What's the weirdest house rule you've ever experienced as a house guest?

[Creativemode]

Just that really.

Mine is someone that wouldn't let me flush the toilet incase it woke their children.

Also another wouldn't let me go upstairs to the toilet incase the stairs creaked and woke their children (there was no downstairs toilet).

I had a school friend that wasn't allowed fish and chips in the house because of the smell.

dame

rubbish collection is every 3 weeks here :(

Not using the front door may be a Northern thing. Friends used the back door so if the front doorbell rang it was someone you didn't know.

I cannot stop laughing at Peeping Tom Cat, no Jaffa cakes, and the secret knock.

We actually used to do the secret knock thing in my family but at my invention/urging. I think I was about 6. I think my parents were glad when I turned 7 and outgrew it.

I have one. If visitors are eating, I ask them to 'donate' their food scraps (apple cores, leftovers) to my pet rats rather than throw them in the bin. But it's not a rule and my only visitors are good friends.

Riceuten Reminds me of my mum, who insists that if an energy saving light bulb breaks, the entire house must be evacuated immediately. She also only buys that horrible greaseproof paper style loo roll (from Amazon,for goodness sake) because the soft stuff causes cancer and runs the taps for ten minutes every morning to 'flush the lead through'.

I had a close friend as a child who came to mine and others for sleepovers, on days out etc. but when we went to hers we were only allowed in the 'summer house' aka the shed in the garden I don't think I ever stepped foot in her house over the years!

"rubbish collection is every 3 weeks here sad"

Two weeks here, but I have no outside space so it's inside and rotting.

Flushing the lead through used to be a thing 50 years ago, but modern copper pipes and potable solders have made it unnecessary.
Except in our outhouse, where I flush the outside loo before starting the washing machine. The rising main spur is lead, and when our plumber retires we're going to have problems.

THREE weeks???!! Omg, that's rank, it's bad enough every two weeks, our bins are rammed full.

Weirdest - my best friend's parents when I was a teenager.

• You must have something from the chippy on Wednesday, and it must be a fishcake. If you (aged 14) assume that, when you're asked 'choose a meal - [best friend] is having fishcakes!' that you can choose something else for the same price or less, you are wrong. He actually yelled at me for choosing a different meal.

• You must pretend to enjoy sips of wine while pictures are taken. You must never accidentally drink the wine, as it belongs to him.

• You must never compliment Friend's Mum, or talk to her too much.

• You must never contradict Friend's Dad in public, even if he is obviously wrong on a simple detail.

He was fucking scary. I look back and have the shivers.

This thread made me think of

Good room is Victorian with the parlour idea. Dgm from NE had one complete with piano and moth eaten taxidermed parrot (nice).

She used to go in there for a rest but was rarely used.

Dame

AND it gets WORSE.

We were the first area in the UK to trial 3 weekly collections.

There is talk of moving it to every 4 weeks.

Unsure if it is for us, or the neighbouring county, but it's not good.

e1 Tell me why!! Surely it's more hygienic to be able to wash your hands as you go along when you're preparing a meal?!

At MILs can't have anything to eat or drink outside of mealtimes because everything must be washed and dried as soon as it's used and tea towels are put straight in wash after mealtime.

Everything has a plate or saucer for fear of crumbs.

No locks on toilets

No flush at night

Everything put away at end of day - nothing ever left out

It makes for a very uncomfortable stay!!!

Yes the back door thing to but isn't that fairly common with the older generation. They never went out the front door but locked the back door

riceuten Why the fuck are you going? I don't care who they are, NOTHING would induce me to stay there, perhaps I am a wierd one, one of my only rules is that I don't EVER allow Wotsits or any generic type of Wotsit into the house, because they are fucking horrible, stinking, vomit inducing things :-). When we go to visit reles anywhere, I always rent a house or stay in somewhere else, we like our space and privacy and I would DIE if I had to spend the night in someone elses house. Sounds mad, but all my siblings (and there are six of us) snore like drains, my DP is OK with mine, infact, he cannot sleep without my snoring , but get two or three of us together and the roof would be welll and truly raised

SIL used to make all her DC and our DC shower and change into pyjamas before dinner (which was about 7pm) - which is all well and good for pre-schoolers, but it felt quite odd to sit eating dinner with her 14-year-old son in his pyjamas.

now

Yes washing hands as you go whilst preparing a meal is fine at the kitchen sink (as will have washed hands before starting meal prep).

But at other times (after cleaning out the litter trays, gardening etc) just don't like it, but not too overly obsessive about it.

FOUR weeks????

Re Greece, stayed as a student and worked in a hotel/apartments and remember the toilets being cleared and gutted far more than locals. Please respect their lack of plumbing. Even the Greek royals use bins.

Julia I feel the same about Quavers.

When I stay at my Dad's house on my own I have to sleep in the child's single bed that is right next to the big comfy double bed in his spare room.

I'm only allowed in the double bed ( with the goose down duvet) when my husband stays too.

I / we only stay one night at a time and we are his only guests so it's not a bedding washing issue.

A friend of ours in renowned for ridiculous rules and twattery. My all time favourite being the time she bought a job lot of black kung fu/karate slippers which were placed in a basket behind a Japanese folding screen that appeared at the same time. So people not only had to remove their shoes, but then had put on karate shoes to wear around the house (she had covered all the bases size wize).

I think the impression was supposed to be zen and a bit mystic east, but she lives in a 3 bed semi circa 1940 and it was just utterly ridiculous.

She still offers the kung fu shoes, but you are allowed to decline in favour of socked feet nowadays.

Four weekly rubbish collections is a danger to public health! People will be building bonfires in the streets, rather than have a month's worth of rotting rubbish on the premises.

No flushing at night...because it makes the dog bark .