The importance of good hygiene cannot be stressed upon enough. Especially in the times of virus epidemics becoming a genuine scare, personal hygiene holds high priority in our lives. But often the prevailing notions regarding personal hygiene tend to be wrong. We keep on repeating the mistakes and thus, unknowingly we make ourselves vulnerable to several diseases and infections. Here we present before you some of the most commonly made mistakes regarding personal hygiene habits.

Some Personal Hygiene Mistakes to Rectify:

• Not cleaning the items we use daily: Many of our items of daily use include the likes of mobile phones, laptops, and keyboards. These are mostly used indoors and do not allow much of the visible dust and dirt and thus, the thought of cleaning these devises never occur to us. However, these are often host to a wide variety of virus and bacteria and while we touch these items, we run the risk of getting infected through our skin or mouths. To give you a clue about how bad the situation can actually be a study by Arizona University has shown that on an average desktop there can be over 400 times the bacteria than on an average toilet seat. That should be enough statistics to clean and disinfect your regular devices!
  
• Not drying or properly washing the towels: We use towels for bathing purposes and we tend to believe that by the time the towel is in contact with our body, a majority of the germs and bacteria are cleaned off through soap and water. You will be surprised to know that a large number still remain on the skin and these get transferred to the towel afterwards. If you are not serious about cleaning the towel afterwards and then drying it completely, you are basically rubbing those bacteria and viruses on yourself over and over again. 

• Not flossing regularly: Many of us go lazy on flossing and do not floss on a regular basis. While you may think that brushing your teeth is good enough, that might not be the case. Many sticky bacteria are actually stuck to parts that are unreachable by a toothbrush. Unless you perform flossing, you run the risk of gum infections and the overall oral hygiene goes for a toss. Flossing also cleans between your teeth and removes the harmful plaque which is accumulated there. If you must do away with flossing you ought to use other forms of inter-dental cleaning.

• Not cleaning belly button while showering: You are probably wondering what the fuss all about regarding belly buttons is. It is, after all, one of the most ignored body parts when it comes to cleaning regularly. You will probably be shocked to know that thousands of types of bacteria inhabit this region and only multiply with the ignorance to cleaning this part. The next time you are in the shower, remember to pay the due attention to the hygiene of this region.
• Usage of scented feminine hygiene items: With the taboo that exists on menstruating, women often tend to opt for sanitary napkins or tampons that are scented. This can, however, be disastrous as the pH balance of the private parts is tampered with if such products are used. As a result, infections and rashes can affect you causing trouble. It is important to remember that the vaginal region is self-cleaning and thus no external agents are required to maintain its hygiene.

• Sharing makeup products: If you are a makeup enthusiast, chances are that you have shared some of the products such as a lipstick or a foundation with a friend. It is, however, wise to shy away from such sharing as a lot of the bacteria living on the skin can get transferred into these products. As a result, you can unknowingly get infected with germs that you could have easily avoided. Common health hazards like the common cold or acne are often caused from such sharing of these products.

• Not changing pillow and bed covers frequently: Our bed covers and pillow covers in particular are often spared the cleaning ritual. You might think that you wash your face and hair well before lying down and thus, you do not run the risk of contaminating the pillow covers. But as a matter of fact, a lot of dead skin, oil, dirt, and facial bacteria actually accumulate on the pillow covers. Reusing them over a period of one week means that you run the risk of bed bugs, dust mites, and skin problems such as pimples. So bed and pillow covers should be changed and cleaned on a regular basis for a healthy skin.

• Cleaning of the ears too much: If might seem satisfying to fiddle with a cotton swab twirling in your ears. You might also be thinking that you are cleaning the ear-wax and thus maintaining good ear hygiene. But what you are actually doing instead is that you are pushing much of the wax deeper inside the ear canal and thus running the risk of infections. Ears are self-cleaning and the wax naturally comes out of the ear canal. Cleaning the ears is a good habit but over indulging in the same can have harmful side-effects. 

• Drying hands in Hand-dryers of public washrooms: A public washroom is a hotbed for bacteria and fecal matter and these are sucked into the hand dryers. Many people think that the hand-dryers are more eco-friendly but you simply cannot ignore the aspect of hygiene. The next time onwards, use the paper towels instead when you are at a public washroom.

Conclusion:

These are some of the common mistakes that we repeatedly make in our everyday life. These minor corrections can go a long way when it comes to our health and hygiene. As important as personal hygiene is, equally important it is to know what are the wrong moves that can handicap your efforts at maintain a good hygiene. Address these common errors and see the difference for yourself.