Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

<Ashamed> to avoid using hand towels in other people's bathrooms?

187 replies

JesusInTheCabbageVan · 30/12/2017 19:38

It occurred to me that I always do this - just let them drip dry instead, because I never know how recently the towel was changed. Anyone else have any ridiculous hygiene obsessions? (Oh, I also use my little finger to open doors when out and about, rather than sacrifice my whole hand to The Germs)

OP posts:
CherryBlossom321 · 30/12/2017 20:05

Generally happy to use the hand towel, but get completely freaked out by discovering there is no soap! It's been the case in a couple of houses we visit regularly and I can't think of a single good reason why there wouldn't be hand soap on the sink, or at least somewhere in the room...

EmmaGellerGreen · 30/12/2017 20:05

It never crosses my mind. Can't remember the last time anyone here was ill with cold and/or bug of any sort.

YellowFlower201 · 30/12/2017 20:06

Never crossed my mind! I think it's a bit strange to be honest.

CaptainHammer · 30/12/2017 20:10

I’m really lax with germs, use by dates, not using bleach etc but I hate using other people’s hand towels! I think it came from seeing someone wipe their nose with the hand towel in a restaurant toilet once Envy
I always put a fresh one in our bathroom if I know people are coming round to us.

Viviennemary · 30/12/2017 20:10

If a handtowel is a bit damp this does make me feel a bit ill. But a dry one fine. As for people with dirty houses always being ill. Well they're probably immune and it's the visitors from the clean houses who will get ill when they visit them.

LolitaLempicka · 30/12/2017 20:11

Germs multiply quicker on damp hands, so I wouldn't want your germ ridden hands touching my nice clean towels anyway. That is truly disgusting if you are not drying your hands in a public toilet.

KathArtic · 30/12/2017 20:12

I wouldn't give a hand towel a second thought, but if the only towel available is a bath towel....well there is the likelihood someone's wiped their bum on it.....

MonumentalAlabaster · 30/12/2017 20:12

I am similarly fastidious OP but my family think I overdo it.

devondream · 30/12/2017 20:12

I live in Germany and every house I have visited has a pile of small clean towels in the loo for guests to use.

We have adopted the same practice.

<Ashamed> to avoid using hand towels in other people's bathrooms?
Lovenluck · 30/12/2017 20:14

I do use a hand towel but not if it looks grubby or crusty. Try not to in a restaurant!

My bugbear is when you go to someone’s house where the loo is in the bathroom and there is no separate hand towel! I do NOT want to dry my hands on a used bath towel where someone has recently dried their (admittedly clean) arse! shudders

Chienrouge · 30/12/2017 20:14

The thing that makes me laugh about threads like this is that people seem to think they’re so much more hygienic than anyone else. Most people don’t wash their hands properly after using the toilet, so the likelihood is you’re smearing germs over my clean towels.

LizzieSiddal · 30/12/2017 20:15

That is truly disgusting if you are not drying your hands in a public toilet.

No it really isn’t, if you’ve washed them properly, there are no germs, so how can it be “disgusting” to not dry clean hands?Confused

Chienrouge · 30/12/2017 20:16

I have a basket of small, once use towels by the way. Still have never given a second thought to what I dry my hands on at friends and families houses, unless noticeably filthy (never actually happened)

LolitaLempicka · 30/12/2017 20:17

When you use your "little finger" to open the door, and the germs spread far more rapidly on wet hands.

Zatsuma · 30/12/2017 20:18

I agree, I always feel awkward with hand towels!
I don't understand why people would have "nice ones" for guests, it's weird

Chienrouge · 30/12/2017 20:19

Using your little finger to open a door makes me laugh too. Do you think germs stay completely still on the one bit of skin you used to touch something, and don’t spread/multiply?

MammaTJ · 30/12/2017 20:19

I went to a naice restaurant a few weeks ago, where there was only one fabric hand towel in the loo!! It was disgusting and completely put me off my food!!

I always visit the toilets before ordering. I have left places before because the bathroom was minging. If the bathroom that we can see is bad, I dread to think about the state of the kitchen!

ReadyForGoodNews · 30/12/2017 20:20

The only thing that bothers me is having to touch doors/doorknobs in public toilets, so I pull down my sleeve to push the door or touch the doorknob. Then throw my top in the wash when I get home.

Mum2jenny · 30/12/2017 20:20

Have several towels which are very similar, so I'm now worried friends will think I never change them

Chienrouge · 30/12/2017 20:21

Have several towels which are very similar, so I'm now worried friends will think I never change them

My towels are all identical... white, and from the same range. Nothing to distinguish them at all.

Fairylea · 30/12/2017 20:22

I’m like this too!

SuburbanRhonda · 30/12/2017 20:23

I live in Germany and every house I have visited has a pile of small clean towels in the loo for guests to use.

I lived in Germany for three years and never saw this. Mind you that was in the old DDR, where they’re much more relaxed about that sort of thing.

FoggieFishieCarpeDiem · 30/12/2017 20:24

I’ve hever even thought about this. Oops...

MILstrikesagain · 30/12/2017 20:24

YABU but I’m with you.

I use cant bring myself to touch towels in other people’s houses.

I’m also flabbergasted to discover that other people pull the light cord higher up; I fondly imagined I was touching virgin cord every time!

Mrsmadevans · 30/12/2017 20:26

I do this everywhere and I don't touch the handle of anywhere or the handle on a trolley. You just can't trust others to be clean.