I've known a lot of people who're so convinced some lethal germ is about to jump out at them that their cleaning regime is painstaking. Every day worktops are wiped, floors are swept, carpets are hoovered, anti-bacterial agents are sprayed in all directions. If something hasn't been cleaned recently enough, they can't rest until it's done.
But as far as I'm concerned a lot of germs are either totally harmless or actually beneficial, so trying to purge them all is pointless. Especially since you can't even see them and can only imagine where they might be lurking.
But TV programmes these days are full of ads for anti-bacterial products, scaring you rigid with the warning that your kitchen or toilet is colonised by literally millions of bacteria. Clearly there's a big market for such stuff.
Jenny and I take the usual minimal steps to keep the place fairly clean and presentable, but beyond that we're not going to bust a gut trying to eradicate every last lingering microbe.
I knew a woman who would get up at 4 am to start cleaning, and who would be constantly washing clothes, cushions, curtains and other items around the house in case they were hiding some nasty bug.
Mind you, I'm not sure which is worse, cleaning fanatically or not cleaning at all. A few years before she died, my mother gave up cleaning altogether and let her flat get grubbier and grubbier. She claimed she had a cleaner though I never saw any sign of one.
But funnily enough all those festering germs never did her any harm.
The saying used to be 'you'll eat a peck of dirt before you die'...but not people totally taken in by the sellers of cleaning products! I'm blowed if I'm wasting my time on obsessive cleaning. I have to be careful given Leo's health, but not fanatical. Life is for living, not cleaning.
ReplyDeleteHelen: Indeed, I don't think we were brought into this world to clean houses.
DeleteI’m not that concerned about germs, but I like things to look neat and orderly.
ReplyDeleteBijoux: Neat and orderly looks good to me. The germs can take care of themselves.
DeleteToo much cleaning is actually harmful. It leaves you with no immunity while exposing you to lots of chemicals.
ReplyDeleteLinda
Linda: Jenny always jokes that exercise is bad for you. But yes, a bit of dirt is good for our immune systems.
DeleteNick, reading this post made me recall a sign posted in a friend's home years ago which read "Housework Can Make You Ugly" and so I don't want to take any chances and don't overdo the house cleaning chores and confine them to weekly.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice: That's why I'm so handsome, I never do any housework, ha ha.
DeleteNick, what you descibe seems to be an obsessive compulsive disorder. Getting up at 4 and start to clean and wash is not a normal behavior . The toilets and the kitchen must be cleaned correctly that's all. When starting to work as a young woman I had a collegue who changed her bed sheets every two days and spent her evenings washing , ironing and cleaning.
ReplyDeleteLife takes place in a limited time so let us do something nicer than cleaning. I have one cleaning product on vinegar base,?? the same over more than 50 years.
Hannah
Hannah: I think OCD usually refers to something that actively disrupts your daily life, which it didn't with the 4 am woman. She still went to work, socialised etc without any problem. But certainly it sounds like your colleague had reached the OCD stage. If you get by on one cleaning product, that's pretty good going!
DeleteBacteria are everywhere. There are billions of them in our own digestive systems, which would not work properly without them. We evolved in a sea of bacteria. They're part of our natural environment.
ReplyDeleteLike any precaution against risk, housecleaning needs to be viewed from a cost-benefit viewpoint. How much time, energy, and annoyance does the precaution cost you vs how likely is the feared danger to strike you without it, and how serious would it be if the danger did strike?
Obviously high standards must be maintained for things like food storage and preparation, but most of this obsessive housecleaning seems like a high-cost (in time and energy) precaution against a negligible risk.
I wonder how many of the people who do this are the same people who refuse covid vaccination (a negligible-cost precaution against a serious danger).
Infidel: Indeed, the question is whether all the painstaking cleaning is worth the tiny chance of your running into some lethal bug. Yes, if the same people refuse vaccines, that's rather contradictory.
DeleteThe folks most vocal during the pandemic about cooties were the first the be so lax after. I like a clean house & avoid certain situations but not going to be frantic.
ReplyDeletePaula: I had to google cooties, we don't have that term over here! What I notice is that the people who oppose vaccines because they don't know what's in them are quite happy to swallow pills and drugs that are full of who-knows-what.
DeleteCooties is a term my sister always used growing up. Anything that she thought had germs. Silly kid term. I know what you mean about meds. My doctor says some patients can avoid medication simply through diet & exercise (diabetes) and they tell her to just write the prescription.
DeletePaula: Your doctor is right that some medical conditions can be prevented by a better diet and exercise, especially diabetes type 2 as you say (I once worked for Diabetes UK). But yes, some patients think if they don't get a prescription, the doctor hasn't taken them seriously.
DeleteModeration is the key. My place is presentable. I had a neighbour across the road in Toronto who would literally vacuum her driveway. I still find it astonishing. The test is to have people pop in every few days and it doesn't create a mad panic.
ReplyDeleteI have another long time friend who hasn't let anyone cross her threshold in several decades as her place is so awful. A hoarder of nothings.
XO
WWW
www: Vacuuming her driveway? That's absurd. My mum was reluctant to let anyone into her flat once it became jammed with junk and clutter.
DeleteA woman who lives near me cleans the road obsessively. There has to be mental illness involved.
ReplyDeleteEveryone believes their level of cleanliness to be the right one. Everyone is is filthy or neurotic.
Strange creatures, aren't we?
Kylie: Cleaning the road must surely signify a psychological problem. I'm not neurotic enough for fanatical cleaning but neither am I filthy. A little grubby perhaps.
DeleteMary says "I have an 11 year old grandson and a dog living with me along with my daughter. There's no way this place is going to be free of germs. lol"
ReplyDeleteMary: Exactly. There are germs all around us and there's no way they can all be eliminated.
Delete