Germophobe much?

I have never thought of myself as a germophobe….  (heh, Word thinks that is a misspelling….) 

I am not a cleaner! My floors are dusty NOT dirty.  I live alone, so housekeeping in my personal abode is not up for discussion.  Suffice to say that I won’t be inviting anyone in any time soon.

This is more about public spaces and other people’s phobias.

I once had a boss, the company owner, who  -at the end of every work day cleared off the entirety of his desk top, cleaned the desk with a disinfecting wipe, and then cleaned his hands with hand sanitizer.  Of course I thought he was a bit loony.  It was his desk, in his private office, not a public place. Seriously.

A few years have passed by since then…. I still think he was more than a little odd…..

IF you have a WEAK stomach: stop reading now, and close this window.

For the last decade I worked with a man who was a little bit of a germophobe….. and yet he would hand over his cell phone readily, either to allow a conversation to take place (I put it to my ear dude!), or to have me make some adjustment to the settings (he is a little technologically challenged).  Of course, knowing him as I did, I cleaned the phone with a disinfecting wipe –as he watched, before handing it back to him.

The Truth Behind Hotel Cleaning Practices will Scare you...

Here is my disclaimer:  this man I write about has been happily married for at least 15 years, and there was absolutely nothing between the two of us beyond a congenial coworker relationship.

Once we had a brief conversation about hotel rooms…. (we traveled constantly for work)….  He had (has?) a few ideas that are …. not realistic…..  For example, he always asks for extra towels, and those he places on any surface he plans to sit on – I have no idea how he prepared a bed to sleep in…or if he slept at all…..  I do know that the first rule in his hotel playbook is to remove the bedspread and put it in the corner –dusty, dirty things that are rarely ever washed.  He might have been carrying his own bed sheets, I wouldn’t know….

I freely admit that in recent years I have carried disinfecting wipes into every hotel I have stayed and wiped down all surfaces before doing anything else.

We all know that lady who needs to open the bathroom door with a paper towel, so that she doesn’t touch what others have touched….in case those others didn’t wash their hands.  Here is my question: what about the next door you have touch to open?  In one instance this was in the building where our offices were located,…the ladies room is in a public hallway, and to get back to our offices you have to open the door at the end of the hallway.  Here is what I know about the door at the end of the hallway:  IT’S DISGUSTINGLY FILTHY!!!  How do I know that? I know because I took a disinfecting wipe and cleaned that hallway door on a regular basis, and it always left a disgusting dark smudge on that disinfecting wipe.

Are you a germophobe? If you are still reading this I give you some credit ..for not being to grossed out to continue…. .by the way, I no longer work for that company—who cleans that door now?  Everyone puts their dirty hands on that door every time the open it. Everyone!

Recently I have seen a few items, on social media, regarding how disgusting public restrooms are in fast food places, cafes, and a few other places.  Wow.  Y’all are so innocent… try truck stops, bus stations, and commuter trains…. I have seen a lot, yes.  Plus, in my job I worked at a wide variety of factories, plants, and facilities all over the United States…. My final comment is that if you think the public restrooms in Walmart are disgusting you have not seen anything ….. 

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(one that comes to mind was a truck stop in the south… mold halfway up the walls in a shower –the restrooms were “out of order” so they opened a shower, which in many truck stops include a commode.  My co-driver and I opted to drive on down the highway to a rest area, which was nice and clean.)