Poor hygiene makes me cringe - AIBU?

[Defenbaker]

I've noticed that quite a lot of people seem to be clueless about basic hygiene, and I inwardly cringe when I see poeple doing certain things. For instance:

A woman served cake to people at a party. She served one slice then licked her fingers before offering slices to others (who all declined - think I wasn't the only one put off by that).
A cleaner at work picked up something dirty from the floor and threw it in bin, then emptied clean items from dishwasher without washing hands first. (She had disposable gloves on throughout, so perhaps as no dirt touched her actual hands she didn't think twice about it.)
A woman played ball with children in garden, then went into kitchen and began making sandwiches for people, without washing her hands first.
A woman in swimming pool changing room used a towel to dry her body off, then threw it onto the floor and dried her feet, before finally drying her hair with it. (I wondered how many people with athletes foot might have walked barefoot on that floor before she did that).

More generally, I hate it when people in cafes handle cash then serve/touch food without washing their hands first (it's widely known that there are lots of germs on money).

Maybe I'm more careful than some people, as I am emetophobic, which makes me very careful about food hygiene. Also I realise that there are germs everywhere, and children develop their imune systems by coming into contact with germs, so a totally sterile world wouldn't be ideal for humans, but AIBU to cringe at this sort of stuff?

Please share your pet hates here, re people's poor hygiene.

I once sat on a bus and the woman in front of me loudly demolishing a bag of crisps. When she'd finished she licked every single one of her dirty fingers leaving them shiny. I also noticed she had dirty fingernails. It still makes me feel sick to think about it.

Why would you feel sick? She was licking her own fingers. She wasn’t asking you to lick them for her. 🙄

Not too fussed myself. Only the finger licking would bother me really. We never washed our hands before eating, and I don't always before preparing food.

I'm with you, but I'm aware it's a hardcore hygienic position to take. I hate kids sneezing too, always have to grit my teeth. I need to get a grip as it's getting worse with age.

I’m with you OP. whenever I hear DH open the dishwasher to empty it I shout “wash you hands”
He now rants that he has, didn’t I hear him? they are clean... but his earlier responses were ‘why? My hands are clean’ when I pointed out he had been sat next to me rubbing his face, scratching his back, picking his nose etc and I didn’t want that all over our clean crockery he tried to claim I had imagined him doing all that.

There was once a FB discussion in my friends group about being out and about shopping in town and then going home then making your child a sandwich and someone with her had commented about her not washing her hands first and she was ranting because she had felt she hadn’t done anything wrong by not washing her hands

Dh takes soppy wet scrubber and drags and smears that bacterial soup across kitchen surface to 'clean' say, small splot of milk.
I'd rather the milk stayed there

The old dirty scrubber at work wiped around the rim of every cup... Passing on all those germs. I take my own cups in.

Totally agree with you, OP, people are often thoughtless when it comes to hygiene, I am especially careful as hate to endure sickness bugs. SIL dishes out puddings and often licks fingers in between, then poking saliva-covered fingers in next portion - disgusting and appalling manners.

If you have a strong immune system its not really a problem

redchocolatebutton how do you know that HCPs wash their uniforms at below 60c?
I am retired now, but when I was working I always washed my uniform at 60c and then tumbled dried them.
Visitors clothing sometimes left much to be desired, but hey ho, lets blame the staff, as usual!

Yuk all those things would disgust me too OP, especially the woman using her her trampled on soggy towel on her hair (boke) My mum will do things like wipe something up off the floor with a grubby old cloth and then continue to prepare food and my sister has picked up dropped food off the kitchen floor and plonked it back on a plate. The thing is their homes are immaculate whereas I am fastidious about things like hand washing and using different towels and cloths for different things-would not use a tea towel to wipe down surfaces and then to dry a cup for example-but my home is a bit more, shall we say a bloody mess lived in

Thanks for all the replies, I'm glad I'm not alone in finding these things gross.

@Welltroddenpath: "I guess what some people find totally minging is another’s normal."

That sums things up pretty well.

@Fyette: "Science... Washing hands saves lives."

Very true. Years ago people used to routinely die on hospital wards after operations, due to post op infections, which were spread from patient to patient by the medical staff. The simple practice off hand washing between examining patients went a long way to cutting down post op infections.

A few people have queried why it would bother me that someone used a towel that had been on the changing room floor to dry their hair. It's a fair question, as it was only their own hair they were potentially covering in germs from the changing room floor, but I just felt mildly surprised they they were happy to do that. Mind you, I probably shouldn't have been, as that is the same person who would play ball with her kids in the garden, then make sandwiches for people without washing her hands first. Her kids regularly got tummy bugs, and she'd say "Oh there's something going around the school again", while I'd secretly wonder if her lax hygiene was the real cause.

In a way I wish I didn't feel anxious about these things, and didn't notice them, but on the plus side, I rarely get ill, and have only vomitted 6 times in my whole life (that's about once a decade, on average), so maybe it's good to be a bit fussier than average about hygiene.

I'm not so fussed about other stuff though. I probably don't hoover and dust as often as some people, and my home is certainly no show home, but bins are emptied daily, washing up is done carefully then rinsed and left to drain (because I think tea towels harbour many germs), and I always wash hands before preparing food or handling clean crockery, and after using the toilet. If I have to use a public toilet, or one at work, I wash my hands afterwards then open the door using my elbow or my little finger, as I know that many people don't bother at all, so the door handle may be laden with faecal bacteria. (I try to avoid letting anyone witness this behaviour, as I know many would think it's OTT and bizarre, but they probably have their own hang ups about stuff that wouldn't bother me. We all have different priorities.)

@Nannewnannew there was a thread recently from a hcp asking what she could do to stop smelling of bo, turned out she washed her uniform at 30

I was with my cousin. She changed her baby on the table, rinsed dirty nappy on the table and then went to make tea. Never washed her hands. I suddenly had a headache and went home.

I’m generally pretty lax on most things but hand washing after nappy change is a must.

OP the big clanger for me. DS's 1:1 keyworker at nursery came for coffee with her own baby. Dropped her baby's dummy on the floor, picked it up, sucked it, put it back in baby's mouth. At that point I knew why my son had always been ill. Worse thing I have ever seen.

Ohhh, sorry. She rinsed the nappy in the toilet...not the table.

Very little of the stuff discussed above would bother me, but the thought of he amount of crap and germs on the tube does make me feel quite unclean when i get off it. London is the only place I go where I take that antibacterial hand gel, it's just so much filthier than everywhere else!

DS's 1:1 keyworker at nursery came for coffee with her own baby. Dropped her baby's dummy on the floor, picked it up, sucked it, put it back in baby's mouth. At that point I knew why my son had always been ill. Worse thing I have ever seen.

This is an absolutely ridiculous thing to say

I am not scrupulous, never will be now, but do tend to be a bit careful about certain things mentioned though.. We are all here still, no coughs, colds, food allergies, food poisoning and stuff like that.

Probably have built up an immune system or something!

Washing hands saves lives if you're about to perform sugery, most of the cases cited here - no

@Aprillygirl: " The thing is their homes are immaculate whereas I am fastidious about things like hand washing and using different towels and cloths for different things-would not use a tea towel to wipe down surfaces and then to dry a cup for example-but my home is a bit more, shall we say (a bloody mess) lived in." (grin)

@Aprillygirl, you're talking my kind of language! Anyway, their homes make look immaculate, but could be totally germ ridden! I could dust every day (if I could be bothered), and my home would look clean, but if I used a dirty pair of DH's socks to dust with, it wouldn't really BE clean.

@Vulpine. You are speaking my language. Cheers!

We need to relax a bit and expose ourselves to germs. Otherwise we will have little resistance to bacteria will we?

Washing hands saves lives if you're about to perform sugery, most of the cases cited here - no

✔️

I have to use a separate towel for my face after a shower than for the rest of my body. It makes me cringe when DH dries himself all over and then wipes off his face with the same towel.

Probably been said but I can't be arsed scrolling... but instead of wasting another towel, why not just dry your face first?

I am neurotic about hygiene and food. I am scared in case it makes me ill which causes all sorts of problems.
But the towel one would never give me a,thought.
Sadly i have often seen women not washing their hands after coming from the toilet cubicle. It freaks me a bit .

DS's 1:1 keyworker at nursery came for coffee with her own baby. Dropped her baby's dummy on the floor, picked it up, sucked it, put it back in baby's mouth

Also fine by me. I've done this loads of times. So does DH.

I'm taking medication to supress my frankly demented immune system. I've learned from various jobs - NHS, restaurants - how to keep a kitchen clean, avoiding cross contamination and how to deal with potential infective agents (such as biohazardous waste, safe disposal, cleaning, etc). It's not hard - but most do need to be taught.

Cats on the countertop/table - get off, you tiny furry bastard, you know the rules (but not that bothered because I'm going to clean down the surface before starting to cook anyway). And I'm not fussed if DTwatCat licks the plate after I've finished because it's going to be washed.

Cat bowls in the dishwasher - it's fit for human consumption, so it's no different to a plate of tinned human food, especially at the temperature I set it to.

Normal clothes - in at 20 or 30, dirty clothes are in at 40 and bedlinen, towels, tea towels and various cloths DP insists on buying when I would be happier using kitchen roll, all go in at 60.

What does bother me is DP's food hygiene - it's pretty much nonexistent, with food left out uncovered all day and night, no cleaning down before starting and a tendency to leave what's there afterwards because he's 'too tired'. We reached an agreement. I clean it properly once a week and he has to keep it up the rest of the time - a polite 'kitchen needs doing today' is rightly interpreted as 'clean that fucking mess up'.

There is also an agreement that if he wants to be sure of finding food when he wants it, he puts it in the fridge/cupboard in a sealed container as appropriate, as if I find it in the countertop and it isn't a potato or a covered loaf of bread, it goes straight into the bin.

I don't trust places or people particularly - I can't afford to. There are a couple where I do because I know them well and have seen the kitchens. And I trust two of my mates who have worked as chefs - one's house is a fucking mess, but his kitchen is always immaculate. The other's is clean and tidy everywhere.

Anybody who pooh-poohs my concerns or does that tosser thing of 'people need germs, it's their own fault if they have immune problems for being too clean' is likely to feel my wrath.