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House and home

Where does the dirt lie in and around your home?

(177 Posts)
Baggytrazzas Tue 09-Aug-22 10:40:39

I thought my house and garden were quite clean and tidy, always a few corners needing attention but the overall standards seemed fine to me. I've just finished watering some plant pots on the back doorstep using the hose, and absentmindedly ran the hose over the plastic tufted door mat.................and was truly shocked by the amount of dirt that came out of it. It didn't even look dirty. I usually turn it over and bash it against the step every week or so but haven't washed it before now as it looked quite clean. I've hosed it for 20 minutes full blast and there is still dirt washing out but I've had to leave it for now.

Has anyone else had a shock to discover something they thought was quite clean but in fact was filthy?

Callistemon21 Wed 10-Aug-22 23:14:03

Baggytrazzas

Workmen must see absolute horrors in our homes.

I did apologise to the washing machine repairman

Anyway, I'm saving water by not doing any washing because the washing machine currently has no door ?

MerylStreep Wed 10-Aug-22 23:08:02

dragonfly46

Just wondering why the OP needs to water her plants if it rains there everyday!

Well spotted ????

Callistemon21 Wed 10-Aug-22 22:56:24

Mollygo

This really deserves a thread of its own. It doesn’t answer the OP at all. Is that because no one has any lurking dirt?

Apart from behind the washing machine my house and all my mats are immaculate!

MawtheMerrier Wed 10-Aug-22 22:41:41

gringrin

dragonfly46 Wed 10-Aug-22 22:36:01

Just wondering why the OP needs to water her plants if it rains there everyday!

MawtheMerrier Wed 10-Aug-22 22:23:06

Nope ????

Mollygo Wed 10-Aug-22 22:02:46

This really deserves a thread of its own. It doesn’t answer the OP at all. Is that because no one has any lurking dirt?

karmalady Wed 10-Aug-22 19:01:11

yorkshire reservoirs are at 53% capacity
kielder 83%
derwent 43.5%

in 2022 peak reservoir supply all over uk has gone down much faster than in previous years

Some people seem to not realise that water accumulation needs to at least be on a par with consumption in order to not deplete rservoirs even further. It is not on a par in 2022

Here is a link if anyone is interested. The graphs tell the story

www.gov.uk/government/publications/water-situation-local-area-reports

Casdon Wed 10-Aug-22 16:21:00

MawtheMerrier

^However, there’s no link between water networks unless they have been set up specifically to deliver water to an area^

I don’t think anybody suggests this is the case so why argue that it isn’t?
I hope I didn’t give the impression that I believe this happens, I know it doesn’t so a bit of a futile argument.
However we do have a collective responsibility to the environment and to claim “That's not the case here” sounds a lot like not caring in general.

I think it’s probably a good thing long term that this drought is happening now. There is probably a greater volume of water which leaks per household per day than we use, there are no links between networks, and there needs to be a long term strategy for managing water nationwide. I don’t think that it’s fair to suggest that people in areas where’s there no shortage and no restrictions are being profligate with water in the absence of those actions happening though.

MawtheMerrier Wed 10-Aug-22 15:09:21

It is sadly impossible to ship or pipe water the huge distances from where it is still raining to those suffering drought conditions

I thought that was clear enough.

MawtheMerrier Wed 10-Aug-22 15:07:59

However, there’s no link between water networks unless they have been set up specifically to deliver water to an area

I don’t think anybody suggests this is the case so why argue that it isn’t?
I hope I didn’t give the impression that I believe this happens, I know it doesn’t so a bit of a futile argument.
However we do have a collective responsibility to the environment and to claim “That's not the case here” sounds a lot like not caring in general.

BlueBelle Wed 10-Aug-22 14:34:49

Well I ve finished work and now going to dip my toes and the rest of me in the North Sea they really need to up the desalination ideas

Yammy Wed 10-Aug-22 14:21:55

Casdon

There isn’t a water shortage everywhere, people are being judgmental without knowing where Baggytrazzas lives. She may live on the west coast of Scotland where there’s loads of rain and loads of water in the reservoirs - and she may be watering her lawn while she’s cleaning her mat.

In answer to your question Baggytrazzas yes. I’ve got a log burner built into a hearth in my lounge. Yesterday I decided to Hoover underneath, behind and above it, it’s quite dark and I found in addition to lots of cobwebs three discarded dog biscuits in the deepest recesses. Yuck.

Live and let live. She might live where I do we are storing water for the north of England and they are still talking about new reservoirs.
My dirty spot is the bottom of the wardrobes I don't know where it comes from but they are always thick with navy Blue fluff . Non in the drawers but a little in the cupboards. I reckon it is insulation from the loft .Also behind the facia boards in the kitchen but I am closing my eyes to jobs while it is so hot.

Glorianny Wed 10-Aug-22 14:08:52

Elizabeth27

To those that think water is piped around the country, Do you think the flooding in Hull is caused by people in the Southeast concreting their gardens preventing rain from soaking away?

The flooding in Hull is mostly caused because most of the area is below sea level and absolutely nothing to do with rain or water supplies. It was used during the Civil war to stop Charles 1 laying siege to the city. They broke the river banks and flooded the area so he had to go back to York.

Nanna58 Wed 10-Aug-22 13:40:22

Oh dear , was thinking of dipping my toe ( waste of water!!!) back into Gransnet , but unfortunately the holier than thou judgementals still abound- shall go away again for a while ....

Cabbie21 Wed 10-Aug-22 13:24:28

To answer the OP.
Dust is everywhere in my house, apart from any area Just dusted. I have done only a minimal amounts of housework in this hot weather.

Casdon Wed 10-Aug-22 13:08:01

MawtheMerrier

Elizabeth27

To those that think water is piped around the country, Do you think the flooding in Hull is caused by people in the Southeast concreting their gardens preventing rain from soaking away?

Does anybody believevhat?
But reservoirs eg for cities like Manchester can be quite a long way way

Yes Maw, Wales provides a lot of the water for big cities in the west, Birmingham, Manchester amongst them. However, there’s no link between water networks unless they have been set up specifically to deliver water to an area. I hope one of the solutions is to build more local reservoirs to supply heavily populated areas rather than deliberately flooding out more Welsh villages to create them here.

AreWeThereYet Wed 10-Aug-22 11:39:00

Open bookcases. We have a few of them and they each get cleaned about once a year. I don't know why but I'm always shocked at the amount of dust and cobwebs on and behind the books. One of the bookcases is a favourite hangout for some big black spiders that move like Usain Bolt and scare the living daylights out of me.

MawtheMerrier Wed 10-Aug-22 11:28:09

Elizabeth27

To those that think water is piped around the country, Do you think the flooding in Hull is caused by people in the Southeast concreting their gardens preventing rain from soaking away?

Does anybody believevhat?
But reservoirs eg for cities like Manchester can be quite a long way way

maddyone Wed 10-Aug-22 11:26:32

I would prefer it if posters weren’t so judgemental so quickly. We don’t know where Baggytrouzzrs lives, or if there is an immanent hose pipe ban in her area. There’s no hosepipe ban in my area either, it’s only certain areas that are affected.

Elizabeth27 Wed 10-Aug-22 11:11:33

To those that think water is piped around the country, Do you think the flooding in Hull is caused by people in the Southeast concreting their gardens preventing rain from soaking away?

Callistemon21 Wed 10-Aug-22 10:59:49

Quite right, Doodledog, water is not moved from place to place as there is no infrastructure for doing so.

Welsh water supplies Birmingham from the Elan Valley via aqueduct and Lake Vyrnwy supplies Liverpool.

They could do it years ago but it's beyond us now!

Glorianny Wed 10-Aug-22 10:53:59

It's lovely and green up here in the NE we have had rain recently and there is still water in my water butt. My DS thinks "levelling up" is going to involve the south trying to get some of our water.

As far as the dirt goes I passed a duster into the corner behind my TV recently and it came out covered in spider's webs!

MaizieD Wed 10-Aug-22 10:42:44

Here we are. Water shortage in Yorkshire 1995

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13815317

MaizieD Wed 10-Aug-22 10:33:28

If we were saving water to ship it around it would be different, but we aren't, are we? Not yet, at any rate.

I have a dim recollection of a water shortage in Yorkshire some 40+ years ago when water was being brought in by the tanker load for some time. There were loads and loads of them travelling up and down the main trunk routes. I'm trying to remember why there was a shortage. I'll have to go and look it up now.

But, it might come to that*; I've sen a suggestion today that this drought might go on until October.. shock

(*though probably this dozy government wouldn't think of it)