To ask how to wean DH off antibacterial wipes

[jamoncrumpets]

DH generally loads the dishwasher most nights and gives the kitchen a quick wipe around afterwards. I do the deeper cleaning, sink scrubbing etc as and when I can.

If he's away or busy or watching tv or whatever and I clean up I clear all the surfaces as much as I can, spray with Method and wipe over with warm damp microfibre cloth, which I then drape over mixer tap to dry. I wash the cloths about once every 3-4 days.

DH claims this is 'spreading dirt' and insists on single use antibacterial wipes being used. He will not do any cleaning at all unless it's with his beloved Flash wipes and makes disgusted faces at me using my Method spray and cloth.

I've tried explaining about the environmental aspects but he says that's not what's more important, what's more important is not 'spreading around the germs'.

He isn't OCD in any way whatsoever, if anything he's more careless with his personal hygiene than I am, and he doesn't pick up after himself. So don't suggest OCD.

How can I convince him that my method is better, from a financial and environmental standpoint?

Cloths should just be one use and then wash.

People seem so obsessed nowadays with 'bacteria' and spraying/wiping everything all the time. I wipe my surfaces once a day with washing up cloth. I bleach my sink, clean surfaces with diluted white vinegar and disinfect my kitchen bin once a week tops - often once a fortnight if out and about a lot.
Haven't had tummy upset/infection since 1991 (when my dcs were toddlers)

Must be doing something right!

I banned them in our house but my husband loved them. We did it as part of a move towards reducing our plastic waste etc.

I'd stop using the microfiber cloths as they disperse tiny bits of plastic in the wash and not hang any cloth over the tap. When I do this my husband mumbles about 'biofilm' and says it spreads to the tap. He works for a water company so I've stopped doing it but I haven't paid enough attention to know what he's actually complaining about. We have lots of cotton cloths and use one each day.

What you do is fine, no need to wash it every day unless you're wiping something up like raw chicken. I just use soapy water and the washing up sponge and then rinse it out. It's mostly dust/crumbs/tea spills that I'm wiping

I'd say once every three days is pretty good - my cloths go longer than that and we rarely have sickness bugs etc in our house. (We are meat-free though - so less germs to worry about, maybe?)

If you do decide to wash your cloths more regularly - i'd suggest investing in some non micro-fibre ones - they shed micro plastics every time they are washed so you'd be adding more harmful plastics to the environment which I'm assuming for your original post you're trying to avoid.

Oh! If it helps to wean him off the wipes - let DH know that those antibac wipes do pretty much nothing - the chemicals on them have to sit on the surface for 60-90 seconds to actually be effective, but as it's a cloth they're wiped away instantly. So your spray and cloth is likely to be more effective anyway.

I wipe round every night after we have cooked, bleach once a week.
Cloth can last for weeks until it starts to smell
Cant remember the last time anyone was sick

Put the cloth in the dishwasher.

I use a microfibre cloth and at the end of the night I stick it in a bowl of boiling water with a dash of zoflora. All cloths are then washed properly in the machine once a week.

I'd find out how much microplastic is likely to be in your microfibre cloths and leeched out each time they are washed/rinsed in the sink versus the plastic in the wipes you use. It's one of those things where I'm not sure that the environmental impact is really changed between the two choices. Would you be able to maybe wean him onto using kitchen paper towel and spray perhaps? (Again not sure that this is that kosher environmentally but you won't have the issue of plastics getting into the water table)

I like to soak my cloths in zoflora overnight smells amazing and is super clean. I always use a fresh cloth after cleaning up anything like raw chicken tho

I'm often accused of being a hygiene freak but I don't wash the kitchen cloth more than twice a week.

I'm vegetarian though, so no raw meat anywhere, and no children.

Am I really supposed to wash the cloth every day? I also have a tiny galley kitchen so the area that is being cleared with the cloth is about the size of an A2 sheet of paper.

I had no idea people washed their cloths every day. Once every 3 days sounds normal to me. Only exception is if I've been mopping up after raw meat or something, but we don't eat meat very often anyway.

I'd find out how much microplastic is likely to be in your microfibre cloths and leeched out each time they are washed/rinsed in the sink versus the plastic in the wipes you use

When did wiping down the sides become so complicated! When I was a kid it was just wiping with a damp dish cloth when washing up! That's all I do now. I have a dishwasher but there's usually a couple of bits that need hand washing, wine glasses and such like, and I just run the cloth round then and stick it in the wash. I only use a spray if I do a more "deep clean" where I take everything off the side etc.

Using one cloth a day would be better than disposables, and a compromise he might accept?

Have enough cloths for 1 a day and then you can wash them in one go with the other towels etc.

Buy more dishcloths. And definitely change them every day, if not more often. I've got about 20 of the things.

A cloth and hot soapy water is best anyway, that gets rid of most of the germs and washes them away down the drain. Then you can finish off with antibac spray if you want, to get the remaining few.

Disposable disinfectant wipes are better, quite frankly. I wouldn't be without them. I also have some disinfected 'scrubby' cloths/wipes which are textured, they're excellent for some things but the ordinary wipes are OK if only a wipe is needed. Both go in the rubbish bin, I don't usually flush them away.

When it comes to the environment, it's often said that putting on the washing machine frequently is environmentally unfriendly. You can't win.

I'm with your husband on this though. Nice to have a bloke that's so aware and interested! Mine couldn't care less, I'll have to give him a kick :-).

@Asta19 - you don't get to be a grown up in 2019 without worrying about these things, don't you know that?! It's no different to the cloth versus reusable nappy debate, especially now we have microplastics and other detergent nasties to worry about getting into the oceans. We'll drive ourselves made and potentially make absolutely no difference whatsoever. The earth will right itself eventually, it looks like it has before with things like the ice age, why not again? I'm not suggesting humans will survive but I'm sure something will.

You can put your cloths in the dishwasher... just putting that out there!

I use dishcloths and change them usually more than once a day. Tea towels get changed daily. I don't use a lot of anti-bacterial stuff, but I do a go over the worktops with hot water and fairy liquid every day, then once a week with zoflora or similar.
Bathroom cloths are separate from kitchen cloths. I wouldn't use sponges or anything like that in bathroom or kitchen.

I don't usually flush them away.

@Rachelover40 you should never flush them!!!!

Don't know how most of the pps on here would have managed when I was growing up.

No such thing as antibacterial wipes and no washing machine.

It's a wonder any of us survived long enough to grow up to have DCs of our own.

My exh's family lived in grinding poverty in the East End of London, children all born before WW2. Believe me, the last thing they thought about was making sure wiping cloths were washed every day.

Exh is 82, his DB is 91 and they are both never ill and seem to have most amazing resistance to germs. Their DM lived to be 102.

What do you think is going to happen to you if you wash these cloth every three days rather than every day?

And yes, go on using all the sprays and antibacterial wipes you can, it's not like they're bad for the environment or anything.

I use method spray and I have a basket with dishcloths in. I only use the dishcloths once. They they go on a bucket and get stuck in the next wash; it doesn't add any washing loads to the week. I also use bamboo kitchen towel which also goes in the bucket after one use and gets chucked in with the next wash. So no kitchen towel or wipes are used and binned, but it's still hygienic because we don't reuse once dirty.

I use recycled kitchen roll and eco friendly spray. Wipes are dreadful as they take so long to break down.
I don’t like the idea of dish cloths being used over again
.
Compromise with kitchen roll and spray.

Blimey, had no idea that people changed their cloths so often.
I milton mine occasionally when I remember.
We're all still alive.

Washing cloths every day?!

How filthy do worktops need to be to warrant that?