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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To report this cleaner?

123 replies

queensonia · 30/04/2025 17:37

My daughter has just got a job in a pub restaurant. Part of her job is cleaning and laundry and she has been trailing the regular (senior) cleaner to learn the ropes. She came home today horrified, because after watching the other woman scrub the toilet bowls and urinals with a micro-fibre cloth, she then chucked the dirty cloth into the washing machine along with all the restaurant's tea-towels and other kitchen cloths as well as all the other cleaning cloths that she'd been cleaning the basins and furniture with. She said it would be OK at 90 degrees but my daughter isn't convinced and neither am I. We certainly wouldn't do this at home, and you'd expect a restaurant to have higher standards of hygiene. My daughter also realised that this woman has been using the same rubber gloves that have been down the toilet every day for the entire week (and presumably before that as well) without ever washing or disinfecting them. This woman has worked there for years and has apparently always done this. My daughter wants to bring this to somebody's attention, but knows it will cause trouble. She says that the guy who runs the pub seems pretty clueless about domestic matters and probably wouldn't care anyway. We looked on the Food Standards website to see what the official guidelines are and the idea of washing toilet cloths and tea-towels together hasn't even occurred to them, because they have nothing to say on the subject. On the days when she works on her own, my daughter's plan is to use disposable cleaning wipes for the toilets (which she'd have to buy herself because the pub doesn't use them). Should she just keep her mouth shut? Is anybody else disgusted by this or are we over-reacting?

OP posts:
NattyTurtle59 · 01/05/2025 06:01

queensonia · 30/04/2025 20:41

Unless it’s food poisoning, Nobody ever knows why they have suddenly got a tummy bug

I throw various things in together and wash in - shock, horror - COLD water, as is normal here. I get around one tummy bug every 20 years, and it's not from my washing.

NattyTurtle59 · 01/05/2025 05:58

Oh joy, yet another MN obsessive hygiene thread.

You are being ridiculous. If your daughter is so offended then I suggest she find another job.

HuffleMyPuffle · 01/05/2025 01:52

ReadingSoManyThreads · 30/04/2025 21:04

@queensonia from a Food Safety point of view (I'm highly qualified in this field), this would be a breach, and I absolutely would be reporting this to the Environmental Health Team.

I'm absolutely astounded at the amount of people on this thread who see no issue with this. I hope none of them run catering businesses.

Yet the Food Standards Agency offers no information?

HuffleMyPuffle · 01/05/2025 01:50

Wait till you hear about what's in the water...

Bestfadeplans · 01/05/2025 01:39

This is beyond petty. I worked in hospitality for decades and they all wash the clothes at the same time. Maybe tell your daughter to get on with her job and stop being such a weasle

JMSA · 01/05/2025 01:37

Jesus, just leave it.

ClairDeLaLune · 30/04/2025 23:27

MissJeanBrodiesmother · 30/04/2025 18:06

I wash all my underwear and towels in the same wash as my tea towels. I wouldn't even consider this as an issue because they have been washed...

Same, and I do all my washing at 30°. And I’m never ill!

Neemie · 30/04/2025 21:40

queensonia · 30/04/2025 18:14

Yes so do I - in my own home. Have you ever cleaned the men’s toilet in a pub though? You might not want that anywhere near your own laundry

So you wash pants with kitchen tea towels in your own home so you obviously don’t think it is about hygiene, you just find the idea yucky. Lots of people find the idea of what is in sausages yucky, but it would be pretty weird to ring up a pub to complain about the chef cooking them. I think this would be similar.

PeapodBurgundy · 30/04/2025 21:28

I use the same microfiber cloths to clean my entire house. I use a different cloth for each room, they get rinsed out with anti bacterial Fairy Liquid, wrung out and put in a basket. When the basket is full, they get shoved in the machine on a 90 degree 2.5 hour cycle with plenty of soap powder and some laundry cleanser. I've been doing this for years with no ill effects.

I do have different gloves though, and wash my hands with anti bacterial soap before I take them off each time. I have separate ones for washing pots, the bathroom, general cleaning and cleaning out the pets.

I will say however, I am not the queen of clean by my own admission. The house isn't a hovel, but it's never immaculate either.

Lovelysummerdays · 30/04/2025 21:18

I worked in a carehome and they were super keen on cleaning / infection control. End of every day all the cleaning cloths / kitchen cloths were thrown in the wash at 90 degrees. The care inspectorate had no issues with it either. The gloves are disgusting though.

ReadingSoManyThreads · 30/04/2025 21:04

@queensonia from a Food Safety point of view (I'm highly qualified in this field), this would be a breach, and I absolutely would be reporting this to the Environmental Health Team.

I'm absolutely astounded at the amount of people on this thread who see no issue with this. I hope none of them run catering businesses.

ruethewhirl · 30/04/2025 21:04

This is fine in a 90 degree wash. YABU.

Concretejungle1 · 30/04/2025 21:01

what do you think happens in hospitals or care homes? They don’t separate their washing, bedding, clothes, towels, kitchen towels etc
it all goes in together full of human waste and bodily excretions etc
what makes this different? Bacteria is killed at this temp!

alcoholnightmare · 30/04/2025 20:54

Doesnt surprise me at all - I do the same job… at least your daughter has cloths. We are told to clean the toilets with loo roll

ChampagneLassie · 30/04/2025 20:52

MsNevermore · 30/04/2025 18:26

I’ve done this exact job in the past, and we had two separate cleaning caddies: one for the pub toilets and another one for general areas.
Also different colour cloths (blue for toilets, green for general areas) with separate laundry baskets for each which would then get washed on alternate days.
The washing of the cloths together with tea towels etc wouldn’t be my ideal, but on a 90° wash, it’s probably ok.
The glove thing I do find pretty grim though. Disposable gloves were always my go-to and my boss had no problem buying them because liked to use them in the kitchen as well for certain things. I’d bin the first pair of gloves after doing the loos and put new ones on for general areas.
Maybe your DD can suggest disposable gloves?

You’re getting a lot of crap on here OP, but I’m with you and this poster, this is more what I would expect

Katemax82 · 30/04/2025 20:44

queensonia · 30/04/2025 20:32

I don’t know if she ever changes her gloves to be honest or how long she has been using them.

If they are only used for the toilet and not other areas I wouldn't worry about it

queensonia · 30/04/2025 20:41

User415373 · 30/04/2025 20:26

I was just about to say this. The washing machine cleans them. When have you ever heard of someone getting ill because their laundry was washed with other laundry.

Unless it’s food poisoning, Nobody ever knows why they have suddenly got a tummy bug

OP posts:
queensonia · 30/04/2025 20:32

Katemax82 · 30/04/2025 20:29

This is a ridiculous post! 90 degrees is almost boiling! As for using the same gloves for a week...streuth

I don’t know if she ever changes her gloves to be honest or how long she has been using them.

OP posts:
Mulledjuice · 30/04/2025 20:31

On the days when she works on her own, my daughter's plan is to use disposable cleaning wipes for the toilets

Bonkers

Katemax82 · 30/04/2025 20:29

This is a ridiculous post! 90 degrees is almost boiling! As for using the same gloves for a week...streuth

JojoM1981 · 30/04/2025 20:28

Eww. If anything I would question it.

I always save up my tea towels and wash them all together. My sister in law washes hers with the family underwear 🤢

Katemax82 · 30/04/2025 20:28

WomenInSTEM · 30/04/2025 17:38

90 degrees? I think it's fine, but maybe I'm just gross! 😆

90 degrees would kill anything!! 75 degrees would be hot enough to kill germs

User415373 · 30/04/2025 20:26

Fupoffyagrasshole · 30/04/2025 20:22

Mate ! I wash my babies reusable bum wiped with towels and tea towels ! 🤣 washing machine cleans them - I use laundry sanitizer and 60degrees

it’s fine

I was just about to say this. The washing machine cleans them. When have you ever heard of someone getting ill because their laundry was washed with other laundry.

Almostapt · 30/04/2025 20:24

Is DD going to eventually be responsible (alone) for laundry once she's finished training? If so she should just follow this person's lead for now and then develop her own system once she's the one in charge.

But I have to say what you're describing isn't unusual. You'd be horrified if you found out how hotel rooms were cleaned (hot tip - don't use the water glasses without washing them first! In one job we were told to use the same cloth for wiping out the water glasses, as the one we used to wipe down bedside tables etc. And no, I didn't do that once I was left to my own devices!)

WiddlinDiddlin · 30/04/2025 20:24

90c wash - fine. Probably commercial/industrial washing powder too.

Yes, the clothes come out of the washer - clean - and some are used for the loo and some for the tables etc.

Unless she is lobbing pooey cloths in the washer and then getting other dirty cloths OUT of the washer before it has been run... and using them on tables etc, that isn't an issue.

The gloves - well they're probably in contact with a lot of cleaner and water and then dried and not much is going to survive that.

I would use one set of gloves for the loos and another set for everywhere else, and that is why gloves come in different colours. But it probably isn't going to spread germs anywhere near as much as simply bare hands all around the place from customers and staff alike.