USHERING her mum into her small flat, Rachel Howlett braced herself for the inevitable.
Despite her home looking tidy, with shoes placed neatly at the door, she knew what was coming.
“You should do better,” her mum, Susan, 70, said wearily.
“I clean my sinks, toilets and floors every single day.
“Why on earth do you only do it every few years?”
Like Susan, experts say we should be mopping our floors at least once a week.
But Rachel can go up to FOUR YEARS without cleaning her kitchen or bathroom floors, and believes other women should take note.
“Why should we get lumbered with the cleaning anyway?” she says.
“Women are always judged if they are not the perfect homemaker.”
The care worker and gardener also doesn’t change her toilet brush regularly, won’t change her pillows and hasn’t washed her duvet for years.
Rachel, from Biggleswade, Beds, says: “Yes, I’ve got a few grotty habits but I live on my own so I’m not too bothered.
“When it comes to cleaning, I don’t think people should bother either. Who’s got the time?”
Rachel, 47, recently cleaned her bathroom and kitchen floors — the first time she’s done so since before Covid.
“Let’s just say the mop water didn’t exactly run clean,” she says.
“But I live in a tiny flat with limited storage space.
“My mop is at the back of my cupboard and it’s a hassle to get it out.
“If I spill something, it’s easier to use a cloth or sweep it up.”
Studies have shown the floor is the area in the home that is most riddled with bacteria, due to food debris, shoes and dust.
But Rachel believes her home is cleaner than most.
She says: “People with pets are far filthier than me — there’s hair everywhere.
“I’ve even had people tell me their dogs pee on their floors.
“I don’t have animals, so it’s far more hygienic.
“I always take my shoes off as soon as I get home, yet some people walk in the streets, through muck and dog poo, then walk it all over their floors.
“So while they may be mopping their floors once a week, in the meantime they’re still living with germs from their shoes.”
Rachel’s habits go beyond an aversion to the mop.
Despite experts advising we change our toilet brush every month, she has no plans to ditch hers that she’s used since 2020.
“It’s ridiculous – all these toilet brushes go in landfill,” she says.
“Mine comes in a holder, so I just let it soak in a bit of bleach now and then.
“It’s perfectly usable.”
Stronger immune system
It’s not just the kitchen and bathroom that Rachel likes to leave alone.
She continues: “I haven’t washed my duvet in years.
“I’m not worried about bed bugs or dust mites — I’m perfectly healthy and they don’t seem to bother me, so it’s not something I even think about.
“As for pillows, if they’re comfortable and I’m not getting any problems from dust allergies or mites, then why chuck them?
“A lot of my decisions are based on what’s best for the environment, so I won’t apologise for them.”
Rachel says she also saves a fortune by not replacing her bedding.
“I think a lot of myths are perpetuated by duvet and pillow makers,” she says.
“If a company wants to sell lots of pillows, of course they’ll claim they’re going to be full of mites in X amount of months.
“They want to sell more.”
Rachel’s job as a gardener means she is often up to her elbows in muck — not that it bothers her.
“When customers give me a cup of tea and a biscuit, I won’t wash my hands,” she says.
“There’s a lot of grime under my nails, so I probably end up eating a lot of dirt. So what?
“My immune system is fantastic.”
Rachel socialises away from home – her friends don’t come over as she won’t put the heating on to save cash, so they are not privy to her cleaning habits.
And her boyfriend of six years, James, 50, doesn’t mind her unusual ways either, because they do not live together.
“He’s not that much better himself,” Rachel says.
“He’s away a lot so he doesn’t really have time to keep on top of his own cleaning.
“If I had a bigger house with more storage space for cleaning equipment, maybe I would scrub my surfaces a bit more.
“But for now, my mop will be staying in the back of the cupboard where it belongs.”
An expert says...
TELLY’S Queen Of Clean Lynsey Cromble reveals how often we should clean key household items.
DUVETS: Four times a year. Can’t afford the launderette? Hang a dry duvet outside – sunshine will disinfect it.
PILLOW: Four times a year. Magnets for skin cells, bacteria, sweat and dribble.
SHEETS: Once a week to account for sweat and bacteria.
TOILET BRUSHES: Change standard brittle ones monthly as bacteria builds up easily, making it a health hazard.
Silicone ones last a long time but be sure to regularly disinfect them.
FLOORS: Mop weekly, more often if you’re a “shoes on” family.
SINKS & TOILETS: Daily.