I’m so dirty I should be dead!

Ermm...I used a fruit-paring knife the other day to fix a loose-screw on a cupboard door when I couldn't locate an appropriate screwdriver.

Then I chucked it straight back in the kitchen drawer.

Whoops! Will I risk getting the Plague now?

Well I agree re anti bacterial wipes...wouldn't touch them with a barge pole..soap &water, bicarbonate soda,etc overuse of antibiotics is causing a problem now..think will be long term problems with over use of ALL antibacterial stuff also...

Quiz question: If I use my main oven once a year at Christmas, how many years can I leave it till I have it cleaned...?

did you know that the fumes from cleaning products has overtaken vehicle emissions as the main cause of atmospheric conditions

I think you’d need a cleaner in 24/7 meandashy and she would have to have, at least, a 2:1 in bacteria wipe out from one of our most prestigious universities!

I am officially a minger ???
I am unable to physically clean my oven. My oven cleaner (dd) is 6 months pregnant & also unable to clean my oven. I cannot afford to have it done professionally. There are many things I'm unable to do around the house. But do you know what? I'm still alive! I haven't dropped dead from any nasties. I do what I can. That's all we can do, isn't it? Unless of course you can afford a cleaner!!!

I'm sure we were all healthier when we weren't using so many chemicals in the home for cleaning, I've never considered my home or the home I was brought up in to be dirty and we have never gone down with anything dreadful. It would be so easy to develop OCD with cleaning and let it take over your life. Life is for living. Sometimes I don't clean my cutlery draw for a couple of years (yes years!) - we are all still ok. My surfaces are cleaned regularly in my kitchen. My girls laugh at me because we used to 'wash' the chicken - we don't any more going along with current advice- but even then we never ever had food poisoning because we are basically clean people.

I blame the Dettol advertising. I have been having my own private anti Dettol campaign for a while.
Dettol and it's brand owners are finding ways to subtly present us all with unnecessary fears of any dirt.
Look at their adverts . There is one where a child crawling across the floor is picked up my a mum with a frightened look on her face in case it meets some dirt.
Dettol are now trying to sell us antibacterial surface wipes we do not need.
I worry that using antibacterial wipes might be making ordinary bugs more resistant to the essential antibiotics we need.
Some good hot soapy water will do the job in most cases.

I thought my house was pretty clean until I got my new varifocals . !

Here here MOnica...it is a mysoginal plot to get us back to the kitchen....they tried it in the 50’s and 60’s with all the ‘labour saving’ devices....when that failed they tried ‘the beauty myth’... that hopefully is beginning to fail...although now they’re trying ‘body beautiful ‘ ....anything to keep us away from workplace and possibly wrenching power from them!!! Don’t fall for it!!

I'm with you MOnica

I have never cleaned a knife block. My knives are washed in my dishwasher. I’m sure the occasional damp one has been put inside. I’m guessing if I were going to develop an ailment as a result of this, it would have happened by now. I’m not going to tell you when my oven was last cleaned, but, well, there have been birthdays (plural). I hasten to say my house (the rest of it) is clean and my bedding washed weekly. I’m not going to worry about my knife block, or my oven. I avoid looking inside the latter!

Ive got a life.!

I took the knives out of my 15 year old knife block, shone a torch into each section and it's perfectly clean.
I couldn't see any dirt in mine either mischief but I gave it a good hot wash and rinse anyway then left it to dry thoroughly.
It didn't look any different afterwards so I'm assuming it was and is clean.

For the clean police (my Welsh ancestors who swept front step every day). Have just found some holly berries on mantelpiece from Xmas 2016. So presumably haven’t dusted since then. I am with Quentin Crisp on this cleaning lark. Sorry ancestors!

I love silverfish Grandmama they are a real survivor from prehistory. Not that we seem to have any in our current kitchen. My knives are on a magnetic rack and I wash them by hand because someone told me the dishwasher blunts them.

The author Rose Macaulay wrote:
'Better a house unkept than a life unlived.'
That's my mantra.

I'm very attached to my silverfish, couldn't possibly make them homeless. In return they do a lot of hoovering up in my cupboards so we rub along together very amicably.

Thank you all so much. I was feeling really terrible, having just read the article in the Times. Then I logged in to GN and, of course, you all made
me see sense and stop worrying. Who makes these rules anyway?

My home is, and always has been, clean enough to live in, and dirty enough to be homely. As I write this I can see dust on my sideboard, doggie paw marks on the floor and cat hairs on the sofa. I do have an antibacterial cleanser for the kitchen work surfaces purely because our puppy can now get his muddy little paws up there. But our kids grew up in a home with cars and dogs and survived to be healthy adults with no allergies, and none of us ever had stomach upsets. Our guests have never died of food poisoning, but they do enjoy a warm welcome and healthy, tasty food in a relaxed and comfortable home. We are all surrounded by germs and bacteria and have to learn to live with them and develop a natural immunity and resistance rather than relying on antibiotics. There are far more interesting things to do than cleaning!

The easy answer to how to clean knife blocks is Don't. Buy magnetic holders that you put up on the wall instead!

I heartly agree. At our age we know how much cleaning is really necessary to stay alive and well.

You’ve got to eat a peck of dirt before you die as they said in olden times.

As for cleaning knife blocks it never crossed my mind and I am OCD about cleaning.

In fact, I am anxiety prone about everything and got rid of the knife block so no one could seize a knife on the kitchen side if they got cross.

Yay M0nica! I am right with YOU, Girl!!! xx

The Quiz confirmed it, that I am no good in the cleaning department.
Why am I hardly ever ill but my fabulously fastidious friends are haunters of the doctor's surgery with ailments galore and their offspring too.
Who wrote it, devised it, possibly a compulsive cleaner?
Too much good stuff in life without all this tosh.

And if you didn't die from being stabbed, the bacteria would do for you!

I think a knife block is a ridiculous thing to have on show, if someone was to break into your home especially through the kitchen the first thing they would see is the knife block full of knives that they could easily use on the house holder if they were disturbed or challenged.