The Results Are In

I'm sure you're all anxiously awaiting the results of the first Undomesticated Me poll.

So how often do Undomesticated Me readers change their sheets? Well... (Drum roll, please)...

The overwhelming majority of you claim that you change your sheets once a week, while only one reader said once a month and one person admitted they can't remember.

One crazy person (I think I know who she is) says she changes her sheets daily!

I have a neighbor who not only changes her sheets daily, but actually irons the sheets before and after she puts them on the bed (just to be sure she's gotten out every crease).

“I like to clean,” she confesses. “It gives me a sense of control over my life.”

Lisa, a muscular brunette in her early 40s, left her high-powered television executive job to stay home with her kids. I can’t help but wonder if she’s channeling some of that career drive into her housework.

But on some level, I can understand how she finds the mundane mechanics of housework comforting.

Everything is in the same place as it was yesterday. Everything will be in the same place tomorrow. Life’s fortunes may change, but there are some things in life you can count on – your bed will be made, your linens ironed, your table set.

It is reassuring to focus on the little things in life that we have the power to control rather than the bigger things that we can’t.

“I find that having a clean house gives me and my family a sense of security and comfort,” Lisa explains.

“Do you have any advice for me?”

“One thing I can’t stress enough,” says Lisa. “Use your towels only one time – especially hand towels.”

Apparently, the average person sloughs off one million skin cells an hour. Bath towels harbor those cells and their bacteria. Eww. Gross.

According to a recent study from the Hygiene Counsel (funded, not surprisingly, by the company that makes Lysol), dish towels contain an average of 408 bacteria per square inch, even more than the toilet seat (295 bacteria/square inches) or the toilet’s flush handle (83 bacteria/square inch).

Thanks a lot, Lisa. First the sheets. Now the towels. I’m well on my way to becoming an obsessive compulsive with an astronomical laundry bill.