To ask for another annoying things about other peoples homes thread?

[balihai550]

This one two years ago made my christmas... can we have another? 🎄 🙏

@Vermeil

Bad lighting. I’ll often walk past people houses in the early evening and they’re all sat watching TV under the glare of a 100w bulb in a ceiling light fitting, giving the room the relaxing nighttime vibe you’d expect in an operating theatre.

Oddly I have friends who did this too, bright over head lights. No table lamps, ceiling lights on all evening till bed time

Then they split Up, bought new houses each and now both have soft side lighting in their living rooms. Literally it was the first thing both did. Yet for twenty years they both lived without

House that smell like wet, damp animals
Animals climbing on top of kitchen work tops
Pet food in bowls on kitchen worktops
Dirty windows
No blinds
Dirty tea towels
Dirty, damp hand towels
Dirty bath
A very old fashioned and broken kitchen and bathroom (despite being loaded)

I'm looking at you PILs 👀

@Magicbabywaves are you me! Could have written that post almost word for word

Carpet tiles in a kitchen. My parents had dark brown huega coarse haired tiles in their kitchen. They moved and took the tiles with them.

They’d hoover them occasionally - but wash them? ( they were washable)

The icing on the cake. My parents owned a couple of student houses. One lodger replaced the carpet in the kitchen with lino, claiming the carpet was unhygienic. My Dad was a bit miffed at this - but stuck to his guns - and carpet.

Ugh - those hairy tiles! They were a staple of student houses - really nice and sticky...

I remember visiting a friend in Birmingham and actually sleeping in my shoes the floor was so gungy. Ah, happy days when students competed for who had the worst house...

Knick knacks that cover ever surface so that there isn't even room to put down a mug of tea so you have to hold it until it's drunk.

Overhead lights that are so bright they hurt your eyes - I think some folk have stocked up on those 100W bulbs you can't buy in shops anymore.

Aggressive dogs - especially the one that shredded my newly knitted hat made from hand spun, hand dyed yarn. It's owners didn't bat an eyelid and made no attempt to retrieve the hat from the dog in case it bit them.

Wooden floors with no rugs. They are just so stark and bare (especially with previously mentioned bright lights)

No towels in the bathroom so you have to dry your hands on your clothes. I assume those people never wash their hands after using the loo.

People who never put the heating/fire on regardless of how cold it is (MIL I'm looking at you, she tucks a blanket around knees but the rest of us sit and freeze).

People who have toilets that are "temperamental" so flushing is a knack. Well me and other visitors don't have the knack and it's just embarrassing to have to flush it 3 times before whatever's down there is flushed away. Just get it fixed ffs.

And definitely houses with no books - I'm very judgmental about your inner lives .

Chipped China.

I get it, you have favourite mugs and all that but keep a couple of naice unchipped ones for guests 😬

Ex MIL always used to buy crap loo roll that was so bad it’d disintegrate on your muff you’d have to spend a good five minutes removing or spend the rest of the visit itching like crazy.

Bar soap. I like bar soap. Use it myself over plastic bottles of liquid so but please please leave liquid hand wash for guests not a bar of soap with pubes and hair in it🤮

Nowhere to hang coats

No heating on

No offer of a drink on arrival

Blinds and curtains shut all day, lamps only at night

Clutter. Everywhere.

No books

Not being allowed to use downstairs loo and having to use the family bathroom which has not been tidied or cleaned for guests.

People standing in their doorway to greet you or say goodbye but blocking the doorway in the process.

This thread has reminded me how i hate staying over at other people's houses!

The no bathroom bin is a mortifying one if you are a teenager on a period. I remember not knowing what to do with used sanpro. This was in the days before mooncups.

My parents used to have the house very cold and mostly heat one room with a fire meaning bedrooms were bloody freezing. 2 hot water bottles were my friend!

We have no lock on our main bathroom here which I must get round to fixing!

Kitchen that's so dirty all you dare to eat for breakfast is a crossiant straight from the packet to your hand to your mouth, touching no other plates or surfaces 🤢

Houses where the heating comes on in the night. I know if anyone has left the heating on as I wake up feeling dreadful, sick and headache. However, I hate being cold in the day so I always go well layered to certain houses.

Shoes off, I can't stand it, especially when host nervously hovers whilst you take them off.

Houses that are e too cold, when hosts are rich but are too mean to keep the heating on for visitors.

Hosts that nervously hover over you as though you will break something.

Houses where you don't feel comfortable to sit and relax.

Houses with rooms you are not allowed to enter with furniture you are not allowed to sit on.

Hosts who never have music on to create a pleasant background noise, but who also don't make much conversation so its just flat and quiet and everyone can hear everyone chewing.

Mentioned by many others but high heating is the worst - at least when it’s cold you can wrap up warm but I sometimes feel quite ill at friends houses when the heating is on.
People not putting lamps on in the evening - I feel like I’m in an interrogation room and it’s really hard to relax. My parents are the worst for this 🙄
Rickety furniture - an odd one but I’m not the most dainty of ladies and I spend the whole time perching on spindly chairs terrified I’m going to break them! See also: cheap beds with the bloody wooden slats under them. Never broken one in my life but I live in fear every time I sleep in one!

Leat marmite

😂😂😂 The temperamental loo is a classic 🤣🤣.

Also agree with stark awful hideous lighting!!

I just feel so uncomfortable in houses with bright lights, shoes off, no heating, no music and no conversation.

Lakie, agree with awful wine glasses or teeny tea cups that don't satisfy your thirsts and it's an utter faff to make more of. So you dare not ask.

Pils gave us such awful thick plastic glasses you couldn't get your lips over the side, I had to take my own and my own booze the last time we were there.

Stingy hosts who talk about money all the time and make sure you are aware your not getting the best by any means.

@Chickenwing

Im confused about the people with no toilet bin... where do you put the cardboard bit of the toilet roll? Or empty shampoo/conditioner? Face wipes, sanity products, cotton pads????

I dislike when people make me take my shoes off. Or if there's nowhere to sit.

In the recycling of course. You take it downstairs when you leave the bathroom.

No knowledge of food safety or hygiene:

Food left on hob and reheated multiple times
Opened perishables being kept in cupboards

Manky, stinky "cleaning" cloth being kept wet in sink and used for everything

and most annoyingly of all (although not food related) button batteries and sharp knives in reach of DS when I was assured they had baby proofed and I would "be able to relax"

@fishykettels

Can I recommend an electric blanket then? They cost pennies to run, can be set to timers and are bliss in cold houses.

I've clearly been making a faux pas with the shoes off thing. I just assumed everyone takes their shoes off to go in the house? How do you stop your carpets getting muddy and stained?

[quote olderthanyouthink]@jambeforeclottedcream we have spotlights everywhere and half don't work, the ones that are here are halogens and if we made them all work the electricity bill would shoot up and to replace with LEDs would cost an arm and leg so they say like it. (We rent, reluctant to shell out replacing light fixtures if we're not going to be here long term) [/quote]
The house I'm thinking of is owned by the owners and in the open plan downstairs of a possible 45 spot lights 5 are working. With no side lights etc. So on a dark winters night it gets very dingy as it's NE facing

Downstairs loo with no sink in it.. only sink available being the one in the kitchen with the dishes in (and seeing people go in there, come out, and sit back down again, having obviously not washed their hands).
I know my friend hates that my kitchen bin is opened by hand rather than touch free though (I do have a pedal bin in my bathroom - and put out clean hand towels for guests - if that redeems me at all).

Placemarking to read tomorrow ...

@carlaCox

I've clearly been making a faux pas with the shoes off thing. I just assumed everyone takes their shoes off to go in the house? How do you stop your carpets getting muddy and stained?

You don't have carpets. You have exposed floorboards/tiles/rugs. I have no carpets, and everyone keeps their shoes on!

The reason I have no bathroom bin is because it’s left to me to empty it.

Take your own rubbish and put it in the bin downstairs

Why are no books an issue?
It’s not like you’re going to read them whilst visiting