To think hygiene standards are low in Britain?

[castemary]

This obviously does not apply to everyone. But in Britain, I think there is a general acceptance of fairly low hygiene standards. I see it in several areas.
With individuals you have people telling everyone they do not wash bras for months, do not clean their teeth every day, do not wash face masks every day.
In public areas, offices and shops the cleaning often consist of no more than a quick hoover occasionally, a mop and a bit of damp wiping. Apart from toilets, places are rarely properly cleaned.
I think most people simply do not realise how unhygienic Britain is until they go to countries that do have a good standard of hygiene. There seems to be a lot of emphasis in Britain on superficial things that make places look good such as scatter cushions or make-up, and not on basic hygiene and cleanliness.
AIBU?

@countrygirl99

When I go to horse riding competitions I'm often away Friday to Sunday. Most of have trailers, not nice lorries, and we sleep in the trailer that the horse has travelled in. Usually we are camping in a field with portaloos and a trough as the only facilities and have to take all water for human use with us. Food storage for the whole weekend is a cool box. By and large it's the healthiest group of people I have ever met.

Yes. I don't know how some people on here would cope with living on a working farm

@Temp023

Well, if you don’t like it here OP, why not just fuck off to somewhere else?

What a pleasant comment.

[quote UniBallEye]@nancywhitehead, we use small towels, not huge bath sheets for this very purpose and we have a large drum washing machine so generally | can wash all the towels once a week, pretty much the same as someone reusing all their large towels and washing once a week...

We prefer this option in order to have clean towels.[/quote]
My towels are clean. They just aren't washed after every use.

For the people complaining about poorly maintained public toilets. Isn't that just a reflection on public services and the money the council is spending on them, rather than it being a standard that British people like? I'm sure most British people don't like using such places.

@Bananaman123

Go to toilet in Florida, cleaner is right behind you wiping down and cleaning, toilets don't smell and pretty pleasant. Get off plane and go to Glasgow Airport toilet, no cleaner in sight, hold your breath cos it stinks of urine, no toilet paper, dirty floors, cubicles, sink 🤮

Glasgow airport sounds grim. Rome airport bathrooms were the same. The smell was so bad I couldn't go in there.

The bathrooms at both Heathrow and Stansted Airports have always been very clean though.

I dont really care as long as people dont stink or look greasy.

Agree with OP. It is normal here to see small kids with snot running down from their nose to their mouth.
Thread about bedsheets has a lot of comments from those that only wash bedsheets every several weeks. Swimming pool are full of people walking around barefooted.
High tolerance for dust.
Eating without tablecloth, at school they dont even provide napkins.
Not washing with water after having been to the toilet
Other countries might have shocking public toilets and rubbish by the road, but homes and people are very clean.

@MeanderingGently that's because in winter you will be bringing snow, grit and other visible crap into the building on your shoes.

There are other much hotter countries around the world e.g. India where it is normal to take of your shoes when you enter someone's home for the same reason.

Some people dont have other options at the moment

@castemary

This obviously does not apply to everyone. But in Britain, I think there is a general acceptance of fairly low hygiene standards. I see it in several areas. With individuals you have people telling everyone they do not wash bras for months, do not clean their teeth every day, do not wash face masks every day. In public areas, offices and shops the cleaning often consist of no more than a quick hoover occasionally, a mop and a bit of damp wiping. Apart from toilets, places are rarely properly cleaned. I think most people simply do not realise how unhygienic Britain is until they go to countries that do have a good standard of hygiene. There seems to be a lot of emphasis in Britain on superficial things that make places look good such as scatter cushions or make-up, and not on basic hygiene and cleanliness. AIBU?

In South Korea men and women still don’t bathe everyday because they think Korean people don’t sweat. They do. When I worked in Seoul My colleagues absolutely stank after long days in the office and no amount of perfume or excessive tooth brushing could fix it.

Honestly I find your of your posts on this thread total hyperbole OP. Either that or you have been really unfortunate in picking some slum to live in.

I’m not sure whether the UK is worse than America where I’ve heard the washing machines are so bad they don’t actually clean the clothes.

On the preloved cloth nappy pages, their nappies are often covered in brown.

When schools reopened after the first lockdown teachers were very proud to declare that "the children were made to wash hands before lunch now! "

Just because you can make everything scrupulously clean and sterile, that doesn't mean you actually should. I seriously doubt that the clean freaks and shoes-off people have better health than the slatterns and shoes-on people. In fact the extreme germ-phobic ones may well have worse health.

As much as the clean freaks just love to tell themselves that everyone else is probably constantly being struck down with food poisoning and infections, it's not actually true, is it?

YABU and have obviously not travelled extensively.

Some wear clothes more than once before washing them

OMG you are joking! That's horrendous.

Joking aside. . .Even if it was necessary, which is isn't,there are some people living in poverty in the UK who won't be able to afford an endless supply of clean clothes to enable them to wear a new outfit each day.

This is a very goady thread.

I wouldn't say it's particularly unhygienic here. If I think about all of the places I've been in the world I don't think it's any worse. Certainly way better than many places.

I love Germany and go a lot. I'd say thees more of a collective responsibility so less rubbish around in urban areas. Or they're really good ta cleaning it up! But I wouldn't sya personal or home hygiene is way better.

I can think of many more place which have a way more lax approach than a much better one tbh.

I also think depending on your wealth and where you travel it's very easy to feel places are very clean when that's not representative.

@Janegrey333

Similarly people on public transport in the UK do not reek of BO.

Yes they bloody do!!

‘As much as the clean freaks just love to tell themselves that everyone else is probably constantly being struck down with food poisoning and infections, it's not actually true, is it?‘

That’s a good point. I am 49 years old and have never once had food poisoning from home cooked food. The only time I have ever had it was from rice at a Thai restaurant.
That’s despite a mum with a fairly casual attitude and lots of food cooked over campfires and while re-enacting, so without hot piped water let alone mixer taps.

Anyone who has driven across Europe will know what I mean when I reference "French toilets in "Aire" stopping places". You know the ones, the hole in the ground always adorned with a turd and discarded loo paper. Just hell. I would rather pee in a bush (and have done).

@BigWoollyJumpers

Anyone who has driven across Europe will know what I mean when I reference "French toilets in "Aire" stopping places". You know the ones, the hole in the ground always adorned with a turd and discarded loo paper. Just hell. I would rather pee in a bush (and have done).

Tbh I would give my right arm to have to use one of those at the moment - it would mean I was on holiday!

@GintyMcGinty

Honestly I find your of your posts on this thread total hyperbole OP. Either that or you have been really unfortunate in picking some slum to live in.

👏👏👏

@Jaxhog

I always thought it was the French who had poor hygiene standards, not the Brits!!

Older people in France tend to have worse personal hygiene than Brits (you couldn't buy proper deodorant in France when I first went there, and daily showers weren't common - and you could tell) but they can be pretty obsessive about their floors and their laundry. Younger people certainly smell better.

And I've been to many French houses that don't have a basin in the downstairs loo, and if they do have a basin, chances are it'll only have a cold water tap. And no radiator.

hahaha someone's bored.

No - haven't noticed this. TBH I prefer the loos in British music festivals to cafes and restaurants in Italy.

Meh. Unless you can give me actual evidence for this OP, I think you are being rather goady