Just had a lovely holiday on Arran with extended family. However one habit of theirs puzzles me – tea bags.

When I make tea. I put a tea bag in the mug, add hot water, leave to stew for the right time, then squeeze out the tea bag with the teaspoon and put it in the bin. Simple.

They do all that, apart from the last stage. Instead, the tea bags go in a saucer next to the kettle, in the sink, in an old pasta sauce jar on the shelf, pretty much anywhere apart from the bin.

Why? They don’t seem to get reused, just sit there until I crack and put them in the bin.

Bone idleness.

Next question?

Bone idleness.

I considered that – but the walk from the kettle to the sink is about 20 feet, and the bin is right next to the sink. And going to get an old pasta sauce jar doubles the journey as it needed to be collected from the draining board.

Saving them for compost heap?

I too have seen this phenomenon in other people’s houses … my parents do it. Their logic is that the teabags then magically migrate to a further composting receptacle and then to the actual compost heap … but for the most part they just kinda build up. Drives me nuts too 😉

In this house everyone puts em in the little sink, which is above a cubbyhole that has a bin in it, so it’s left to me to pick up a load of soggy tea bags and put em in the bin.. which is the same distance away from the kettle as the little sink..
You will read of a mother and son murder in Essex one day…

We’ve got a pile on the side of the sink covered in mould, must get round to shifting them ASAP.

our bins only get collected fortnightly and, because we recycle quite a lot, a bin bag in the kitchen takes at least that time to fill, so we prefer to let tea bags dry a bit before we bin them to try and prevent them going stinky which they would if they went in wet. Now that we have a food waste collection the funny little bags for food recycling (made of that curious material that feels a bit like the skin that peels when you get sunburnt) can’t cope well with with wet stuff, so for the same reason we let teabags dry a bit before we bin them.

Fortunately for anyone that would get all stabby under such circumstances – we don’t drink very much tea.

teabagging etiquette is a bit of a minefield – I tend not to get involved when I’m in someone else’s house

scaredypants – Member
teabagging etiquette is a bit of a minefield – I tend not to get involved when I’m in someone else’s hous

fnaar etc 😛

That’s it, al, open wide !

We’ve got a teapot shaped saucer specifically for this purpose

Yes I do that and put them all in the bin at the end of the day. I have no idea why 😯

They do all that, apart from the last stage. Instead, the tea bags go in a saucer next to the kettle, in the sink, in an old pasta sauce jar on the shelf, pretty much anywhere apart from the bin.

Sound related to me. Not too sure why I do it probably a combination of idleness and prevarication. At some level there’s a thought process that when I move teabag to bin I’m bound to leave streaks of tea on the front of the bin cupboard door or bin, so rather than face down this problem, I’ll sit down with a nice cup of tea instead.

My parents have a tea bag shaped saucer for this. My dad like to reuse the tea bags my mother doesn’t, but if my dad sees my mum putting a bag straight in the bin he moans so all tea bags are placed on the saucer then when he is not in the room placed in the compost bin. Politics of old couples.

I can’t believe it took so long for someone to mention the non-beverage kind! Have you all had to much sun today?

My Mums side of the family also re-use which I really don’t get.

We do have a tea bag/spoon rest by the kettle. Admittedly I am normally the one who puts them i the bin but i wait until they are all dry so there are no tea drips all the way to the bin across the other side of the kitchen, which uses old supermarket bags which have holes in so if we put wet bags in then we get tea sitting on the little drip/support tray under the bin bags.

Oh and in my flat I have a 1 & 1/2 sink which the OH always dumps the tea bags in. Drives be bloody mad!