A MAN who spends up to nine hours a day cleaning his kitchen and washes his face up to 20 times a day said he “can’t relax” his routine.
Pharmacy supervisor Amar, 35, says cleaning himself before he gets started on his home is all part of his daily ritual.
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“My cleaning routine starts with myself first, I wash my face up to 20 times a day,” he said.
He added: “It is like a meditation to me and it makes me feel happy wiping off negativity and bringing some positive changes in my house.”
The episode of Channel 4 TV series Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners discloses that a whopping 60% of men do not wash their hands after visiting the toilet, whereas Amar will do anything to keep his home germ-free.
“I try and get all the germs with the steamer, with the high steam I believe all the germs will be killed,” says Amar.
Amar, who has not been diagnosed with OCD, feels that the kitchen is his sanctuary and he spends the majority of his time cleaning it.
“In the past, I have spent up to nine hours cleaning my kitchen. You can spend even more than that, there is so much to do there.”
The episode also shows Amar cleaning the hob of his cooker with a bobby pin.
“You can see there is a little bit of dirt on there, not much because I clean it so regularly,” says Amar.
Refusing to wear gloves, Amar says that he prefers to clean with his bare hands so he can feel the dirt being removed from surfaces.
“I can actually feel the dirt coming off the things, then when I put my hands on it, it feels really great and it smells so good, you can smell Dettol so it’s amazing.”
Amar’s cleaning habits only started when he moved to the UK from India two years ago. His wife Nimrat says that his cleaning was fantastic before but now has got “a lot worse”.
Nimrat said: “He now uses cotton buds around the hobs, chopsticks down the drain, and it’s just getting ridiculous.”
“I think he just needs to calm down on the cleaning side, and just spend more time as a family,” she added.
Amar says that he knows what he is cleaning is already clean enough, but he cannot rest without performing his daily ritual.
“I don’t want to spend that much time in cleaning, but I have to, otherwise won’t have peace,” says Amar
Keen to help someone else with his cleaning skills, the post shows Amar travel 20 miles to South East London to help 66-year-old mother-of-three Sylvia clean her two-bedroom flat.
Sylvia has lived in the flat for over 25 years and the local poet, who often buys from charity shops or collects from skips has not thrown anything out in three years.
“I don’t enjoy cleaning, the microwave needs to be cleaned out. I know it’s too much and I should clear space. but I just find it difficult to do so” she said.
“I don’t want to spend that much time in cleaning, but I have to, otherwise won’t have peace”
Entering Sylvia’s home, Amar does not hold back on his shock at the current state of her home.
“There is no room for oxygen. no room, no light. This is too much. There is a big layer of dust everywhere, I cannot see one inch of tile that is not dirty” says Amar.
Entering the kitchen, which Sylvia warns him of, Amar is horrified by the unpleasant smell and covers his face with his hands.
“This is really really bad, the smell is so bad. The sponges in the sink have discoloured. This can be such a big source of germs I can’t tell you” he said.
Finally showing Amar the bathroom is shocked that a human could live in such conditions and reveals that Sylvia’s home is the uber-clean pharmacy supervisor’s worst nightmare.
“At home, I spend hours just to pick small little specs off the floor. Here not even one tile is clean. If I have to do the same thing here, it might take me a month just to clean the floor my way, it is so dirty” Amar said.
If interested in household hacks, check out this video on how to clean a rug with a saucepan lid.
If you are interested in this cleaning hack you may like this read on how mum shares how she gets rid of unpleasant bathroom smells.
If you like mum hacks that help organise your household you will love this piece on how to help kids hold on to their pen lids.
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