to think we need to knock the bacteria bothering on the head?

[OtraCosaMariposa]

So unless you've been living under a rock we all know that single use plastics are bad, too much air travel is bad and that we're killing the planet with "stuff".

Just as important is the fact that bacteria are becoming resistant and that we haven't the new antibiotics to fight them. I know a lot of this si down to misuse of antibiotics, people not finishing the course or keeping old medication and popping it when they feel off colour. But I also think a lot of it is down to the sheer range of "anti-bacterial" products on sale.

The latest advert which really gave me the rage was for an anti-bacterial carpet cleaner, think it was Vax, which droned on about did you know how much BACTERIA there is in your carpet accompanied by pictures of children playing on the floor. Just like the "ewww, bacteria on your washing!!" adverts.

Do we really need to nuke all bacteria out of existence? Or do we collectively not need to chill out a bit, stop the paranoia about germs/bacteria and go back to basic cleaning with soap and water??

Anti-bac is banned in this house.

One of the best things you can do to prevent or lessen allergies is live with animals and I speak as an allergy sufferer.

But I am going off thread. I agree op we are too clean now and the adverts are ridiculous. The worst one for me was the no touch soap dispenser. Just why???

I've just read the whole thread and found it very interesting.

I've suffered from OCD my whole life but wasn't diagnosed until 3 years ago. I'm 41.

Growing up I lived in a spotless home, my DM and DGM were both extremely clean and particular. My bedroom was immaculate etc and I thought that was how everyone lived until I started going to other people's homes.

When I left home I got worse. I used to ring in sick if the house felt really bad and clean from morning till midnight. When I had my ds ( now 16 ) I got worse again.

It was only after I had a traumatic life event 5 years ago that I sought help and everything came tumbling out. When I was diagnosed I was put on medication that was good for both anxiety and OCD tendencies.

Fast forward to now and I can't believe just how bad I was. I literally hoovered and mopped myself out of the door, was late for everything, couldn't hold a job down and spent every minute cleaning.

My home now is a more relaxing place to live. To me, it's filthy but everyone tells me otherwise. The things that are important to me are making the beds, doing the laundry, washing the dishes and keeping the bathroom and kitchen cleanish. I do however iron absolutely everything which I've tried to stop but can't.

One of the few things I've noticed since dropping the horrific routine I had is that none of us ( 2 adults 2 children ) have had vomiting/diarrhoea bugs and my MH has improved which baffles me as I often get stressed out over the house but in the grand scheme of things I'm much better than I used to be.
At my worst I would make excuses to not go out socially, would take cleaning products on holiday and was went through over 25 hoovers in 10 years.

My username being related to Zoflora is more about my love of smells really. I love the house to smell nice, even if it isn't spotless it gives the illusion that it is

@EdithWeston and others looking for a non-anti-bac spray for bathrooms / kitchens ...

Old spray bottle, 1/4 fill with washing-up liquid, 1/2 fill with white vinegar, 1/4 fill with water. Adjust water levels to make it more or less “bubbly”. i use it for everything - degreasing pans and trays, general surface cleaning, cleaning bathroom. Dead cheap too.

I'm immunosuppressed and don't anti bac clean everything. I have some spray I use when the cat has brought something nasty in but we have a septic tank anyway so regular cleaning products without bleach otherwise. I'm very rarely ill.

Surely soap and hot water kills bacteria

Just clean the bloody house. It's disgusting to make children live in dirt and dust and clutter and crap whilst claiming laziness is actually some half arsed attempt at doing them a favour.

I haven't seen anyone say that they let their children live in dirt and dust (no serious comment anyway), can you point out the posts please @MitziK.

I think it's about common sense. I clean my house every day but I don't use a lot of chemicals for lots of reasons - I don't want my kids growing up inhaling god knows what into their lungs, it's shit for the environment and it's completely unnecessary.

I'm going through chemo at the moment so I'm very careful, but that doesn't mean that anti-baccing and bleaching your home within an inch of its life is necessary. Cleaning properly with chemical-free products is much better for all of us.

Only on mn would people competitively under use bleach. Household bleach is not harmful to the environment. The most harmful thing about it is the plastic bottle it comes in.

I am as environmentally conscious as the next person. I don't use a billionty wipes, I am very conscious of single use plastic. I walk rather than drive when I can. I buy locally produced wherever I can. Do the 3 Rs, concentrating on reduce.

But I do bleach my loos a couple of times a week. Because household bleach isn't harmful to the environment. It's basically salt, 95-98% of it breaks down in the water. The rest is dealt with by sewage treatments. And the alternative to a light squirt of bleach is using something to scrub it with, some other kind of cleaning product and then potentially storing either a cloth full of shit particles or throwing that cloth away. Which is more damaging to the enviroment. Or using toilet paper or kitchen roll. Which is bleached when being made and industrial bleach is harmful to the environment.

I use a couple of bottles of bleach a month. 1 kitchen spray for surfaces, probably 2 washing up liquids. I use zoflora because I like the smell. Only in my mop bucket though.

My house is clean. My family healthy. No need to bleach everything or use antibac everywhere. But a squirt of bleach down the loo is probably more environmentally friendly than the alternative unless you want filthy bogs.

Only on mn would people competitively under use bleach

I’m not seeing that at all.

It’s rare to see what anyone else does because of how we were taught.

Neighbour bleached her front step every week, I never have. I regularly clean door handles, door frames and light switches to prevent illness. My friends don’t.

I wouldn’t know what most people do in a cleaning routine. Most houses look tidy and therefore look clean.

I think it’s actually an interesting topic.

@Frouby what are you on about, there are tons of people on this thread saying they use bleach where needed.

I love bleach.

I read somewhere that nobody was really bothered by BO until the Victorians discovered marketing of 'deodorant', whereupon everyone became so paranoid that they might smell, that they starting buying it in their thousands.

I think it's the same principle with cleaners. A company will have a think 'where do people not really clean, where can we get them paranoid?' 'How about books? Nobody washes their books - tell 'em books harbour germs and bacteria, develop some kind of 'book spray'!'

Next thing we know we are compulsively spraying every page of a book before we read it, because 'germs'...

The other thing is ‘specific’ sprays.

No longer is one bottle aimed at all jobs hon cleaner, surface spray, bath tubs, flooring, windows, soft furnishings, wood, metal, outdoors, drains, washing machine and dishwasher cleaner - yet a lot of sprays do the same job.

So yes it does drop into society.

Ok I know a wee bit about soap. Soap does not kill germs but it makes them wash off when you rinse. Germs do indeed live on soap but they have a very hard time transferring to hands because the soap makes them unable to adhere and so are washed away when you rinse. Soap is better than antibacterial hand gel at removing viruses too. I have gone back to using a very strong soap to clean my house with, yes it involves an extra step because you have to rinse, but everything is shiny after a clean with soap, and a wipe down after rinsing and then wiping with a microfiber cloth.

*I read somewhere that nobody was really bothered by BO until the Victorians discovered marketing of 'deodorant', whereupon everyone became so paranoid that they might smell, that they starting buying it in their thousands.

I think it's the same principle with cleaners. A company will have a think 'where do people not really clean, where can we get them paranoid?' 'How about books? Nobody washes their books - tell 'em books harbour germs and bacteria, develop some kind of 'book spray'!'

Next thing we know we are compulsively spraying every page of a book before we read it, because 'germs'...*

This is so so true!! Once you see everything is just marketing, you cannot unsee

But my wipes are so handy. I don’t care if they are antibacterial, they clean well and do a quick job. Oh and according to mumsnet, everything is bad for the environment. If you drive and have kids, please don’t lecture me

The sad thing is that the bacteria do not live with labels on their heads saying good, neutral or bad

The advertisers would be dead before they actually EXPLAINED that the antibac sprays kill ALL of them. I have always hated the majority of adverts, they lie most of the time. Obviously the manufacturers are the really guilty ones, but I reckon that a lot of the environmental degradation is down to consumers who believe every effing thing the adverts say.

Ok I know a wee bit about soap. Soap does not kill germs but it makes them wash off when you rinse.

I keep reading this but it isn't actually true. The surfactants in soap interupt bacterial membranes which kills the cell. Some bacteria can grow on soap but they are extremophiles which have evolved mechanisms to cope with it. The vast majority of microbes are killed by soap if the exposure is long enough.

Next thing we know we are compulsively spraying every page of a book before we read it, because 'germs'

Or we could just say no. Lots of us aren't adding anti-bac stuff to our washing or worried about germs on the carpet. Totally agree also that you don't need separate products for every purpose - what makes a "kitchen cleaner"so different from "bathroom cleaner"?

All those plastic bottles too, the poster upthread who is doing so much cleaning must have her recycling bin rammed with bottles each week.

I do actually know someone who won't read books, especially second hand ones because of germs

I do anti bac my wash, but only if it contains pooey things, sicky things, cleaning cloths, bibs or tea towels.

I'm interested to know how the very clean people clean their dry rooms, i.e bedrooms and living room. I just use polish and the hover.

I am addicted to my hoover, hoover daily sometimes more. But we have a black labrador!

I hoover all the time but I don't use anything 'antibacterial' ever.

I clean the bathroom once a week with a bit of spray and very hot water. I use eco loo cleaner for the lime-scale removal aspect

Solonely White vinegar is a very good more natural way to kill any smells . I sometimes put my smelly cloths in a large saucepan and boil with white vinegar and a little bicarb that really does the trick and saves using the machine at a very high temperature.

@sicktobloodydeath
Please please please stop using so many products if you have asthma. I can almost guarantee its making it worse. I became severely asthmatic in my third pregnancy and I cannot use scented cleaning products like zoflora anymore because they set my chest off. I've went from using bathroom sprays etc to hot water and soap, white vinegar and maybe a glug of bleach down the loo. The last time I tried to scrub the shower screen with shower cleaner I had my first asthma attack in ages. DH sanitises the bathroom with products if we've been ill and that's it, and even then I stay out of the way until the smell has cleared.
Don't put yourself at risk of dying from asthma. Seriously.