House rules

The flannel basket gets emptied twice a week and laundered with towels on a short hot wash with eco friendly detergent
I wish my machine would do a short hot wash - the hot wash takes over two hours, anything shorter won't go above 40C.

All these pseudo Hyacinths; and not a word about the support army of Richards, keeping their heads down and busy!
I do like Richard!!

Never realised I was so laid back! Don’t mind if people use my upstairs, downstairs , en suite, whatever they like.

Maw - did you crochet that yourself? It pips the crochet lady doesn't it.

My sister has a wonderful, old-fashioned WC, with a chain flush and a large, comfortable wooden seat in her downstairs shower room. There's a bookshelf in a handy position too. As far as I know, there have never been any outbreaks of collywobbles among the many who have used that facility. I, on the other hand, have only one bathroom which is upstairs and available to guests, though I was a bit embarrassed when a friend used it and I subsequently found a pair of my undies on the floor - must have dropped out of the pile of laundry when I took it downstairs. Friend made no comment.

maw ??????

My DD used to love the little crinoline lady in my dad's loo - I'd forgotten all about them!

Oh my eyes Maw, that's 'orrible!

We’ll have somebody extolling the virtues (or antibiotic qualities) of crocheted crinoline lady loo roll covers next.
Or possibly one of these.

The "Hyacinthness" is just getting better and better!

Marilyn Monroe had a "thing" about other people hearing her pee. When Arthur Miller took her to meet his mother and the time came for her to go to the loo, she turned on all the taps to drown out any sounds she might make. Afterwards, Arthur Miller's mother told him that she thought Marilyn was "a lovely girl, but she pisses like a horse".

Beau, I think me and you could be friends.Makes you wonder where these feelings come from though.

? no, that's why I said it's all in the mind! I would not use public loos as a child and hence perfected the art of 'waiting until I got home'. Drove my parents mad!

but beau do you leave toilets in need of sluicing? Why do you think others would!

It's all in the mind I think - I am not fussy and happy to let DGS drink his bath water and all the other delightful things toddlers do BUT I hate anyone using my loo, especially men. There is no rational explanation other than that I have lived alone for over 20 years and it feels like an invasion of my privacy. If anyone else uses it I give it a thorough clean the minute they leave. I just assumed everyone was like me and try not to use other people's toilets if it can be avoided.

We have three bedrooms each with an en-suite. So no 'public' toilet. What would you do then with visitors?

My ensuite bathroom is a storage room for all my beauty buys....if they could climb their way to reach the loo, fair play to them!

I am no scientist but I do have basic common sense. Also I have worked in Primary schools , eaten alongside 100s of different children, changed the soggy ( & worse) pants of various young kiddies, wiped their noses etc etc! AND survived! Not sure how those poor nurses and care assistants manage! Really! what kind of friends and family do you have that it requires you to clean toilets each time they use them!?

Farmor Thank you for your post.
The fragrant aroma of common sense and scientific knowledge in the same post!
I may need to lie down!

As a microbiologist (retired) I can tell you that there are far more bacteria in the kitchen than in the bathroom, including toilet seat. I used to get students to take samples from various places and they were always surprised how few bacteria there were on toilet seats.

There are hardly any germs in fresh pee, and most guests would only pee when out visiting, so I think being overly fussy about cleaning a toilet after one use is a bit extreme. Using too much toilet cleaner is also harmful to the environment - sewage works and septic tanks rely on bacteria to break down the waste.

However, I think posters who dislike other aspects of guests using an upstairs bathroom when there's a perfectly good one downstairs, have a point. I don't like the idea of someone poking around in my bedroom either.

Perhaps this thread should be called Hyacinth’s Rules!

Who'd want to read anything in a loo? Imagine the bacteria on the page

Don’t see why.
You pick out the book before sitting down
No different from “Farve” disappearing into the downstairs loo with his Daily Telegraph

Honestly, some people are just no fun.
A cousin used to cut out the Times crossword, collect several weeks’ worth, hang them from a hook and leave a basket of those little (free) IKEA pencils for guests to use!

Su66, I know what you mean. One of our DILs is the same and it annoys me. She allows little toddler GD to go upstairs but accompanies her - and then opens our bedroom door, on the pretence that the little one wants to see the cat. They go and search all round the room for the cat even though she is likely to be out if the house is noisy. She uses the upstairs bathroom, although we have a loo on the ground floor (I don't mind the upstairs bathroom being used if there is a queue for the loo, and there often is if a number of people are gathered.) Even worse, this year she used our ensuite - saying the bathroom was being used. I had to bite my tongue. I was so cross. She likes to prowl around, even opening the door to the garden on a freezing, grey day. No - you are not being unreasonable.

Oh Gabrielle what a good idea, never thought of the towels, I feel quite pleased that I hadn't thought of that one.I'm not as fussy as I thought.

You should always close the lid to flush. But people don't. Dirty beggars.