We’ve all heard it a million times: wash behind your ears. Floss every day. Dry shampoo is not a substitute for washing your hair, and you should probably be washing your hands even more often than you do. Personal hygiene is not something to take lightly, as it is vital to our health and our social lives. Nobody wants to cuddle up on the couch next to someone who reeks of garlic breath or sweaty gym clothes!
But even though hygiene is second nature to most of us, it’s never a bad idea to have a reminder to wash your bedsheets every week and change your toothbrush head every few months. Below, we’ve gathered some of the most important hygiene tips people have been sharing in this Reddit thread, so all of you pandas can stay healthy, happy and smelling fresh as a daisy. Keep reading to also find an interview with Dr. Mike Czubiak, host of the Hygiene Superstar podcast, to hear his thoughts on the topic.
Be sure to upvote all of the hygiene habits that you think are underrated, and feel free to leave any of your own recommendations in the comments below. Then if you’re interested in reading another Bored Panda article noting the importance of showering every day, check out this story next.
#1
Close the toilet seat lid then flush.
Image source: AnonPlzzzzzz, Giorgio Trovato
#2
In the kitchen: after you touch raw meat, wash your hands before touching anything else period.
Image source: icecream_dragon, Angele J
#3
My dentist said to me ‘you brush in the morning to keep your friends and you brush at night to keep your teeth.’
Image source: 1DietCokedUpChick
#4
The vagina is self-cleaning.
The vulva is NOT self-cleaning.
Image source: nzodd, cottonbro
#5
If something is worth doing, it’s worth halfassing it. Say you’re running late and need to be out the door 10 minutes ago, it’s still worth giving your teeth a 10 second scrub rather than skipping it.
Image source: SharpPoetry, Andrea Piacquadio
#6
If you can smell your body odor a little bit other people can smell you a lot stronger…
Image source: UnlikelyStranger4862, OSPAN ALI
#7
Wash your glasses, in the sink, with warm (not hot!) water and gentle, non-antibacterial soap. Your face secretes oil, and a lot of it gathers in your eyebrows. It will pool in the cracks between the frame and lenses, gather in noxious scummy boogers on the nosepads, and in the hinges as well. Once it’s built up, no matter how hard you try to clean your lenses, you’ll just smudge them up because of that oil. The face oil will oxidize and turn bright green, then yellow-ish, then brown. It smells TERRIBLE. I wash mine about once every two weeks with a drop of dawn dish soap and warm water.
Also, wash your glasses cleaning cloth at least as frequently. They get infused with nasty face oil. Don’t use fabric softener on the cleaning cloth, as it will make the cloth oily in the dryer and you’ll just be smearing new, fancy oil on your lenses. Hand washing your cloth in the sink works just fine.
Source: I am a licensed optician and have had to scrub countless pairs of glasses.
Image source: harriethocchuth, Sincerely Media
#8
If you have bad breath that doesn’t go away you may have tonsil stones.
Image source: wiener_dawg, Joey Nicotra
#9
I have severe clinical depression and these are some things I’ve been told that were game changers for me:
1. Clean clothes and a hot shower will make you feel like a million bucks on your worst days.
2. If you have long hair that tends to knot a lot, brush your hair wet and start from the bottom and work your way up towards your scalp.
3. If you can’t bring yourself to put your clothes away, start piles. You know what’s clean, you know what’s dirty, and what you can wear again.
Image source: Memories_Misread
#10
If someone offers you breath mints, take them without question.
Image source: aboo4235
#11
Brush your tongue as well as your teeth.
Image source: JoraStarkiller, Keira Burton
#12
I haven’t seen this mentioned yet, so forgive me if it’s already been said: make your home a shoes-free environment.
I know some folks are concerned about their foot odor. Others feel that a door mat is sufficient in wiping one’s feet at the entryway. Keep in mind that if you’ve set foot into a public restroom, you’re basically tracking whatever you stepped on into your home.
Image source: SiameseBouche, Kelly
#13
Cutting out soda is probably one of the best things you can do for your dental health.
Image source: SloppyNachoBros
#14
I have depression and hate brushing my teeth. It was the absolute worst until I started leaving my toothbrush in the shower. It’s just way more convenient for me.
Image source: xo_kitten
#15
Drink more water.
Image source: freedagent
#16
Wash and change your bed sheets and your pillow cases.
Image source: GhostOfTheSerpent, Valeria Burdyka
#17
Sneeze in your elbow not your hands!
Image source: Sackyhack, Edward Jenner
#18
For the love of God change your underwear everyday. Also those Jeans you never wash? We know…
Image source: Samdamnit
#19
Make sure your clothes get completely dry. You’ll smell like mildew otherwise.
Image source: YakiVegas, Karolina Grabowska
#20
Cats should not be allowed on your kitchen counters or dining table. They’re very cute, yes, but those cute paws touch cat litter and all the nasty, nasty things implied by that. Do you really want that where you prepare and eat your food?
Image source: PhilOfTheRightNow
#21
Wash behind your ears.
It’s not an old wives tale that grandmas scold kids with. There are lots of oil producing sebaceous glands there. You can get a nasty smell, and you can even get flaky skin or “cheese” build up behind there if you don’t wash with soap.
Image source: Jules6146, Hayes Potter
#22
Deodorant is water resistant. It won’t wash off by just splashing water on it. You need to give it a good scrub with soap to get it all the way off your skin. If you don’t get all the old deodorant washed away, the new deodorant you apply won’t work. It has to be fresh deodorant on clean skin.
Image source: notreallylucy, No Revisions
#23
When you leave a set of public loos don’t open the outer door with your bare, freshly-washed hands. If you have to touch a handle, cover your hand with a bit of clothing(eg hem of shirt) if necessary. Never forget that depressingly large numbers of people still fail to wash their hands thoroughly, or even at all (yeuch!) after using the loo.
Image source: Mjhtmjht
#24
FLOSS.
Whenever people tell me they don’t floss I ask them, just as an experiment, to try flossing one of their back teeth and sniffing the floss afterwards. The eye-watering stench they will inevitably encounter is the smell of the leftover bits of food that are rotting between their teeth. I then tell them that every person they talk to, every person they kiss, gets a whiff of that putrid, rotten food smell whenever they open their mouths. The prospect of the almost unbearably painful dental procedures they will have to get due to a lack of oral hygiene doesn’t motivate most people, but the stench does.
So floss.
Image source: machu_pikacchu
#25
If you wear earrings, take them off and clean frequently.
Image source: Far-Pollution9548, Rafael Barros
#26
Belly buttons need to be cleaned.
Image source: Twodotsaddict, cottonbro
#27
Disinfect your phone regularly. Ideally, daily.
Image source: rachelsingsopera, Priscilla Du Preez
#28
After you wash your feet and in-between your toes, be sure to dry them properly to avoid foot fungus.
Image source: chuckingasickie, Karolina Grabowska
#29
Buy a very wide-toothed comb to hang up in the shower, and use it to de-tangle while your hair is coated in conditioner. It helps a lot.
Image source: Pour_Me_Another_
#30
Keep your nails clean. Tidying your nails helps you prevent spreading germs into your mouth.
Image source: SuvenPan, Jessica Delp
#31
Someone once told me ‘only floss the teeth you want to keep.’
Image source: CraigTheLeg
#32
Wipe front to back
Image source: anon
#33
If your shoes smell from wearing them, it might be due to you not exfoliating your feet. The dead skin starts to ferment when your foot sweats inside your shoe.
Pumice stones are your friend.
Image source: New-At-Everything
#34
If you have bacne (ie back acne), lean your head forward to rinse your hair products OR wash your back thoroughly with soap after rinsing your conditioner/last product.
Most people lean their head backward to rinse, which washes their hair products all down their back. If you wash with soap after, no biggie, but many people wash their body first, typically while letting the conditioner sit in their hair for a few minutes and thus rinsing after.
In which case, you step out of the shower with hair product residue all down your back and a*s. For some people and products, it’s fine; for others, it causes skin irritation and acne.
It should always be your first step in trying to eliminate bacne, just in case it’s the cause for you.
Image source: IAintDeceasedYet
#35
Wash your hands right away once you get home from somewhere. Then change into clean clothes. You don’t want to bring nasty stuff from outside to your home. Don’t lay down on your couch or bed without changing!
Image source: yukgaejang29, Polina Tankilevitch
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