Have you ever noticed the women who sit their handbags on public toilet floors? I myself hang mine on the door. But they go from there to putting their handbags on the kitchen or dining room table at home or at someone’s house. It happens way to much. So if you think about it, it’s not always the restaurant food that causes stomach distress. Sometime what you don’t know will hurt you!
This is an email my mom sent me about this subject. I thought it was worth sharing with all the people who come here and read the site.
Mom got so upset when guests came in the door and plopped their handbags down on the counter where she was cooking or setting up food. She always said that handbags are really dirty, because of where they have been.
It’s something just about every woman carries with them. While we may know what’s inside our handbags, do you have any idea what’s on the outside? Women carry handbags everywhere; from the office to public toilets to the floor of the car. Most women won’t be caught without their handbags, but did you ever stop to think about where your handbag goes during the day.
“I drive a school bus, so my handbag has been on the floor of the bus a lot,” says one woman. “On the floor of my car, and in toilets.”
“I put my handbag in grocery shopping carts and on the floor of the toilet,” says another woman “and of course in my home which should be clean.”
We decided to find out if handbags harbor a lot of bacteria. We learned how to test them at Nelson Laboratories in Salt Lake , and then we set out to test the average woman’s handbag. Most women told us they didn’t stop to think about what was on the bottom of their handbag. Most said at home they usually set their handbags on top of kitchen tables and counters where food is prepared. Most of the ladies we talked to told us they wouldn’t be surprised if their handbags were at least a little bit dirty. It turns out handbags are so surprisingly dirty, even the microbiologist who tested them was shocked.
Microbiologist Amy Karen of Nelson Labs says nearly all of the handbags tested were not only high in bacteria, but high in harmful kinds of bacteria. Pseudomonas can cause eye infections, staphylococcus aurous can cause serious skin infections, and salmonella and e-coli found on the handbags could make people very sick. In one sampling, four of five handbags tested positive for salmonella, and that’s not the worst of it. “There is fecal contamination on the handbags” says Amy. Leather or vinyl handbags tended to be cleaner than cloth handbags, and lifestyle seemed to play a role. People with kids tended to have dirtier handbags than those without, with one exception. The handbag of one single woman who frequented nightclubs had one of the worst contaminations of all. “Some type of feces, or possibly vomit” says Amy.
So the moral of this story is that your handbag won’t kill you, but it does have the potential to make you very sick if you keep it on places where you eat.
Use hooks to hang your handbag at home and in toilets, and don’t put it on your desk, a restaurant table, or on your kitchen countertop. Experts say you should think of your handbag the same way you would a pair of shoes. “If you think about putting a pair of shoes onto your countertops, that’s the same thing you’re doing when you put your handbag on the countertops” Your handbag has gone where individuals before you have sneezed, coughed, spat, urinated, emptied bowels, etc! Do you really want to bring that home with you? The microbiologists at Nelson also said cleaning a handbag will help. Wash cloth handbags and use leather cleaner to clean the bottom of leather handbags.
Feel free to post this one your blog and share it with your readers. The world needs to know!
I hang my purse up too!
Your Handbag
Here is an email I posted that I got from my mom. I thought it would be worth sharing with all the women who read my site and with the women here at sk*rt.
Your And Your Handbag
This is an email I got from my mom about the hazards of the world against your purse or bag. I wanted to share it with all the women who read my site and with the people here at bringr as well.
You and Your Handbag
Have you ever noticed the women who sit their handbags on public toilet floors? I myself hang mine on the door. But they go from there to putting their handbags on the kitchen or dining room table at home or at someone’s house. It happens way to …
I hang my purse or if i cant i make fil hold it .. if not it goes on my lap and its a pain in the ass when you’re pottying but WHATEVER
bleh. Im OCD, so I always keep hold of my bad for that very reason.
Dirt..
hehe.. i dont personally like it either, but it was the winner in a vote I set up.. its grown on me, but I think I need something a little more professional.
I used to hang my bag up, but the newer washrooms they have been putting into buildings don’t have hangers on the doors! Also, I just recently graduated university, and most of the hangers on the stall doors had long ago been ripped off by some unknown student who probably hung their way too heavy backpack up.
I never, never, never ever put my bag onto my lap while in the washroom — You don’t wash your lap when you leave the bathroom, only your hands! You’re much safer to put the already germ infested bag on the floor and be sure that you do not put your bag on the kitchen counter/table.
When I get home, or go to someone’s house, I leave my purse in the front hallway closet along with my shoes which have also been in contact with floors. I’m sure my shoes have far more bacteria covering them than does my purse.
This reminds me of a story.
Some years back, when I was in college, I worked nights as an armed guard at a defense contractor. There was a discussion once, about what one does with one’s firearm when… uh… going number two. Most guys, myself included, would pop the cylinder out of the gun (revolvers, they were) and lay the thing on the floor. It seemed like the right way to go about it; you really don’t want one of those things to just flop around your ankles while you’re otherwise occupado.
But one of the supervisors argued that you should hang the thing by the trigger guard on the hook, because if you put it on the ground, it would get “all germy”.
Well, you know, one of the guys apparently took this to heart, because a couple of nights later he accidentally discharged the revolver as he pulled it off the hook. No one was hurt, mind you, but I’ll bet a gunshot in an empty bathroom at 3 a.m. is probably loud enough to make you go a second time.
So I’m not sure exactly what the moral of this story is, but I guess I’m hoping that wherever you ladies decide to put those handbags, you’ll keep your handguns safely inside them.
I always have to hang my bag off the back of the toilet door or place it on top of the paper dispenser, anything other than the floor cause that really freaks me out. A lot of people really don’t think about the bacteria though I suppose.
I hang mine on the door..if tat’s not possible..I’ll rather carry it when in the toilet then to place it on the toilet floor..
Sufficiently grossed out and warned. Great reminder, thanks!
I have thought about this several times! It’s actually pretty gross when you think about it
I hang my handbag up, too, and always have it on my lap when I’m on buses and such. Everything sounds really gross if you think about how many people handle their personal belongings…
People put their bags on counters? Thats a bit silly, surely its common sense not to because of dirt and stuff?
Especially in public toilets.
I find it really annoying when my bag is too heavy to hang on the door, or when there is nothing to hang it on, because then I know that I’ll have to put it on the floor where someones probably peed
This was a very interesting blog
Ewwwwwww! Thanks for the warning. I will be leaving mine on the front porch from now on! Minus my D & B wallet, of course. Oh, and my Laura Geller-filled mini make-up bag. Silly me, can’t forget my Blackberry! What am I missing? Oh, my iPod-that definitely will be coming in too.
Drat! I have too much stuff!
Gross gross gross. I think about this all the time and am now very careful where I put it.
I first read this in an e-mail somebody sent me, and it seems to have set of my borderline OCD tendencies.
Now I think about putting my purse or backpack or whatever down on the floor in ANY public place BECAUSE…think of all the places people have walked before they sat down where you are sitting. Like, men’s urinals, for example. Or, I’m from farming country, so….eeek!
Thank you for a good read! Hard to believe anyone really wants to put their bag on the bathroom floor…and oh the junk it conjures up! Ick!
I always hate it when the little hook in the stall is broken. I have to balance it on my lap, while trying to get toilet paper, and do my thing. It’s like a bad sitcom moment.
Wow I’ve never thought of purses like a pair of shoes before reading this article. But I don’t carry purses around anyways, unless it’s summer time. Usually, I carry my cell phone and wallet in my coat pocket along with other stuff as well. I have less of a chance of loosing things because it’s easy to misplace a purse.
Whoa! Last time I put my good old “man purse” anywhere near the kitchen table!
I have to say I never thought of my purse being a germ infestation.
I’m a germ freak and never thought once about it. I’m so bad that when I take my kids to the store I take a bacterial wipe and wipe and go across the whole cart. This was some good info. Thanks for sharing.
Years ago I started hanging mine and it it was a double hook on the bottom one because I heard that people would reach under to steal women’s purses while they were using the restroom. IF there is no hook to hang it on I put it on the paper dispenser. I have always done it out of safety so that my important information could not be stolen, I am glad I do that now.
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An amazing story. Now I have another paranoia to add to my already germ phobia personality.
I am careful with my handbag but I’ll bet it is still dirty. It’s not like it gets thrown into the wash very often.
I have considered buying one of those cute little hooks that are on the market these days but I’m afraid hanging my purse out on the edge of a restaurant table will be asking someone to run by and snatch it.
Anyway, thanks for the story, and Mike, I promise to keep my handgun tucked safely away in my bag.
Completely factual handbag etiquette. Tossing your purse around willy nilly gives me the heebie jeebies (I’m a geek for using that phrase I know). I wish more people would consider the ramifications of their actions before they just go ahead and do something that us germaphobes can’t stand.
It’s not my handbag that worries me in public toilets, but when I have to change my daughter’s nappy in one that’s got no baby change facilities – poor baby!
I got shocked at reading the whole article.Such terrible bacteria has never come into my mind before.I can not imagine how dangerous our life is.
I usually put my handbag on the desk.Unbelievable!
Now I need to wash my handbag immediately.
THANKS.
I agree with your mom. Those handbags do get very dirty and putting them on the counter is just inviting more germs into the kitchen. The bottoms should be easier to clean as well though.
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