Can you provide an example of how relaxed you've been about dirt and germs?

I wash my hands often with soap, but I don’t scrub them and it doesn’t have to be anti-bacterial soap. In fact, I prefer it not to be anti-bacterial, as I believe that they kill the weak germs so the strong ones can live. I also don’t use hand sanitzers. My house is cleaned by a lady every two weeks but I have 3 cats and a child and I work full time so it’s far from clean in between those two weeks! She changes the sheets, I don’t but I will usually shower a second time in the evening (in addition to a morning shower) so the sheets should be reasonably clean. The evening shower is a quick one.

Haha well clothes don’t go in the hamper unless they smell at the end of the day. Otherwise they get worn again. Bedding rarely gets washed. My excuse is college. I have to use public toilets far too often to worry myself with hovering or what have you so I got over that squeamishness long ago.

My suitemate last year was allergic to anything scented, so that was not optimal as I am missing much of my digestive tract and let’s just say that all of us in the suite would probably have been happier with some scented spray for the bathroom. It was almost traumatically embarrassing for me but what could I do? Didn’t really have options except to deal with it. As one might expect though, college age girls are not the most understanding bunch about that sort of thing so I think they all secretly hated me.

I could go on but I’ve probably embarrassed myself enough for one post.

I’ve eaten my kids’ boogers – I forget why but it definitely happened. I tasted my menstrual blood, out of curiosity.

I’ve shared an ice cream with my dog before now!

I certainly don’t wash my hands after every interaction with animals, I’d be continuously washing my hands if I did. I often forget to wash my hands before I eat after working with animals too.

I am happy to use the 5 second rule in a lot of circumstances when accidently dropping food on the floor!

I don’t always wash my hands before eating. And there are precious few opportunities to wash during the annual hunting trip. I vacuum a few times per year, when I think the floor really needs it. And there are some surfaces in my room that haven’t been dusted, ever.

Sure: once I had a couple of germs and dirt over – it was getting a little tense – so we went to a nearby spa for some aromatherapy massage. Boy, was I relaxed about it after that.

I like a clean house but not enough to be constantly cleaning. It gets a thorough cleaning by me and my husband usually when we are expecting company. That said, it gets spot cleanups day by day so it never looks too bad. With a bird, one has to sweep frequently or the rodents would move in for the buffet.

I wash my hands usually before eating, always after touching the basket or trolley handles at the grocery store, for some reason, they really seem disgusting to me. I don’t worry about washing them after petting dogs, there are very few diseases I could catch from that, it is people germs that are more worrisome to me!

Oddly being so phobic, I have no problem with germs. I will touch an escalator rail, and forget about it. Probably put my finger in my mouth at some point or rub my nose. I am also not freaky about toilet seats. I wont eat food that has fallen to the floor though, that to me is common sense. So also I clean my home, as much as I can, I don’t use the same cloth for the toilet as I do the surfaces but other than that I don’t think about germs too much.

I have eaten out of a communal pot before (my ESL students invited me to eat with them).

I am not offended by dirt. I do make a point of scrubbing off major finger prints, but dust bunnies are not an issue.

I detest strong perfumes. I’d rather smell body odors of various kinds than breathe toxic fumes from “perfumes”. If they have filled the air in a rest room with one of those “deodorizers,” I often leave without washing rather than stay in there. I will wash later somewhere else, or use a non-toxic hand sanitizer (yes, there are recipes). Sometimes if the soap they offer is too smelly, I just rinse my hands and rub them as clean as I can with the towel. Then I will wash somewhere else when I can.

I don’t mind bugs, as long as they “behave”. If I have too many bugs, I use a non-toxic method of controlling them whenever possible. .

My house is immaculate because I enjoy cleaning – but my car is a disaster. I clean it maybe twice a year. I do throw out the trash in it daily.

I also don’t worry too much about “public germs”. I don’t carry hand sanitizer. I touch door handles, shopping carriages, ATM buttons, etc. and don’t give it a second thought.

Most food in my house gets the five second rule if it hits the floor. I share food with my wife and daughter all the time. And I’ve bitten my dog in the neck and let her lick my face if we’re playing around.

I’m definitely a neat nick, but not a germaphobe.

It’s the smell. If that part of the funk is kickin then we have to do something about it…eventually.

I used to work in manholes, where things are quite bug infested, and unbelievably filthy.
Once you are used to that environment, it’s not such a big thing.

When I had to work repairing peoples phone lines, I would have to go inside their homes. My wife always enjoyed that, because I would come home and she would apologize for how bad the house looked, and I would laugh, having seen people living with mildew covered furniture and such.

I’m a Brahmin. My ancestors obtained their power and status in society by learning how to “control” impurity, literal and figurative. It’s hard to break these long-engrained mental structures. I break a lot of the rules I was raised with, but I still pay great attention to cleanliness when it comes to personal hygiene, cooking, and receiving guests. However, it does make sense for me on a practical level because I have a very poor immune system and I can get infections easily.

My husband was in a public bathroom with a dentist friend. He started to walk out and my husband said, aren’t you going to wash your hands?” our friend replied, “my dick is cleaner than that sink. ”

@Judi I wash before – and after.

I will eat anything. 5 second rule is more like 15 second rule. If we’ve swapped bodily fluids I consider it an honor to eat any leftover you give me – even with teeth marks.
Before I slide between the bedtime sheets, I shower so I’m spotless. Always. I smell like Dial soap and toothpaste.

The only way we build strong immune systems is through exposure. This generation is going to be so fucked because how OCD people are with hand sanitizer especially with small children. They need to be outside playing in the dirt, not in a sterlized bubble.

As children, we used to pull carrots right out of the field, brush them off on our jeans and eat them. As teens, we would drink out of the same pop bottle with our friends and pass gum to our boyfriend while kissing. Ugh! I am more germ-conscious now. I can’t eat leftovers after someone else ate on it. But at least I don’t feel the need to wipe down a shopping cart with an antibacterial wipe before I use it. In other words, I am more careful what I put in my mouth, but I am not that worried about my hands.

Reminds me of the well worn phrase, “I want that floor so clean I can eat my dinner off it!”
Might try that some time, maybe have friends round for a dinner on the kitchen floor party.

@Skaggfacemutt and yet our hands are by far the dirtiest parts on our body :P

@uberbatman That may be true, but I don’t suck my thumb anymore. Ha-ha!

”I smell like Dial soap and toothpaste.”

@LuckyGuy: Dude, stop talking dirty to me.

@cookieman If you smell that way too, watch out!

I’m a freak about germs, but I just tell myself “this won’t kill me, why am I worrying about it?” I used to wash my hands every single time I left the toilet, but now it’s up to my own discretion, lol.

Baha Simone_De_Beauvoir. I’ve always wanted to taste my own, uh discharge, but thought this isn’t normal… who’d do that? =P

My Great Grandmother would often say “you got to eat a bushel of dirt before you die” I would spend my summers with my grandparents sometimes. They had all kinds of sayings like that. She must have got her bushel done because I dont remember much about her, (she passed when I was about 8, but that saying was carried on and attributed to her.

@majorrich Did she mean that it would take a bushel of dirt to kill you, or was she saying that over the course of a lifetime you would probably have eaten a bushel of dirt?

I assume the latter. I know my gran was the only girl with 6 brothers on a tobacco farm.

I have let my cats eat off my plate or take a few licks off my spoon. My cat will also drink my water from my glass. It makes me think twice, but I think, and then I continue.

I prefer to wash my hands after being in a public space and before eating. Of course, if I can’t, I can’t but I try to. My mother told me long ago when you’re out in public touching doorknobs, on public transportation, etc., never touch your eyes or mouth until you’ve washed your hands. They did something on the Today Show a few years ago where they swabbed the rails on an escalator in a department store and among the germs they found were vaginal yeast. D i s g u s t i n g!

I will eat from a communal dessert plate, and not think twice about it. Maybe because I feel dessert trumps all else!

@Simone, I’ve tasted my own pussy juice, though, out of curiosity. Not menstrual blood.

I have this issue with human hair on my floor. I could be sitting on the john and notice some long stands of hair (mine), I immediately scoop it up with t.p. and toss it into the toilet. I like my place to smell clean. I like my counter top clean. I like to have my dishes done (although, I’ve been known to leave them in the sink for a few days). All in all, I prefer a clean house. Whispering “Swiffer Wet Jet” in my ear is like foreplay. ;-)

If I’m eating and I drop something on the floor, I pick it up, check it for dog-hairs, and if there are none, I’ll still eat it. I haven’t died yet so my floor must be clean enough.

If someone else in the family has left some of their meal and I want it, I’ll happily eat off their plate with their fork. I live with them – if I’m gonna catch a cold off them I will anyway, whether I eat off their plate or not.

I’ll wear a shirt at least two or three times before washing it, and jeans get a week. Provided I’ve not spilled anything on them or got covered in mud or something.

Now my partner is much more fussy about hygeine and he won’t do any of these things. The result? I have a kick-ass immune system, I hardly ever get an upset stomach or other bacterial infection, while my partner gets them at least twice a year.

@downtide You what that’s called? Nature’s antibiotic. ;-)

@Mama_Cakes yep :)

Same here. I just don’t sweat it beyond obvious stuff. I had a friend who was anal about keeping things clean. ..... And she was forever running her kids to the doctor for this, that and the other thing.

One time she decided to clock me for….something. Oh yeah! I had the day care. Used plastic plates. Punched the kids names on one of those hand held punch things, and stuck the names to the plates. She was concerned about how I was going to clean between all the little letters!
I just responded, “Well, if my kids were sick as often as yours I guess I’d worry about stuff like that too.”

She also subscribed to the 5 second rule. Talk about redonkerous.

Yikes, I don’t know. My entire life is an example. If my cat leaves a turd on the floor I just pick it up with bare hands and toss it into the toilet. Usually they’re hard enough that it’s not like handling wet poop. It leaves nothing on my hands. I dropped a piece of cookie on the sidewalk in the middle of town the other day and ate it. It was the middle of the cookie. No way that’s being wasted. I never wash my pants. Well, very rarely. I don’t wash my produce. I eat customers food off their plates at work, unless they look homeless or obviously disease ridden. I do not wash my hands often, except when I poop, and I always eat with my hands, hardly ever utensils. FINGERS are natures utensils, fuck forks. I also have had the terrible habit of sucking on my middle and index finger on my left hand since I was literally 6 months old. Like I said, I rarely wash my hands, and since I still do it to this day when I sleep, all those germs go straight down my gullet. Like @downtide I have one of the best immune systems of anyone I know. I also kiss my cat on the lips, and he pukes A LOT.

I won’t use hand sanitizer. ;0)

I wanted to post this earlier but couldnt from my tablet. RIP George

I’m a neat freak and I enjoy order and a clean environment. But I’m not a wuss, I could live in filth if I had to, and I don’t mind eating something that fell on the floor.

I am big on washing my hands before meals and making sure that my hands don’t go near my mouth, but I’m okay with sharing most food and water bottles, as long as the person has good hygiene as well.

@uberbatman precisely

I think the worst thing I do is that I sometimes eat fruit in the car on the way home from the grocery store without washing it.

I refuse to use antibacterial soaps.