Things that make you go urgghh when visiting other peoples house...

[EvesMama]

my first must be..
there only being thier bath towels in bathroom, so when youve washed your hands after using the loo..you could be wiping them on front bum/back bum/willy parts!!!...bleeergh!

Eyes wide at this thread.

I have NEVER considered the towel thing in bathrooms. I have wiped my hands on thousands of strange bathtowels in my time .....and I'm still here!

I cannot imagine being acutely upset by washing up in sink, dirty skirting boards, piles of clean washing and the like. Just out of curiosity, is it the people here with dishwashers who are getting the most upset with washing up in the sink?

I usually wear my contact lenses when I go out socialising. This means my near vision is not so good ( better with specs). I wouldn't see a public hair unless it was right under my nose. But anyway, I cannot see what all the fuss is about. A single pubic hair in a salad just wouldn't bother me - no worse than finding an insect - I'd just leave it to one side of the plate.

I am not keen on stale smells in a house or stuffy rooms and closed windows.

But I hate it when people start cleaning up after me and my children before I have left. Tidying toys away together is fine, but hoovering where we have been walking while we are still there is so inhospitable and makes me feel like a very unwanted guest. This has happened to me at someone's house and it still rankles.

noone's gonna be visiting me then

although I don't have a cat, I have very little pubic hair so if you find any it's hubby's and I don't doooo dishclothes

Don't come round to mine either.

I LOVE it when I visit anybody's house, gets me out of mine. The messier the better for me. My favourite is another mum with 3 kids......her house is on a par with mine. Its great. Breakfast dishes lying around at 4pm, toys every-bloody-where, sticky tables. Home from home. I love her. Its the cleaner than cleaner anal, stick a broom up yer arse as you go crowd that set my teeth on edge.

draggedthrooabush - surely the woman had more than one mug, why oh why would anyone give anyone a drink in the dogs mug - the mind really does boggle.

Snafu - I am guilty of a full wahing up bowl at the moment - In my defence we are living in the 1970's and we are without a dishwasher at the moment. After breakfast I always dunk the dishes as I don't have time to wash them up before getting ds ready for school and have you tried to wash up a bowl that has got dried up weetabix on? It's blooming impossible.

Today is the only day off work I will have in 13 days, as I am working at events at the weekend. My house is a mess, but there is no way on this hot sunny day that I will be spending my time doing the skirting boards for other people's benefit

Tigermoth, really agree re tidying before you leave. I have lots of friends who do this inclu one who more or less spends the whole time you are there tidying and never sits down - winds me up.

When I used to work in community things I didnt like where
dirty toilet seats[I remember one house I went to visit had a used condom down the toilet..bleughhh]

never used to accept drinks

stinking of smoke soo much so that I stank all day of it.

Gigantic over friendly dogs.

Yes, it makes me feel so unwelcome.

Actually, I take it as a compliment if hosts don't specially clean up when I am coming round. I assume they must feel at ease with me and are happy to be open about their home. If I suspect a major clean up operation has preceded my visit, I feel sad I have been the cause of all that work,while thinking guiltily of the grot I have left behind at home.

tigermoth that's exactly it

if you had to tidy up for your friends they wouldn't be your friends

who are all these weird people peering other people's sinks and bins and then judging them?

bad, bad behaviour

tigermoth totally agree, (but stained mugs have to be kept for the family not for friends)MAINLY because my kids come before housework well that's my excuse anyway

The things that make me flinch are hairy bathrooms (particularly hairy brushes that lay around in it) Dirty faded towels, dirty toilets. and, mutiple glasses/cups' marks on tables that denounce they don't even clean the obvious.

Tigermoth - you are more than welcome to visit my house when you move down here

But Tigermoth, maybe unkown to you, cleaning hosts are very thankful to you. We have a friend who is so allergic to dogs that we have to do a Kim & Aggie everytime she comes (she had an asthma attack once here and it was quite scary).

We always joke that we have to invite her more often in order to have the house perfectly clean (we even vacuum clean the walls when she is going to be around). Actually, if there were not for visits we would never find the time to clean, so in a way guests are doing us a favour: We also feel better when the house is cleaner.

just wanted to support the use of bars of soap - I rarely buy handwash because of the extra packaging - you have to throw away a plastic bottle every time you replace it. Soap is better from an environmental point of view

I'm trusting that everyone using handwash is taking the bottles to their recycling centre

i do clean for visitors if i knew they are coming but what about the ones that drop in when inevitablly the house is at its worst!

Well said Cappucino!
Tigermoth and Niceglasses, I find your posts very reassuring

DH and I are having something of a debate on the very important issue of teabags. He takes the old one out of the teapot and puts it on a saucer on top of the microwave, claiming that it smells nice and removes something or other from the air. (Germs? Can't remember. Was too busy thinking, Right, my turn to have my say now!)

I think it's gross and makes us look slovenly - I mean, it's not like we're going to reuse the blasted thing but visitors certainly might think so. Half of you lot who have posted on this thread so far would be thinking 'dirty cow', I bet.

I wouldn't care KiwiKat...but I don't drink tea

What a great thread - I blame Anthea!!! Must admit tho.....do tend to notice grot in peoples houses. And totally agree with the fact that visitors are a great incentive to do the hoovering!

If you're going to judge someone based on their house then you shouldn't be there.

Clothes, hairstyle, accent, body shape, religion, house - is there anything about anyone that isn't judgeable?

My house can be a mess. I tidy up for visitors and I do try to keep it clean, but I feel there are more important things to life than tidying up every day. So long as it isn't actually unhygienic then who cares?

kitkat dh leaves tea-bags in the so called tea bag holder thingy.

SIL puts plastic matting down all over the house when we visit. Makes us really feel at home! I wonder why we don't visit too often?

I keep teabags in a holder so they can cool down to go in the compost bin

it strikes me that a lot of the things people can't stand are choices I make deliberately for 'green' reasons; obviously they assume I am grimy because of it