Cleanliness and hygiene

Sparklefizz the French girl might have hand washed her knickers not wanting to put such an intimate item in your washing basket...

BlueSky
the French girl might have hand washed her knickers not wanting to put such an intimate item in your washing basket..

As I said, they were "stiff and crispy" - I should have added that they were also stained and stank! (but bless you for giving her the benefit of the doubt!)

I also remember the Sunday night bath and hairwash routine, the daily strip/sink wash, I think it was when I went to high school I started more or less bathing every other day and hairwashing.

Now its a daily shower and every other day hairwashing, I dread to think what my daughter's bills are like, she has a hot bath everyday, but the kids have daily showers.

Sparklefizz your post brought back memories.
My younger sister had a french exchange student to stay. I'd left home by then but remember Mum telling me about the state of the girl's knickers. Which permanently coloured Mum's attitude to french people.

I can think of three places I've worked where someone stunk the premises out. One was a young man and we think it was his trousers, so we spoke to the manager and he had to tell him to change them! Second was someone who had a foot problem and the whole floor smelt awful. There were people working in the same room as him but I would not be able to, I would have vomited. Then there was a woman at another place who just smelt like an old tramp who hadn't washed for months. Luckily she didn't work there, she was just visiting for a while. I really can't be in the same room as people like that, it makes me feel queasy.

When we were kids there was no water in the house, it was a pump in the yard, heated in a copper boiler in the kitchen, bath was the old tin bath in front of the fire in the parlour, kids first then mum and dad on a Sunday night. Otherwise it was hands and face at the kitchen sink ( the only sink).

Happy days!

My mum has always been a cleanliness-is-next-to-godliness person so we bathed more than once a week in childhood and strip-washed in between. Once I had my own home, I gloried in the ability to have a daily bath.

Lack of water is not a concern for me in Scotland - the fields opposite my house are currently flooded! - so it's daily baths for us. I don't like a shower except occasionally. I've recently been on holiday and after weeks of only having showers, felt that I wasn't properly clean and I was whiffy. I luxuriated in the bath when I got home!

On the other hand, when I had a bad leg fracture I wasn't able to bath or shower for three weeks yet I didn't end up at all smelly. I managed with a combination of wipes, washing and our bidet. I do now regret getting rid of our bidet when we had the bathroom redone, though.

Overall, I think maybe some people are getting a bit smellier. I quite often notice unpleasant stale urine-type whiffs when I'm in town, of the kind I'd previously only associated with old-style geriatric hospitals.

Why does anyone think water is “free” ? It isn’t possible to use water straight from the sky .... or the river , it has to be cleaned and bugs removed , it has to be stored for dry spells so use it wisely

We wouldn’t have any possibility of a shortage of water if more rainfall was collected and if the water companies paid more attention to their pipe systems.
Look at places like Greece where rainfall is nowhere near the levels of Britain.

Some of those dry places have underground water sources , not sure of that , but I seem to remember that from geography lessons 70 years ago

In the uk we bath/shower and water gardens with water of high drinking standard whereas in lots of countries drinking water comes in bottles and tap water is only fit for bathing/gardening etc.

How strange that you couldn’t put a dirty pair of knickers in your washing machine sparklefizz isn’t that what washing machines are for ? Did you think the water and soap powder would leave her knickers dirty to contaminate all your clean washing
I just found that an incredibly strange thought process ? that anything can be too dirty to wash in a washing machine the water is constantly emptied out and new water coming in

Did anyone else's mum put Dettol into their baths? I've just remembered that my mum used to put a capful of Dettol into our bath water. The way it turned white fascinated me. I don't know if mum thought we were germ-ridden, or what. I suppose most children are unhygienic, really.

BlueBelle
Nothing wrong with my thought processes, thanks very much

We are replacing our bath with a shower so will have 2 showers and no bath.

We WILL miss our bath. We enjoy our baths. If its there we will use it. But we have to think of the future and its a small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things.

And for future proofing for our aging selves, the wetroom will serve us better.

Lots of showers in our house. Have hormoney teens who would be picked on at school if they smelled and both DH and I feel we have to be clean for work.

But I only have a long hairwash shower about twice a week. My morning showers are barely more than a strip wash and take only a few mins.

Oh Sue DH and I both remember Detol baths and everyone else looks at us like we are making it up!

I was the youngest of 4 and bath night was Sunday. The bath was filled once and we went in age order, consequently I spent 10 years having cold, filthy baths. We then got a shower, but only allowed 3 minutes a week! My brother used to stink, I remember that, and I always had greasy hair as a young girl, but then so did a lot of kids at school.

I was from the era of an outside loo, tin bath in front of the fire once a week ( Saturday, so we were clean for church), with top n tail washes in between.
Nowadays I have a bath every two or three days, and wash thoroughly in between. My bath is tiny, and it uses no more water than taking a shower. However I am now struggling to get out of it, and I really miss it and the way it reaches parts nothing else can reach.
When I see the ads on TV for the charity Water Aid, I am sure we are extravagant here in this country.
We managed in camp, Guides, D of E etc for a couple of days, and I think we could well cut back a bit on showers, so I agree with the OP.

I think we think that because it rains its okay. But a huge amount of energy and resources goes in to processing our tap water too.

That's funny re Dettol, Notanan2! I wonder if we came out of the bath totally sterile?

Dunno bout sterile but I liked the smell and the white bubbles on the orange water. It burned if you had grazes though

Yes, I do like the smell. I might buy some Dettol now. Not sure what can use it for. Drains maybe? And definitely OUCH to it being put on grazes! "Stop making such a fuss, it's just a bit of stinging."

I think we had Dettol, too, and 'Matey' on occasions.

Right, well that’s answered my questions.
Shower after swimming and if covered in mud, sink wash whenever needed and that should have it covered.
Thank you all very much.

Matey? You were posh, MissAdventure!