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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Silly house rules

372 replies

tabbyH · 20/03/2011 20:37

My husband has just emptied our kitchen bin. Apparently this means that I'm not allowed to put anything in it! Not sure what the time frame is until the bin is allowed to be used again... Does anyone else have any peculiar rules?

OP posts:
BooyHoo · 20/03/2011 23:43

oh yes there is a particular way to stack dishes in my drainer. anything else is wrong (ds is learning this Grin)

EXp used to leave the dirty dishwater in the sink. WHY???

MaisyMooCow · 20/03/2011 23:56

Oh yes, I get 'I've just emptied that!' As if you're now no longer allowed to put anything in it !!!

JockTamsonsBairns · 20/03/2011 23:58

Another of my mum's pearls of wisdom as we were growing up - she would never buy plasters as we'd "just cut ourselves until they were finished" Shock.

Also, not technically a house rule, but whenever we have a family day out to the coast in the summer, I see it as being par for the course that we have fish and chips for tea. Yes, DH, that's fish - not chicken/sausage/pie or whatever as that's just wrong. I simply can't allow him to order anything other than fish, that's how it's always been and that's how it will remain.

seeker · 21/03/2011 00:02

Our univeral rule is "Don't be a Dingbat"

Covers everything.

magickcat · 21/03/2011 00:20

While having sex with my dh once he heard dd go to the loo and forget to wash her hands.. so he refused to continue until I had gone and got her back up out of bed to wash them... I mean I'm all for being clean but it was hardly going to kill her, whereas I very nearly killed him. Lets just say it sort of ruined the mood.. Hmm

BooyHoo · 21/03/2011 00:25

magic, why did you have to go and make her clean them? why not him if it bothered him so much?

Bogeyface · 21/03/2011 00:36

BooyHoo, perhaps because by the time the DH was ermm......decent, she would have been in bed asleep?! I would have told him to sod off personally, but there you go!

BooyHoo · 21/03/2011 00:41

good point bogey but wasn't the OP 'indecent' at that point aswell though?

GloriaSmut · 21/03/2011 00:51

You see I can sort of see the logic about the bin. Sunday night is bin night here and I get fairly irritated when DP waits until all the bins and wastepaper baskets have been emptied and then chooses to dispose of his secret collection of Turkish Delight wrappers. There's been all fucking afternoon, fgs!

cumfy · 21/03/2011 00:58

This used to be a very common family rule when I was growing up; none of my friends could divine the logic either.

BatFlattery · 21/03/2011 01:17

My Mum has kitchen roll on the worktop like most people - however, this is the 'posh' kitchen roll and only for display purposes. The 'everyday use' kitchen roll is kept hidden away in a cupboard Grin

manchestermummy · 21/03/2011 02:28

These are great.

My mum adheres to care labels on clothes very strictly. In other words one was not permitted to wash 40 with 40 with two lines under garments. This means it takes forever and a day to get enough together for a full load of laundry. She is still all Shock when she hears about how I do mine. My lack of respect of the care label means that I was not allowed to do any laundry at home.

Livinginoz · 21/03/2011 04:28

My mum would only let us cook things from the cupboard at lunch time on school holidays. So we could have beans/soup and toast, but not oven chips from the freezer or fresh meat in the fridge. Hmm

We don't have any silly rules in our house, but i am worried about the anal-ness of our 2yo. We live in a rented apartment that has 3 hand towel rings in the bathroom. DS freaked out the other day because the only handtowel was on the left side ring and not the middle one! Confused

Original poster
tabbyH · 21/03/2011 07:13

MIL was a war baby and therefore nothing is wasted, apparently!

OP posts:
ChippingInMistressSteamMop · 21/03/2011 07:25

Great :)

TYV - actually, once you said 'The PILs flushed' I remembered the thread! I think my brain had filed it away under 'wtf'... Grin Do you remember the poster who blended/liquidised everything first!?!?! I guess it makes sense... but I can barely be bothered to use those appliances to prepare dinner, let alone to dispose of it!! Weirdos!!

kreecherlivesupstairs · 21/03/2011 08:34

We have a waste food bin which I line with special bags which compost. DH things they are a waste of money, so when he takes the special bag out to the green bin (seldom) he either doesn't put a special^ bag back in or uses an old carrier bag. We've had many arguements about this. He is the one who has to rinse it out.

SudashesaliveItakeyoutoher · 21/03/2011 08:53

Yes SLAM - I do that cos I just like the idea of everyone thinking I'm a domestic goddess and am up cleaning and cooking breakfast when in fact I'm having a lie in Blush. Also love the sun pouring in when I go down - just find drawn curtains depressing somehow.

Re the bin situation. On the day our bins are emptied I clean out all the bins in the house and will fiercely guard the kitchen bin and put everything in a carrier bag right up to the binmen coming - late afternoon usually - in order to preseve the lovely emptiness and lemon fragrance of my shiny squeaky clean 50 ltr stainless steel bin.

Yes I know I am a Saddo and really should get out more.

But then if I went out 'the others' could be putting anything in my lovely clean bin - scraping beans into it even

Skinit · 21/03/2011 09:02

kreecher...my MIL does that....that bin did my bloody head in!

SudashesaliveItakeyoutoher · 21/03/2011 09:16

...ponders getting a seperate food bin just like KREECHERs and SKINITs M-I-L.

Oh the freedom of it - I can see it now - being able to leave my kitchen bin unattended and leave the house on bin day and everything ! Safe in the knowledge my bin will only ever get clean dry rubbish thrown in it and no smelly gunky food products.

Must phone my therapist - how exciting Grin

GooseyLoosey · 21/03/2011 09:25

I have lots of rules - I love rules!

A sample of them is as follows:

  1. Close doors after you (the call of "Door!!!!" is often to be heard echoing around my cold draughty house).
  1. If anything of yours is on the stairs to go upstairs, take it up with you or at the end of the day, mummy will put it in the bin.
  1. Do not leave things on the floor. See 2. for consequences.
  1. Do not leave dirty clothes anywhere other than the washing basket or they will be put away - unwashed.

I could go on... and on... and on...

wendylovesbob · 21/03/2011 09:28

My FiL does the curtain thing too - opens them just before going to bed. He also sets the breakfast table before bed. And everything from a meal has to be washed, dried and put away before we're allowed to move on to pudding.

wendylovesbob · 21/03/2011 09:29

Yes but Goosey those are all quite sensible rules.

eatyourveg · 21/03/2011 09:31

we have a poo rule as well - only wees allowed upstairs, poos are for downstairs.

Also upstairs loo is out of bounds at night and downstairs you can only flush the chain in the night for poos, wees wait till the morning.

SudashesaliveItakeyoutoher · 21/03/2011 09:32

I do number 4 GOOSEY - always thought it was the wicked evil stepmother in me (have a slob adult resident ss) but now youve made me realise it is just a perfectly reasonable house rule. Thank you !

[exonerated emoticon]

Blatherskite · 21/03/2011 09:39

We have the special food waste bin bags too. CBA with washing out the bloody thing every time otherwise.

FIL refuses to use the food waste bin system (silver bin in the kitchen, big green wheely bin outside) as apparently putting food waste out will attract rats.

Quite how rats are going to be more attracted to an f-in' great wheely bin than his totally open compost area or the bare, black bin bags that he chooses to use instead is beyond me Confused

I'd love it if I could ban DH from using the bathroom for a while after I've cleaned as he tends to think my sparkly clean bathroom is a great place to shave and it's always covered in dark whiskers within hours of me scrubbing it Sad

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