toedtoes

I've learned how to identify when someone's about to or just beginning to pass gas. They get a look on their face sort of like a baby's when he's dirtying the diaper. I see that look and I go the other way. I rarely ever actually smell it anymore (I had a crash course in avoiding it when I lived with my aunt for a year).

LoveItaly

Thank you toed! I didn't think my toothbrush fetish would qualify me but I thought maybe my other problem would. Bathrooms in airplanes. Yuck, yuck and yuck. Two hours into the flight they are so terrible disgusting. And we are always told to drink lots of water. Oh right!

nukesafe

all of this "passing gas" discussion brings me back to the airline seats. Do you fussy travelers bring along an antibacterial beach towel to drape over that nasty fabric?

Sorry, I don't mean to make fun of those with phobias -- I have some of my own -- but we live in a sea of bacteria all the time. Everywhere. We can't be travelers and stay sterile, no matter how hard we try. Just don't let trying to stay within your comfort zone spoil a lovely trip.

Fodorite018

I am taking a break from packing

So far, I have everything I need for 2 weeks in a small 19 inch carryon. Just for entertainment, here is what I have:
3 pairs of pants
jacket
pj's
4 bas
10 undies
6 pair socks
10 blouses
1 skirt
1 cardigan
1 pair shoes
room for my hair brush, makeup and hair products.

The camera, cell phone, and 1 guide book will go in my purse.

As far as the germs on things...yup...I too cannot wash out undies in the sink. Eeewww!!! I prefer to let the hotel do any laundry for me. Also cannot stand to walk in a hotel room without socks on, and won't use a bathtub. I do shower though, lol!

LoveItaly--This will not surprise you at all...but I cannot stand to have my toothbrush out either. When I travel I bring my own washcloth and wrap it in that, and when it is not in use it is back in my suitcase wrapped in the cloth.

Robespierre

And by the way: when you flush a toilet, invisible droplets of [bowl contents] are stirred up and into the air and settle on things. Such as your toothbrush and drinking glass.

Furthermore: recognizing an incipient fart doesn't get you out of your window seat and away from the seat row.

LoveItaly

Hi nukesafe, that is why I mentioned what a family member and a friend in Italy related to me regarding upholstered furniture in hotel rooms. Same with airline seats, train seats, rental car seats, bus seats and maybe even restaurant chairs (who knows) plus theater seats.

Robespierre

LoveItaly goes on and on (and on) about health issues as she lights up another nicotine fix.

Heart disease
Emphysema
Cancer
Stroke

Good luck.

toedtoes

Am I the only one who still uses a plastic toothbrush holder??

I flick my toothbrush nice and dry, then pop it in the holder and into my toiletry case. No fuss, no muss.

I don't use antibacterial stuff. At home, I use bleach for most of my general household cleaning; and I wash my hands several times throughout the day (in addition to every time I use the facilities).

I don't really worry about the airline seats, etc. As long as my pants or skirt are between me and the cooties I figure I'm OK.

toedtoes

Robes - I have yet to experience that all empowering let out while on a plane.

However once on a bus, I got stuck next to a man who hadn't bathed in years (not just dirty, but layers of scum). I was stuck there for 45 minutes (no other seats in the bus) and my nose was sticking out the window inhaling exhaust fumes. I have never ridden on the bus since.

P.S. This has been a discussion of our individual phobias and fetishes regarding germs. Everyone of us has something that they "freak out" about, and everyone of us has something that we could care less about, but others "freak out" about. I think we can agree that none of it really makes sense, so let's keep it nice and non-confrontational.

toedtoes

LoveItaly - airline bathrooms remind me of gas stations. When I was little, I used to have to stop and go constantly on trips. My Mom grumbled for years about my causing her to experience the dregs of bathrooms. Then she got older and started having to stop and go. I never said a word of complaint, but everytime we stopped she'd say "at least I'm stopping at clean restrooms!" (usually a bookstore restroom.)

janisj

Now we know Robes <b>two</b> areas of expertise - public transport in Paris and London -- and farts . . .

sort of figures

tomassocroccante

&lt;&lt;If you really want to be phobic, just give a thought to how many HUNDREDS, maybe THOUSANDS of people who have placed their nasty rumps in that seat you will be occupying. What horrors lurk below?&gt;&gt;

Nukesafe, this is precisely why I keep my pants on for the entire flight ...

Yes, Robespierre, the smart money is on closing the lid before flushing!

And as for where you store your toothbrush ... the bacteria that grows on it between uses is a more serious issue even than the bug that might land on it (though that thought is hardly appealing. I swallowed a fly once while biking cross country and BOY did I get sick.) So especially if we're storing our wet toothbrushes in a dark place, remember that the small amount of bacteria in your mouth multiplies massively on the brush. Just a quick rinse with peroxide now and then reduces the numbers hugely.

I truly hope the worst thing that ever happened in any hotel room I've occupied was someone washing underwear (with soap, after all) in the sink the week before I arrived. (See new movie about the hotel room where &quot;no one gets out alive.&quot I mean, you don't replace the washing machine every time you wash underwear, do you? I mean, then you wash your nice handkerchiefs in the next load?

What a funny tangent ... both funny ha ha and funny peculiar.

Microbes are invisible to the naked eye (if not harmless to the naked rear) and true, what you can't see can sometimes hurt you. But possibly not as much as imagining all sorts of things that aren't there ...

easytraveler

I, too, pack away EVERYTHING back into my toiletries bag.

AT thehotel, I spread out one hand towel and put my toiletry bag on it. That way whatever comes out of the toiletry bag ends up on top of the towel instead of the bathroom counter.

If the cups provided are glass, I rewash them with soap (who knows how the maid had cleaned those glasses? Did she wipe them dry with the used bathtowel?) If, OTOH, they are styrofoam and prewrapped, then I just go ahead and use them.

If watching TV, I wrap the remote control with a kleenex.

On coming home, the first thing that happens is that the travel clothes get washed.

BUT,think of all the surfaces that you have to come into contact with during the trip: the door from the parking garage to the elevator; the elevator button; the door into the airport (unless it's automatic); taking back your driver's license and airline ticket from the TSA person after he/she has been handling hundreds/thousands of other licenses and airline tickets with the same pair of rubber gloves; the bins to put all your carryons into - that someone probably put their shoes in, after they had been walking all over the dirty streets; stepping on the same floor in your bare/socked feet and picking up other's athletic foot disease; handing your ticket to yet another examiner with those protective gloves on (which gloves look black at this stage); running to your gate and plopping down in a seat to wait for boarding, which seat has been sat in by thousands upon thousands of other rumps; .... and all the other surfaces on the plane and in the hotel which have already been mentioned.

One might as well travel as the bubble boy!

toedtoes

Don't forget the rental car - steering wheel, seats, window buttons.

And the gas stations and ATM machines.

Thinking of all these things makes a person understand why really bad germaphobics live in dirty homes. They see germs everywhere and can't touch anything. That means that the garbage pail keeps spreading because they can't take it out for fear of getting germs. If they spill milk on the counter, they can't clean it up for fear of getting germs. They can't do laundry and they can't do dishes and heaven knows they can't clean the bathroom.

nukesafe

A little bit of sanity here, please! The fact is that, while there are germs EVERYWHERE, we are wrapped in an almost germ-roof protective layer called skin. It is all but impervious to most microbes as long as it is unbroken. Most bacteria that enter our bodies through our mouth or nose are rendered harmless by our bodies natural defenses.

As long as we don't take in massive amount of virulent bacteria by sticking our fingers in our mouths, biting our nails, etc., our bodies just knock the little devils dead. The message here is touch anything you need to touch, just don't wipe your lips, or rub your eyes with your fingers.

What gets us tourist really sick is ingesting food that has been contaminated by a bad bug, and then left in a warm place for a long time. The bugs then multiply exponentially, so that we take in a huge amount of them; too much for our body to handle. Our natural defenses get overwhelmed and we are off to swapping ends in the potty.

All I'm saying is that there can't possibly be enough bacteria on a dry surface such as a TV remote or doorknob to rub off on your skin, and thus into your mouth, to make you sick.

Kick back folks!

Robespierre

&quot;Now we know Robes two areas of expertise - public transport in Paris and London -- and farts . . .

sort of figures&quot;

So not only are you ignorant of my accomplishments, but also of basic sentence construction. Who'd have thought? By the way, your feeble efforts to &quot;nail&quot; me (your term) are sounding more and more like schoolyard taunts. Don't you think you've become tedious enough that you can quit?

missypie

Amazing that this turned into a germophobia thread!

Back to packing: I'm glad tomassocroccante mentioned big shoes;big feet. My son's pair of &quot;extra&quot; shoes - size 13 - truly takes up half a 22&quot; suitcase. And my husband is a size XL or XXL. When we were packing for Italy last year, one pair of his bulky cotton cargo pants took up more room than my entire stack of clothing for the two week trip (tropical wool folds every flat).

easytraveler

missypie, you're misnamed, you should be called &quot;Mrs Paul Bunyon&quot;. Thanks for a good laugh!

vjpblovesitaly

“when you flush a toilet, invisible droplets of [bowl contents] are stirred up and into the air and settle on things”

That is why I always put the lid down before I flush and it is down when not in use.

I am freaked out by people brushing their teeth in my presence or me brushing mine in another’s presence. I used to really lose (dry heaves, etc.) when someone would talk to me while they were brushing their teeth. Now I just turn away and ignore them. If someone talks to me when I’m brushing mine, I ignore them. That doesn't really have anything to do with germs, though.

isabel

Ok all you people afraid of germs (and while I don't put myself in that category, I do bring a pillow case for the plane, and I do wipe the tray table, armrests, etc with anti-bact wipes). Anyway have I got a story (true) for you.

Recently 2 women died and one was critically ill in Florida. The only thing they had in common was they had been to an Olive Garden Restaurant. But the third woman was a waitress there who had been on vacation and not eaten anything at the restaurant in over a week. However, she had come in to pick up her check and had used the ladies room. That's what led investigators to check the rest room and found a poisionous spider living under the lid of the toilet seat. On checking, all three women had a puncture bite wound on their buttock. This particular spider thrives in damp dark conditions like this. They believe the spider was brought into the US on an airplane from India, where it is native. Sooooo - guess you better add checking under the lid of the toilet to things you need to do in hotel rooms (or any public rest room).