Do you wash your hands after using the loo?

[weedetective]

I can’t believe I’m asking this, but: do you wash your hands after using the loo? Every time? Does it differ for a wee or a poo?

We moved into an old home with a WC (toilet, no sink) in the hallway. We have an open plan living-dining-kitchen, which obviously has a sink and is visible to everyone who visits.

Since moving, I have noticed that so many people don’t wash their hands after using the loo. People I would expect to wash, like my incredibly tidy MIL, cousins, friends who work in medicine, etc. Women and men (who presumably touch their willies whilst having a wee?) alike. I might say as many as 40% don’t wash their hands (or only do sporadically, which makes me think they’re only doing it after a poo?)

I myself wash every time and am admittedly a bit germophobic (I use a towel to open the bathroom door if I’m in public, that sort of thing) but I am honestly flabbergasted at how many people don’t wash after using the loo. I sometimes mention, “there’s no sink there but you’re welcome to wash your hands here” (in the kitchen) but it doesn’t seem to make a difference.

Do I just have an unusually minging social circle or am I alone in thinking most people wash their hands every time after using the loo?

Same!

Veering slightly OT, having seen so many people not washing their hands in public loos I decided to join them. These days I make a point of taking wet wipes to use on my hands after I leave the loo - because what's the point in washing my hands if the main door handle is covered in germs?

After a poop yes. After a wee (so long as the paper did it's job) no.

Two quotes spring to mind

"I found myself standing at a urinal in a London teaching hospital next to a distinguished professor of microbiology. We finished more or less at the same time; I headed for the sink and he headed for the door. He paused, rather theatrically, and asked me what I was doing.
Puzzled, I replied that I was washing my hands, of course. He shook his head as if in despair and said: “My urine is sterile, my penis is clean – have you any idea how many faecal organisms there are on that tap."

And secondly
As Churchill approaches the exit, the old Estonian remarks" At Eton, they taught us to wash our hands after using the toilet," he says.
‘At Harrow,’ Winston replies, ‘they taught us not to piss on our hands.’

The former is more relevant from a hygiene point of view but the latter is more amusing.

If it worries you so much put in a sink.

Always, without fail, every single time. I'm shocked by how many people don't...😨
I wash everything I buy; clothes before I wear them, groceries are thoroughly wiped before they go in fridge or cupboard.
I have pets so I'm very hygiene conscious and I'm completely obsessive about people not drying their hands on a tea towel! Tea towels are dishes only, hand towel for hands, so there is always a clean hand towel in my kitchen as well as in the bathroom.

Sometimes at work I don’t like hanging around hearing colleagues do their business, so I go back to office and use handspray instead. Otherwise, yes.

Ok admission - if I go for a wee in the middle of the night I don't wash my hands. But I drip dry to ensure I've not touched anything. I.e. I just go in, pull trousers down, do a little wee, do a little shake and wait a few moments, then pull trousers back up and go to bed. Yes it does mean I've also not flushed. Let it mellow!

I have a proper soapy hot hand wash everytime. I also put a square of loo roll round my pointy finger when pressing the flush (or use my foot to flush in a public toilet if i can reach). I also use a clean piece of paper towel to open any doors on they way out of public toilets rather than touching door handles.

We used to live in a house with the only toilet separate from the bathroom (adjacent room) and no sink. I kept hand sanitiser in there for any occasions when the bathroom might be occupied, to avoid having to go downstairs to the kitchen (long before the pandemic so sanitiser wasn't the handbag item it is now) - didn't happen often as only DH and me in the house, so we didn't lock the bathroom if bathing or showering.

It might be worth OP doing this to encourage hand cleansing.

Always, but in your house I might wonder if you'd appreciate me washing hands in a food prep area, so might use wet wipes instead.

Maybe they're like me, more confident that my hands are cleaner than the facilities and prefer a squirt of anti bacterial gel once out of the facilities?

if you think that's dirty then 🤷🏻‍♀️

(I very very very rarely poo out of the house. If I did I'd wash my hands at the sink, then use my hand gel when I got out.

yes at home, except in the night.

Genuinely every time. Its so ingrained in me that it feels weird if I don’t, have got distracted before by something else and went to leave the bathroom but something felt off, then I saw the dry sink and realised why 😂

I have also noticed that others don’t though and I don’t understand how it isn’t just a reflex action when you are an adult.

It takes 27 layers of paper to give any protection against germs, so it's pointless, but if it makes you feel better 🤷🏻‍♀️

That reminded me of when I took my then 4 or 5 year old niece to the loo in M&S. A woman came out the cubicle and walked past the sinks heading for the door at which point the bold girl says loudly 'Ewww Auntie Glitter that lady didn't wash her hands after her wee wee, that's disgusting'

Judging by the giggles & sniggers from the rest of the queue she said what they were thinking

I think I'd be buying one of those portable sinks from Amazon that you can fill up yourself until I could get a sink sorted.

Yes all the time even when alone in the house, it is just automatic and so it should be

This!

Always wash but I'm a bit germ phobic. Work in a hospital for many years which involves assessing people to see if independently able to use the toilet after injury or illness, I shocked at how many start to leave without washing their hands at which point i diplomatically 'show them where the soap is' but thinking about it a lot of them are elderly and houses used to be built with separate toilets to the bath and sink or even worse an outside toilet with no sink. I remember both grandma's were like this 60 years ago, so perhaps they never got into the habit early on of washing their hands🤷

Yes, always. I have bad eczema on my hands and still wouldn’t be able to bring myself to not wash them. It’s the first thing I do when getting home too, and obviously before any food prep.

You need a sink in the loo full stop. But I’m amazed at the amount of people who admit to not washing their hands after going to the loo.

Whilst it’s not my thing, I can certainly see why all inclusive holidays are ripe for awful hygiene and stomach issues with the consequences of multiple people handling utensils etc.

Wow this thread is an eye opener. I’m usually the first to eye roll on MN ‘competitive cleanliness’ threads but I’m amazed at anyone not washing hands, or what happens in your home. I always do, including night wees. DH doesn’t often after a wee as he says he doesn’t touch anything dirty, I can just about go along with that. But for me I have to wash.

Yes always. And if I'd come to your house I'd probably make a point of asking where I should wash my hands if there's no sink in the wc.

Lots of people saying they don't wash after a pee... But don't you consider the germs on everything you touch in the bathroom? Flush handle, door handle, toilet lid etc? 🤢

In a public toilet, I hate having to touch the door/handle after washing my hands as it's probably manky, so I always put on hand sanitizer once I'm out too. I admit that I never used to carry sanitizer before COVID though!

It wouldn't occur to me not to wash my hands after using the loo. I'm amazed so many people don't 🤢

Eh?

I know you have said this to make it sound like you are being clean by not wiping but come on, it's not dry and there is going to be piss all over your pants/trousers. I hope you are not one of the mumsnetters who doesn't shower in the boring or wears the same pyjamas for more then one night < not envy

Gross. Just put a bottle of hand sanitiser in there.