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Confessions of a Hotel Housekeeper "Instead of Vacuuming, I Picked Up Some Crumbs"
The best guests sleep in Three simple letters could inspire the "Hallelujah" chorus: DND, or do not disturb. One sign hanging on a doorknob, and the day's work was shortened by half an hour. Two signs? Pure heaven, but only if they remained there until my eight-hour shift ended—otherwise I'd have to circle back and clean the rooms. My daily list of 15 rooms (out of 325 in the hotel) consisted of DOs (due out) and Os (occupied), which in housekeeping lingo meant the guests were scheduled to check out or were staying another night. An occupied room was less labor-intensive (making the beds rather than changing the sheets saved me 20 minutes), but there was always the possibility the guest would stay in the room while you worked. One man watched me clean his entire room, from scrubbing the toilet to emptying the trash—and told me at the end that I was "building character." Condescension is not nearly as encouraging to a maid as a couple of dollars. As long as it looked clean I cut corners everywhere I could. Instead of vacuuming, I found that just picking up the larger crumbs from the carpet would do. Rather than scrub the tub with hot water, sometimes it was just a spray-and-wipe kind of day. After several weeks on the job, I discovered that the staff leader who inspected the rooms couldn't tell the difference between a clean sink and one that was simply dry, so I would often just run a rag over the wet spots. But I never skipped changing the sheets. I wouldn't sink that low, no matter how lazy I was feeling. A bacterial wonderland I was disgusted by the many guests I came in contact with through the things they left behind: the hairs on the pillow, the urine on the toilet seat, the half-eaten cookie, the stained sheets. One woman had soiled her sheets so thoroughly that we had to toss them in a biohazard bag—they could never be used again. Rooms where young kids stayed were the worst, with food ground into the carpet and piles of used diapers in the trash. That kind of demoralizing mess could take 45 minutes to clean up. Most maids wore rubber gloves when they worked, but mine were too big, so I discarded them. Unsurprisingly, I got the flu twice. Not for love — or money I didn't know maids received tips, so it took me weeks to realize that the coins left in rooms were an intentional gift. My tips were paltry: I almost never received more than $1, and at times guests left religious pamphlets. One day, however, I was shocked to find a crisp $100 bill lying on a table. Although the generous tip put a little spring in my step and compelled me to do a better job that day, it didn't change my work ethic for long. I apologize to you now if you ever stayed in one of my rooms. You deserved better. But if housekeepers were paid more than minimum wage—and the tips were a bit better—I might have cleaned your toilet rather than just flushed it. | |
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ummm..nice
Never sleep in the blankets, just the sheets.... Say it's just a dream...
U open up ur eyes and come 2 realize u simply imagined this So u lean over and give her a kiss Here on earth, here on earth, with u it's not so bad Here on earth, here on earth eye don't feel so sad Stay right here | |
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Confessions Of... A Vegas Massage Therapist
'A classy spa doesn't guarantee classy clients' Our anonymous confessor has been a massage therapist for six years, including the past three at a spa inside a premier hotel in Las Vegas. A spa is not a "massage parlor" The most common question massage therapists get asked is whether we are propositioned. Being a professional, I usually give a vague answer and move on. The truth is, it happens all the time. Las Vegas is a place where people feel they can disregard boundaries, but if you get a massage in a spa at a major hotel, rest assured your therapist is not a prostitute. The insinuation is a huge insult. That hasn't stopped people from making offers ("I'll give you $100 to finish me off"), exposing or even touching themselves, or grabbing me. If you do anything along these lines, realize that everyone on the hotel staff will know about it before you've left the spa, that your massage will come to an abrupt, unhappy ending--and yes, you will pay for the full hour! Hygiene, hygiene, hygiene We are happy to massage you after you've spent two hours in the gym...once you've showered. If you have something contagious, such as athlete's foot, disclose it up front. Likewise, it is never OK to come in for a massage in the throes of the flu. Your body aches and a massage sounds heavenly, but it's wrong to expose your therapist and other guests to a disease. We are paid a commission for each massage, and when we're sick, we have no income. And FYI: Your flu symptoms will feel much worse in the hours following a massage. Common courtesy You're sharing the facilities with others, so shut off your cell phone. And due to the revolting behavior we sometimes witness, it needs to be said: Don't be disgusting. I'll skip the graphic details, but suffice it to say guests have done things in the showers and the whirlpool that are so unsanitary it's necessary to shut them down. A classy spa doesn't guarantee classy clients. Tips are not comped Hotels offer high rollers complimentary gifts, or comps, in the form of casino credits, rides in hotel limos, meals, and spa treatments. The comp covers the service, not gratuities. Tips are a big part of our income, and it baffles us when comped guests fail to tip. What's $25 when you've just had a $120 massage at no cost? (The standard tip is around 20 percent, preferably in cash or casino chips, and you can put it in an envelope at check-out or hand it directly to us, whichever you prefer. Tipping with a credit card is typically fine, but some spas add tips to our paychecks and deduct taxes.) Beware that some spas automatically add a gratuity to non-comped guest bills. The spa should disclose this when your appointment is booked and again upon check-in. However, if you really appreciate the work (say, the migraine that's been plaguing you disappears) give a little extra. Only part of the automatic gratuity makes it into my hands; the rest is spread among changing room attendants and the concierge. When we say deep... Many guests, men in particular, don't think a woman can give a good deep-tissue massage. They'll even cause a stink when there's no male therapist available. Big mistake. That female therapist will likely go to the extreme and give you a painfully deep massage. (We know what hurts.) The guest usually whines that the pressure is too much-or is too macho to admit it, and spends what should be a blissful hour in wretched discomfort. For that matter, guests who try to direct their therapist's every move will likely end up disappointed. Have faith that your therapist is qualified to know what needs work and what doesn't. | |
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How clean is your hotel room?
By Josh Sens They bid her good night, told her to sleep tight, but neglected to mention the bedbugs that bite. Erin Sturges woke the next morning, after itching all night, in her rented room in a well-known motel chain. Red bumps developed on her neck and face a week later. Her skin was crawling— and so was something on the sheets. "Bugs," says Sturges, a sales representative who lives in Berkeley, Calif. "It was like something out of Stephen King. I wanted to scream." Sturges complained to the manager, who reimbursed her for her room but not for her visit to the doctor. She had contracted scabies, not to mention a case of the heebie-jeebies that lingers to this day. "Now when I'm traveling I can't help wondering," Sturges says, "how clean, really, is this room?" It's a question that occurs to many of us when we pull off the road and stop for the night. Sure, lots of places leave the light on. But how can we really tell if they've changed the sheets? The short answer is we can't. There are no specific cleanliness standards issued by most counties or cities, though many states do have health requirements. In California, for example, if a hotel or motel lacks sufficient lighting, windows, or heating or is infested by vermin, it can in theory be shut down. Enforcement is another matter. There's no one-stop shop that regulates hotels and motels by cleanliness alone. "A lot of it is guest driven," says Jim Abrams, president of the California Hotel & Lodging Association. "The marketplace often dictates what a hotel does." So do common sense and common decency. It's standard practice, Abrams says, for hotels and motels to wash and change sheets between guest stays. (In some states, it's also the law.) Vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, providing fresh towels—all are a widespread part of daily routine, according to Abrams. They are, for example, at the Renaissance Parc 55 in San Francisco, where director of housekeeping Jeanne Gafar says her staff regularly cleans curtains and wipes down counters and telephones with disinfectant; bedspreads are washed at least 10 times a year. Other hotels contacted for this story said they do the same. "We also pay very close attention to what guests tell us," Gafar says. "We read those little cards for their suggestions and complaints." Hotels that ask for feedback might not always like what they hear. Ten years ago Chuck Gerba, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Arizona, conducted a study of hotel cleanliness. The results? Well, let's just say that bacteria you'd expect to find in the toilet often turned up on the TV remote control. "Generally, what we found is that the more you paid for your room," Gerba says, "the better the chance it was going to be clean. There's a direct relationship." It's possible, Gerba says, to catch an unfriendly bug from a dirty hotel room—but you're unlikely to get anything much worse than a stomachache or a cold. Just to be safe, Gerba travels with disinfecting wipes so that he can clean surfaces on the spot. Travelers who don't feel like going to that trouble should consult guidebooks like those put out by AAA, whose hotel ratings are based in part on cleanliness. To qualify for a single diamond in AAA's One Diamond to Five Diamond rating system, a hotel must meet "basic cleanliness standards," says Kelly Bell, the California State Automobile Association's manager of approved accommodations. That means vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, and changing sheets regularly, especially between guests. "If it meets our standards," Bell says, "that doesn't mean you're never going to find a hair in the sink or crumbs under the bed. But it does mean we think the place is pretty clean." Even so, Bell admits, the first thing he does when he checks into a room is pull the bedspread off the bed. "Are you kidding?" he says. "You never know what people have done on those things." | |
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Yuck.
 | |
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"bedspreads are washed at least 10 times a year"
What the fuck???  I travel with clorox wipes and go over most surfaces when I walk in. But there's nothing you can do about the bed.  | |
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SCNDLS said: How clean is your hotel room?
By Josh Sens They bid her good night, told her to sleep tight, but neglected to mention the bedbugs that bite. Erin Sturges woke the next morning, after itching all night, in her rented room in a well-known motel chain. Red bumps developed on her neck and face a week later. Her skin was crawling— and so was something on the sheets. "Bugs," says Sturges, a sales representative who lives in Berkeley, Calif. "It was like something out of Stephen King. I wanted to scream." Sturges complained to the manager, who reimbursed her for her room but not for her visit to the doctor. She had contracted scabies, not to mention a case of the heebie-jeebies that lingers to this day. "Now when I'm traveling I can't help wondering," Sturges says, "how clean, really, is this room?" It's a question that occurs to many of us when we pull off the road and stop for the night. Sure, lots of places leave the light on. But how can we really tell if they've changed the sheets? The short answer is we can't. There are no specific cleanliness standards issued by most counties or cities, though many states do have health requirements. In California, for example, if a hotel or motel lacks sufficient lighting, windows, or heating or is infested by vermin, it can in theory be shut down. Enforcement is another matter. There's no one-stop shop that regulates hotels and motels by cleanliness alone. "A lot of it is guest driven," says Jim Abrams, president of the California Hotel & Lodging Association. "The marketplace often dictates what a hotel does." So do common sense and common decency. It's standard practice, Abrams says, for hotels and motels to wash and change sheets between guest stays. (In some states, it's also the law.) Vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, providing fresh towels—all are a widespread part of daily routine, according to Abrams. They are, for example, at the Renaissance Parc 55 in San Francisco, where director of housekeeping Jeanne Gafar says her staff regularly cleans curtains and wipes down counters and telephones with disinfectant; bedspreads are washed at least 10 times a year. Other hotels contacted for this story said they do the same. "We also pay very close attention to what guests tell us," Gafar says. "We read those little cards for their suggestions and complaints." Hotels that ask for feedback might not always like what they hear. Ten years ago Chuck Gerba, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Arizona, conducted a study of hotel cleanliness. The results? Well, let's just say that bacteria you'd expect to find in the toilet often turned up on the TV remote control. "Generally, what we found is that the more you paid for your room," Gerba says, "the better the chance it was going to be clean. There's a direct relationship." It's possible, Gerba says, to catch an unfriendly bug from a dirty hotel room—but you're unlikely to get anything much worse than a stomachache or a cold. Just to be safe, Gerba travels with disinfecting wipes so that he can clean surfaces on the spot. Travelers who don't feel like going to that trouble should consult guidebooks like those put out by AAA, whose hotel ratings are based in part on cleanliness. To qualify for a single diamond in AAA's One Diamond to Five Diamond rating system, a hotel must meet "basic cleanliness standards," says Kelly Bell, the California State Automobile Association's manager of approved accommodations. That means vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, and changing sheets regularly, especially between guests. "If it meets our standards," Bell says, "that doesn't mean you're never going to find a hair in the sink or crumbs under the bed. But it does mean we think the place is pretty clean." Even so, Bell admits, the first thing he does when he checks into a room is pull the bedspread off the bed. "Are you kidding?" he says. "You never know what people have done on those things." damn, i'll be buying a blacklight now! | |
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SCNDLS said: "bedspreads are washed at least 10 times a year"
What the fuck??? I travel with clorox wipes and go over most surfaces when I walk in. But there's nothing you can do about the bed. yea that got me 2, damn! sleeping bag perhaps and own pillow? one of those inflatable beds? | |
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missmad said: SCNDLS said: How clean is your hotel room?
By Josh Sens They bid her good night, told her to sleep tight, but neglected to mention the bedbugs that bite. Erin Sturges woke the next morning, after itching all night, in her rented room in a well-known motel chain. Red bumps developed on her neck and face a week later. Her skin was crawling— and so was something on the sheets. "Bugs," says Sturges, a sales representative who lives in Berkeley, Calif. "It was like something out of Stephen King. I wanted to scream." Sturges complained to the manager, who reimbursed her for her room but not for her visit to the doctor. She had contracted scabies, not to mention a case of the heebie-jeebies that lingers to this day. "Now when I'm traveling I can't help wondering," Sturges says, "how clean, really, is this room?" It's a question that occurs to many of us when we pull off the road and stop for the night. Sure, lots of places leave the light on. But how can we really tell if they've changed the sheets? The short answer is we can't. There are no specific cleanliness standards issued by most counties or cities, though many states do have health requirements. In California, for example, if a hotel or motel lacks sufficient lighting, windows, or heating or is infested by vermin, it can in theory be shut down. Enforcement is another matter. There's no one-stop shop that regulates hotels and motels by cleanliness alone. "A lot of it is guest driven," says Jim Abrams, president of the California Hotel & Lodging Association. "The marketplace often dictates what a hotel does." So do common sense and common decency. It's standard practice, Abrams says, for hotels and motels to wash and change sheets between guest stays. (In some states, it's also the law.) Vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, providing fresh towels—all are a widespread part of daily routine, according to Abrams. They are, for example, at the Renaissance Parc 55 in San Francisco, where director of housekeeping Jeanne Gafar says her staff regularly cleans curtains and wipes down counters and telephones with disinfectant; bedspreads are washed at least 10 times a year. Other hotels contacted for this story said they do the same. "We also pay very close attention to what guests tell us," Gafar says. "We read those little cards for their suggestions and complaints." Hotels that ask for feedback might not always like what they hear. Ten years ago Chuck Gerba, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Arizona, conducted a study of hotel cleanliness. The results? Well, let's just say that bacteria you'd expect to find in the toilet often turned up on the TV remote control. "Generally, what we found is that the more you paid for your room," Gerba says, "the better the chance it was going to be clean. There's a direct relationship." It's possible, Gerba says, to catch an unfriendly bug from a dirty hotel room—but you're unlikely to get anything much worse than a stomachache or a cold. Just to be safe, Gerba travels with disinfecting wipes so that he can clean surfaces on the spot. Travelers who don't feel like going to that trouble should consult guidebooks like those put out by AAA, whose hotel ratings are based in part on cleanliness. To qualify for a single diamond in AAA's One Diamond to Five Diamond rating system, a hotel must meet "basic cleanliness standards," says Kelly Bell, the California State Automobile Association's manager of approved accommodations. That means vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, and changing sheets regularly, especially between guests. "If it meets our standards," Bell says, "that doesn't mean you're never going to find a hair in the sink or crumbs under the bed. But it does mean we think the place is pretty clean." Even so, Bell admits, the first thing he does when he checks into a room is pull the bedspread off the bed. "Are you kidding?" he says. "You never know what people have done on those things." damn, i'll be buying a blacklight now! | |
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my grandma was a maid at a casino motel in nevada for 15 years. and she always cleaned the rooms from top to bottom. but she said her co-workers always skipped cleaning floors, etc... | |
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SCNDLS said: "Generally, what we found is that the more you paid for your room," Gerba says, "the better the chance it was going to be clean. There's a direct relationship."
there's a reason. they have more money to pay more housekeeping staff. more staff means you can spend more time per room. i haven't cleaned in a hotel but at the lakeside cabin resort it was a major rush to get done!! if you ran into a dirty cabin (and there were some nasty ones) there was no way you could get all the cabins done before check in. and people were very grumpy when their cabin wasn't ready! things that i do now when staying in a hotel i don't make the bed. that shit drove me nuts. takes longer to tear it apart when the guest has made it up. if there is a lot of takeout boxes and stuff... at least consolidate it so it's not spread all over the room when i leave i put every towel i've touched in the tub. don't make her guess. or pick up all over the room. that's the time waster. i leave a hair in the shower. even if it's a spray and wipe day it will be noticed if it didn't get done.  She couldn't stop crying 'cause she knew he was gone to stay | |
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SCNDLS said: "bedspreads are washed at least 10 times a year"
What the fuck??? I travel with clorox wipes and go over most surfaces when I walk in. But there's nothing you can do about the bed. I usually pack my own blanket - like usually always  | |
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Oh and I ALWAYS take my own pillow and face wash cloths
I am not washing myself with a rag some olf fart drug through his ass  - I don't care how much bleach they use | |
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SCNDLS said: missmad said: damn, i'll be buying a blacklight now! thanks hun that was gross, yuck. | |
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missmad said: SCNDLS said: thanks hun that was gross, yuck.  Anytime!  | |
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SCNDLS said: missmad said: thanks hun that was gross, yuck. Anytime!  lol | |
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My Mom taught us to bring a can of Lysol with us. She sprays EVERYTHING as soon as she gets there. "Love Hurts. Your lies, they cut me. Now your words don't mean a thing. I don't give a damn if you ever loved me..." -Cher, "Woman's World" | |
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Mach said: Oh and I ALWAYS take my own pillow and face wash cloths
I am not washing myself with a rag some olf fart drug through his ass - I don't care how much bleach they use You sound like me, I take my own towels too. I have found that the towels that they give you to use in a hotel are usually the cheap, paper-thin kind. RIP, mom. I will forever miss and love you. | |
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One time my mom was in NY on business, and I went and stayed with her one or two nights. The maid left us a thank you note for keeping our room so neat and clean! The check. The string he dropped. The Mona Lisa. The musical notes taken out of a hat. The glass. The toy shotgun painting. The things he found. Therefore, everything seen–every object, that is, plus the process of looking at it–is a Duchamp. | |
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amorbella said: ummm..nice
Never sleep in the blankets, just the sheets.... that's so true.... i could never get the head housekeeper to ok to wash the blankets or bedspreads ESPECIALLY if they didn't LOOK dirty.. there were ones i swear were definately dirty enough,and i usually got 'we don't have time, or there's nobody to wash'..seemed easy to me to load up the washer and get it started 
the sheets are the cleanest thing on the bed...and if they're NOT....   'why y'all trying to say goodbye? I didn't go anywhere, I'm right here, im all around you,always..'
in a line from my dream, I heard a voice and saw a silhouette in a chair.. | |
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peb319 said: amorbella said: ummm..nice
Never sleep in the blankets, just the sheets.... that's so true.... i could never get the head housekeeper to ok to wash the blankets or bedspreads ESPECIALLY if they didn't LOOK dirty.. there were ones i swear were definately dirty enough,and i usually got 'we don't have time, or there's nobody to wash'..seemed easy to me to load up the washer and get it started
the sheets are the cleanest thing on the bed...and if they're NOT.... | |
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SCNDLS said: peb319 said: that's so true.... i could never get the head housekeeper to ok to wash the blankets or bedspreads ESPECIALLY if they didn't LOOK dirty.. there were ones i swear were definately dirty enough,and i usually got 'we don't have time, or there's nobody to wash'..seemed easy to me to load up the washer and get it started
the sheets are the cleanest thing on the bed...and if they're NOT.... even worse are the rooms guests are allowed to smoke in...i could not detect any regular washing of the bedspreads or blankets from those rooms..and you know after awhile i was sent to do rooms in the non-smoking buildings..i have also seen how others don't do the cleaning..like when they decide oh i don't have much to do in this room...i was always getting asked what was taking me so long to do my rooms...how do you tell the manager the others are lazy?? oh yeah.. i don't know how to put it..
i always saw something in nearly every room that seemed like it hadn't been cleaned in a long time....i'm not one who could look beyond it...i did however, get tired of doing part of someone's job all the time.. at the end i got all of the stayover cleans..cleaning the rooms of guests staying long-term...  i can't really even express it right..
they were studio rooms so they had stove top and jr. fridges..and those fridges were so bad..the shelves would be stuck..and by just looking you really couldn't see it..i usually pulled on the shelf to check it... almost always.....could be cleaner.. 'why y'all trying to say goodbye? I didn't go anywhere, I'm right here, im all around you,always..'
in a line from my dream, I heard a voice and saw a silhouette in a chair.. | |
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SCNDLS said: "bedspreads are washed at least 10 times a year"
What the fuck??? I travel with clorox wipes and go over most surfaces when I walk in. But there's nothing you can do about the bed. Diana Ross travels with antibacterial wipes AND Ajax. She she said scrubs down her own hotel tub on arrival ev-er-y city she visits. After reading that article sounds like a safe bet to me:lol: | |
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Mach said: Oh and I ALWAYS take my own pillow and face wash cloths
I am not washing myself with a rag some olf fart drug through his ass - I don't care how much bleach they useYou mean none of you guys steal the towels and washcloths?  I thought everyone did that.
Who has? I know you're out there.  
 "Let love be your perfect weapon..." ~~Andy Biersack | |
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noimageatall said: Mach said: Oh and I ALWAYS take my own pillow and face wash cloths
I am not washing myself with a rag some olf fart drug through his ass - I don't care how much bleach they useYou mean none of you guys steal the towels and washcloths? I thought everyone did that.
Who has? I know you're out there.
 "We may deify or demonize them but not ignore them. And we call them genius, because they are the people who change the world." |
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Ottensen said: SCNDLS said: "bedspreads are washed at least 10 times a year"
What the fuck??? I travel with clorox wipes and go over most surfaces when I walk in. But there's nothing you can do about the bed. Diana Ross travels with antibacterial wipes AND Ajax. She she said scrubs down her own hotel tub on arrival ev-er-y city she visits. After reading that article sounds like a safe bet to me:lol: I've never understood who the hell would sit their ass down in a hotel tub???? When there are scenes like that in movies it totally disgusts and distracts me. WTF????  | |
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noimageatall said: Mach said: Oh and I ALWAYS take my own pillow and face wash cloths
I am not washing myself with a rag some olf fart drug through his ass - I don't care how much bleach they useYou mean none of you guys steal the towels and washcloths? I thought everyone did that.
Who has? I know you're out there.
I have, but I use them on my dogs. | |
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OK, sorry i read this thread after eating breakfast.
 | |
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bboy87 said: noimageatall said: You mean none of you guys steal the towels and washcloths? I thought everyone did that.
Who has? I know you're out there.
"Let love be your perfect weapon..." ~~Andy Biersack | |
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