to wash my hands every time I've been out?

[itsallsohard]

Since the pandemic, I have taken to washing my hands as soon as I come in the house from outside. Obviously perhaps if I've been on public buses, or gardening; but also if I've just been out in my own car, or to the grocery store. None of us in the family is especially prone to illness or to worrying, and before the pandemic (unless someone in the family was actually sick) we all just washed hands after using the toilet and before cooking or eating.

Is it really disgusting that I didn't do this before 2020? Or is it a bit OCD that I do it now? I genuinely can't decide. YABU = that's too much hand-washing. YANBU = sounds normal, we do too
(edited to try to get rid of some rogue strike-outs of whole lines...)

So why aren't we all constantly sick all the time then? That's what we have an immune system for. I don't think it's actually healthy to be so fastidious. I'm sure I've read that people who have pets have a stronger immune system and are generally healthier. I work in a school. Schools are not clean places! I'm surrounded by kids all day. I'm not one of the teachers who says 'Ewww I'm not buying anything from the bake sale - children might have made the cakes <horror>!'

I don't think it's actually healthy to be so fastidious.

Oh, I don't know. That article mentioned another fact:

Another study estimates that 8.2% of the overall worldwide decline in child mortality between 1990 and 2015 can be attributed to improved handwashing. This largely accounts for the global push for more safe and accessible water resources.

My level of hand washing has essentially remained the same over the last few years. I've always washed them fairly regularly (including often, although not invariably, after being outside), and I feel that the general population was temporarily lifted to that standard. The irony is that Covid is not really spread through fomites, so all that washing and wiping things down and sanitising them as a Covid measure was basically performative. (Or to be fair - a reasonable precaution when evidence on Covid spread was still coming in, and performative when it became clear its primary spread is via aerosols.)

I know we don't use cash so much anymore but when I was a prison officer, we knew where lots of our customers kept their paper notes. Yes. Really.

Ok I should have specified 'in the UK'. No doubt it does depend on whether you live in a country that largely has good sanitation.

Is it really disgusting that I didn't do this before 2020

yes.

I also wash my hands if I've been out .before the pandemic I didn't really think about it much. I don't think it's obsessive just a bit more mindful. Fwiw I can't remember the last time I had a cold so...

I've washed my hands on returning home for years since doing my food hygiene certificate. It's habit now.

Not odd at all,I did this pre-covid as well.

It's normal, and something I've been doing for years. Certainly since pre-covid, but didn't grow up doing it.
I'm a primary school teacher, and used to teach just the tiny ones. They like to hold your hand a lot, and their hands are covered in all sorts! I'm very prone to kiddy bugs, so started washing my hands when getting home to try and avoid spreading kiddy plague around my house!

Now my general rule is, if I've touched something outside that doesn't belong to me - shopping trolley/basket, cup in a cafe etc etc, I wash my hands when I get in.

Now though, I don't feel properly settled in at home until I've washed my hands!

And when you do wash your hands when you get in - especially after a day travelling / using public transport have a look now dirty the water is.

I've washed my hands many, many times a day since the norovirus "epidemic" of 2007 - before that, and as a result of all the obsessive reading I did about it, I hadn't realised that stomach viruses were contagious by touch, not (or rarely ever) transmitted by air.

Since then I feel that there are hidden viruses surviving on every surface and that transmission is inevitable. So I quite literally wash my hands continuously.

DH counted when I was in the kitchen once, I wasn't even handling raw meat but I was preparing food and so still washed my hands 13 times in an hour.

Sadly I can no longer enjoy a meal deal on the run, not after trolley handles and cash and meat juice on packaging and the filth that is some other people. DH eats a sandwich after a tesco visit with glorious freedom - I could but then the 48 hr countdown to infection would begin...

So, yes. Always wash my hands as soon as I'm indoors.

Yes that's sensible, I always wash my hands when I come in. And I never get ill.

Sadly I can no longer enjoy a meal deal on the run, not after trolley handles and cash and meat juice on packaging and the filth that is some other people. DH eats a sandwich after a tesco visit with glorious freedom - I could but then the 48 hr countdown to infection would begin...

And is there a big difference in the number of stomach viruses that you get compared with your husband?

YANBU - "shoes off, wash hands"... That's our motto at home!! I even tell my kids friends to do it!!

ABSOLUTELY NONE 😂😂

I never said it was logical or rational.

You might not see this, but your behavior (or avoidant behavior) strikes me as obsessive - way beyond even the "particular" hand washers on here.

If you won't even eat a pre-packed sandwich out of fear of trolley handles and cash, and you wash your hands continuously because of "hidden viruses on every surface" you might think about seeking some professional assistance. That sounds like you're bordering on OCD, which as so many posters have pointed out, goes way beyond "excessive" cleanliness.

I’ve always done that. Thought everyone did. Ditto carried hand gel for years before the pandemic to use before coffee or lunch out. Worked with animals and then lived in some countries with iffy hygiene or no handwashing facilities so it’s just a part of life.

Me and DH do the same, and have always done it. When we're out and about I've always got hand sanitizer in my bag and we use that before eating. It was when we started going on cruises that we realised how many people didn't wash hands. I've lost count of the amount of women I've seen going straight out of the toilet without even the merest look at the sink let alone turning on a tap or using the hand sanitizer before going into the buffet or restaurant.

I don't do this every time I come home, but I wouldn't say it's unreasonable to do this.

Oh it definitely is - I'm emetophobic (for 45 years and way before the internet, before anyone says it's "fashionable" to have such a horrible debilitating phobia), so the OCD is all part of the fun.

I'm sorry, that sounds miserable for you.

Haven't read the thread but did anyone need a pandemic to make them wash hands as soon as they're home? I thought that was basic hygiene.

Thank you, that's kind. I'm quite accustomed to managing it, but part of my approach to management is avoidant behaviours which are not healthy, I know.

Luckily thanks to medication I hold down a great full time but remote job, and I have a family who understands. To a point lol.

ABSOLUTELY NONE 😂😂

I never said it was logical or rational.

No, and that's fair enough, because you acknowledge that you have sn obsession around this. What puzzles me is all the other germ warriors on MN. They can't all have OCD, and they must have noticed that their habits don't make them immune to illness (or any healthier than most other people). I can't help feeling that the super-cleanliness is usually a purely emotional/visceral reaction to the idea of dirt or germs rather than one based on logic or actual assessment of risk. I think the language people use about it also suggests that.