Sounds about right to me. Not excessive in my book.

My wife seems to be washing her hands every time I see her.

Probably more than I need to but then I am a little OCD about it.

I worked in a sterile environment for many years I was continuously washing and sterilizing my hands, I was working with live human tissues so being careful was absolutely essential. It has carried over into my every day life so I am probably a little obsessive.

I actually try to avoid washing my hands as much as possible. So I only wash them as part of regular ablutions, bathroom, kitchen, trash, glue, dirt, paint, before touching delicate things, after touching messy things, and any time they feel icky because they have something on them (though that's a quick rinse because we do have water restrictions)... That is, I'm not fanatical about washing my hands -- just the opposite -- but I bet I wash them nearly as much as the rest of you.

It seems like I'm washing my hands all the time but I live a dirty lifestyle, spending a lot of time with dogs, going to dog parks, picking up poop and the regular things associated with dog park stuff like spitty balls and other dog toys. I wash my hands before I do anything in the kitchen. I always wash them as soon as I get home for shopping. I think I probably forget to wash them sometimes and I'm not really obsessive about it. I am never sick, getting a cold maybe once every couple years at the most. Haven't been to the doctor in years for an illness.

As needed - which is all the above - accept the dog and dog do-do because we don't have any pets, but I would if we did....

Do you wash the backs of your hands??? I was in a food safety class once and we had to rub a powder substance on our hands, sit through a lecture, then go do food prep. Some people didn't wash their hands at all, some only a quick run through running water, some did a thorough cleaning, and we had our hands tested with a black light for any leftover powder residue and the residue being transferred to the food we were working with. I was the only person who washed the back of their hands and between their fingers. And another thing I learned in this class was to thoroughly dry your hands because wet/damp hands pick up more bacteria than dry hands. Go figure...

Washing our hands regularly is the ONE BIG thing we can do to prevent illness. It is huge in healthy living. I did not tend to get colds, but with the arrival of the grandsons and all their colds, I now get a few colds a year.

All of the above and then some. I work IT for a very large school district. Imagine all the keyboards and mice I touch every day *gross*

We had to wash to the elbow I now go midway between wrist and elbow. I don't use the betadine scrub all the time any more but I do on occasion. I don't always use antibacterial soaps I don't think it's a good idea. When I was working I had to be as germ free as possible to avoid any chance of contamination in the environment.

We always wash when we walk in the door at home. Wash after toileting, before touching food, etc. Try not to touch our faces. Good tip about washing ALL OVER your hands. I've heard it's the friction and the rinsing -- not the soap -- that does the most good.

That's true. I had a friend who was in the field (environmental/public health) who said that the reason running water was so important for impoverished areas is that 95% of what you're trying to wash off will come clean by rubbing your hands together under cold running water. If I remember right, it was for ten seconds (to get the 95%). Soap is a surfactant -- it breaks the surface tension of water, making it act "wetter", but it's the water itself that actually cleans. And how fun it is to lather up soap and squish it through your fingers makes you do a better job of the friction and length of time.

Like everyone else....very frequently if I am in the kitchen and when peeping food. Just a rinse sometimes during the prep of veggies. We eat many fresh vegetables and they get semi-prepped as they come into the house.

Nanny, I'm not trying to roast you for a simple typo--we all have them--but seeing your first sentence on the preview gave me this wonderful image of fluffy little yellow chicks peeping around the kitchen like the blackbirds in the king's pie. :D

I'm not sure but it wouldn't surprise me if it was 30 times a day. Always after using the bathroom, anytime I feel I've been touching something dirty (e.g. soil etc). When I'm prepping food I wash my hands constantly, basically anytime my hands touch ingredients whether it is meat, vegies whatever I always feel the need to wash my hands before handling the next ingredient, I'm not sure if that's ott or not.

There is one thing though that I have developed a real ick factor with over recent years, library books. Whenever I touch them I feel like I have to avoid touching my face and always wash my hands thoroughly before touching anything else. I just can't help wonder how many people have touched them and people who may have used the bathroom and not washed their hands before picking the book back up. Is that weird? It never used to bother me this much but now I'm so aware of it.

Glad to know I am not alone with thoroughly scrubbing fingers, hands and nails so many times I day I can't bother to count. I like to read in bed at night but, before turning out the light, scrub hands well once more because I agree with trancsgemini about touching library books. ...... Pink

I wash my hands about that many times a day. We keep handi-wipes in the car and wash after each store we go in. We also have been using one after looking at the menus in restaurants because I read the menus are one of the dirtest things in a restaurant. We both have colds now, something rare for us, and blame shaking hands at church for that. I wish they would stop telling us to greet someone.

I've never counted, but certainly after all of the activities mentioned. I also file my nails down to fingertip length when I plan to do a lot of baking and cooking which makes it easier to keep the area under my nails clean.

It seems that I am constantly washing my hands. I am not a germiphobe, but I seem to feel like I have dirty hands often.

I wash my hands "as needed". I handle a lot of very dirty stuff....taking care of animals so I am often washing my hands. I keep my nails cut very short...cut them at fingertip length, and clean them often. I am far from a germaphobe though.

About 30 times a day seems normal to me.

Agree with jkayd where menus are concerned! What can one do but use handi-wipes after ordering? There's a lot of yuk out there.

I was never aware how often I washed my hands until severe water restrictions were imposed. We have to resort to sanitizing lotion but it's not the same. It also dries out the skin so I'm constantly aware of my "icky" hands.

I wash my hand when needed. When I go out, I am paranoid with the bugs even though have a flu shot, I don't want to get sick and so I wash my hands when I am out and come back to condo. Bathroom use of course, working in the kitchen of course. I do know the soap bars don't last long so guess I wash my hands more then I thought I do. kathy

Geez with me it's gotta be hundreds of times. I use a bottle of handsoap a week!