Hand Washing

yes my cat likes his gum, I don't give him it of course but Im lazy and sometimes leave mine on the side of my plate and he pinches it, chews it for a while then spits it out, I think he likes the mint taste. My girl cat looks down her whiskers at him with chewing gum as though she is disgusted.

Seriously? Your cat eats chewing gum?

been doing my cloths and sponges today, they smell nice and clean even the one I used to clean the carpet where the cat had spat his chewing gum. yes my cat like his gum.

thank you ana I did not know that, I will do mine today and try and get my mother to do all her cloths. She has cloths for floor, dishcloths, cloths for the bench, for the loo, the windows etc (well maybe not putting the loo cloth in the microwave ).

I do that too. I also microwave dish cloths and flannels.

The heat generated by microwaving a sponge for two minutes kills 99% of the microbes. Just make sure they're wet when you put them in.

ana how do you do it, it costs me a fortune even with the cheap ones.

You can sterilise those foam scrubbers in the microwave, ethel - saves having to throw them away every day.

I learned to wash my hands regularly when on chemo as my immune system was affected, I used to wash before preparing food, during and before I ate it. I used anti bac gel too on my hands.I now know that the antibac gel can cause cancer so I don't use it now. |I found I had washed my hands 42 times just preparing a meal so I was becoming a bit OCD, however I have eased off as Im not on chemo now but I am very careful
My elderly mother cleans the cat lit tray with no gloves on and then puts it in the bin, then picks up the vacuum cleaner then goes to do the dishes without washing her hands I cannot get her to wash after doing the cat tray, then after the vacuuming. she says shes 83 now and never been ill in her life so why start washing hands now.
I follow her around with the spray doing the door handles when shes not looking. she also uses a foam scrubber for her dishes for weeks on end, I dispose of mine daily.

Standing in a long queue at a public ladies' toilet one day I was very shocked to see how many people left the room WITHOUT washing their hands at all I was sorely tempted to pull them up on this but wimped out from confrontation with strangers.

I did actually use the handwipes I carry in my bag for the DGCs after I had used the door handle. Felt a bit sick TBH!

Ninathenana - I follow more or less the same hand washing regime as you - after loo, before handling food/meals and when they're dirty. But it's surprising how many hand washes this adds up to - unless you're sitting in the sun reading a book all day!

And how do people manage without a nailbrush?

I once remember a friend of my aunt saying that she loved making pastry because afterwards her hands were nice and clean Somehow I could never quite bring my self to eat things that she had mad after that.

Not really about hand washing but the thread brought her to mind.

I have very dry thin skin so wear gloves for different jobs, especially involving water.
And I always seem to have some kind of wound with a plaster on - currently a blistered finger.

We had a cat who adored DH and I noticed that after said cat had been sitting on his knee being petted ha always got up to wash his hands very thoroughly. He is also a thorough hand washer and nail scrubber with water all over the place.

Brilliant Bellasnana, I'll teach my Gch that.

I hand wash fairly regularly throughout the day, but not so frequently that I am particularly aware of doing so. When I do notice that I've upped the anti is when I'm travelling on public transport - planes, boats, trains and buses. I usually travel to much more densely populated areas from where I live, which is very rural with a sparse population, so it figures.
I dislike hand gel and don't use it.

I also clean my nail brushes regularly, after noticing they had become very grotty. A great germ trapper, I thought, so they get a good soaking in v. hot soapy water.

I wash my hands really frequently. I wouldn't think of touching any food without washing hands first, and always carry antibacterial gel which I use if eating out. Having worked in the care field I was also trained in Infection Control (and I don't use nail polish because I can't see if my nails are clean!)

I seem to wash my hands so many times a day I could change my name to Lady Macbeth (and no, so far, I haven't murdered any house guests).

DGD has a giraffe-shaped soap dispenser which sings, twice, to the tune of row, row, row your boat gently down the stream;

Wash, wash, wash your hands,
Wash them every day,
Up and down and in between
To keep the germs away.

You lot make me feel like a dirty begger
Apart from after using the loo and before preparing food. I only wash mine when I think they need it i.e.after gardening pulling up the odd weed or when they're syicky/messy

Those hand cleaning gels leave my hands feeling sticky. So I'd then have to wash them again. Most of them pong as well, which makes me sneeze. And then there's the allergic skin reaction to the pong.

That's the reason I don't always use soap in public washrooms too — perfume in soap. If you've only been for a wee, plain water is sufficient, always providing your hands weren't dirty to begin with.

I reckon my handwashing techniques are fine because even though I do a lot of grubby work outside, I always have clean nails. Washing-up without rubber gloves and the use of a nail file afterwards is far more effective for cleaning nails than a scrubbing brush, I find.

I usually do wear rubber gloves for washing-up, but not when my nails need a good clean.

Could the fact that so many people have dishwashers be making a difference to hand cleanliness, I wonder?

I too wash taught the singing of Happy Birthday twice to make sure I washed my hands properly! Nana-next-door also stressed that I should keep my hands away from my mouth and NEVER EVER handle food without hand washing first. She really had a 'thing' about money - coins especially - saying that you never knew who'd handled it last. It may have been a dirty old man who didn't wash his hands after he'd been to the loo. My disgust at that (having discovered how men urinated) is still a strong memory after 65 years!

We have two sinks, and to save hot water one has a washing-up bowl permanently filled with hot soapy water in it, just for hand washing. It gets re-filled three or four times a day, as I seem to be always gardening, cooking or cleaning. I hate to think how often I wash mine, but I still seem to manage to have black under my fingernails despite using the scrubbing brush after gardening.

I too am a former nurse, and wash my hands as if I was still working!. I now do a small part time job as a cleaner in a large poshish supermarket. While cleaning the washrooms, I see the hand washing techniques of the staff, both male and female. Some of the women are really slapdash with hand washing, one or two don't do it at all. The men are much more fastidious, and wash their's really well. Not my place, but I did have words with one girl about cross contamination, she was very dismissive. I have asked, so I know that they have training about personal hygiene and hand washing.

I use gel when I'm out too. Especially if I've touched the door handle leaving the ladies. I don't understand how people can leave without washing their hands properly. I'm a bit OCD so I know I can be OTT but I have to make sure I've washed properly. It takes more time that simply rinsing your fingers under the cold water tap but then it does actually get rid of a lot of bugs you'd much rather not have back in your stomach. Oddly I sometimes get asked if I'm a doctor or a nurse as if they are the only people who need to wash their hands.