To reuse my teacup?

[RatRolyPoly]

To be fair I probably take it too far at home, as I happily reuse the same mug for tea until it's almost unrecognisable! But in the office every single person uses a fresh mug for every cup of tea. We have the dishwasher going daily and we're only a small office!

I'm really thinking these days about wasted water and reducing unnecessary energy usage, but would I be a total scrubber to mention that maybe I could use the same mug each time? Could I even go so far as to suggest maybe others might like to do the same?

Is this gross?? Or just eminently sensible in this day and age?

I suppose it's different at work (everyone's trying to be perfect) but at home I use the same teacup all day, washing and changing it each morning - beforehand if it gets too manky. Dare I say - it hasn't killed me yet. Dishwashers have to be the most wasteful machines on earth.

To my mind, it despends what you're drinking out of it.

At home, I have soya milk in my tea (and sometimes cream in my coffee). I'll drink a morning coffee out of the cup I had tea in a couple of hours earlier, but otherwise it's a new mug each time.

At work I have green tea or black coffee. As there's nothing fatty or residue-y going in, I just put a new load of boiling water in for the next derink without rinsing. The mug gets a rinse first thing each morning, soapy wash on occasion (particularly if I've come back from leave to discover a new furry desk companion from what I didn't wash out before I left).

Up until a couple a few years ago I used to use a fresh cup with every brew,then as my 5 kids got older and started drinking tea regularly themselves the amount of dirty cups mounting up was getting ridiculous,so now it's one cup each per day,no rinsing required.

No I never reuse mine. I always wash them with hot soapy water between drinks.

Rinse and reuse!

I just wash it in hot water, dry and reuse .
The last place I worked there was no hot water to wash your cup I used to boil kettle for hot water or sometimes take home . We used to have to take turns to brew up for the MD , no one ever washed his cup and he didn't wash his own cup ( obviously too important for menial tasks ) so cup was grim after a while

I reuse my teacup for one day. Do uses anew cup for his coffee every time. When he works from home there will be 10 cups left about the place. And every time he makes me a tea he gets a new cup out. By mid afternoon we’ve run out of cups and there’s only 2 of us and we have 14 cups!

I would reuse a cup for maybe 2 or 3 cuppas, or maybe an afternoon.

Multiple days though

With all your old saliva around the rim, with all your mouth bacteria and old food in it from said saliva. Whatabout after your teeth have been brushed - then introducing old bacteria and rotting food germs into your mouth by using same cup on another day.

Not to mention what’s on the handle from hands.

Dishwashers have to be the most wasteful machines on earth

They’re actually more efficient than washing by hand.

One cup per day for me. At my parents house my dad tidies up steals my mug and puts it in the dishwasher and it drives me potty. I make friends with a mug for the day and don't want to keep switching

Not sure I can make myself care. Just as long as I don't find them festering unwashed in the workplace sink for hours.

Tigger, i originally offered as i was washing mine, but i only did it twice. He's gross in more than one way.

I’m in the same club of use-the-same-mug-all-day, but I do rinse it out in between. I can’t see the problem - you’re using boiling water to make the tea! Also, I’ve got some favourite mugs which are just the right size and heft, so if I only used them once and then put them in the dishwasher, my next cuppa would be out of an inferior mug, IYSWIM, and I can’t risk that!

Admittedly, my mugs do get a bit tannin stained eventually and even the dishwasher won’t get that out, but I just swoosh a bit of baking soda in any that are really shameful and it brings them up squeaky clean

I scrub my cups with a metal scourer.

Drinking out of a stained cup is rank.

it's called a deployment mug in the Navy you never wash them creates a good tannin base. Storms and the like breaking them is the only time to change your cup. 9 months is my longest damn new guy washed all the mess cups waiting for us to have a stand-easy

Boiling water kills bugs and tannins are good for you.

look it up --

Tannins in tea are responsible for the antioxidant activities of black and other dark teas. They have both positive and negative effects on the body. The positive health benefits of tannin come from its anti- carcinogenic and anti-mutagenic properties, mostly due to its anti-oxidising nature.

Tannins also remove harmful microbes from the body, and fight against harmful bacteria, viruses and fungi. By speeding up blood clotting, tannins also have a healing effect on cuts and wounds. Other beneficial properties of tannins include stabilizing blood pressure.

Unfortunately the individual mugs are out as the company only allows company branded mugs on the premises. Seriously

Say what?

Are you on a showroom floor? That’s the only time I’d go along with that nonsense and even then I’d be mighty pissed off about it. I’m FUSSY about my mug.

I’ll happily reuse my mug until some dishes are being done, quite often that’s could be all day, if I’m drinking hot water or very weak tea (no milk), with just the previous dregs tipped away before refilling. If I had milk in it I’d give it a rinse. But when I’m mainlining lattes I’ll have a fresh mug (or wash it properly) each time because the foamy milk sticks like glue to the mug and that would be properly minging to reuse it.

In your work situation though I would just stick to the dishwasher (on scalding) after each drink system, because the idea of drinking from a mug that’s only been rinsed since Boris The Bog has used it makes me feel ill.

Shudder.

My office has about 16 people in and we only put the dishwasher on once - at the end of the day. Peeps either use the same mug or run a bowl of washing up water for a quick rinse before the afternoon tea round. YANBU

Most of us have private cups and when we do tea rounds we wash them or rinse at least.

At the end of the day we normally wash them by hand and store them in our lockers or by the desks. Some put them in the dishwasher which runs in the evening,

At home I do the same unless we have visitors.

I'd only reuse my cup if I was making another cup of tea within an hour or so.

I reuse but rinse each time. Then wash properly at the end of the day.

I see I'm very much in the minority but I prefer a clean mug.

DH reuses a mug until it looks like somebody has taken a shit inside it with all sticky gross brown spitty dribbles all over the outside. It absolutely bloody stinks.

I have occasionally made a second cup in a rinsed out mug but I can taste the taint of old sour milk and it doesn't brew properly in my experience.

Yuck, I have very milky tea so milky residue is left in the cup, I wouldn't drink milk that I left in the bench for hours and I am sure not going to drink the dregs of my milky cup hours later just to save a little water.

If you have black tea that's a bit different but days of use, that still seems pretty gross to me and I am by no means a clean freak.

When I was an office junior I put all the mugs in the dishwasher at the end of the day. People brought their own and if they wanted it clean each time, they would have to clean it themselves. Just stop washing the mugs, the staff will learn quickly.

I've don't think I've ever washed my tea mug and I've had it for several years. I'm not worried about germs and no one else uses it. Well, they wouldn't want to, would they?

I reuse my mug all day but rinse it out inbetween and wash it properly at night.