Woman Boiled Period-Stained Knickers In Hotel Kettle To Clean Them

PA/whymummydrinks/Twitter

A woman caught out of the blue by her period while travelling has shared her unconventional method to clean her pants – boil them in the hotel kettle.

Unsurprisingly, people are horrified to discover a hotel amenity would be used for this particular purpose.

However, the idea people wash their underwear in kettles started to circulate on Twitter a while back in 2017.

As it turns out, people actually put their dirty underwear in actual kettles to clean them. Twitter user @whymummydrinks shared the unnamed woman’s social media post, asking why she wouldn’t rinse them in a sink ‘like a normal f*cking person’.

whymummydrinks/Twitter

The woman claims that it’s a ‘quick, fast and hygienic’ way to wash them – the Twitter-sphere isn’t convinced. The responses to the tweet have not been sympathetic to the woman, most describing their horror at the fact they’ll never use a hotel kettle again, and others questioning why she wouldn’t have packed spare pants.

Regarding the topic of kettle-washing, Gizmodo spoke to Dr Heather Hendrickson is a Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biosciences at the Institute of Natural and Mathematical Sciences at Massey University in Auckland, who said it’s ‘super, super, super, super gross’.

Dr Hendrickson explained that while boiling helps remove most microorganisms, some bacteria form spores that are highly resistant to anything other than 120°C and high pressure for prolonged periods of time.

As reported by Gizmodo, Dr Hendrickson said: 

These don’t cause sickness if they are consumed, but their presence in certain environments can encourage them to produce a toxin that can be deadly.

While bacterial pathogens in water will either be killed by boiling or brought to such a level that it’s unlikely to affect someone’s health, it’s still too much of a risk.

Dr Hendrickson added:

However, who knows how long that water, with nutrients that have been introduced and then sterilised, sits around in the kettle before someone else uses it? There are simply too many unknowns and hotel kettles are not industrial strength cleaning facilities. Be respectful of other people and don’t do this!

The next time you arrive at a hotel, parched after a day of travelling, maybe think twice about boiling that kettle.

If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via [email protected]

Cameron Frew

After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.