How to Wash Your Hands Properly

I worked in the healthcare field for 9 years and learned how important it is to wash your hands and to do it correctly. Most people will just wash their hands after using the restroom or before preparing food, but you need to be washing them a lot more than that!

Any time that you come into your home, you should wash your hands. Any time you’ve changed a baby’s diaper, touched the garbage, after blowing your nose, coughing, sneezing, doing household cleaning, handling any type of chemical, handled a wound or cared for someone who is sick, you need to wash your hands!

When it comes to washing your hands…you don’t always need to use anti-bacterial soap! Regular bar soap, eco handwash, or liquid soap will do. Matter of fact, it’s best that you alternate the types of soaps that you’re using. Just like medications, your body & skin can get used to you using the same product over & over..

To properly wash your hands you’ll want to turn on the water and get your hands nice and wet. Apply the soap and scrub your hands for a minimum of 20 seconds. Make sure you get in between your fingers, underneath your nails and up to your wrists. Work up a good lather!

Rinse your hands under cool or warm running water and if possible, use a disposable towel to turn off the faucet. Once done…dry your hands with a towel or let them air dry.

Don’t have soap and water? You can use an anti-bacterial hand sanitizer that contains a minimum of 60% alcohol content (the alcohol is what kills germs & bacteria). Just a piece of advice: alcohol is very drying to your skin and can cause irritation, so use it sparingly.

If you have children or grandchildren, it’s important that you teach them how to wash their hands properly at a very young age. In addition, you need to teach them to wash them frequently!

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