If you washed your shopping are you still doing so?

[HJ40]

Not looking for a pile on from those who never did because there are plenty of those threads already.

I chose to dunk everything in Milton because back at the start of covid, so much was unknown. I was pregnant and scared. DH & I were able to work from home and our DC1 was at home when nursery was closed. We were perfectly, totally, isolated so it made sense to wash the shopping as our only possible point of exposure.

And then the habit has stuck because it's actually no hassle and better to be on the safe side.

But more than a a year on, DC1 has been back at nursery every day for 14months now and DC2 is about to start. We're going out and about, albeit cautiously, but fairly normally. DH & I are AZ double jabbed but too young for the booster. DH will soon have to return to commuting by train at least two days per week and I will be going back into my office.

I'm wondering if the time has come to stop? Given all our other potential contact points, shopping seems pretty low down the risk list.

It's airborne.

How does anyone have time for this shit

I think this is not a covid requirement so much as a general sense that putting packaging into the fridge is mildly gross, when you think about how many people go about their daily life with shit on their hands.

I decant yogurt, cheese etc into tubs and I do wash the big milk bottles. I take cereal out of cardboard box before putting on the table. But I am not washing all my packaging, no.

Never did any of this...I find it all just slightly bonkers to be honest 🤷‍♀️

Mental!!!! Everyone just stop washing your shopping it's pointless!!!

I still do.

I have OCD which I've had treatment for and now manage quite well, but I do still have a few rituals which I don't yet feel able to stop (checking the knobs on the gas hob are off a certain number of times before bed, etc.), and I still feel incredibly anxious if I try to avoid these.

Cleaning the shopping has sort of become one of those things I feel very anxious about not doing. I'm not daft, I know how tiny the risks of catching something from your shopping are, but I just can't quite bring myself to stop doing it.

Even after COVID, I think I'll find it difficult to not do it (although I'm pregnant, and I've been told that having a baby will help with these rituals as I'll be too tired to give them as much thought, so fingers crossed!).

We did it for a while back when so much was unknown, but when evidence suggested it wasn't necessary we stopped. That was probably over a year ago. I hated doing it anyway. No one in our household has had covid.

I wanted to keep doing it but my partner has said no so unless I get to the shopping first it doesn't happen now. This is as of last week because we're both double jabbed.

@HyacynthBucket

Not sure why people were or are using antibac for this. Covid is a virus not bacteria. Flash do some household wipes that are anti-corona virus if wiping down still wanted.

The whole thing is mental. I never wiped down anything, ever. Wash your hands after touching if concerned.

However, just to correct the above. It isn't about the anti-bacterial aspect. If people use wipes, it does work as it physically removes the virus. (Except that it's still a completely pointless thing to do).

We started doing it at the beginning when nobody really knew how big the risk was. But stopped after a few months, then put shopping away and wash hands, wash hands before eating etc.

I think we had a week or so of quarantining the post/parcels but soon realised that was pointless too.

I would very much like to know whether the people who do this are putting as much effort into making sure that everywhere they go in public is well ventilated.

I was in a tea shop a few months ago, a woman came in, got out her wipes and wiped the table where she was sitting and her hands, and then went across and closed the window.

I stopped ages ago.

I found the noise of the tins in the tumble dryer after washing them to be just too loud, and I never did find the potatoes I jet-washed in the garden. I was hoping they might take root but I've seen no evidence of it so far.

Stopped after the 1st week.

We used to wipe stuff down but stopped long ago.

I was a manic bleacher. At the beginning I was washing the shopping, then washing the porch, washing the fridge handle and then washing my clothes

Now I have calmed down! I still clean supermarket trolley handle, which I have always done. Apparently they are hotbeds of faecal matter - eeeeeuuugh.

I wash the fruit with water and vinegar because I have small kids and they just serve themselves from the bowl. I don't trust them to wash the fruit properly at their age

Each to their own, OP, but please be aware this is not healthy level of anxiety and your children will be picking up on your behaviours. You are not going to catch covid from your shopping. And you will not be able to avoid covid forever, it's not going anywhere.

I'm still anti - bacing shopping its no trouble and is a habit now better safe than sorry .

I picked up my “behaviours” from my mother as she did hers, we wash food from shops before we eat or store it because we aren’t keen on worms/d&v/colds/flu/worse. It’s VERY basic hygiene but seems to have been forgotten here.

Wash your hands as free you use a toilet, before you eat, and when you enter your house. Not because of covid because you will catch less.

No. We did because DH is ECV. We stopped when DD1 started back at school.

I never understood people washing or even bleaching their shopping. Never did it and never had covid.

I think covid brought out the extremes in many people and the majority in the middle. Some seriously over the top behaviour. I feel sorry for people with extreme anxiety.

@DottyHarmer

I was a manic bleacher. At the beginning I was washing the shopping, then washing the porch, washing the fridge handle and then washing my clothes

Now I have calmed down! I still clean supermarket trolley handle, which I have always done. Apparently they are hotbeds of faecal matter - eeeeeuuugh.

Yes, cleaner trolley handles was one of the few silver linings to this whole pandemic. They were so manky before!

I was but stopped after lockdown one. We were also showering straight after school/work and have stopped that now as the extra washing was killing me. To be honest I'm much more at risk from my class of young children and poorly ventilated classroom.

I generally shop on the principle of having something in the cupboard/fridge, etc. and a spare. So by the time my shopped items come into use they have been sitting for 3+ days.
I still wear a mask when shopping and make sure hands are thoroughly washed after handling things.

My friend and my sister put mountains of Dettol wipes in the bin. The waste really grieves me, over such a pointless exercise.