Lifestyle

People Confess to the Dirtiest Personal Hygiene Habits

7. It makes for an awkward conversation. “I had a team member at my job who smelled really bad, like old sweaty laundry, B.O, bad breath,… Trista - June 21, 2021

Good hygiene habits are something everyone should have. Whether it’s something as simple as brushing your teeth before bed or when you wake up to putting clean underwear on before starting your day. You wouldn’t think that it would be hard to do these simple tasks, especially if you started making them a habit in your daily lives starting at a young age. Parents and guardians should know that teaching children life lessons and tasks early on will help them out in the future.

However, even if someone was raised right and taught to wash their hands after using the bathroom or shower and wash their bottoms daily, not everyone carries those habits into their adult life. Maybe they’re lazy or don’t have enough time because they’re running late for something. Perhaps it slipped their mind, or they just simply don’t feel like doing it. Whatever the case may be, just know that people out there don’t have very good hygiene habits. In this article, people share disgusting hygiene stories. So continue reading if you’re curious about those habits.

20. This grandma and grandpa have bad hygiene!

Tesdinic shares a story about their grandparents. “This reminds me of my grandparents. For whatever reason, despite the fact that they knew about and used the internet, basic common sense, etc., my grandfather just one day decided to stop brushing his teeth and demanded my grandmother do the same. So they did – every day at work at the family business, whenever you spoke to either, their breath was horrendous, and their teeth began to rot.

“One day, though, my grandmother smiled for a photo and, while looking at it, she had a realization; “is that how bad my teeth look?” Something really hard to tell your grandmother, ya know? She finally decided to go back to taking care of her teeth, and luckily the dentist managed to restore them as far as I am aware; I haven’t asked too much about it. She still takes care of her teeth years later while my grandfather hopefully buckled and resumed taking care of his (I am not sure since I live in another country now).”

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19. Making that decision for better hygiene.

“We had a chain smoker come into my dental office last year. Her case was one of the worse ones my doctor had seen. There is huge plaque build-up and tooth decay everywhere. Her gums were inflamed and bled with the gentlest of pokes. Her mouth smelled foul. She needed a lot of work done to fix it all, and my doctor strongly advised her to quit smoking while they start treatment. The patient had good insurance from a tech company in the area but said she had 0 intention of quitting cigarettes and no intention of fixing her teeth.” shares xgengen.

“I’m not sure if my doctor just scared her or worded it wrong, but that patient was adamant in refusing to do a treatment. We haven’t seen her back for her six-month recall appointment either. That’s someone who HAD the money and means to see a dentist to care for herself, was given an outline of how to improve her health, was told the consequences if she didn’t follow through and still refused. I still don’t understand the reasoning behind her decision.”

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18. The worst roommate to have is one with bad hygiene.

“I shared a townhouse style residence with four other girls, and a month in, one of the girls moved out, so we got a replacement within the week. The new girl was very anti-social and basically locked herself in her room for the entire semester, but I swear to god she never showered once, soap and shampoo in the shower but levels in the bottles and even where the bottles were placed never moved. It started becoming so bad that she was stinking up the entire apartment, so we resorted to air fresheners around the house which only added the scent of fruity flowers over-top of the unbearable smell of body odor. We tried everything to get the smell out of the apartment, but it was almost like the scent permalocked itself into every inch of the apartment.”

Meegg97 continues, “She was also incredibly messy, left food in the fridge to rot and would never clean it out, never took her trash from her room out. Basically, her basic life hygiene was on the same level as her personal hygiene, non-existent. We had a meeting with our RA, but nothing progressed, and she still smelled. No one in the house had ever seen what the inside of her room looked like because she kept the door locked constantly until move out day, and when I tell you’ve I’ve never seen a dirtier room in my life, I’m not exaggerating, remember all that garbage she never took out once? It’s because it was all piled up in the corner and under her bed. Food that had been spilled just hardened and crusted on the floor used tissues EVERYWHERE. It was disgusting, and the day I moved out was the happiest day of my life. I could finally breathe fresh air again.”

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17. That’s not how you’re supposed to wash your laundry.

“Ugh, I lived with a guy in college (large house with about 30 occupants) who would “wash” his clothes, which consisted of him shoving as many clothes as he could fit in the washer and not add laundry soap because it was “too expensive.” So, he ended up with clothes that smelled like mildew and BO instead of just BO. Then he’d put that mess in the dryer, and the whole basement smelled like warm mildew and BO. It was sickening.” tells tappytaps.

“The house manager finally spoke to him. It didn’t work. We started buying bulk laundry detergent out of our house funds for all house occupants to use. That sort of worked, but he still shoved too much stuff in the washer. Finally, the house manager actually showed him that he had to leave a little room so the clothes could be agitated in the washer to get them clean, and he finally understood. You’d think the ridiculously stinky clothes would be a clue, but I’m guessing he had to be nose blind at that point.”

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16. He needed more than just a shower.

“A guy we called the stink beast. I was a rent-to-own delivery guy right out of college. We had a regular customer that smelled like a sock stuffed with boiled cabbage and soaked in diarrhea all the time. He also only wore tank tops. I went to his nasty house to pick up a stereo he couldn’t pay for. I spent twenty minutes in his house unhooking wires, etc. There was dog crap ON THE COUCH, next to me in more than one spot. And I mean actual turds, not a smear of something. I rolled the stereo out on a dolly through several more piles of poop and loaded the stereo into the van.”

Middleagenotdead continues, “As I’m ready to close the door, he runs out with a wad of cash and wants me to put it back. While I’m writing up a new ticket, he leans in to adjust something on the stereo. His sweaty, hairy pit jams right into my face. It was like getting hit in the face with a used diaper. I immediately whirled around and puked in his yard. While I’m trying to be nice and pretend I’m getting the flu, his dog proceeds to come over and eat my puke. So yeah, this guy!”

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15. Just throw the whole house away.

“After a night at the bar, I went home with this cute guy who outwardly seemed pretty normal and attractive… got to his place, and it was filled with garbage… like a layer of garbage spread on the floor. I had a few drinks in me, so I was like, okay, he’s cute. This is gross but let’s see how it goes. It takes me to his bedroom, and there’s literally disgusting old food and garbage in the bed and in the sheets, like not just containers, expired disgusting open food directly on the bed, and LOTS of it. It was so revolting I started thinking of excuses to leave.”

Gabahgoole goes on to say, “This guy was cute though, so I stuck around another 5-10 thinking how we can work this out. We sat on the bed, and literally under the sheets were filled with garbage too. He proceeds to take off his socks for whatever reason, and his toenails are completely black under the nails/long/his feet are so dirty like they hadn’t been washed ever. I gagged a little before bolting out of there, saying I didn’t feel well, which I didn’t. Honestly, I was young and willing to put up with a lot, but it was a no-go.”

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14. Free pizza won’t solve this problem.

IC–XC–NI–KA shares, “I have one and only one instance of insane hygiene. When I was in college, they got some dorm assignments screwed up. I played baseball, and thus I was in the athletic dorm. For some reason, rather than assigning another ballplayer to my room, they assigned some random guy. This initially was no problem for me. I was not a stereotypical jock and had many friends who were not athletes. The first day was okay. It turned out he worked at Domino’s Pizza and would bring home four or five pizzas after work.”

“So he shows up with some pizza and says I can have all I want. I’m thinking this might be cool. Free pizza every day. Alas, things quickly took a turn. The first and second nights, I noticed just a hint of that “dirty feet smell.” The dude didn’t take his shoes off either night, so I was like, “where is this coming from.” But really, it was not that noticeable. Just the occasional whiff, as I said. The third night. OMG. I walked in from baseball practice late, and he was already there playing his Xbox (he had the latest versions of PS and XBOX and tons of games… I mention this so that it’s clear that poverty is not to blame for this situation).”

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13. Part two continued…

IC–XC–NI–KA goes on to say, “Anyway, I walked into the room and smelled a smell that I have never smelled before or since. A smell beyond description. He had simply taken off his shoes. His socks were BLACK. They were supposed to be white. God knows the last time he had changed them. I stepped back outside to keep from gagging. For the next month, until they straightened out the dorm situation, I was only in my room for sleep—nothing else. The only way I could sleep was to spray my pillow with cologne or something and bury my face in it. The smell hung in the air after that. Even when he wasn’t there.”

“When my friends would come by to get me to go out, they would walk in and immediately turn and leave and give me WTF look. During my month living with my new friend (who, to my knowledge, never actually attended a class), I NEVER saw him shower. I saw him in two sets of clothes during that month: his pizza uniform and a T-shirt and gym shorts ensemble completed by his soiled socks. After he was relocated, I never saw him again. And I pray that whoever was his new roommate was born without a sense of smell.”

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12. Too lazy to go to the bathroom.

“My oldest brother had developed a problem of using plastic bottles to pee in instead of going two feet to the bathroom (his room is right next to it). I came home for the first time in months, and my other brothers and I were doing some cleaning. One of them went to put some clothes in his room, and on the desk next to the door was a drinking cup full of fresh pee from that morning. We have no idea if he has peed in any other cups that everyone else drinks from.” shares Chaotic_Useless.

“It’s escalated from moldy food and “snot” socks eating holes into the wall next to his bed to him being too lazy to go pee. He can get up out of bed to pee in a cup but not to go use the toilet. The grossest thing is he has tried to pass it off as “apple juice” or “sweet tea,” and he gets upset for anyone telling my parents and insists he doesn’t do it despite the overwhelming evidence. He’s 20, btw.”

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11. Showers exist for a reason.

“Freshman year of college, a guy next door to us in the dorms had terrible hygiene. First of all, he was just starting college in his mid 20’s, had lived at home with mom and Dad until then. Basically, he would stay up all night playing NCAA football and basketball and sleep all day, but that wasn’t the issue. The issue was that he never showered. And when I say never, I mean sometime he’d go outside and play basketball or ultimate Frisbee and then straight back to his room as we all went and showered.”

Scottcoopmaximus goes on to say, “The smell got so bad that our RA has to talk to him about showering. It sucked because a bunch of us used to go in there and play games or watch sports, but the smell got so bad that I couldn’t stomach going in there anymore. Think of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry got B.O. in his car and finally had to just give his car away because he couldn’t get rid of the smell. Still feel bad for his roommate, poor guy.”

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10. College can be a smelly time.

“My flatmate first year of uni was generally very unhygienic, he used to leave raw chicken unwrapped on the counter for days, and I regularly watched him eat moldy meat. Halfway through the year, he got kicked out of uni. This was for various reasons, including never going to class/handing in any of his work, and setting off the fire alarm too many times by smoking weed in his room. We knew he was generally unhygienic because we shared a kitchen with him, and my other flatmate (who had the room next to him) started noticing bugs in her room that had crawled under the door.” tells rattus_rattus_.

“When he moved out, he left his room unlocked, so (obviously) we went to investigate, and it was disgusting. His floor was covered in food and bugs, the entire room stunk of mold, weed, and cigarettes, but the worst was his bathroom. Think of the worst public bathroom you’ve ever been in and multiply the smell by 10. His sink and mirror were covered in mold, graffiti, and other suspicious substances. His toilet was BLACK. It looked (and smelt) like he hadn’t flushed it once since moving in, yet there was no toilet paper, just an unbelievable amount of poo. I came to the conclusion that he’s been crapping and not wiping his butt for months. We haven’t seen him since, but judging by his social media, he’s not changed much.”

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9. At least one bar of soap.

“Kid in my high school who always, and I mean always, smelled like crap. Musky, dirty, gross, and I was placed in a seat next to him, of course, in one of my classes. His breath always smelled awful too. You could smell him from probably 8 feet away. I tolerated it for as long as I could, and he would often borrow pencils from me and proceeded to chew on them, in which case I’d just tell him to keep them. It got to a point where I finally asked when the last time he bathed was because everyone else at my table agreed it was pretty awful (lab tables).” Shard0fGlass shares.

“I asked him quietly, as to not try and make a scene, but he claimed his family couldn’t afford soap. We live in a very high-income area, and while it was true that they weren’t well off, soap is NOT that expensive. And at the very least, it was obvious that he didn’t even make an effort to bathe. I didn’t make fun of him because I truly did feel bad. Even dish soap would work in a pinch. It made me feel really bad for him. However, I do thank him because, by his unhygienic ways, I would always think I do NOT want to smell like him.”

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8. Nothing pleasant about this situation.

“Had a roommate at a six-week college program. In those six weeks she never showered and only cleaned her side of the room twice, both after me begging her for days about it. And it wasn’t just some clothes or some papers. She had her blood-covered shorts sitting on the floor from week one to week four. She would frequently order food and eat in her bed, then just sleep in it. There was literally mac and cheese pressed into her pillowcase. The food boxes would just pile up under her bed and started to grow mold. She never changed her sheets, even when she got her period or spilled a drink on it.”

Chickengyoza continues with their story, “When we had room inspections halfway through, they had pointed all these things out, and when I showed it to her, she just laughed. She also refused to take out her trash, so she had just taken the trash cans from other parts of the dorm suite. By the end, we had no bathroom trash can, no kitchen trash, and even mine was getting used. When it was time to move out, she left all of her trash for me to clean up. When I pointed it out to her mother, saying, “oh, this is my roommate’s side. Does she want help cleaning it?” The mother just said, “Oh, that’s someone else’s problem,” and left. Safe to say I’m not going random next fall.”

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7. It makes for an awkward conversation.

“I had a team member at my job who smelled really bad, like old sweaty laundry, B.O, bad breath, and dog musk all combined. At first, I didn’t notice it, but after a couple of weeks, I was struggling to be near her for extended periods of time. It literally looked and smelled like she never showered or wore clean clothes. She dressed pretty inappropriately for an office environment (we have a relaxed policy), but I’m talking like short tight skirts.” tells Throwaway5466543.

“And very low cut spaghetti straps with everything hanging out (got a lot of swamp crotch odor on those particular days), not to mention she wore open-toed sandals constantly, and both her big toenails were just like black scabs. Oof, it got so bad my boss took me out to have a word with me since so many people had complained to her about it, and I had to give her a very awkward disciplinary meeting. She got fired not long after for a multitude of other reasons, but that one certainly didn’t help.”

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6. Bad hygiene at work is never good.

LateralLimey shares, “Worked with a guy years ago, who would go home after work, drink, and smoke. He would fall asleep in his clothes and come into work the next day. So, he would do this for days on end. He would smell of stale sweat, rum, and tobacco. Added to this, most of his teeth were rotting, and his breath would stink of that sweet sickly aroma of decay. His clothes would be covered in stains. And he would never do any washing or even have a shower for weeks. It got so bad that you could smell him across the office.”

“Several of us got so sick of it, we reported it to our manager at the time. The manager’s response was that we were making it up and that we are too sensitive and to resolve it ourselves. Stinky had to travel to the manager’s office, which was in the city, for a meeting, and we told the manager to stand next to him and take a deep breath. Stinky came back to our office in a right foul mood and ranted that he had his yearly appraisal and that his goal for the next year was to improve his personal hygiene. That was tied to his bonus.”

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5. A clean towel goes a long way, too.

“I lived in an apartment with a roommate who constantly smelled like B.O. But he took showers, so at first, I didn’t know why. In the summer, I noticed the smell was extremely strong in the bathroom, and intent on finding the source of the smell, I sniffed around and found that the smell was coming from his bath towel. And then it finally hit me. That bath towel had never been changed since he moved in. It made sense cause he didn’t have any other towels…” says richardkim_nyc.

“So me being the nice roommate, I decided to go ahead and wash the damn thing. I went to the laundromat, put it through three cycles, and dried it. And guess what? It still f–ing stunk of B.O… the B.O. was permanently embedded on the fricken thing… I eventually found the same towel at Walmart and bought it and put it there and regularly washed it for him without him knowing cause I personally couldn’t get myself to tell him to change his f–ing towel. I just didn’t wanna argue with anyone.”

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4. A workspace should not be filthy like that.

“My partner’s manager at work. My partner was isolated for two months as he has asthma and is very concerned about getting sick. He had a 12-week note from the doctor and returned to work after 8-9 weeks or so. This means that he has been away from work for two months. Shortly after his departure, they stopped serving the public and were online orders only. My partner returned this Monday to two months worth of smelly garbage building up. The bin is overflowing. There’s stuff EVERYWHERE—bin bags, cardboard boxes from stock orders, general detritus.” shares hellcups.

“The real kicker is that there is NO soap in the bathroom and the hand soap he purchased for the kitchen was at the exact same level when he left. Nobody in the place had been washing their hands while he was gone. It’s freaking disgusting. He feels dirty just sitting at work packing orders upstairs (which he has cleaned since that’s his workstation for now). His boss is a disgusting shady bully, and he has two potential jobs on the horizon. It’s just a matter of getting more info. He needs to get out of there.”

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3. Another horrible roommate with terrible hygiene.

“One of my first roommates was super spoiled, and it was clear that mommy did everything for her. (She was a child of divorce, and the mom thought coddling was the way to go) less than a month into living with her, she has taco Tuesday and leaves the ground beef pan in the sink until the next taco Tuesday. The remaining ground beef was crawling with maggots by that time. The worst part is, she didn’t even wash it. My mom did when she stopped by to hang out with me.”

Makeupjunkiemac continues with their story, saying, “She also had a habit of leaving her wet clothes In the washer for days at a time, and no one was allowed to move them (they smelled sour). She also left her fish tank on the kitchen counter and didn’t clean it, ever. It was so cloudy you couldn’t see the fish. Her little dog pooped and peed everywhere, and her bf was a major drug dealer who smelled like cat pee and skunk. I moved out about a month after the taco incident.”

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2. Cleaning up at least once a week is still better than this.

“I had a roommate in college that let his equally crappy girlfriend move into his room with him. They were and are both still very obese. They shared a room, and I kid you not, they had a 15×12 foot room that at any given day you couldn’t see the floor because of the various clothes, pizza boxes, dishes, just crap on it. To top it off, they had multiple reptiles and, at some point, a cat in the room. Neither of them understood basic hygiene at all. Two good stories come to mind about them – one time they started doing laundry… one load, two loads, three loads, etc. I started asking why so much laundry.”

Forbes52 goes on to say, “They couldn’t figure out which clothes were clean anymore and which were dirty (even with the sniff test 🤢), so they just decided to wash it all. It all ended up unfolded on the floor, repeat the cycle. Another story – said roommates had a terrible stench in the room. So bad that we insisted they keep the door closed 100% of the time. After the bar closes, another roommate went into their room, peed all over on literally anything he could. Five minutes later, the room absorbed the pee smell. The dirty roommates were wearing the peed-on clothes the next day.”

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1. Just a little bit of soap and water can surely go a long way.

“I used to work at a convenience store that was right by a trailer park. There was an old obese couple who lived in the trailer park that would come in every now and then. They did not bathe, ever. They always wore the same clothes that they never washed. Their hair were greasy messes. The wife had natural blonde hair, but her hair looked dingy and stuck to the side of her face. The top of her head had actual dirt built up. They always looked greasy and dirty with dirty build upon their skin. The husband’s fingernails were long and had dirt packed under them. He had a long brownish grey beard with food stuck in it. The best way I can describe their smell is like crap, B.O., and a landfill, cat/ dog seeping out of their skin,” says Apache_Mermaid.

“They would come in, immediately stink up the store. Stay around for 15 or 20 minutes, figuring out what they wanted. I would always open both doors to try to air out the store. One guy asked if the sewer pipe busted with a disgusted look on his face. I just pointed at the couple. I saw the wife coming, and I closed the store 5 minutes earlier than I should have. Why? Because I did not want to deal with that smell after I closed. I had to keep the doors locked as I handled the money. The lady complained to my boss, said I did it cause I was racist. I told him, “Naw, she just smells horrible, and I didn’t want to be trapped inside the store smelling her for the last 30 minutes after she left, and I have to do the closing paperwork. He just laughed and said he couldn’t blame me.”

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