Putting cups back into cupboard upside down

[Duggeeismysaviour]

When they stay at ours (live abroad) , my in laws insist on putting cups and mugs back in the cupboard upside down, despite everything else in there being upright.

When I help out in any friend or relatives house, I go with the system they have.

Every time I open the cupboard and see one or two lone cups upside down, I have to quell the rage. It's like a passive aggressive "our way is the right way". Trust me, it's deliberate as they are extremely organised tidy people, who don't do things unthinkingly, like throwing a few cups into the cupboard.

This is sort of light hearted! And I know, many people will be along shortly to point out that I should be grateful for the help I get, and I truly am. But I cannot get past it, and I think it's because of the way they are and their personalities, which are quite unintentionally domineering. I honestly start to feel a little like a child in my own home when they are here. This, without further long explanation regarding their personalities, is perhaps why it gets to me so much.

Would this bother anyone else? How can I let it go before I snap in a pregnant hormonal rage?!!!

Here's an expert on the subject:

*Carolyn Forte, director of the Cleaning Lab in the Good Housekeeping Institute offers a compelling final word on the issue, especially concerning your pricier, fragile glasses. "The rim is the most delicate part of the glass, so it's best to store delicate crystal with the rim up, so there's less weight on it," she says. "All other everyday glasses are fine either way. Storing them upside-down likely does keep the inside a bit cleaner, but if you use and wash them regularly, dust won't really accumulate. And if you dry the inside well, moisture won't get trapped. I've never seen mildew on glasses."

Depends on how clean your cupboards are though!

Upside down? Savages!
What have you married into OP?

I do like the idea of ignoring it to annoy them though. Try it. It may restore your serenity to know how frustrated they are getting that you simply won't rise to it.

I didn’t know anyone put them upside down. Seems weird to me and I agree OP it’s bloody minded of your in-laws to keep doing it when they know you don’t. It’s your sodding house!

i would store them upside down if for some strange reason they were exposed to the elements(dust) on a shelf or something.. but in a cupboard they go right way up. i realise this wasn't your question. yes they ABU.

Stops spiders making a home on the cup.
Stops dust getting in
Means you can stack another cup on top
As long as you cupboard is clean there is nothing unhygienic about it.
Your mil is right and you are wrong
Sorry
PS, your mil does your washing up? So lucky

Upside down on shelf so as not to get dusty. Right way up in a cupboard!

tympanic toilet rolls should be facing outwards of course. So it rolls towards you and not against the wall.

Hilarious post! I was told to put upright as bacteria gets trapped in them if they are upside down. Not sure off this is true especially now people use a dishwasher to clean chips rather than use luke warm dishwasher that hands around on the side for ages.

@Duggeeismysaviour

By upside down I assume you mean with the open end down. It does mean that the bit you drink from can be contaminated by any dirt on the shelf. Not that there would be anything if - like most - you take all the mugs out every day and wipe the shelf with bactericide!

Why not put some hooks in your cupboard so that they have to be hung? That way they're getting aired and PIL have no choice but to store them that way.

Mug trees might be all well and good, but I've got an entire large cupboard shelf groaning with mugs, and none of them can be got rid of because they're all special in different ways. So I'd need a small mug forest rather than a tree and I haven't the spare worktop space.

So, those that stack cups upside down, which way do you stack your plates? Surely they must also be stacked upside for the same reasons?

Sideways, on a rack in the cupboard. So my dishes are stored in every direction they can

My dm kept her cups on hooks in her cupboard - we helped by washing up/drying & putting the tea things away. As there were no cups in the cupboard I put them in facing right - dm got grouchy & turned them the other way, muttering about how no one ever did anything right - if she had said thank you but could you turn them that way round it wouldn't have grated but that was exactly the way she always acted - it used to drive me nuts (& I never said anything - trying to keep the peace) .

mug forest speaking as a confirmed tea drinker (teaholic)

I store my mugs the right way up for a number of scientifically unproven reasons. I feel mugs need a bit of airing. Stacking upside down would prevent airflow. Upside down means the rim, where I put my mouth, is touching the base of the cupboard. A bit of dust is far less of a problem than the mank of my cupboards. I feel like I have to wash a mug that has been stored upside down before using it.

My MIL sets the table with the knives facing the wrong way. It's just weird and (completely unreasonably) irritates the hell out of me. I have to re-set any table she's done although she has a tendency to switch them back again given the chance. Maybe we are just as passive aggressive as one another.

I totally get where you're coming from!! When i worked full time, my MIL used to pop in and do some cleaning for me (which we paid her for). She used to rearrange things in the cupboard or do things differently to me which used to drive me INSANE!!!

As for willy wangling spiders, i use the same 4/5 mugs on rotation so they dont get a sniff at my mugs thank-you-very-much

SittingAround1 tympanic toilet rolls should be facing outwards of course. So it rolls towards you and not against the wall.

Correct.

Upside down cups stop spiders hiding in them!

Next time they come put them all laying sideways in the cupboard.

While the debate about cup orientation is amusing, it doesn’t seem to have answered the OP’s actual concern. And that is her in-laws PA actions. Probably need more background, OP. Do they regularly stomp on boundaries?

I always find it very strange when people who are guests in my home tell me I’m “doing it wrong”. If you can’t do things as you want in your own home where can you? I’d never, not in a million years, be so rude as to mess with a host’s way of doing things in their own home!

Yet my in-laws are the same. Totally disrespectful. My MIL, for example, loves to criticise my “poor housewife skills” (no mention of my husband and his part in cleaning of course) and tell my husband to advise me on how to clean properly. This from a hoarder who smokes like a chimney in her filthy, animal-filled house who leaves dirty socks and underwear strewn about common areas. Totally feral. Yet it never occurred to me to say anything.