to dry. I mop it barefooted and them slowly skate around the wet floor with a tea towel under each foot, until a state of dryness is approached.

The teatowels do go straight into the washing machine after, though.

As for your orignial question Robin, yes it was a very thoughtless practice, especially with a ready supply of paper towels so easily to hand. Did the guilty PTA-er know the kitchen well? If she did, there isn't much excuse to use the tea towel in the first place. Despite using them at home, I believe I'd never use a tea towel to mop a floor in public. Perhaps she saw the danger of people slipping on the kitchen floor as the greatest risk. She might have been thinking of you?

I don't think I would have been as brave as to tell her it was disgusting. For me, a bit like a pot calling the kettle black.

[bundle]

threw it in the bin? how wasteful. never heard of boil wash programme on the washing machine?

[Copper]

What did the guilty floor-mopper say?

[MotherofOne]

Don't mean to upset anyone by changing this thread (however I'm sure the tea towel discussion has a finite life anyway..) but does anyone have the same hang ups I do about mens handkerchiefs? My husband insists on using one (nasty habit his father also has) and it seems to appear out of nowhere to clear up all sorts of nasty messes (YUK!). On a couple of occasions I've quite literally scooped my ds away from my father in law when he's gone to wipe ds's mouth or face with it.And I've seen him get it out in cafes and wipe his hands on it etc.. Oh it make me want to be sick just thinking about it.... Why can't they use disposable tissues and wipes like us?

[Croppy]

I'm a great fan of using tea towels for cleaning kitchen surfaces and keep a suply solely for this very purpose. I like the fact that you can hot wash them - I wirry about the horrid bugs lurking in J cloths and sponges and so on that get used for a long period of time.