Using the brush and dustpan to clean the hob and worktop

What, like an upright vacuum cleaner? I have visions of your cleaner dancing merrily on your dining table, pushing the upright back and forth...

I have a different coloured dustpan and brush for this very purpose. Ta-da!

Wow. I do this all the time. Do you often lick your dining table or put food straight on it? We use plates and table mats so there's no need for the table to be sterile!

I wouldn’t use a brush on the hob, in case it scratched it.

Is it the same as using the nozzle of the vacuum to suck up crumbs from worktop after going around the edges of the carpets?
I do this and you've made me doubt myself 🤔
I then spray and wipe the worktops with kitchen spray and kitchen roll.
You've definitely got me thinking

Bit of an over reaction there!

I don't use the dustpan for that, but the idea doesn't remotely bother me. I think if bacteria were visible, everyone would stop worrying about them when they realised they are everywhere all the time. Also, why don't people realise that panicking about germs and anti-baccing the hell out of everything does not actually make you healthier or make sick less often? I think the last time any of us had d&v was when ny dc were toddlers. They are now 16 and 19.

Are you all immunocompromised?? Or regularly smush your dustpans and brushes into huge piles of excrement!?

The microscopic quantities of 'germs' that stay alive on a clean(ish) dustpan won't make you ill.

Even if there was something despicable on your floor that you'd swept up, most of them die within 48 hrs as the brush / dustpan isn't a food or water source.

Then some of them would have to transfer onto the counter top in sufficient quantities as to cause you an issue.

Countertop is, again, a fomite so a lot of 'germs' won't last that long.

And then you're cleaning the top anyway?!!!!

Some people don't know how to use their critical thinking anymore.

I regularly do this, use a cloth for floor then wash dishes (in hot soapy water!) and DS12 has been sick precisely twice in his whole life and I can't remember the last time I had gastro symptoms.

I vacuum the worktops, oven, tables etc. - no issue as they are cleaned afterwards. Quick and efficient.

If my cleaner was faffing with a dustpan there I'd think they were a bit rubbish.

I wouldn't use floor stuff on work surfaces. I would ask DH to clean it with some anti bac stuff and not give it another thought though.

My cleaner once used the hoover for crumbs on the dining table. She is no longer my cleaner.

I have a mini dustpan and brush (from a local cheap stuff shop) for worktops and hob. Like this, only pink to go with my pink and lime green theme kitchen. Hangs on a hook on the wall under the breakfast bar where the bin is hidden. www.dunelm.com/product/mini-dust-pan-and-brush-1000239326

I do this to sweep any crumbs then wipe it after

We all have a different idea what’s acceptable from OTT to grim

I presume after brushing flour up he’d wipe the tops anyway so bit of a non issue

I use a handheld hoover!!

I wouldn't use one regularly on counters because, eww.

In this specific scenario though of elves tipping flour on a dry work top, yes I'd have probably done the same. Dry brushed all the flour off with dustpan and brush then a thorough clean down with flash or whatnot. I don't see an issue personally.

Of course you are not unreasonable. He is grown up and should have thought.
Is he saying to you that it’s right decision?

I have a little dustpan and brush for exactly this purpose. I wouldn't be without it.

I wouldn't use the floor one though. Separate utensils for separate uses.

Cleaning with spray afterwards makes it fine. Also I would never use the counter or hob as “food preparation area” without a cutting board, which is always fresh from the dishwasher, so 🤷‍♀️

I'm in two minds here. My floors are probably about as clean as my worktop as we're strictly no shoes in the house. My initial reaction would be a bit squeamish about using it on a worktop surface, but thinking about it, it's practical and I probably would and then just give the worktop a quick clean after.

Bit gross for the worktops, yes. But actually I can't see the problem for the hob, really-unless you're in the habit of putting food directly on it, the only things that come into contact with the hob are the bottoms of pots and pans.

Re the worktops though- if they're scrubbed after, with disinfectant or whatever, it should be ok. Not if they're given a cursory swipe with a wet cloth.

Still easier to invest in a little dustpan and brush specifically for the worktops.

I agree with you about the dish cloth but I don't see a problem with using dustpan and brush if he followed up by wiping down the service with antibac

I use the dustpan and brush for the countertops, it makes it so much easier and they are always cleaned with cloth and cleaner afterward.

it's not really on but then again assuming he cleaned it properly afterwards with surface cleaner and gave it a good wipe I don't see the real issue. I think you're being a bit OTT if it was a one off.