To wonder why some MNetters need their bed to be sterile.

[Lookingforbargains]

Inspired by another thread (and by the general madness that is part and parcel of anything cleanliness-related on MN)…

Why are some people so determined that no (shudder) outdoor germs/nastiness gets anywhere near their bed? I mean, I can understand a basic level of care - not putting your outdoor shoes on the duvet, or your handbag on your pillow - but some people seemingly have to put on a full hazmat suit before sitting on the end of their own bed.

Now I understand wanting to keep it fresh, but why the fear of supposed germs that MNetters seem to think will be transferred to the bed? Why are these germs not scary on the sofa? Do people lick their beds, or perhaps want to keep open the option of performing surgery therein?

It’s pretty clear from other threads that it is mumsnet law to shower in the morning, so how much can it really matter if your bed isn’t totally sterile?!

I sit on the bed to get undressed,you'd faint in my house!

This is an extension of the going down to breakfast in a hotel in your nightwear thread presumably?
I do like a clean bed. I wouldn't lie/sit on it in my outdoor clothes and regularly wash the bedding including duvet. It's not weird to want a clean bed is it? I shower morning and before bed.

I assume there's a good reason you aren't allowed to sit on a hospital bed when visiting. They want you on that wipe clean chair.

Got leather sofas so not really comparable.

My husband sleeps in the nude and I think that's much less hygienic than sitting on the bed in outside clothes 😂 in fact I have been known to nap on top of the duvet in an outside tshirt, and the dog is up there for an occasional cuddle. But our sheets get washed once a week, without fail.

My mental health can play havoc on this kind of stuff - bus seats are the reason I ride my bike everywhere, unless it's towns away.

Me too. And I wear my pyjamas without knickers underneath and don't change them daily!

Nrtft so not sure it's been covered, but someone was going mad a couple of weeks ago because their husband had lay on the bed in his outdoor clothes.

I am peri and the first thing I do when I get in from anywhere because I am hot and sweaty, is go and have a 5 minute lie down on my bed with the fan on. In my outdoor clothes.

I must be a slattern

Oh and the dog sleeps on our bed, but she doesn't shed.

Shoes on the bed, outdoor clothes, shower every other day in the morning, bed changed every two weeks. DH cannot walk with out shoes so we never worry. We don’t seem to get any germs from the bed.

Some people really seem to validate themselves by pointless cleanliness, and possibly think it makes them morally superior if they wash their towels every time they are used, and dust and mop the same surfaces several times a day. See also the thread on competitive window-opening. I do wonder how they reconcile their feeling of superiority with the fact that they are trashing the planet with overuse of chemicals and power consumption.

That's interesting. I'm sat on my sofa, in my work uniform. I work for the Tube . It has never occurred to me to take it off before parking my rear. (I was my hands hourly at work btw) (my immune system is unbelievable)

What's with this 'outdoor clothes' stuff?

Surely all clothes are indoor/outdoor? What are you doing outdoors that makes you want to burn your clothes as soon as you get in the house?

Mental. But then, my dog sleeps on my bed and I don't care. I love him.

Yes. I don't know what outdoor clothes are either. Mind you we have 3 dogs and 2 cats who wander the house freely so most people on this site would probably faint at all those germs.

At uni (agricultural) we would sleep in jodhpurs so we didn't have to get up as early the next morning
Grew up with horses and despite being immunocompromised I have a stomach of steel
Cat sleeps on the bed, I wouldn't put shoes on the bed but not bothered about outdoor clothes. Change the bedding twice a week

This is going off on a tangent but I'm currently training my baby to sleep in his nursery and I've put his blanket from his moses basket into his new cot to acclimate him (via the smell etc).

I didn't wash the blanket before transferring it because that would defeat the purpose. And that makes me wonder about whether comfort/familiarity gets lost in this obsessive washing of bed linen.

We clean ours once a week and I love fresh bedding, but I also love the smell of 'my' bed if that makes sense.

I assumed it meant while wearing your jacket/coat but now I've reread and it seems you are meant to change all your clothes once you get inside. Bonkers!

You have forgotten the competitive fresh air contest of who opens their windows the widest and for the longest, bonus points if all your doors are open all day as well.

When I was young lots of people had indoor/outdoor clothes.
I went to school in uniform-type clothes and changed into playing clothes when I got home. Old sometimes stained clothes. We had smarter clothes for going out somewhere such as to my grandparents, but these were not worn inside our own home.

My farming family had indoor and working clothes. The women wore old clothes with an apron as they cooked and cleaned and took the apron off to help outside on the farm. The men had old holy jumpers and trousers. But they all changed if going outside the house or farm, even to go to the local shop.

My grandmother who was retired and lived in a flat in a city did the same.

It was because clothes were expensive so old holy or stained clothes were worn inside the house, and you changed into decent stuff to go out. It was once normal for many people. Not well off people I assume though. Even middle class housewives who had access to more money would buy cheap house dresses to wear in the house and more expensive dresses to wear outside.

I take it you wash your hair before bed every evening then

Describing London in that way just reveals an OCD mindset. Where the outside is somewhere disgusting plastered with disgusting substances. It is not a healthy way to think.

MN rules of hygiene: Upon entering the house you should immediately strip off all clothing and put it into the washing machine. Then put on a fresh set of indoor clothes (also laundered daily). After that, you can get on with the daily hoovering, mopping, bleaching. Make sure to take your indoor clothes off before you have your pre-bed shower and put them straight into the washing machine. Do not enter your bedroom until you have thoroughly de-contaminated yourself. Put the towels immediately into the wash too, then put on a clean pair of knickers and fresh pyjamas over the top. Only then may you enter the sanctity of your clean sheets.

In the morning, strip off all the bedding and put in the wash with your now-sullied pyjamas before taking your morning shower to rinse off the grime of the night. Towels straight into the wash after of course. Put on a fresh set of outdoor clothes and off you go! Hopefully you have at least two washing machines so you can cope with the amount of laundry.

Oh dear, I've got under the duvet, many times, in the clothes I've worn outside. It has happened when I've been ill, but mainly when I've been drunk.

My dog also is allowed on our bed.

We haven't died yet.

I'm 'guilty' of many of these bed rules...but I don't have an expectation it's sterile. In fact, as far as things go I'm pretty anti-sterile in life.

But a clean, fresh bed is important (to me) and it makes me wince when I see people place handbags and suitcases on beds. I couldn't sit by and watch someone put shoes on the bed!

Sitting on top of a made bed with clothes on is fine in my book- I don't tend to go round sitting on very grubby things. But only on top, not in. And I wouldn't do this if I'd been commuting in the city but then I shower city grime off as soon as I get home anyway.

I usually shower before bed and first thing in the morning. It helps me wind down to sleep and wake up in the morning, and I like feeling clean and fresh in bed. It's restful.

As far as sex goes..well bedding is changed weekly but never heard of a sex towel. Sounds depressing.

Cat was allowed on the bed always.

I like my bed to be clean and fresh. Our cat does get on it and sleep beside me though. However, we don’t get in bed with our day clothes on, icky. And I don’t put shoes, bags, or things like that on it. I want it to be nice to get into at night. Like others said, it is a haven from the outside world.

There are people on this thread who change their bedding 2 to 3 times a week. That's every couple of days. Insane. Must be mental health issues.

There is research on 'individual differences in disgust sensitivity'

Some very interesting replies! So it seems lots of people aren’t actually that bothered about the mysterious ‘outdoor’ bugs, and those with special indoor clothes are the minority.

I think the thing about keeping different clothes for going out is a red herring- that seems to be about smartness and basic common sense rather than germs. And I don’t think that’s something that stopped in the 80s, as some have suggested! It’s perfectly normal to do your household cleaning in crappy old clothes and then get changed if you’re going out!

I’m coming to this as someone who used to suffer quite badly with OCD issues, to the extent that it really made my life miserable; I was obsessed with germs, but I have made huge progress and am now mostly free of those obsessions. But the idea of a sort of clean/dirty binary has stayed with me. So, to me, there is a sense in which something is either clean enough or it’s not. It doesn’t worry me like it used to, but the idea is still there. If something is not clean, it must immediately be cleaned (or thrown away). Otherwise, it’s fine. So if my clothes are clean enough to sit on the sofa or wear in the kitchen, they’re clean enough to sit on the bed. There’s no real in between.

I have, as I’ve said, made loads of progress, and I do operate more on a ‘grey area’ system these days - so I might think ‘hmm my bed probably needs a wash but I’ll do it at the weekend’ whereas in the old days there’s be a specific (often spurious) ‘reason’ why it was dirty, so everything would have to be washed immediately.

It’s interesting to hear others’ views.