#germiphobia

To me, it all seems perfectly logical. I’m even willing to explain it, but no one ever seems to listen or make the most basic of connections. Like, if your hands have been out in public touching door-handles and shit all day, and then you wash your hands, picking up the grimy phone you’ve been using all day completely invalidates the advantage of hand-washing.

Like, there aren’t totally binary categories, but I work on the assumption that everyday things range on a scale from “clean” to “not clean”, with gradations within those categories. Generally speaking, public spaces fall under the “not clean” heading unless otherwise informed. I divide my personal spaces into clean versus not clean. My bed is a clean space, so I’m only going there after I’ve showered and changed into pajamas. My desk chair is a relatively unclean space—once I sit there, I’m not going to sit on my bed until I’ve changed clothes at a bare minimum. When I had furniture in my apartment, similar rules applied to those.

Part of this issue comes down to control. When I had my own apartment, most surfaces were generally considered clean, because I was pretty good about washing my hands after getting home and keeping dirty items off it. At my parents’ house, most surfaces are assumed unclean, because Mom and Dad don’t do that. I feel a lot more guarded here than elsewhere.