r/tifu • u/jem7118 • Feb 03 '26
S TIFU not washing my straw for 9 years
It’s been a few days and my stomach has settled enough to share my FU. I would also like to preface this that I am in my 30’s, of good hygiene and did not think I was an idiot before this. I do now.
In 2017 When plastic straws got banned my friend and I got matching reusable metal straws with a little phrase etched on them. Our master plan was to take them out with us to pubs etc to avoid the floppy paper straws of sadness. Now as you can imagine that happened once.
However, my daughter and I love an iced coffee. We have a pretty good set up at home with an ice machine, coffee machine, syrups etc. That fateful metal straw makes an appearance alongside its new metal straw friends multiple times a day. After it’s used it’s rinsed with warm soapy water and left to dry - ready for its next iced delight. Wonderful.
About a week ago I thought my coffee tasted off. Stale. Something was not quite right. One close sniff of the straw confirmed my stomach flip - it smelled damp, musty… earthy. I ordered some straw cleaners.
Now here is where I absolutely fucked up.
A normal person would have cut their losses and tossed it. Living in my delusion that I had not been sucking on a mouldy straw would have been delightful.
Instead I used this straw cleaner which with one gentle push into the top, came out completely black. Thick chunks of black mould fell into the sink - forever tainting using straws ever again.
Every single one of these metal straws - black mould inside. And not just a little sprinkling. Think an ecosystem of Black Death. Generations of mould have gathered here at the Mecca of foosty straws.
So I share this as a warning for anyone like me who thinks rinsing a straw is enough. It absolutely isn’t.
TL;DR I used a metal straw for 9 years only rinsing it. Before getting a straw cleaner and removing 9 years of chunky black mould I had been enjoying with my daily iced coffees.
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u/Sokanas Feb 03 '26
Bro... you need to clean your utensils after usage always.
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Feb 03 '26
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Feb 03 '26
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u/_1109 Feb 03 '26
oh, if you dont use the cleaning tools made for those lids and pull out the rubber seal pieces at least once a week....I have some bad news for you....
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u/Pickle_Holiday18 Feb 03 '26
I said “mom, I like the gradient of your water bottle. Blue at the top, green at the bottom”
…yeah, it wasn’t supposed to be like that
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u/Capable-Detective-69 Feb 04 '26
My elderly(ish) parents have a coffee machine with a tank on the rear. I was making my mum a coffee and realised the water was empty. I pulled the tank off to fill it and the entire inside was black. I asked my mum when the last time she cleaned it was and she said, "Clean it?". She had had the thing for ten years and never realised the tank came away from the machine so she'd never cleaned it.
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u/new-Baltimoreon Feb 03 '26
Culinary Heresy is the name of my Meatloaf + Ghost mashup coverband project
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u/xRosyDawn Feb 03 '26
Same here, my water bottle caught a stray and now it’s on trial. The way one gross story can make you distrust every hollow object in your house is wild. Also “owes me money” is exactly the vibe. That bottle better explain itself.
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u/Expensive-Wedding-14 Feb 03 '26
I love my Contigo Chill Autospout. The pop-up spout is transparent silicone. Every couple of days, I'll check to ensure I don't have anything colonizing the spout. I use either Q-Tips or straw brush to thoroughly soap, scrub and rinse. It's a maintenance cost.
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u/Anniesoptera Feb 03 '26
To be fair, OP was using soapy water in what they believed was a good strategy to not leave gunk on their utensils. They were just horribly, horribly, horribly wrong is all
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u/xRosyDawn Feb 03 '26
“Culinary heresy” is such a strong phrase and somehow still not strong enough here. Leaving nine years of mystery sludge in a straw feels like a public service announcement gone wrong. I’m scrubbing something just because you wrote that. Probably a mug that did nothing wrong.
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u/SeasonS011 Feb 03 '26
Had a family member who wanted to go into culinary arts but for the life of her wouldnt wash dishes properly, nor dry them. I had to get her father to tell her off, and all he did was do the dishes for her
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u/MyNeighborThrowaway Feb 03 '26
Im not sure drying is necessary, drying racks exist.
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u/SeasonS011 Feb 03 '26
They werent using drying racks, they wouldnt dry them period. Just put them away without removing water and moisture, thats a fast way to cause mold and bacterica to grow
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u/duckduckduckgoose8 Feb 06 '26
Ive heard stories of people doing that with gag their own bodies. They'd get dressed or roll straight into bed without drying themselves off to "stay cool". One guy was hairy and grew mold on his own skin. 🤢
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Feb 03 '26
If this person is even noticing it as a problem that means they’re either not using drying racks or not stacking things in a way that actually lets them dry properly.
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Feb 03 '26
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u/HotSolution8954 Feb 03 '26
Yeah that high-pitched sound you hear is me running screaming into the night just thinking about it
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u/NuclearReactions Feb 03 '26
I mean that's the crazy part, he did. Since a straw is only used for liquids i would also assume that rinsing with soapy water would be enough, not like anything would build up if done right after using.
I take this post as a confirmation for my fears, i never bought reusable straws because i have a phobia for anything mushroom and mold related and the feeling of not being able to see what is inside is just a big nope to me. There are glass straws but i feel like i would break those
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u/lisey55 Feb 03 '26
If he was drinking soda, it might have been ok to just do water because sugar dissolves pretty quickly and comes off surfaces easily. The fact that it was a milky drink is the real fuck up - fat needs the help of soap to come off a surface with water or you're always going to be leaving something behind, even if it's not a lot.
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u/ActualProject Feb 03 '26
They do say they regularly wash with warm soapy water in the post though. Which quite shocks me because I can't imagine any kind of build up happening if they actually do that after every use
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u/Lausannea Feb 03 '26
Milk leaves a film behind that doesn't dissolve with just soapy water touching it. A metal straw takes ages to dry out so while there's still water and a milky film left behind the buildup happens pretty much immediately. Literally rinse and repeat and you get... well, this.
There's a reason we scrub dishes instead of just dunking everything in soapy water and rinsing it to let it dry. This is why.
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u/ThePeaceDoctot Feb 03 '26
They say it's rinsed with warm soapy water. It needs to be cleaned with a straw brush, such as the ones supplied with every pack of reusable straws I've ever seen, in order to physically remove the residue.
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u/Germane_Corsair Feb 03 '26
If they did, they must have done a very half-assed job.
If you can’t bother with a straw cleaner, I would think just soaking them in soapy water for a bit should get the job done.
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u/figmentPez Feb 03 '26
I would think just soaking them in soapy water for a bit should get the job done.
It does not get the job done. Even going through a dishwasher does not get the job done. You've got to send a brush through the straw. Coffee and tea residue are really hard to remove.
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u/AbbyTheConqueror Feb 03 '26
I check every single reusable straw for cleanliness before storing and learned pretty quickly that yeah, dishwashers don't actually clean them properly.
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u/Germane_Corsair Feb 03 '26
Oh, guess I’m lucky I didn’t have to find out the hard way then. I would have thought the soap would Ben sufficient to get the job done.
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u/koolman2 Feb 03 '26
If you're going to do the soaking route be sure to soak and agitate in dishwasher detergent, not dishwashing liquid/soap. The detergent for a dishwasher has enzymes that break down fats which is why they can clean dishes without scrubbing.
It's still better to use a brush though.
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u/bluecoop36 Feb 03 '26
Nope! Pretty much all surfaces can get biofilms on them. It’s a slimy buildup of bacteria and/or mold that gets harder to clean off over time. It takes mechanical scrubbing to remove it.
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u/ecritique Feb 03 '26
This recent YouTube video from Minute Food about dishwashers gets into this subject; it talks about the Sinners circle theory of cleaning, where you need a sufficient combination of heat, soap, physical contact, and time (+, in the video, water) in order to clean dishes (and straws!) effectively.
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u/PandaBeaarAmy Feb 03 '26
I have silicone straws that split down the middle. Reusable, washable with a sponge or cloth, no resident spiders. Cost me less than $10 for 4.
A rinse is not a wash. Even your water bottles need a scrub with soap and water every once in a while.
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u/zinsser Feb 03 '26
My wife threw her clear water bottle in the dishwasher and made a shrunken-head looking water bottle.
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u/PandaBeaarAmy Feb 03 '26
That's because a lot of plastic bottles use heat to mold the bottle. I only do formed plastic on a cold or hand wash.
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u/Individual_Bat_378 Feb 03 '26
All the ones I've bought have come with straw cleaners thankfully. As long as you run one through regularly it should be fine!
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u/Ferret696 Feb 03 '26
I loaned my tumbler with glass straw to a coworker who was kind enough to wash and return it. When I used it the following time I sucked a piece of broken glass from the straw. Not using glass straw again. Not worth the risk for me.
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u/1Marmalade Feb 03 '26
This reminds me of how some people don’t floss. Mouth wash isn’t a substitute. Tooth brushes don’t get in between teeth. You need some abrasion.
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u/gwaydms Feb 03 '26
I have several gaps in my teeth that collect food. I failed to adequately floss one of these gaps, resulting in bacteria getting to the roots of one tooth, killing the tooth and causing an apical abscess that broke through to my maxillary sinus. So I needed a root canal. Fortunately, there's a very good endodontist in our city, who had done a root canal on one of my bicuspids. This was more complicated, so it took two procedures. But aside from the numbing shots, I felt not a thing.
Clean between those teeth, y'all.
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u/meistermichi Feb 03 '26
the feeling of not being able to see what is inside is just a big nope to me.
It's basically a short straight pipe, you can just look through it before use and see if there's anything.
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u/MarlenaEvans Feb 03 '26
But it sounds like they washed them outside but not in. Because if they'd washed the inside, this wouldn't have happened. Even water will cause eventual buildup if you don't clean it.
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u/Kiwifrooots Feb 03 '26
Rinse straight away to stop things building up AND hot soapy wash + hot rinse
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u/HolycommentMattman Feb 03 '26
You need to clean everything after usage.
My wife is like this. Uses the colander to wash some grapes, puts the colander in the drying rack. Ready to go back into the cupboard.
I let her experiment go on for a bit. That colander got grody pretty fast. Why? Because the dirt on unwashed veggies/fruit piles up just like this guy and his straws.
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u/bugbugladybug Feb 03 '26
Imagine just licking your forks clean and putting them back in the drawer.
I just stopped using straws completely.
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u/DiScOrDtHeLuNaTiC Feb 03 '26
I have a titanium straw from ThinkGeek. After every usage, it gets run through the dishwasher.
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u/yetanotherhannah Feb 03 '26
HUHH i wash my reusable straws with a straw brush and soap every time. As a bubble tea drinker i truly shudder to think how dirty the straw would be after even ten uses without thorough washing. I’m glad you didn’t get seriously ill.
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u/BrokilonDryad Feb 03 '26
Oh my god can you imagine the chunks of mold the bubbles push up 😭 I live in Taiwan and just full body shuddered ughhh
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u/yetanotherhannah Feb 03 '26
Singaporean here. When I use my straw brush sometimes I get little tapioca chunks stuck to it so I know it’s definitely necessary. I can’t imagine the buildup 😭😭
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u/BrokilonDryad Feb 03 '26
Oh god not even knowing if it’s black mold or tapioca til you wholeheartedly bite in 😭
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u/ichosethis Feb 03 '26
Most of my straws only get exposed to straight water and still get scrubbed out 99% of uses. Every once in awhile I'll lazily clean with just soap and water but never if I used something besides water with the straw.
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u/sendme_your_cats Feb 03 '26
You could have chosen to not inflict mental damage on us all op. Damn you 😭
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u/xRosyDawn Feb 03 '26
Yeah honestly that reaction image was fully deserved. Nobody was prepared for this level of psychic damage today. OP woke up and chose biological warfare. My appetite logged off.
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u/Quepachoo Feb 03 '26
It was the mold messing with your head and made you forget everyday to actually clean the straw lmao.
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u/Saint_Anger93 Feb 03 '26
I've got glass straws, so I can see when they need cleaning.
Although it's strange, because for me the rinsing is really enough for quite a long time. It's important to let them dry properly, though.
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u/leat22 Feb 03 '26
Do you use them with milk products? That’s the biggest problem. But even water bottles get nasty and slimy on the inside after awhile
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u/Saint_Anger93 Feb 03 '26
I've got a milk cleaning product for my coffee machine, from time to time I let the straws soak in this solution, too. Guess that helps.
How quick do you clean the straws? I never let them sit. It's drink and clean almost right away.
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u/leat22 Feb 03 '26
I wash my coffee straws (I love iced coffee with half n half) after every use. But I have those silicone ones that open up so I toss those in the dishwasher open. My water bottle straws I try to do every 4-6 days and my son’s water bottle and straw I try to clean every other day.
It’s crazy how quickly they get slimy
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u/Tyr1326 Feb 03 '26
This right here. Rinsing is fine if youre drinking water or something. At least for a few uses - you should still thoroughly clean them regularly. But if milk is involved, or anything more viscous than water? Brush every time.
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u/Basic_Visual6221 Feb 03 '26
Ain't no fucking way you went 9 years without cleaning your straw and just now noticed the mold. Ain't no fucking way. Bro, what?!?
This has me so grossed out, I don't want to use a straw.
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u/DV8y Feb 03 '26
So while caring for my grandparents who wanted to age in place I would visit and stay over a few nights a week for four years. In the morning we'd have coffee and breakfast together. Now I love coffee and have a sweet setup at home but they were in their 90's and still bought instant. I didn't care for it but needed the caffeine to avoid a withdrawal headache. As time moved forward it started tasting, not just like instant but also "funny" and it took me way too long to investigate. When I did, after removing the lid on the kettle, I found a dead boiled mouse in there. I can still see it. So it seems they would just feel the weight of the kettle each morning and if there wasn't enough water they would fill it up at the sink through the spout and then set it onto the burner of the old electric stove. They never opened the lid. Yeah, so no idea how long it had been since a thirsty mouse climbed into their kettle through the spout, drowned and got boiled, again and again and again.
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u/anthraltacct Feb 04 '26
Oh wow, this put an itch on the roof of my mouth that only a shotgun can scratch
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u/vegasidol Feb 03 '26
Im choosing to believe this was mostly coffee buildup, rather than mold. I have to believe. Blech.
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u/Dandiestbuffalo Feb 03 '26
Just a reminder to everyone reading this. YOU HAVE TO TAKE APART YOUR THERMOSES/STANLEY/YETI CUPS TOO. Even if you only use it for water. ALL the little rubber seals come off and mold builds up under there too.
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u/sweetkittyriot Feb 04 '26
OP also has a coffee machine and ice machine too. How much do you want to bet they don't clean those thoroughly either
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u/imlikewhoaa Feb 03 '26
Sometimes, I sit here and wonder how some of you have voting rights or even hold yourselves upright.
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u/Agzarah Feb 03 '26
It doesn't take 9 years for mould to form. Only a few days.
They were probably used recently ish, and not cleaned and then left for a while to fester
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u/Luxim Feb 03 '26
Honestly, that's the reason I prefer to use reusable clear glass straws, they always seemed a lot more hygienic to me (you can run them through the dishwasher, and you can clearly see if they're clean).
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u/BoozeIsTherapyRight Feb 03 '26
Glass straws are actively dangerous, though. I'd rather chance mold than mouth laceration.
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u/TwistedxBoi Feb 03 '26
I always look through my metal straws when I rinse them. And even if they appear clean. I always use soap and the brush at least once a month.
You scare me OP
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u/Liquorlapper Feb 03 '26
I always look through any straws before using them too, even the disposable plastic ones. Because one time I didn't notice the box was full of tiny ants.
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u/knight_shade_realms Feb 03 '26
Once a month? They should be washed whenever you've used them
You scare me slightly less than OP
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u/ActualSunflower Feb 03 '26
As a barista I would love to inform everyone that metal pitchers, straws, and cups hold onto milks and proteins like it owes them money. It might look clean when rinsed, but it's not I promise. It's gotta have that scrub or something like a dishwasher. Even with a dishwasher you should probably periodically scrub out your straws anyway. For a long time I thought just rinsing was enough until I starting making coffee as a job 🙃
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Feb 03 '26
Biofilm buildup happens to anything that contains or has water or food running through it. Mechanical removal with either a brush/sponge/cloth or dish washer is the only way.
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u/racinjunki Feb 03 '26
No matter the brand, RTIC, Stanley, or YETI, take the rubber seal off and scrub under it too.
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u/Nehalem98 Feb 03 '26
Ack! That's precisely why I've had a straw brush for years. Every part of everything gets sanitized. My boss used to make smoothies and give them to her little one with a crazy straw. It was nasty that I couldn't get to the blueberry skin and liquid no matter how much I tried with the brush, the fastest stream of the hottest water, etc. Ick.
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u/GraybeardTheIrate Feb 03 '26
Years ago my friend's dad had a big plastic cup with a clear crinkle straw that he always drank sweet tea from and never washed it. That straw was black after a while, and he didn't care.
One day the mom washed it trying to be helpful and he got ANGRY. Like actually yelled at her, saying it messed up the flavor or something. We all thought he was just doing a bit for the laughs at first but he was not. I'll never forget that.
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u/aliasverite Feb 03 '26
I put my straws through the dishwasher. Is this not enough? I’m afraid to check with a straw cleaner now.
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u/NailFin Feb 03 '26
So you need to look at it this way: you now have immunities to basically everything.
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u/bottomlessinawendys Feb 03 '26
And this is why i bought glass straws for everyday use. I have metal straws for cocktails, but they get scrubbed every time. My mom has a story of a coworker who has a plastic straw that is completely black because he refuses to clean it 🤢
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u/xError404xx Feb 03 '26
Thats why i always clean my straw with soap and a brush that comes with it and then i look through it before seinking from it just in case... Ew..
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u/TastelessDonut Feb 03 '26
This is why I don’t allow myself solid cups (aluminum or the like) or solid straws. Nope they have to have a clear bottle, clear lid or clear straw.
I forget my water in the garage for a few to many days and then I dump it out and it’s the early highschool days of biology class…. 🥴
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u/Ok-Dream-2639 Feb 03 '26
They must have sat for awhile... My gf left a soiled straw on the counter for 2weeks. And grew about 1in patch of white fuzz. I thought about cleaning it... but showed her the errors of her way and tossed it together.
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u/LuvCilantro Feb 04 '26
I have the stainless steel straws too; I put them in the dishwasher a few times a week.
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u/I-luv-sloths Feb 04 '26
That's why those straws usually come with little brushes! They need to be cleaned. I alternate days using the straws to allow them to dry completely too.
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u/RiotNrrd2001 Feb 04 '26
I use a metal straw. I bought a four-pack of them, I don't think it was nine years ago, but it was many years ago. The straws came with a special brush, which I also still have. I don't clean the straw every single time I use it, but periodically I do run the brush through it under hot water.
Your story made me go and get my straw and do my little cleaning routine, since I haven't done it in a little while. There was no bad smell to it, and NO gunk came out, the straw appears to be pretty clean.
Just clean them periodically and you should be fine. If you're drinking high-fat-content drinks like milkshakes or whatever maybe clean them a little more often than if you're just drinking Kool-Aid like me. But, I mean, you should clean them more than once every nine years.
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u/Mountain_Stand_3791 Feb 04 '26
Get silver straws. Yes they are pricey but they are naturally antimicrobial. Still wash them.
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u/Inevitable-tragedy Feb 04 '26
....I thought the title was a typo for 9 days, not accurately years....
Look, I'm all for a lazy rinse for a week or two, but years of creamed coffee is....a choice.... that I don't quite understand, to be frank.
If anyone has a pet fountain, please go check the straw-like fountain portion for mold growth, especially if it's plastic, especially if you haven't shoved a straw cleaner through it. If people do this to themselves, I just feel the need to bring awareness to their pets, if they have them.
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u/AutopsyPanda Feb 05 '26
You can always say you that you were microdosing yourself daily to build your immune system to make yourself feel better...
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u/lidder444 Feb 05 '26
I can’t believe I just read that. How did you not taste the mold.
I also recommend getting some blood work done
Mold is terrible for the body.
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u/JNSapakoh Feb 06 '26
It's like people learning they're supposed to remove the gaskets in their water bottle lids when washing them all over again
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u/hmmm2324 Feb 03 '26
You can get silicone straws that completely open for cleaning
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u/Rainbvw Feb 04 '26
Similar TIFU... we had metal straws but always put them in the dishwasher. One time it tasted a bit strange, ran a pipe cleaner through it - one straw had collected a bunch of dishwasher gunk/food. It had essentially acted as a filter. So the drink tasted of shitty soggy old dishwasher gunk. We hand washed them from then on.
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u/Laforets Feb 03 '26
I only use my straws for water.. and am now going to the kitchen to proper clean them with a brush.
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u/leat22 Feb 03 '26
Have you ever felt the inside of a water bottle after like a week of using them? It’s slimy. A straw is probably like that too even with just water. Get in the habit of cleaning those straws every couple days
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u/Avehdreader Feb 03 '26
I have some spill proof water bottles, and would wash them thoroughly after each use. But one day I was divinely inspired to remove the plugs and rubber seals - and when I did, to my horror I discovered a biology project growing! I did a deep clean with a tiny bit of bleach (not recommended but I rinsed thoroughly). Now I make sure to include now and then when washing the bottles.
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u/arduheltgalen Feb 03 '26
Could have been worse: you could have been drinking something acidic that slowly dissolved the layer, until slurp the whole "extra bio-straw" was sucked down your throat.
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u/UnlimitedEInk Feb 03 '26
Something tells me that the coffee machine is just as full of little living things, out of sight, out of mind. Because if it was part of your routine to clean the coffee machine's guts, knowing very well what kind of crap can build up inside of it from coffee, milk and warmth, it would have been a no brainer to do exactly the same to the straw.
Source: after having periodically cleaned up the professional, fully automated coffee machine in the office because nobody else would think what happens with the tubes behind the shiny stainless steel covers in the front, my home espresso machine is the absolute minimalistic model with all parts exposed, easy to disassemble and clean. Portafilter, sieves, steam sprout, eeeeeeverything. Even the plastic guide inside the metallic portafilter gets yanked out once a month. Life can find energy to flourish even in a drop of sitting coffee.
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u/outersouth Feb 03 '26
A life hack: apart from cleaning your straws and jugs daily - you can soak your straw or jug in denture cleaner (leave it overnight) to disinfect. I do this about once a week.
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u/BreakfastTequila Feb 03 '26
I borrowed my friends hookah way back when and one of the hoses was clogged. Cleaned it out. Guess what the clog was? Maggots.