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?

You're not supposed to wash meat! All it does is spread any potential bacteria around your sink!

I agree with this when it comes to personal hygiene, not environmental. The things I've witnessed people do and the state their homes are in, cutleries, including licking boogers/snot - both adults and children. It's mindblowing the lack of basic personal hygiene - even as simple as wiping hands properly during and after a meal, kids and adults sitting on shit-infested ground or crawling and wiping the floor with their hands and clothes (then no cleaning afterwards and still eat with the same hands).

Where I'm from, British people actually have a reputation for being 'not-clean' (re-phrased to put it mildly) because of this.

Living here, obviously I know it isn't the case for many but I've seen enough of it to know the stereotype didn't just appear for no reason.

@nzborn some shops particularly well-known fast food chains, well-known bakeries and well-known coffee shops plus hotels actually clean the pavement outside their premises at least once daily.

In the case of the food retailers it is one of the ways they have learnt to decrease opposition to them being there in the first place.

Which other countries have you lived in, or travelled to, OP? It's an extremely "First World Problem" opinion you have there.

I clean overseas doctors houses both from Europe and Middle and far east countries.

Thier places are disgusting, they don't use toilet paper, only jugs of water..shit all up the toilet seats, up the walls, dirty kitchen with flies on open food.

Rubbish chucked on the floor, food left out, mouldy. These are families living there and thier hygiene is awful. Our standards in the UK seem to be much higher in Britain

I agree with regards to public pools. They seem to be invariably filthy in Britain. Also many people that I know don't seem to either not clean their bathrooms regularly or don't know how to get rid of limescale; if a bathroom is shiny it's usually because it's new. Often pavements and trains also tend to be a bit grubby... On the other hand many people love bleach and think it's the solution to all types of dirt. It does kill germs but it also destroys surfaces and is not great for our own immune systems if used in such vast amounts.
Don't know anyone who wouldn't wash their bra after a few wears and most people I know do hoover, dust and mop at least once a week, same as in other countries.

@TheVanguardSix

Shoes in the house... that's a thing that gets me here. Why do people (including DH who comes from here) wear shoes in the house?

Habit.

Old British houses were cold and draughty, and many people didn't have slippers/house shoes, let alone guest slippers/house shoes, due to the cost.

I've found that in the UK as opposed to the other countries I've spent any amount of time in, the streets are cleaner, fewer people spit, and more people pick up their litter and dog's mess. At the same time people are also more relaxed about their children getting grubby in the mud and other hands-on nature exploration.

Incidentally, when I worked in a cafe (more than one cafe), all surfaces were sprayed down and wiped with antibacterial spray before and after food preparation, and again at the end of the day, the coffee machine cleaned, the floor swept and then mopped with floor cleaner and hot water. I don't think that was all that unusual.

I do find it a bit gross that people only change bed linen once a month. Someone told me her offspring had only just changed his bedding the other day since before Christmas. There isn't reason at all they couldn't do this simple task.
I know it's absolutely nothing to do with me at all but I did wince a bit! That's a long time to get in and out of bed with dirty sheets.
Standards have dropped I think but then people are busier now and work long hours and maybe it's not seen as a priority.

I agree with you OP but you won’t find many on MN who do. People on MN think there is something diagnosably wrong with you if you clean yourself daily.

I'm not sure this is true. Firstly I think it is the usual British self-deprecation . Secondly how someone's personal hygiene is, is pretty hard to know unless they smell or look grotty. It's only on MN people admit to being pigs with thootbrushing, handwashing etc.

That said I'm not British and I think your small living accommodations with dark coloured walls, carpets all over and shoes inside gives out a not so clean look.

But I suspect that every population has their (quite large) percentage of people not being very hygienic. My all time bugbear is people not washing their hands as a minimum .

I do find it a bit gross that people only change bed linen once a month.

Who does that who isn't a teenager?

No matter how much cleaning you do, you're not really cleaning, you're just moving the dirt to somewhere else. It all stays on the planet.

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.

You've just described my housekeeping strategy for the last ten years!

they say they clean the trains. they mean they sprayed them with antibacterials etc. not actually cleaning, wiping seats. even the floors look cleaner than the seats.
i wouldnt dare to go to a public toilet. i couldnt touch anywhere, even the doors of toilets, forget about sitting on a toilet. i dont know with which cloth they are cleaned. if they were checked i am sure many millions of bacteria will be found.

I worked in an office building and the amount of women I used to see leave the bathroom without washing their hands!

The first lockdown and the hysteria around handwash made me realise that many people probably either didn't use handwash or not often enough. We always have plenty in ...

In general, being sterile is not good for us and nor is living in filth. But most people sit in the middle.
Definitely people need to wash their damn hands more though. Pre-covid, standing in any public toilet and the amount of people who swan out without washing is astounding!

What exactly is the point of a clean bra and an entirely clean set of clothes every single bloody day? What risks are being run by not doing this? Do people not think of where all those bloody cleaning products and detergents have gone and what damage their are doing once they have washed them into the drains?

this is so generalized its untrue , do we really have poor hygeine standards ? try going to visit istanbul , india , bangladesh or any other of those far eastern countrys and then come back and bore us with how unhygenic the uk and its people are . its been proven in research studies that children that grow up in houses that are frequently cleaned with all manner of bleach and whatnot have more allergies and health problems versus the ones that dont . iv read one of these studies myself a couple years back .

@SwedishK

However, not brushing your teeth is inexcusable though.

I take it you've never been clinically depressed.

I've just moved back to the UK, having been away for almost fifteen years in EU countries and I have to say I think the UK is way better than some! In northern countries it was commonplace for women to exit the toilet cubicle in a public place and walk straight out the door without washing their hands. I don't think I've ever seen that in the UK, or at least if it did, everyone in the toilets afterwards would likely say "Did you just see that??"

Often there isn't soap in the toilets of restaurants in Belgium and we experienced - and knew lots of people who experienced - food poisoning relatively often!

We might be hot on hand washing in the UK but then hospitals in other EU countries are way cleaner and cross infection rates much lower because they have private healthcare systems (which opens up a different argument! I'm just stating the outcome from that here). I wonder if maybe different countries have different weird things that they do or don't do.

I also agree though that during the pandemic I think we've gone too crazy on sterilising and young ones need exposure to bugs at a young age to build strong immune systems. It's all about balance :)

Always suspicious when a survey just conveniently turns up something grim enough to present in a PR release designed to go viral...

Someone upthread was talking about no showers, aside from my own (renovating, slowly!) I don't think I've been into a house without a shower for 20 years or so.

@bluebell34567

they say they clean the trains. they mean they sprayed them with antibacterials etc. not actually cleaning, wiping seats. even the floors look cleaner than the seats. i wouldnt dare to go to a public toilet. i couldnt touch anywhere, even the doors of toilets, forget about sitting on a toilet. i dont know with which cloth they are cleaned. if they were checked i am sure many millions of bacteria will be found.

Interestingly, there have been studies that show many things are dirtier than public toilet seats:

www.callhero.com/2020/05/15/5-everyday-items-that-are-dirtier-than-a-public-toilet-seat/

In general anything our hands touch are going to be dirtier than the actual seat.

It’s a mixed bag and it depends where you are comparing to. One thing that’s always stuck out to me though is how dirty public toilets are in the UK at shops, restaurants and pubs. Going to Spain and Portugal I would always marvel that the loos didn’t stink of urine.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn

And yet we're still alive.

This x 100000000