Squeeze the toothpaste tube from the middle or the bottom? Toilet paper rolling over or under? Paper towels or dish towels? People are finicky when it comes to little household habits that carry them through each day. And yet these little annoying habits that irritate you each day can lead to pent up anger and even marriage problems.
But why does it matter, for example, whether drinking glasses are stored rim up or rim down?
It may seem insignificant, but these preferences are deeply embedded. Most of us learn these habits at a young age. Doing things a certain way -- perhaps how our mothers did them -- makes us feel more comfortable.
Whatever compels us, it's important that living companions share at least some of the same household views. Here are the roots of some of the most common household spats. And if the numbers are on your side, be sure to share these statistics with your signifcant other!
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Take toilet paper, for example. Of all the choices we make during the course of a day, few inspire as much staunch preference as the roll direction.
Should the sheets feed over or under?
Cottonelle, Kimberly-Clark's toilet-tissue brand, conducted a national poll recently to find out which way most consumers roll. Overwhelmingly, the 500,000 participants voted "over," 72 percent to 28 percent.
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If you helped your mom dry dishes, you probably were taught to put the drinking glasses in the cabinet right-side up or upside down. You may continue to do it that way to this day.
Home guru Martha Stewart's preference is rims down. In an article on increasing cabinet space, she suggests covering a shelf with a nonskid liner to help glasses stay put and protect the rims. Place infrequently used glasses upside down on that shelf, set a tray atop the glass bottoms and arrange everyday glasses upside down on the tray. Voila -- extra cabinet space and no dust in glasses.
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Do you butt heads with someone over how to load a dishwasher? Do you or your significant other rearrange the dishwasher when no one is looking?
Another household maven, TV chef and talk-show host Rachael Ray, consulted with Whirlpool to find out the best dishwasher arrangement:
Small bowls should stand at attention along the center of the top rack. Have the rear ones face forward and the front ones face backward so the center sprayer can reach them all.Place plastic containers and lids in the top rack. They melt or warp if they get too close to the super-heated underbelly.Line cutting boards and other flat pieces such as cookie sheets around the side or back edges of the lower drawer, facing inward. They won't block water flow, which shoots out from the center.There is no right way to place forks and spoons. Put them in the utensil basket at random to prevent nesting. Position dinner knives tip up, and keep sharp knives out altogether to avoid nicking yourself and dulling their blades.Dried messes on serving pieces and pots need the most intense spray power and heat. Put them face down or at a slight angle in the bottom rack.Secure coffee mugs and other narrow items face down in the outer channels of the top shelf. Position them between tines, not over, so food and soap don't get blasted inside. . . . If your household emphasizes "green" practices, you might have switched from paper towels to dish towels, or tea towels as they're often called. Debate rages over whether dish towels are more cost-effective and better for the environment than paper towels. Paper towels are more sanitary but fill up the trash. Cloth towels can be reused but are less sanitary, and laundering them requires soap, water and electricity. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends using paper towels to clean kitchen surfaces, then throwing the germs away with the towels. If you use cloth towels, the FDA says to launder them often in hot water. Don't dry your hands with a towel that was used to clean up meat, poultry or seafood juices. The raw juices may contain harmful bacteria that can spread to your hands and throughout the kitchen. Freshening drains and garbage disposals is a hot topic on homemaking blogs. One solution is to slowly pour a cup of coffee grounds, mixed with boiling water, down the drain to get rid of odors. But haven't we always been told not to put grounds down the drain? A home-repair expert on About.com said coffee grounds and eggshells shouldn't go into a disposal. They create tiny granular waste that will stick to sludge in the pipe and create a clog. As for the toothpaste tube, there are three types of squeezers: from the top near the nozzle, from the middle and rolling up from the bottom. The most practical way is to start squeezing from the bottom and roll it as you go up, pressing out air and getting every ounce of paste. But bottom-rolling a full tube sometimes results in a big blob firing out of the end, which is wasteful. Toothpaste manufacturers have attempted to address the tube dilemma with new packaging. Crest Cavity Protection Neat Squeeze Toothpaste, for example, has an inner bag that empties itself as you squeeze in the middle. When the package gets lighter and harder to squeeze, it's time to buy more.// var ranNum = Math.round(Math.random()*1000000); document.write('http://content.yellowbrix.com/images/content/cimage.nsp?ctype=full_story&story_id=148883409&id=thirdage&ip_id=McClatchy-Tribune+Business+News&source_id=Richmond+Times-Dispatch&category=General+Interest&random=' + (ranNum));// ]]>//
