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

[JesusInTheCabbageVan]

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)

Just read about the pull cord lights #shudders

Mumsnet can be like a parallel universe - it makes me so grateful that so many of the things that tie posters into anxious knots I have honestly never even given a second thought to. Anxiety must be hell to live with

Absolutely this. How do you people get through life worrying about this kind of thing? Can you get help for it? You do know life is short and you only get one chance, right? And here you all are obsessing about what amounts to a shade less than bugger all?

Why are these worse than other flushing mechanisms?

Because the rope absorbs the fluids! Unless they're a chain, in which case they have lots of little hidden places for bacteria to hide... bluerggh

Fartniss
Which fluids...?

I wash and dry my hands before flushing (If I’m in a toilet with a sink in the same room... and not a public toilet with stalls)

Wait, others don’t? But that wouldn’t make sense, would it?

I think this is just bizarre. I also don’t buy the idea that the towels mustn’t be clean if they are always the same ones. For example in our house all towels get washed every other day (if they’ve been used that is, no need to wash unused ones!!) and they are dried and back where they were taken from within that day. There will never be a towel in my house older than 48 hours at the absolute most, but they will always be the same towels! Especially true since all my towels are the same make/colour so you would have absolutely no way of knowing if it was the same towel as last time, much less if it had been washed, unless you somehow forensically tag it!!

Honestly it is ridiculous to do things like this if you are generally happy to go out in public- any number of “germs” are airborne or spread via droplet infection which completely negates the idea that you can somehow avoid them just by not using a towel, only using your little finger or by pulling the cord higher up. Germs spread you know! Just because you start them off on or little finger does not mean they don’t then spread away from there.

I very rarely think about germs/towels/handles etc. I'm also very rarely ill.

Not fussy, cannot even remember the last D&V I had!

I don't do any of this (apart from basic stuff like washing hands after going to the loo) and it's decades since I had any sort of stomach bug. I must say, it's really quite gratifying to think about the hours of pointless faffing that I've saved.

How do ultra-hygiene conscious types conceivably cope when on any public premises whatsoever? After all, the shop counter you touch, that money you accept in change, that rail you hold on to on the train, that cup you use in a restaurant, that coat you brush past on the bus, could all have been previously touched by someone who had, horrors, wiped their hands on a hand towel.

My german friend has the pile of towels thing going on. She must think we are all minging. I think a hand towel is absolutely fine as long as it looks clean and is not wet when you get to it, and I change them regularly and before guests come round generally.

I think people changing bath towels daily etc is hygiene gorn mad and a waste of water and energy. I'm just a stickler for making sure towels are well dried between uses. Drying kills a lot of the bacteria and stops them getting smelly.

In the downstairs bathroom, which guests use, I always have a great big fluffy bath towel to dry hands. I change it out regularly and they are always freshly washed when we are expecting people. I figure there’s always a unused spot on such a large towel. I wouldn’t use a small hand towel in someone house. Some people just wet their hands and don’t really wash them so they are wiping the dirt/germs off onto the towel. Ick!

I see you can by those paper hand towel dispensers for private homes here.

At my hairdressers they have a basket of flannels - you dry your hands on one and pop it into the basket on the floor

This doesn’t bother me, and I haven’t had a sickness bug in over 20 years. Doesn’t bother me touching a public toilet door either. Imagine using your sleeve and then wearing said clothes all day! Eew. When you could just use your hand and wash them!

A friend of mine (genuinely) never washes her hands. Never. Unless she’s in the bath, cooking or washing up. Swears blind she’s never had a stomach bug. I can’t remember her kids ever being ill either

If I don't know the person well, or if I'm not sure the towel is clean I don't use it. I don't want my hands to end up dirtier than before I went to the loo.

You're all loons and your behaviour a waste of energy unless you are also completely avoiding touching your face when a guest in someone else's house, avoiding letting your hands touch their stair bannisters and any other door handles besides the toilet one, avoiding their light switches, avoiding their cups and cutlery (may have been dried by dirty teatowel...), avoiding kissing their cheeks or shaking their hands... It's not as if the effects of their filthy towel and poor handwashing habits are limited to the bathroom!

And it's not due to a fear of getting ill. It's due to not wanting to feel grossed out by using an unclean towel.

Oh, and do you all fall over on public transport, or just carry spare loo roll and antiseptic wipes to wrap around anything you touch?

I'm another one who is happily unbothered by this kind of thing.

If the towel or door handle is a bit dirty, so what, it's not going to kill me. Sure I'd rather it was clean but really there are worse things to worry about.

Hmm. You need to develop a resistance to germs, so you should take reasonable caution without obsession. My most ocd friend is also my most ill friend. She has no resistance! I worked in a hospital for years without ocd and I never get ill. She always does!

Totally with you OP

I never worry about towels/door handles etc, and I have the worlds most shit immune system. But I'm never ill, and have a stomach of cast iron

I don't agree with using antibacterial wipes and that sort of thing but grubby looking hand towels do definitely put me off!

Tbh, washing my hands after going to the loo has nothing to do with being afraid of getting ill.

It has to do with respecting the people around me (when I shake hands, open the door etc) an der hoping that they do the same...

I do vomit more often than many other people. When I’m v stressed, when I was pregnant, sometimes when I’m on my period etc. but I don’t get ill v often (I had an infection a few years ago?)