When I saw the new Kleenex commercial about the disgusting array of germs that can hide in the average home's hand towels, I couldn't resist going online and putting my own set under the microscope of the Kleenex Hand Towel Analyzer. It's easy enough: Answer a few questions about how many people live in your home, your family's handwashing habits, and whether or not you have pets, and voila! The Analyzer instantly tells you where your home's hand towels fall on the gross-out spectrum.
As a germaphobe with less-than-great housekeeping skills, I was neither pleased nor surprised with the Hand Towel Analyzer's results.
My towels fall into the "borderline icky" category. Oh, no! That's it, I thought, I'm picking up a box of those disposable hand towels today and tossing the terrycloth.
But then I started to think ... does one step forward in the war on germs equal two steps back in the direction of over-sanitization? I won't lie: I carry around of bottle of hand sanitizer, but I'm also concerned that if we keep coddling our immune systems like crazy, we won't have any resistance to the strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria we're simultaneously creating. (It's the classic chicken vs. egg question: Which came first, superbugs or superbug paranoia?)
You've most likely heard of the Hygiene Hypothesis, which basically blames our country's sharp increase in the incidence of childhood allergies on our obsession with being clean (not too many kids in third-world countries need to carry around an Epi-Pen).
So now I'm on the fence about buying disposable hand towels. Maybe I'm doing my kids a favor by exposing them to a pathogen or two. Or maybe the next time I dry my hands, all I'll be able to think is "borderline icky." And don't even bother suggesting I launder my hand towels every day or something crazy like that (see "less-than-great housekeeping skills" above).
Do your hand towels gross you out?
Image via St0rmz/Flickr
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Comments 6
My mom used to always tell me - After you wash you are clean, so your towel is not really dirty, just damp. And if you hang it up to dry, you can reuse it. So if a towel is used just to dry off, it is okay to reuse. Just use a different rag to clean your counters or dry your dog. And use tissues or toilet paper to blow your nose. You can be green and save money by not using paper towels every time you wash your hands
My hand towels do not gross me out. I'd rather use a towel and be earth friendly than use paper towels and constantly throw them away. We've always used hand towels.
I am a germ freak! I actually have a physical reaction to the thought of germs. If I use a grocery cart, I wipe the handle down with those sanitary wipes most stores provide. If the store doesn't have wipes for that purpose, I tug my sleeves down around my hands so I don't touch the handle. I NEVER sit down on public toilets, I kinda hover over them. I practically have a panic attack at hospitals because of all the germs and dirty sick people wandering around. Took my girl to Chuck-E-Cheeses in Milwaukee one day. And you KNOW those mofos don't wash anything let alone sterilize them. I watched my girl scamper around on the toys and slides and play the games and I about passed out! I was sitting there shaking and it was all I could do NOT to get up and snatch her up and take her into a shower. I wash my hands constantly, and make sure my girl does too. I never open the door of a public bathroom without a papertowel, I am obsessed with cleaning products. Spend more time in the cleaning isle than any others when I shop... And it's just getting worse the older I get...
Not quite as bad as the touch-free soap dispenser (that product restson the premise that I am not about to use the soap that I am pumping out!), but almost. Seriously. I live in close quarters with my family and pets. I don't need my hand towels to get their germs. We all share every cold and flu and I'm still alive, so I'll keep my way-better-for-the-environment-anyway towels. And P.S., we don't use hand towels. Our bath towels are hung up to dry in the bathroom anyway, no need to own an entirely different set of tiny towels when you can wipe your hands on that.