To not wipe worktops every day?

[fascinated]

Just that, really.

Prompted by the d&v thread. Obviously if I’ve cut meat or esp chicken on them they get wiped with washing up liquid, but I don’t shine em, bleach em, or antibac them ever. They get a rub down with regular washing up liquid when they look dirty. Can be days! Minger?

How often do you wipe them?

Every single day. I use a bit of washing up liquid and an ecocloth which does the job.

I wipe as I go so some surfaces get wiped several times a day, others maybe only a couple of times a week. Depends what I'm cooking really.

Never used anti-bacterial wipes in my life and we're all in good health so I don't think they're necessary. Damp cloth for most things, drop of Fairy if there's been raw meat in the vicinity.

I wipe down after I finish cooking/washing/eating before leaving for work and before going to bed.

No anti-bac. It's a menace. Soap and hot water for chopping boards, of which I have several, all wood. they air-dried. Scrubbing brush goes in the dishwasher.

Wipe cloth, scrubby green thing and tea-towel changed daily, the latter sometimes twice.

Ours gets wiped down before or after meal prep and/or at the end of the day. I'm really trying to cut back on chemicals, do have stocked up on microfibre cloths and use those damp in the kitchen to wipe down. Food is never prepared directly on worktop.

Antibacterial spray does not create resistance in bacteria.
The resistance is towards antibiotics that specific bacteria have been exposed to. Resistance is antibiotic specific.

I’m sure a chemist will be along soon but surfactants are partially broken down in air and residual amount goes into sewage sludge and is further broken down. They have very little impact on the soil and biodiversity. Surfactants are chemically quite close to soap.

Things like Milton are not particularly environmentally damaging. They don’t create resistance.

I seem to be always wiping my work surfaces. I do cook a lot though. Granite work sufaces are wiped down with hot soapy water several times daily, the chopping boards with a bleach spray.
I did see a professor of microbiology or some such thing on the tv a few years ago who said that the only thing you should wipe down surfaces with was diluted bleach. Whenever I use it I end up with more on my clothes though!

think of the spills or even touching chicken and putting your hand on the counter not thinking about it.

But if we have never got ill, so what? I don't really care about a couple of crumbs or spills, for me it's not worth wasting the time to be wiping it daily, I'd rather do a bigger wipe-around a couple of times a week. What benefit would I gain from wiping daily/after every meal, and washing the bloody cloth too (currently I've wiped with the same blue cloth for about 6 months). I have better things to do. No wonder everyone here claims to have no free time, if they are cleaning their kitchen and toilet 3 times a day, doing several loads of washing a day and hoovering. I don't know anyone IRL who does these things that much. Not a single person.

The house looks nice, and neither of us have had so much as a cold for years, let alone the shits. The last time I got sick from food was when I was a child. All this antibac and excessive cleaning is completely ridiculous and unhealthy.

For all those faux-shocked - people live differently, it works for them, it's not harming you, get over it.

I clean mine most evenings after Supper ,and if I have prepared any raw meat etc .Even using a chopping board germs can travel widely!

I wish I was one of these people who can use a chopping board without spilling bits over the edge.

But I'm not, so a quick wipe it is.

(plus how do you manage not to spill flour when kneading dough, or rolling out pastry or pasta?)

We have a number of glass worktop protectors and then always us a chopping board when preparing food. I use an anti-bac spray to wipe down exposed worktop and worktop protectors - on a weekday it's usually after our evening meal as we eat lunch at work/school and are always rushing after breakfast. On a weekend more often, usually every time I've prepared a meal.

I wipe before I prepare food and after I’ve prepared food, every meal. We have cats though - they’re not supposed to go up on the worktops but I expect they do when our backs are turned.

Some serious batshit craziness on here. If a dirty oven could cause sepsis my entire family would have been wiped out!

Antibacterial spray does not create resistance in bacteria.
Curious that so many researchers disagree with you, to the point that the FDA in the US has banned triclosan in cleaning products and evidence has been found to link it with AMR in a number of studies, as well as featuring in the UK AMR strategy.

On the environment - it’s a mixed picture. Impact would be much lower if there were never any releases of untreated wastewater. But even then the interactions of different cleaning products and buildup over time have created a pretty mixed picture on impacts.

Totally ignoring the fact that most of these products are entirely pointless compared to cheaper alternatives that don’t carry these risks to the same degree...

I wipe down my surfaces regularly and keep them pretty clean. But not with antibac bullshit. It’s not worth the risks, for absolutely zero benefit apart from feeling ‘cleaner’ because companies’ marketing has conditioned me to feel that ‘ordinarily, safely clean’ is dirty.

And we have d&v very rarely too.

Twice a day. Never get d&v. None of us do. Although to look at, my house is a raging mess because of too much stuff.

I use method, is that antibacterial?

JassyRadlett I stand corrected. Triclosan has shown limited but likely impact on some bacterial resistance. I should have been specific about surfactants, I think.

Is it that bad to be using chemicals ? I clean my toilet with Harpic toilet cleaner about 3 times a day because I love the smell of it I go through around 5 bottles a week

So 5 plastic bottles going to landfill every week because you love the smell of Harpic?

ArnoldWhatshisknickers I’ve had this talk with my BF and she is more of a chicken nuggets and oven chips on a tray person, so her worktops never get dirty anyway. She wouldn’t do a chicken or roast beef. I use a lot of tinned tomatoes in my meals, they splash, I chop a lot of veg, if I’m doing a pasta bake or something, that involves using a pan and utensils and and an oven dish that gets dirty or splashes etc where as friend only has the tray to clean, I add flour to sauces and it spills, or making a roux etc so I think it’s all about how you use the kitchen. Sounds like you are like me, I have to wipe a lot because I use it a lot iyswim.

We don’t get D&V very much at all, once every 4/5 years maybe? I had it very often growing up though, my mums kitchen was a hot bed of disease 😂 she doesn’t even refrigerate milk.

Five bottles of Harpic a week? Is this another wind-up?

I wipe down the surfaces every morning as the kettle boils for my morning coffee and again before I cook anything but I have cats who don’t listen when I tell them not to get on the kitchen work tops.
I don’t use anti bac or anything fancy just a simple spray I make up using stardrops.

I clean two toilets everyday but still don’t use a full bottle of harper a week. Do you need to put breathing apparatus on to enter your loo?

Apparently the average toilet seat is cleaner than the average phone! Do the avid toilet cleaners clean their phones as often?

IamPickleRick, that makes sense. I suppose I was thinking of how I cook and wondering how not to make a mess, but you're right, not everyone uses kitchens in the same way. And not everyone's as clumsy as me

metro.co.uk/2018/08/20/smartphone-screens-are-three-times-dirtier-than-a-toilet-seat-research-finds-7859389/