The Big Debate… Mug Orientation

I’ve been co-habiting with my Other Half for around a year now, and everything is mostly going well apart from one major problem that neither of us can compromise on.

She likes to put mugs in the cupboard upside-down, whereas I like to put them in the correct way – Right-way up.

This came to a head this weekend when I took my favourite mug down from the cupboard and sprinkled a heaped spoonful of coffee all over the upturned base.

She claims that putting them in stops spiders, flies and other debris falling into the mugs…

I’ve pointed out that there’s not much ‘debris’, or flies and spiders in there (that is why we have cupboards), and that if she’s claiming to do it for health reasons, I don’t think it’s healthy to put a clean, freshly washed mug lip on a cupboard that might only get wiped clean every few months!

I also object to the 2 completely unnecessary movements required to a) turn the mug upside-down, and b) to turn it the right way up again (particularly difficult when taking 2 or 3 mugs down in one go).

So can we have a quick show of hands so I can prove to her that she’s completely wrong?

Ours are the right way up, this makes stacking easier. There are no other reasons for this decision.

You’re right.

Right way up, so that the rim doesn’t pick up dirt off the shelf.

Maybe she cleans the shelves every day? I don’t!

Mods, can we close this thread while the result is unanimously in my favour? Hopefully she can be persuaded to toe the line from now on… 😉

Right way up.

My wife has the strange habit of sporadically hiding Cadbury Creme Eggs in the mugs in the cupboard so there is the occasional bonus available for using a rarely employed mug.

She is correct. Upside down to prevent spider ingress and to allow stacking in an overlapping brickwork style

You’ve put up with this for a year!!!

Perchy’s wife sounds like a proper keeper… Has she got any sisters?.. Daughters? 😉

As a single bloke, I can confidently assert that wiping cupboard shelves every few months is obsessive. Whichever way up, the mugs go back in their own gunge-free islands of cleanliness.

Upside down.

Because of reasons.

Perchy’s wife sounds like a proper keeper… Has she got any sisters?.. Daughters?

She’s an only child.
Our daughter isn’t old enough to reach the top shelf of the cupboard yet.

Apparently, the Creme Egg in the mug thing is to stop them rolling out of the biscuit cupboard……but then they get forgotten.

Right way up…. Wrong way up means the lip of the mug can taste funny if not used for a long time….. The laminate is made of plastic and if no laminate, but proper wood then you have the varnish/lacquer.

She is right. If the cupboard is grimy as you say then hole down prevents dust getting into things. If its spotless as you say then what are you worrying about? Removal is a matter of wrist action. That slick twist to turn the mug hole up is excellent exercise for the wrists which can become very inflexible when cycling.
Mugs the correct way also collect other things (such as crème eggs) To add coffee and hot water to that would be so wrong. To check it first is a waste of time.
As for a mug stand!!! An abomination as all horizontal surfaces should be empty unless in immediate and temporary use.

Now then, Hexhamstu raises an interesting issue… I presume that hideous device is for storing mugs outside of the cupboard? Hmmm?

Well, if that were the case, my wonderful girlfriend’s arguments about fly/spider and debris ingress become worryingly valid.

So that abomination couldn’t be any more wrong if it tried!

The answer is to get lids for your mugs. Just stock up on these. Everyone’s a winner.

So that abomination couldn’t be any more wrong if it tried!

Yes it could. If one of those mugs had a Creme Egg in it you’d spot it from a mile off.

Takes the element of surprise out of it.

This came to a head this weekend when I took my favourite mug down from the cupboard and sprinkled a heaped spoonful of coffee all over the upturned base.

Nobody has picked up on the use of instant coffee!!!?
I can’t even read the rest of the post 🙂

Mine are all gay.

An abomination as all horizontal surfaces should be empty unless in immediate and temporary use.

We have an obsessive tidier in the area.

This came to a head this weekend when I took my favourite mug down from the cupboard and sprinkled a heaped spoonful of coffee all over the upturned base.

TBF I think the problem lies with the op’s eyes!

Nobody has picked up on the use of instant coffee!!!?

He had a narrow escape

We’re controversial, the mugs are piled on top of each other with the lower mug “opening down” and the upper mug “opening up”

I’m not sure what that says about us really…!

K. M. Hmmm, Kill me?

Nobody has picked up on the use of instant coffee!!!?

It might be Douwe Egberts. That’s ok right?….right? Hello? Anyone there?!?!?!?!

It’s a matter of probability.

If the cupboards are crawling with beasties, the shelf surface is going to be awash with fly and spider aids, so sliding the mug rim around on that is definitely going to be bad for you vs. the small chance that a beasty will end up in the mug itself if it’s the right way up.

And if the cupboard is clean and well sealed, nothing bad’s going to get in there anyway.

So right way up.

Unless they’re out on a shelf, anywhere near the hob, in which case they’ll get oil film in them. Then they should be upside down and the surface wiped regularly, and then rinsed, cos Mr Muscles’s even worse for you than spiders.

Jebus, the KM-mug-tree/kitchen-roll-dildo is just horrific! I’m guessing GCSE CDT?

And yes, I’m happy to admit to using Alta Rica when pushed for time…

Right way up.
Stacking not an issue because they can either go brick style or inside depending on the mug.

Upside down is ridiculous – ever tasted a drink from a glass or similar thats been put away anything other than 100% dry?
Gopping!

She needs a good hoof in the slats then a stiff talking to over the worktop whilst showing her the cupboard in question, pointing out the correct layout by pulling her head back using her hair so she can see up into the aforementioned cupboard.

If she’s not amenable to that then its a new username and a “what tyres for divorce on unreasonable grounds” thread.

Hold on, you clean you cupboards every few months. Am i a dirty devil having only cleaned them every couple of years?

Oh, and i’m not fussed which way they go. I just stuff um in.

We are an up household. When my inlaws come they put the mugs back in the cupboard the wrong way up. If you knew my inlaws this would all you would need to know about why upside down is just wrong.

My issue is Mrs C’s insistence that some mugs are for coffee, some for tea and some for hot water & lemon or camomile etc. This is not because the different drinks taint each other, oh no. It’s because some drinks ‘just don’t taste right’ in mugs with the wrong graphics on the outside. A mug with a blue print for example is not correct with coffee. I despair!

She needs a good hoof in the slats then a stiff talking to over the worktop whilst showing her the cupboard in question, pointing out the correct layout by pulling her head back using her hair so she can see up into the aforementioned cupboard.

Hammy, she’s a Police Officer… Every now and again, they have refresher courses where they learn the latest self defence and detention techniques… She often comes home and tells me about a new pressure point hold they’ve learnt and says “here, let me show you” before rendering me a whimpering cripple curled up on the floor crying like a Perchy’s daughter who can’t reach her Cadbury’s Cream Egg…

I’m under no illusion… She’s not showing me this because she thinks I’ll be interested in the “Helsinki Paralysis Chokehold”, oh no, she’s showing me in so much as to say “Listen pal, you ever try and stop me from putting my mugs upside down, and this is what will happen..”

You know those “Family Days” that the force have?
They are quite handy 😉
Plus as her spouse you can go along to training days and get taught all those things she does too…..
Failing that – she has handcuffs right?
Be a shame if she woke up with her hands behind her back whilst you showed her how to stack the mugs…
From behind….

I like the cut of your jib… Although she has a long memory and I’d hate to wake up somewhere down the line wondering how her side-handled baton managed to get that far up!

K. M. Hmmm, Kill me?

KM = King Mugrack 😉

I think when it comes to mug orientation ,Yaz and her Plastic Population said it best.

OP
I bet your OH does back rolling when she changes a loo roll.

SpecSavers?

I bet your OH does back rolling when she changes a loo roll.

Thankfully, we sing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to toilet roll hanging…

We did have to have words when she started buying quilted toilet paper though – I tried to explain that it “lacked feel” by using the “rigid hardtail” analogy…

Let’s just say it fell on deaf ears… 🙁

Just had a quick check. It appears I swing both ways.

You are right. Maybe get some of these mugs and watch her try and do her deviant mug stacking?

You could also paint the mug shelf with that stuff people use to stop themselves chewing their nails. Or picolax. Your correct mugs would be fine, she would learn the error of her ways through practical demonstration that upside down mugs pick up nasty shite on the rim.