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Contortionist Cleaning

Whether washing your hands in a public bathroom actually gets rid of germs or attaches more to you probably depends on the place, but for my part, I don't really see the point in scrubbing up, only to then put my freshly cleaned mitts on a faucet and door handle that strangers-who-have-touched-god-knows-what have wielded. So if I need to wash hands before, say, eating out at a restaurant, my choices are to a) use a liquid hand-sanitizer or b) wash my hands in the bathroom, then use my forearm and/or elbow to turn on the faucet and turn the door handle on my way out.

I recommend that latter, if you can bust the moves, since it means one less thing to carry around and one less plastic bottle to recycle. If you use a paper towel to dry, you can even use it as a kind of mitten until you've opened the door, then hold the door with your body, crumple the mitten, and shoot for the trash can. It's fun. Try it, and see.

-Jenifer Morgan...off to make a basket...
Posted by: tmeronek on 11/29/2007
related tip
Put a plug in it. Consider using cold water instead of hot to wash your hands, since the cold, hard truth is that cold's usually just as effective.
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Peggy  on November 29, 2007 at 06:49 AM 1
While your not wasting water washing your hands in cold water you are drying out your skin faster the more you wash in cold water.
David Stephenson  on November 29, 2007 at 07:48 AM 2
I pride myself on doing all the right things to reduce my energy and environmental footprints, but I'd never thought about washing with cold water. Great tip!
Ruthy  on November 29, 2007 at 10:26 AM 3
Washing your hands with cold or hot water does not dry out your skin. As you age your sking produces less of the natural oil that helps your skin keep its moisture. Dry indoor air and excessive washing in HOT water causes your skin to become dry.
steve  on November 29, 2007 at 10:53 AM 4
Two other hot/cold water related tips: If you own your own place, you can install an electric tankless water heater under your bathroom sink (or other place far from your central water heater). As soon as you turn on the hot water, it turns on and heats the water, so you don't waste all the cold water in the pipe. Google "tankless electric water heater" to see some options. The cheap ones ($150 or less) are adequate. Another hot water waster is laundry. On your washer, just choose colder water than you'd normally use, e.g. warm for whites and cold for everything else. It saves an enormous amount of energy, and try to tell the difference in how clean your clothes are. If there's a load you absolutely have to use hot water on, then use hot for that one load, and cool things down for everything else.
KD  on November 29, 2007 at 11:19 AM 5
I have a small "Point of Use" hot water heater ready to install under my bathroom sink. Washing my hands in cold is one thing but washing my face in cold water before bed is just TOO excillerating. I had purchased an Instant tankless heater but returned it because it would have been a major rewiring project. Also liquid hand sanitizers should not be used regularly or they can reduce your natural bacteria fighting ability.(or so I've read).
guysmiley00  on November 29, 2007 at 12:09 PM 6
Another way to save water is to place a large bowl or basin in your sink while washing your hands, and then using the leftovers to water your plants. Don't worry about the soap - soapy water can actually be beneficial to plants, as the soap breaks up the surface tension of the water and allows it to bind more closely to the soil, so that less water runs through the pot and more is available in the soil when the plant needs it.
Katherine Hegemann  on November 29, 2007 at 12:23 PM 7
I already wash my hands with cold water unless it's really cold. Both the weather and the water. We have a deep water well, and in the deep of winter our cold water is really, really cold. We turn the hot water heater on when we get up and then turn it off about mid-day. That has significantly cut down on our electric bill. I saw a post about tankless water heaters. Funny thing about them. Our water pressure isn't too hot. Our shower is upstairs and when one of us took a shower the water heater would turn off and talk about a cold shower! We solved that by running the bathroom sink while taking a shower. When the water heater broke down and would cost over a hundred dollars to have repaired, we ended up buying an small, electric water heater. After the electric company paid us a rebate, the thing was free. An added plus is that my husband is an electrician--free installation.
Beth Terry  on November 29, 2007 at 02:00 PM 8
I gotta say I disagree with both of your points on this. Most people do not wash their hands long enough to kill many bacteria. If you're washing your hands in cold water, you're likely to wash them for an even shorter amount of time. Also, warm water cuts grease better than cold water. Also, antibacterial hand-sanitizers are a big environmental no-no. They are causing all kinds of problems in our waterways and helping to create resistant strains of bacteria. if you don't want to tough the door knob after washing in a public place, do the towel or elbow thing. But really, we're all a little bit too germ-phobic these days anyway. And ironically, if we keep using these anti-bacterial cleaners, we might have a reason to be.
kathryn  on November 29, 2007 at 02:03 PM 9
My parents turned off the hot water supply pipe to the powder room...the water never got hot in under three minutes there anyway, so guests were just using cold water from the hot water line---which forced hot water from the tank into the long pipe through the house--where it cooled off before it was summoned again. No one ever said anything. The family bathroom--where faces are washed, had hot water--we were told to use only cold for washing our hands, though--and all this was in the 70s.
Georgy Vladimirov  on November 30, 2007 at 04:59 PM 10
I don't use warm water for the germ-killing effect because I already knew it is not hot enough. But I believe cold water will have a bad long-term effect on the joints. It will suck to get arthritis in old age because of cold water. At home I don't have the patience to wait for warm water but in public places the good thing is that the use keeps it warm.
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