Eww germs...

[Freesia]

How often do you wash your hands, shower, wash your clothes, sweep or vacuum, brush your teeth, etc? Do you think you have good hygiene?

I wouldn't say I'm a germaphobe but I do care a lot about cleanliness. I shower every day and I wash my clothes, bed sheets, and plushies at least once a week. I also brush my teeth 3 times a day usually, and rinse with a really strong mouthwash and floss. I wash my hands a loooot because we touch so many things with our hands. At work where I waitress I'd guess that I wash my hands at least 10 times every shift. I also tidy my room and the kitchen, while my mother tidies the living room.

 

[Proxima Centauri B]

I have a thing about germs. I wash my hands all the time, make sure all my clothes are clean, shower every day.brush my teeth and use mouthwash etc. Hygeine is very important to me. I hate getting sick so I like to make sure I stay clean and as free of germs as I can.

 

[Juliko]

I don't consider myself a germaphone, but I definitely care about being clean...although I almost never wash my hands unless it's after I clean my cat's litter box.

 

[TwinklingCupcake]

I don't consider myself a germaphone, but I definitely care about being clean...although I almost never wash my hands unless it's after I clean my cat's litter box.

D8 I could NEVER do that.

I wash my hands so often for soooo many reasons. Always after I use the toilet, of course, and when I'm on my monthly. Whenever i'm cooking and I handle raw meats or crack an egg, I wash my hands right after... And I always like to wash my hands after I'm done handling chemicals, like nail polish remover or cleaning solution. Makes me feel a little better, somehow.
And at work I couldn't go an hour without squirting some hand sanitizer on my hands.
I hate the idea of nasty germs or grime being left on my hands, blegh.

 

[Freesia]

D8 I could NEVER do that.

I wash my hands so often for soooo many reasons. Always after I use the toilet, of course, and when I'm on my monthly. Whenever i'm cooking and I handle raw meats or crack an egg, I wash my hands right after... And I always like to wash my hands after I'm done handling chemicals, like nail polish remover or cleaning solution. Makes me feel a little better, somehow.
And at work I couldn't go an hour without squirting some hand sanitizer on my hands.
I hate the idea of nasty germs or grime being left on my hands, blegh.

Same as you here! I wash my hands after I do pretty much anything using them really. I hate touching things that haven't been washed recently even if it's something as simple as a wall or a door knob..

 

[Tenjiku]

I wouldn't call myself a germaphobe, but do care about my hygiene, I shower everyday in the mornings and I brush my teeth twice a day and use mouthwash and floss. I always wash my hands after I use the toilet of course, because that is pretty gross if you don't, especially if you decide to eat or drink something afterward and risk yourself getting sick, I bring hand sanitizer with me to work all the time since I touch a lot of stuff so my hands at least feel clean when I eat lunch. My clothes and bed sheets also get washed once a week, same with vacuuming my carpet and dusting the house. Though if a little bit of dust is left behind I'm not going to worry myself over it. Overall, I say I do have good hygiene, as I hope other people do as well.

 

[dragon_nataku]

... you know your body is constantly covered in bacteria anyway, right. Like, harmless and sometimes even beneficial bacteria (i.e., some of these bacteria that normally live on your skin can prevent harmful bacteria from entering your body). Also, we did this experiment in microbio lab where we separated a petri dish into eight sections. First two sections put one finger from each hand onto the gel (one section per finger). Go wash your hands, repeat with the next two sections, rewash your hands, etc. etc. until you're done with all eight sections. Place dish in a sterile environment (so no cross-contamination, the only bacteria that will grow will be from your fingers, growing on the media in the dish) and allow it to culture for 48 hours. Guess what. All the sections will have bacteria that grew.

Not that you should never wash your hands. Just saying, it won't get you as clean as you think. And besides like I said there's harmless and beneficial bacteria on you as well so actually too much handwashing (especially using hand sanitizer) can end up destroying these harmless/beneficial bacteria, removing your first line of defense against invading harmful bacteria. So basically one should only wash their hands after using the toilet or coming into contact with harmful chemicals (as @TwinklingCupcake mentioned above, nailpolish remover, isopropyl alcohol, etc) or things that you know are going to be covered in harmful pathogens (like raw chicken or, ugh, cat litter ^>__<^;; ). We tend to use pasteurised eggs at home but I still wash my hands after cracking eggs like a crazy person. I don't like having STUFF on my hands though, potentially-pathogenic or not. Like, if I got sand on my hands I'd be unhappy about it and try to wash it off as soon as possible. I have OCD though so it doesn't have to be rational.

I brush my teeth twice a day although if I'm not going to class and am super-busy studying I'll often forget to brush in the morning >: ( Generally-speaking if it's the weekend and I'm not going out or haven't gone running I probably won't shower but I always shower during the week or if I'm going out somewhere. I'm lazy~ Our maid cleans the house so I don't do any of that stuff. The most I ever do is reorganise the mess left after each semester (i.e., put textbooks away that I'm not using anymore, have the maid wash my backpack, clean off my desk that has gotten cluttered from "I'm too busy to put this away right now oh hey it's been here for months now"). I do however often end up playing refrigerator tetris because the maid doesn't know how to stack things properly apparently so if we need more space I go in and rearrange stuff. I won't go near the freezer though cause the maid's made a complete rat's nest in there and nobody else in the house but the maid knows where anything in the freezer is (cept for my one shelf that I have in there that is only mine~ no touchy!). I'm allergic to dust anyway so I shouldn't be cleaning anything regardless.

 

[Freesia]

@dragon_nataku " So basically one should only wash their hands after using the toilet or coming into contact with harmful chemicals (as @TwinklingCupcake mentioned above, nailpolish remover, isopropyl alcohol, etc) or things that you know are going to be covered in harmful pathogens (like raw chicken or, ugh, cat litter ^>__<^;; )."

Well.. there are a lot of things that are very, very dirty though.

When I was in school for example, I would go x amount of time without washing my hands and then I would take some glue as an experiment, pour a little bit in my hands and rub them together. The glue would turn very grey if my hands were filthy, or a lighter shade of grey if my hands were less filthy. If I were to wash my hands directly prior to this the glue would remain white. Filthy hands also tend to have a noticeable, unpleasant scent and that's another reason why I frequently wash my hands, because I love my hands smelling clean and fresh. ^^

I also have a tendency to rub my eyes a lot, and when hands are dirty it can cause so much irritation. Like if I rub my eyes while my hands are dirty (something I try to never do) my eyes will get extra red and irritated, so to me washing my hands frequently is very important, especially when you have bad habits like I do. I'm not saying I disagree with what you're saying because I agree with most of your points, and I have learned something from you but this is just my perspective. :) I'll also admit that you probably know more than I do on this topic, and thanks for posting. :)

 

[dragon_nataku]

Well if your hands are visibly dirty by all means wash them ^o__o^;; lolcat I always immediately wash my hands whenever I get home from overly-populated places, like the supermarket or school. I mean, you never know what other peoples' hygienic habits are. *makes a face* (plus, people tend to walk their dogs all over campus and not pick up the waste and who knows where that stuff ends up if someone steps in it, uuuggghhh)

As to rubbing eyes, I do that a lot too but I've done lots of labwork with nasty pathogens that you DO NOT want in your eyes, and I have lots of environmental allergies so I get itchy eyes a lot so my habit has become to rub them with the backs of my wrists (around where latex gloves would end), whether I'm wearing gloves or not. ... kinda like a weirdo anime catgirl pretending to have paws but it keeps the gross stuff off my face and out of my eyes. As a sidenote it's generally healthier to put those eye drop thingies in your eyes instead of rubbing them, even if it's just a neutral saline solution like Unisol 4 instead of those Clear Eyes/Visine thingies (plus, if you keep the cap on them when you're not using them they are much more sterile than any hand )

 

[Pandora]

How often do you wash your hands: everytime I arrive and leave home, everytime I use toilet, and everytime I need to cook or eat.

shower: Usually, two times a day, when I wake up and before bedtime.

wash your clothes: my maid do it, but i think it's once or twice a week, not certain

sweep or vacuum: idem

brush your teet: Once or twice a day

I'm clean, i care of my health and others cleanness, but i'm not a germophobe, also, i think i'm normal. Regarding others, unless the person next to me is sloppy as to be offensive, or has a very bad smell, generically I'm ok. Often I notice if others teeth are clean, but nothing that make me judge others harshly.

 

[ocelotlrama jaguar]

I wash my hands all the time. It's something I am very particular about.

I wash clothes once a week but during the summer, clothes are not dried using the dryer to save energy and to prevent the house from getting hot. I'll hang them up on the clothesline in the backyard. I vacuum once a week, dust once every other week, and sweep every other day. The kitchen is cleaned every night since food left out tends to attract things like mice and roaches. The bathroom gets cleaned once a week. Chores are shared amongst me and my four other family members, so it's not like I am constantly working on the whole house alone. XD If I lived on my own, I'd be living in a small apartment so there would be less to clean. However, yes, we are a clean family.

All the furry members of the family are housebroken and go outside for their necesseties. That in turn is cleaned up. Who wants that in their yard?? We also brush them to prevent excess hair from getting all over the place, although it's something we deal with most of the time. Dogs get a bath once a month, cats get a bath two times a year. Those are the most painful two times in the year. We also use wipes to get dirt off paws if need be.

I brush my teeth after I wake up, after lunch, and before I go to bed. I shower every morning.

Yes, I am pretty clean. Not Monk levels of germaphobic clean, but I would rather have things as clean and tidy as possible.

 

[Chibster]

I'll be honest. I currently take a shower once every other day or so (but I do wash my hair once a week) and I have a few reasons. I don't have enough time to do so every day, the water quality around here has decreased over the years, I want to save hot water, and I don't want to dry out my skin/hair. However, I do shower every day/wash hair once a week during the summer, since I would use cold water anyway.

Regarding washing my hands, don't worry, I do that every day and with antibacterial soap. xD I wash my hands after using the bathroom, coming back from somewhere, cleaning (especially my bird's cage or my cat's litter box), etc. I also carry a mini hand sanitizer with me everywhere I go. I like to vacuum and I have a nice small, lightweight vacuum that I use a lot (though sometimes I worry if it'll explode since I use it a lot x'D)

I brush my teeth 2 times a day, use Listerine 3 times a day, and floss at night. Sometimes after I eat, I chew on fennel to clean and freshen my mouth and it's also good for digestion! I chew minty gum too, but only if I'm out because it has artificial sweeteners and flavors.

 

[Freesia]

Love the fennel idea Chibster! I have some in the carbinet in the kitchen and I'm going to get some right now! :D

 

[Pikochu]

I wouldn't call myself a germophobe with very few exceptions. I mean, I take showers every other day, wash my hands before and after every meal and after I use the restroom.

However, I am a germophobe in the follow situations:

- Public Restrooms. There are some places that I refuse to go to the bathroom in and I would go find another bathroom to use. Hell, even within bathrooms, there are certain stalls that I have to use.
- In the kitchen, the kitchen needs to be at least health code clean. This tend to cause problems with my housemates who leave the kitchen messy.

 

[Reyzadren]

I bathe daily but I sometimes skip it every few days or so.

I seem to wash my hands often though.

 

[Lysson]

I carry anti-bacterial and virus gel everywhere... my friends find it amusing.

So many people rarely wash their hands after the toilet or doing something gross and that disgusts me so I just shove the gel on my hands when I'm out whenever I go to drink or eat when I'm out or I just do it anyway if I've touched a door/basket/railing/trolly. I always wash my hands when I get home or I get a load of dog dust on me from petting my dog or playing games since my hands get sweaty. When I'm cooking I'm constantly washing my hands.

 

[Zkat]

I always wash my hands after using the bathroom and stuff like that, but other than that I usually only wash my hands if I get something on them. Ever since I found out that hand sanitizer kills helpful bacteria too, I tried not to use it very often and so I usually just use soap and water.

I shower almost every night, wash my clothes once a week, and brush my teeth and wash my face twice a day (once when I get up and once before I go to bed).

 

[Revenge of the Boyega]

My immune system is really bad. I got sick three times last year, and I rarely go out. Once a week, maybe. I'm probably not as germ-conscious as I should be and as far as being hygienic goes, I'd say... uh... I only really shower when I'm going to go out or when we have visitors. AKA not that often... and being a teenager I can get QUITE whiffy.

I never thought about it but I guess when I get right down to basics, I'm pretty gross. But I wash my hands a lot and you won't catch me mouth-breathing in public or anything. Our water supply is pretty dependent on the weather, so I guess that's my main excuse. Also, four people, one bathroom? Not a good combination.

 

[Jolty94]

Like a lot of people above I'm quite OCD with it sometimes within good reason of course.

I wash my hands probably more than 15 times a day lol, and have to sanitize like every hour at work or I feel weird hahaha. Showering twice a day for me is the norm but one is okay if there's no time for another one later in the day, cause two follow the next day ect (Omg I'm crazy).
Washing my clothes I'm on and off with tbh, I have comfort clothes that I adore and always wear at home that I wash not as often as clothes that I wear out, because it's not like me or my house is as dirty as the outside, so it stands to reason aha. I'm obsessed with vacuuming, slight satisfaction takes it's course when I go over a wooden surface with a vacuum hahaha.

I brush my teeth twice a day as most people do (or I would hope), once in the morning, and once at night. I chipped both of my front teeth as a kid when they just came through, I had some awesome chompers and it was devastating aha, I've got them filled in now and surprisingly they look great and have lasted almost 7 years when the dentist said they would last 4 lol.

I think it's especially important to carry sanitizer with you when you travel, because you don't know WHAT other people may carry (no offence, it's just hygiene logic). I'm not too vitamin crazy but I do like to keep up on vitamin C, B & D (the latter two for my blood deficiency), supporting your immune system is important in general towards hygiene too imo.