View Full Version : Cleaning your home & toys
Did anyone see Oprah today? I don't usually watch her, but I was changing channels and it caught my eye. The show was all about cleaning - how clean is your house and how often should you clean things.
An 'expert' went into the homes of people to see how clean they were - it was horrifying. The amount of dust mites in their bedding made my skin crawl! (Hence I'm up at 2.30am finding it hard to sleep thinking about the little critters). Off the top of my head these were some of the suggestions:
Vacuum your childs toys once a week, and put them in the dryer to kill the germs and dust mites. Fluffy toys are usually FULL of dust mites.
The averate toilet is probably 6 times cleaner than your kitchen sink!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Change your kitchen sponge once a week - they get full of little nasties.
To clean them properly soak them in hot hot hot water and bleach.
Every time you take out the rubbish, spray your bin with a sanitiser. If there's sign of a spill in there wash out the bin with hot water and bleach. (The 'expert' said that it's easy to get salmonella from bins - eg chicken 'juice' spilled on the side of the bin or the floor goes into the sponge and gets spread everywhere)
Vacuum seal food in the freezer if possible. Try to avoid freezer burn. Don't keep food in the freezer for too long (check the guide inside the freezer door)
Change bed linen at least once a week, also wash the pillow protectors and matress protector weekly. Put linen in the dryer to kill dust mites.
Does your pillow look a bit manky? Chuck it out. Replace pillows every year. How about your doona? Probably crawling with itty bitty little nasties. :eek:
Vacuum your bed weekly to help reduce the number of dust mites.
How old are your runners? They are probably filled with toe jam eating nasties too..... :eek:
There were more, but that's all I can remember for now. How gross is it though! After I saw this I went and scrubbed the kitchen! :rolleyes:
Ana Gram
13-09-2005, 04:19
Seriously, who has time to do all that???
Supermum
13-09-2005, 08:16
Oh Wattle - you made me laugh! Three words for you ... stop watching television. Do you know that there are more germs under your fingernails and in your mouth than all of the things you listed combined?
Giving the kitchen/bathroom a scrub every so often is a good thing as it airing your mattresses in the sun periodically ... but germs are everywhere - everything you touch, everything you taste, everytime you smell.
Oprah has the money to pay for cleaners ... most of us peasants do what we can with what we have.
Chill. :)
jembelina
13-09-2005, 08:32
I'm with supermum!!How on earth wold you successfully vacume a teddy bear anyway?! ever got the curtain stuck in the vacume cleaner?? I do, however do the dishcloth and bin thing though... but not with bleach (yuk), I use eucalyptus and lavender essential oils (they smell fresh and are anti bacterial). I soak the dishcloth every few days and the bin once a week. We are all healthy and i can't remember the last time we were admitted with salmonella poisoning:eek: lol!
Hmm, I saw that episode of Oprah too. What I found mildly amusing was that Oprah (well, not personally I'm sure) changes her bedsheets every two days.
How many of us do that?? :)
Yes, wouldn't it be nice to have a maid! :rolleyes:
I am definitely NOT a clean freak, and my house has it's fair share of crawlies. I just thought it was interesting to see what an 'expert' thought was clean and what us average mums thought was clean. Quite a difference!
I figure ds will be outside eating dirt soon, so I'm not going to turn into Mrs Sanitary, but I thought that some of the tips were good suggestions.
I might replace my pillows soon though......... it's been quite a while. :D
What about trolleys at the supermarket? I'm in two minds whether to get a trolley cover or not. They always look filthy to me........ geez here comes Mrs Sanitary.. :eek:
Yep, I'm thinking of getting a trolley seat cover too! They are just soooo gross. Plus my darling bubba sucks on anything he can get his mouth to, and NOT keen on him trying to suck a manky trolley ewwwwwww
I hard a hard time sleeping last night too, thinking about those creepy crawlies....wish i'd never turned the tv on yesterday! ewwww
planning to boil wash all my sheets today! lol
It's funny you know, the carpet cleaner man came this morning (because we had 60 people in the house for a party on sunday, NOT because of Oprah's show) and he said that since that show yesterday they have been inundated with calls. They are now booked out for weeks!
They're a bit sneaky though - the quote was for $69 for the lounge, but they charged extra for spot cleaning, sanitising, and the loungeroom rug, so it ended up costing $122!!!!!!!!! I did get a 'free' bottle of miracle stuff that he guaranteed would get rid of any future stains..... :rolleyes: yeah, right.
Hmmm, was just about to wash all the sheets and have run out of laundry liquid. DOH.... hate that! :mad:
Nickster
13-09-2005, 10:21
OH Jembelina, you cracked me up! I have this vision of Libby's teddy bear being sucked through the vacuum cleaner hose never to be seen again!!!
I caught that Oprah show too (well, bits of it!), and thought the "expert" was just really scare-mongering in my opinion. Who has time to do all that? I think as Mums we already care enough about our babies to keep our homes reasonably clean. There has to be some moderation somewhere along the line! I think that you can over-sanitise your world and your baby has no chance to develop immunity naturally.
I also highly doubt whether Oprah changes her sheets every two days HERSELF!
Having said all that, I have a trolley seat cover. My mum bought it for me, otherwise I think that I would've just wiped the trolley down with one of those pine-o-cleen wipes - shopping trollies are really foul - I've seen them regularly covered with bird droppings, and they're just the germs you can see!BLAH!
Nickster - does your trolley cover go right over the front handle as well as the baby part? I was just looking at a few on the net, and there seems to be two different types.
I'm sure Oprah has quite a large domestic staff to attend to her crisp sheet needs every two days. And I seriously doubt that she spends Sundays vacuum sealing food for her freezer (like she said she did)!
Nickster
13-09-2005, 10:40
Wattle,
Yes, it goes over all of the handles, anywhere bub can reach, and it has two little pockets inside for dummies, rusks, etc - although DD can always reach these herself. It comes with it's own safety strap, and has a couple of little loops up in the part near the handle for attaching toys.
It's called the "clean shopper". The only downside is that you need to park near a trolley, put the seat cover in, get the baby out of the car, then lock car - a bit of maneouvring, but you get used to it!
I'm shocked, Wattle - doesn't everybody spend their Sundays vacuum sealing food? ;)
I saw Ophrah yesterday and straight away went and changed all my sheets! My husband thinks the whole show was probably sponsered by Tontine - I'm sure pillow sales went through the roof today.
Anyway as I was frantically vacuming the kids room this morning ( I left the teddies alone) Michael started screaming and I thought "hey lets get the priorities right here happy baby is more important then less dust mites' - so the dust stays!
Pfffttt. I've got $80 Dunlopillows, there's no way I'm replacing them every year!!
I vacuum the bed every time I cange the sheets, which is about fortnightly, but mostly do it because of my hayfever issue.
My sister disinfects her kitchen sponge by microwaving it for a minute every day.
Microwaving the sponge? Wow, never heard of that, what a fantastic idea.
jlrjyeboah
13-09-2005, 15:07
My sil(american, but I am sure this has nothing to do with it) is a total clean freak. She washes the dishes with chlorox(bleach). When she goes to McDonalds she doesn't eat the ends of the fries, i.e. the bits that have been between her fingers. At Christmas time she washes out the turkey with chlorox, and her family never eat pork as "pigs are dirty animals".
Having said that, her 4 year old is sick more than any child I know, so it just goes to show that some dirt is good for you.
My dh was at their(her family's) house years ago for thanksgiving and was so shocked by it all, he suggested they all go outside a eat a spoonful of dirt. :D
alicesmum
13-09-2005, 15:20
someone (an academic) told me recently about longitudinal research just released in Europe showing a correlation between overly clean houses and lifestyles and childhood luekemia!!! apparently "too clean" weakens kids' immune systems. That is, a few bugs helps their immune systems and makes them less susceptible to immune diseases such as leukeamia!! Also, exposure to other kids thru day-care/kindy apparently featured as a factor which helped their immune systems grow strong quick!
so there you go. don't go too crazy with the Pine-O-Cleen!!! :p
ThomasMum
13-09-2005, 15:28
Hey I love to clean. Scrub scrub scrub. Sometimes it drive my DH bonker lol.
But not to the extreme tyvm. I like to have those “kind” germs hang about in our home, esp. now that we have bub. Sounds crazy? They might be nasty, but they are good for the antibody/immune systems!
Chickadee
13-09-2005, 18:27
My house would never survive a cleanliness inspection. My only consistent effort is in the kitchen - food storage and prep areas have to be clean - and bathroom. Other than that my rules are:
- floors should not be crunchy or sticky.
- toys & books should not be crunchy or sticky.
- DD should not be crunchy or sticky.
- stuffed toys get washed generally when they share DD's dinner, are chewed on by dogs or some part gets wet accidentally and we remember what colour they were meant to be.
- must not send DD to daycare in the same clothes 2 days in a row. Laundry must be therefore be done, but not necessarily put away.
Anything extra will get done eventually. 3 or 4 times a year I go on a cleaning binge and do things like scrub out the fridge :eek: but it never lasts long.
Nickster
14-09-2005, 13:09
Oh Martha, you made me laugh - "floor and child should not be crunchy or sticky". Thanks for keeping it real!!! :)
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