To wonder why hankies haven't made a comeback?

[Eestar]

The world is so eco friendly and waste conscious now... plastic straws are out with the dinosaurs, light bulbs have completely changed since my childhood, and using plastic bags seems almost punishable by law... Some of my braver friends have even embraced cloth nappies.

With all of this in mind, using single-use paper tissues just to blow your nose seems such a waste, with an easy and obvious solution - so why are hankies not more of a 'thing' by now??

Covid, surely.

DS1 (20) is going to buy some when he has a chance to go to a shop. He has a permanently runny nose and is fed up of running out of tissues.
No idea where to get them from mind you, he doesn't have an M&S budget!

Because they’re unhygienic if you’re blowing your nose.
tissues are single use as they’re made to catch the germs and then dispose of.

A lot of tissues are made from recycled materials now though.

Because the contents of them are disgusting and they would never see the inside of my washing machine.

Hankies are gross.

Because they're gross. Next question.

The spread of germs maybe?

Hankies are really unhygienic- you're using them repeatedly and then even if you wash your hands in between surely you're touching them again when you put your hand in your pocket for keys/ phone etc. And then transferring that to other surfaces and people.

I'm all for being eco friendly but not if it's going to contribute to making people sick.

They have.

I’m using them at the minute as my nose is so sore from blowing it. I went through two toilet rolls before I gave in and cut up an old cloth to use

Yes, the sight of people carrying a ball of their snot around with them in their hand or pocket makes me feel a bit ill.

My elderly FIL uses hankies and I went to his house recently and found loads of them all dried and crunchy with snot scattered around the house. Absolutely fucking rank.

Because we worry a lot less about single use tissue and paper than single use plastic.

Hankies are brilliant ! Much prefer drying my hands with my hankie rather than using air dryers. Plus they are a great comfort and I can match them with my handbag or outfit.
Handkerchieves are disappointingly unavailable in GB shops and department stores. I think a revival is long overdue.

I bought some in home bargains in fathers day promotion
Primark maybe?

I get quite severe hay fever and still remember my hanky-wielding childhood. It was grim. No way am I going back to that again. Ugh.

Because I have to do two laundry loads a day as it is. I don't want to add even more.

Some people shove them up their sleeve 🤢

I never use them for nose blowing 😱. Tissues are a necessity too !

Never went out of fashion in my house!
If I have a cold, I use paper tissues and dispose of them. Just because thick mucus is pretty gross.
However most of the year I have rhinitis, nothing helps, so a permanently runny nose. Watery and annoying. Hankies save my poor nose from being red raw, peeling and bleeding.
The hankies then go in a mesh bag for washing along with underwear, towels, tea towels and cleaning cloths.
How is this any worse than washing cloth nappies? Would rather have a bit of mucus being washed out than faeces, tbh. But you do you. I love my hankies.

Well why not use a towel to wipe your arse? Gross, right?

Even reading this and the thought of them is making me feel ill.
I'm a 70s kid and remember old mannies using them and it made me heave then .

I remember my mum boiling them up on the stove to get them clean and sanitised. People can’t be doing with all that malarkey nowadays.

Yeah, my mother does that, which leads to her dropping them absolutely everywhere

One word Hygeine

This one made me laugh!

But - replying in general here to the "it's disgusting" posts - people carry "snotty, germ-ridden" tissues around with them sometimes surely? As in, if you have a cold, with one of those really miserable won't-stop-running noses, you don't blow your nose literally one time and then throw a whole tissue away? And then use an entirely new tissue one minute later? You blow your nose into a tissue a few times before binning it.

And cloth nappies are 10 times more disgusting to have in your washing machine, but you don't ever seem to have people reacting so viscerally to those. So I just wonder, why the vitriol for hankies, really. Obviously when kept freshly washed, as you would with underwear/socks etc!