I've just read an article interviewing various doctors about the measures they take to keep their home germ free.

A lot of them use paper towels instead of tea towels. One says every member of his family has a separate hand towel which is washed twice a week along with bedsheets! They say don't wash up by hand and use dishwashers at high temperatures. One even refuses to own pets due the germs they can carry plus everything is his bathroom is electric so hands free. Another one washes cupboard doors and worktops after handling raw meat. One bleaches his entire house.

They all boast that their families are never ill. However one doctor admits that she used lots of antibacterial products when her children were young and now as teenagers they both have allergies.

I have 2 cats
I wash the pots by hand and the plates, cutlery, mugs etc go in the dishwasher.
I rarely dry anything by hand and really only use the tea towels for drying my hands.
I certainly don't wash my bedsheets and towels twice a week.

I am rarely ill either.

So is it better to be over zealous about cleanliness and disinfect everything or take a more relaxed view and be 'sensible'?

They're a bunch of OCD loonies, possibly trying to control their houses because they know they can't control the wards and surgeries?

I barely get colds and my house isn't zealously clean.

I get a flu/cold about twice a year but that's largely due to me working in an environment where 40,000 people bring germs & sniffles from all over the planet with them every September, there's no way any single person's immune system could cope with that variance of infection.

So, frankly, the state of my dwelling is pretty much irrelevant. As it is I am quite good at keeping my kitchen clean, although some other bits of the house don't fair quite as well - I don't wash my bedclothes twice a week (!) for one thing, nor do I have a dishwasher.

I wash all dishes by hand (well, my washing-up-fairy does ) and dry with a tea towel which gets washed once a week, I have 4 cats and a relatively dirty (but tidy) house because life's too short to waste too much of it cleaning. My Mister spends a lot of time with grubby, oily hands from working with cars, I spend a lot of time working in the garden and with the poultry which leads to dirty fingernails, muddy shoes and so we have a mudroom where shoes come off before going into the house. I'm not bothered generally about excessive cleanliness, we as a household rarely get ill and when we do it's usually because of something someon's passed around at work.

Wash up by hand. Change sheets once a fortnight. Do the vacuuming when the level of ming starts getting to me.
The joy of living on your own is that the only arbiter of cleanliness is that which you set yourself.
I do like a clean kitchen but I suspect any swabbing of the work surfaces would reveal the usual smorgasbord of bacteria you'll find pretty much everywhere. I'm sure the how clean is your house brigade would have a field day. Having said that, I'm not usually ill (touch wood).

If you have existing allergies then whatever you need to do to keep it in check is fair enough provided it doesn't start you down the path to clinically significant OCD.
If you keep giving yourself food poisoning then perhaps it would be an idea to amend your behavior but otherwise I see no particular reason to go nuts with the cleaning.

Pretty much the same as you Caz.

Good to know us smeggy ones are not killing ourselves

Link please?


Most people don't wash teatowels frequently. They harbour germs and then you contaminate dishes using them. Mine get boiled regularly throughout the week and regularly replaced.


A bit OTT with handtowels but basically they all get boiled. Washing at 40*C only gives you clean dust mites. To kill them, you need higher temps.


We don't have a dishwasher. Would love one but only for those occasions where we might have lots of people staying. I reckon this is OTT.


More OTT-ness.


Worktops - sensible. Anything else pointless unless you contaminate eg touch meat and then touch cupboard.


Men in white coats!


I'd expect that - germ theory.

My own take is - there are some things to be careful of, and others not so much. On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to 0. Let kids catch coughs/colds. Let them build their immune system. That's what it's there for.

Things this doctor worries about:

1. Mud/garden - footwear outside, not inside. Avoid contamination of food and laundered clothing.
2. Socks and jocks get washed separately from everything else
3. Bedsheets and towels get boiled (highest setting on washing machine)
4. Teatowels get washed separately (I prefer washing machine. Missus literally boils them in water).
5. Everyone has their own bath towel. Shared hand towels are fine but they get changed twice a week minimum. More frequently if we have more guests.
6. All fruit/veg get washed thoroughly. Root veg gets chopped using a different knife and chopping board to other fruit/veg. I have separate cooking utensils for meat (missus is vegetarian).
7. Anything opened that needs to be used within three days (eg milk, juice) gets used in that time or gets chucked away.

Washing the dishes - just do it normally - by hand. Clothes - if it's not for work and it looks clean, I'll happily wear again and again without washing. Clothes for work - I have enough for a new shirt every day and a pair of trousers for two days. I don't need to do laundry for three weeks. I try and be clean and houseproud without being excessive or OTT.

EDIT: I see maybe 6000-7000 patients a year. Some of them have coughs and colds. Invariably, I will catch something from them and I do at least 2-3 times a year.

You asked



Wash all my stuff together and have done all my life. I'm still alive. That seems OTT to me.



Milk gets chucked after 3 days? Nah doesn't happen in my house and common sense can tell you if something has gone off.

Leftover cooked food? 3 days yes although I have eaten stuff on the 4th day and didn't die.

We must eat a peck of dirt before we die

Our house rules

1. No animals in the house because of the smell
2. No shoes in the house because of the dirt
3. No drying-up because it'll dry itself
4. Meat gets its own board & knife because don't be a pillock
5. Anything that will be eaten as is sits above anything that will get cooked for the same reason
6. Best before dates get ignored; Use by dates are rigourously enforced

Our house rules:

1. No animals on the work surfaces while food is being prepared or consumed

Umm, that's about it

I have mild asthma which is non-existent overseas, but mild in Cornwall. I guess the damp and miserable nature of our paradise island disagrees with my lungs. Other than that, I don't tend to get very ill and have no allergies.

I hate animals because they're too much effort and it's enough effort to just keep going myself. But I doubt they pose a germ/health risk. I wash my hands a fair bit, but otherwise I'm quite relaxed about such matters. I think a lot of Gen Ys and younger have allergies and no immune system coz they didn't go playing outside like I did. But I'm not a medical professional.

My 1st impression was good bit of fishing there Caz

But then it is obvious that CW would be more conscious of germ warfare than mere mortals, as it is life or death in his profession.

Personally I think I am cleaner than my parents (I never saw the old man have a bath) but compared to swmbo my standards leave something to be desired. Having said that I do a lot of the housework, but then I make most of the mess.

our house is clean enough to be healthy, dirty enough to be happy without going OTT ...