When the subject of cleaning your bedding comes up, opinions can vary. Some people, like Stacey Solomon, wash their bedding once a week, while others wash it once every two weeks or so. But, everyone would agree that a century is simply too long, let alone years, then decades, and so on. That wasn't the case, though, for Cornelia Bayley, whose bedding was estimated to be 100 years old, yet had never been washed.
Her house was featured on an episode of Channel 4's Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners in 2013, according to the Mirror, and the hosts called it their "greatest challenge yet." Aged 74 at the time of the show, the retired antiques dealer was struggling to maintain the 10-bedroom Grade I listed 17th century manor in north Wales by herself. She enlisted the help of cleaning obsessives Hayley and Dann.
An eye-opening confession which left both the cleaners stunned was that Cornelia had never washed her bedding or mattress – which is believed to be 100 years old. After being shown the bedroom, Hayley asked: "Cornelia, when was the bedding last washed," to which she replied: "Never".
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Hayley added: "It's never been washed? What about the mattress? Do you clean the mattresses?" Dan then asked: "How old is the mattress," to which Cornelia replied: "It could be 100 years old, or something. You know, this is how people used to live years ago – and I still live like that."
The one restriction Cornelia had was that neither Dan nor Hayley could use any cleaning supplies. Instead, they could only make use of water and a sponge. When Cornelia said this, Hayley asked: "It doesn't kill the bacteria then, does it?" to which the homeowner replied: "The bacteria can live here, I couldn't care less."
Looking back on her experience in the house in a YouTube video in 2020, mum-of-three Cornelia said she had a "bit of a breakdown inside" when she was told she could only use water. She added: "That was the first hurdle for me, and instantly I was like, 'This is going to go downhill very, very quickly'.
"Because I was thinking in my mind things like, 'How am I gonna get these toilets clean? What am I gonna use to clean the sink drains and put down the drains and stuff?'".
After scrubbing everything with water - and a little bit of washing up liquid - Cornelia said she was "happy" with all the pair's hard work. Plas Teg is currently closed to the public while they complete structural repairs, but Cornelia still lives there.
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