Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Name something unhygienic/disgusting but people do it

334 replies

stoow · 02/07/2025 06:43

I start off:
. Holding money their mouths. It’s mainly an elderly person thing. Friends working in retail see this often. Even in mask wearing days, customers lowered masks to do this, yet denied it.
. Going to the toilet and not flushing
. Washing chicken out. People don’t realise that this can spray bacteria around. Cooking it properly will kill bacteria.
. Coughing without covering mouth. Even with Covid, people are still doing this.
. Not washing hands after using loo. In public toilets, I use hand sanitiser as seen people from certain cultures spit and mums letting their toddler DS to wee in the basins.
. On planes, people walking barefooted especially in toilets. With the quick turnaround of planes, the staff can’t clean everywhere

OP posts:
TheFifthTellytubby · 02/07/2025 18:18

Kittylickingplate · 02/07/2025 08:40

Taking their phones into the lavatory.
Absolutely disgusting.

Modern-day equivalent of reading on the loo. One type of multi-tasking that males have never found difficult... 🤢

Didshejustsaythatoutloud · 02/07/2025 18:09

I once worked in a supermarket and it was a sweltering day and this sweaty huge breasted lady proceeded to search for her money in her bra. She was most offended at the horror on my face as she tried to pass me the soggy (pre polymer) note. I still shudder at the mammary, I mean memory 😂

Arlanymor · 02/07/2025 18:06

@RhaenysRocks 😂

Arran2024 · 02/07/2025 18:05

Arran2024 · 02/07/2025 17:59

I have a pretty big sized washing machine. They go in with the sheets or towels. I dont wash up that often btw, I have a dishwasher. I'm not doing a load of clothes on its own.

Show quote history

Also, I should add, I have 2 large breed, very hairy dogs, so I don't think I have a disorder. I just dont agree with the idea of keeping a germ laden cloth around to reuse.

Arran2024 · 02/07/2025 18:01

suburburban · 02/07/2025 17:49

Are you like that with bath towels as well

I believe we have a water shortage in the UK

Show quote history

I go to the gym to swim most days and I shower there and they give me a towel each visit. Same for my husband and daughter. So we dont use lots of towels tbf.

itgetsthehoseagain · 02/07/2025 18:01

IdaGlossop · 02/07/2025 17:37

Coming in from shopping and putting the shopping bags on the kitchen worktop, thereby transferring the germs from pavements/public transport/shops to the place where food is prepared.

Men who have a wank in their car while driving.

Fucking hell, that was a volta.

ComtesseDeSpair · 02/07/2025 17:59

takealettermsjones · 02/07/2025 17:19

Sorry if it's already been covered but can someone explain to me like I'm 5 what the issue is with being barefoot on a plane? My feet only ever touch the floor, the insides of my socks, or the insides of my shoes (if I'm going rogue and no socks). I don't think I ever even touch my feet unless to wash them? I don't get it 🙈🤣

The treasure that is Pam Ayres has a wonderful poem about visiting the plane toilet shoeless and finding herself paddling in wee.

I take my shoes off to fly long haul, never think anything of it; my feet are clean and my socks freshly laundered. I suspect many people have had the misfortune not to sit next to me, but next to Hippy Joe, who has just spent a month hiking in the Himalayas with only one pair of socks and the odd wet wipe wash.

Arran2024 · 02/07/2025 17:59

landlordhell · 02/07/2025 17:45

One wipe and in the wash? How awful for the environment and you very possible have some kind of disorder.

Show quote history

I have a pretty big sized washing machine. They go in with the sheets or towels. I dont wash up that often btw, I have a dishwasher. I'm not doing a load of clothes on its own.

Radra · 02/07/2025 17:59

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

I guess it depends on the style of food you eat - we eat a lot of food where you would use your hands in some way. E.g. we might have mezze where you would pick up and tear pitta bread

Delilatoday · 02/07/2025 17:55

Lovemycat2023 · 02/07/2025 17:49

I’ve been using bamboo hankies - much better than tissues and they wash well.

Show quote history

Don't they scratch your nostrils? 🫤

VWT5 · 02/07/2025 17:54

High-end European hotels with quality buffet dining - and (my own observations) a good 25% of Brits will eat food as they walk around the servery, licking each of their fingers individually, then touching the same serving spoons that the rest of us have to use. (Even after all our Covid “training”).

The same Brits in European spas and saunas - not washing or showering, not respecting the hygiene rules nor the facilities - sadly.

Delilatoday · 02/07/2025 17:51

On the thread showing old clips of a young Mary Berry and Judith Chalmers giving advice on cooking etc. I couldn't believe my eyes when Mary kept coughing and politely covering her mouth with her hand THEN handling food. It was hilarious but very unhygienic of course. It wouldn't be allowed on screen now.

suburburban · 02/07/2025 17:49

Arran2024 · 02/07/2025 17:42

Re using tea towels and kitchen cloths. Yuk. One use only here.

Are you like that with bath towels as well

I believe we have a water shortage in the UK

Lovemycat2023 · 02/07/2025 17:49

margegunderson · 02/07/2025 17:25

I’ll bite. I have a meno runny nose. I use - shock, horror - a cloth hanky. Never killed myself nor anyone else yet. What’s the problem with a tissue/hanky used more than once and up a sleeve? If only women’s clothes had sensible pockets I’d use those more.
Mumsnet is bonkers sometimes. No wonder there’s more incidence of allergies in kids these days - poor little mites are bleached into oblivion.

Show quote history

I’ve been using bamboo hankies - much better than tissues and they wash well.

Runmybathforme · 02/07/2025 17:48

Loo brushes. Disgusting.

Lovemycat2023 · 02/07/2025 17:47

RhaenysRocks · 02/07/2025 07:16

Not washing every towel after every use

Not getting up in the middle of the night to change the bedding..gross to have a WHOLE night in one set

Breathing within 20ft of another person

Allowing food waste to drop from their body without a hermetically sealed chamber and then NOT scrubbing with bleach afterwards

Eating anything except green leafy veg grown in their own garden in filtered air

Using anything that anyone else have ever touched ever.

I've been on MN too long 🤣

Where has that laughing reaction emoji gone!! 😆

landlordhell · 02/07/2025 17:45

Arran2024 · 02/07/2025 17:42

Re using tea towels and kitchen cloths. Yuk. One use only here.

One wipe and in the wash? How awful for the environment and you very possible have some kind of disorder.

Arran2024 · 02/07/2025 17:42

Re using tea towels and kitchen cloths. Yuk. One use only here.

PomegranateVase · 02/07/2025 17:40

The teenage boys and men who I see far too often who constantly have one or both hands down their trousers touching their bits and pieces. I think it’s totally vile and inappropriate. 3 of them stood at the bus stop like it the other day and got on the bus and removed their hands from their pants to hold the hand rails with their sweaty penis and ball hands 🤮🤮🤮

IdaGlossop · 02/07/2025 17:37

Coming in from shopping and putting the shopping bags on the kitchen worktop, thereby transferring the germs from pavements/public transport/shops to the place where food is prepared.

Men who have a wank in their car while driving.

BananaCaramel · 02/07/2025 17:37

Keep dogs as pets

JohnTheRevelator · 02/07/2025 17:33

Laying on their bed with outdoor shoes on. I've seen this done so many times in films and TV programmes.

Grumpybear33 · 02/07/2025 17:31

People who use hand sanitiser instead of soap and water in public bathrooms. Hand sanitiser is not effective against norovirus which is likely to be picked up in public bathrooms. Soap is needed to breakdown the virus shell.
The worst thing though is spitting in public.

Notimeforaname · 02/07/2025 17:31

I use hand sanitiser as seen people from certain cultures spit and mums letting their toddler DS to wee in the basins.

Sorry, what???

SleeplessInWherever · 02/07/2025 17:30

The day I left him my ex husband had a can pyramid next to his bed, and a floordrobe so high off the floor that the dog thought it was the bed and went to sleep on it.

I would point out I’d been in the spare room for 6 months so had not contributed 😂