Do you guys sanitize your books?
Honestly until recently it’s not something that ever crossed my mind. And I say that as someone whose always been a germaphobe. When this started I noticed people talking about it for the first time which naturally made me look at my TBR pile with worry.
I’ve bought nothing new since this started or so I told myself because it hit me sitting on top of the pile were the Book of the Month club books for March. Packaged, shipped and delivered right when this whole mess was getting going.
So near as I can tell wet wipes seem the easiest solution that won’t damage the books or using a micro-fiber cloth.
But then again if you want to get into details and knowledge of this virus nothing seems concrete. Well time and isolation I suppose at this point no matter how many times I swipe the books my brain will probably never let me read them or the book I sat them on – it’s just how I work.
It’s been a while but I’ve never sanitized library books either. Eek.
Confession: because OCD gets into my head in strange and nonsensical ways what did I do with my books?
Well if I was buying them from a store I’d always buy the one in the back and always hold it from the top straight through payment and then just dump them on my bed until I could wash my hands or even better until later that night after a nice shower. Same with mail orders. I never even touched them until after I was clean.
I’m seeing now that thinking about other people’s hands probably would have been a system shut down for me mentally.
Me to my Kindle: You’ll never leave me will you?
Going forward it’s something I’ll do in the future- at the very least give everything a wipe down whether new, used or borrowed. It’s still weird to me that it’s not something that ever would have crossed my mind before but I’m also going to have to try hard not to let myself fall into those holes where it’s all I can think about and suddenly books have become my enemy.
I hope everyone is doing well and had a lovely weekend and Easter (if you celebrate!) I’m not going to lie with no chocolate in the house and little food I cracked up and ate half a jar of chocolate frosting left over from Christmas. My stomach hurt all night.
Except for the stress and worry it felt like being a kid again 🙂
I’m not sure you need to worry about sanitizing your books, I doubt most people do, and I just read a blog post from Melanie at GTL about this-libraries don’t really do it either b/c it’s not necessary; you can rest easy!
https://grabthelapels.com/2020/04/05/sunday-lowdown-61/
I think the press is starting to get to me. To much information. To much contradiction everyone freaking out. Even trying to limit myself I can feel the old pull of OCD thoughts kicking in!
I don’t blame you, I think alot of people are going through the same thing! Time to hide in the bookshelf 🙂
This is something I absolutely do not do. Honestly, before this shenanigans I never even washed my hands when I got home from the store. I guess since I went to daycare my entire life I have this feeling that other people’s germs are inevitable, and I only try to avoid the REALLY icky ones like sneezing in my face or boogers on the hand. I figure my books have way fewer germs on them than groceries. I never really gave much thought to the library books before a few months ago, but honestly I touch kids’ germy books all day every day, and attempting to sanitize them all daily would be impossibly time consuming, so…
It’s funny I worked with kids a few years back and maybe the first six months or so I caught everything under the sun and then I was never sick after that the whole time I worked there. It was probably weirdly the healthiest time period of my life (save mentally) I always thought they just naturally immunized me to everything 🙂
Same. Every time I go to a new school I get *really* sick in the first few months, and then never get sick again until I go to a new school with a new germ pool.
It’s your phone and your Kindle you have to worry about if you’re taking them with you outdoors. Luckily, they’re easy to swipe clean.
I never take my Kindle out 🙂 Years of working through lost and found at a big mall convinced me I would probably eventually misplace it eventually I do clean my phone every evening though.
I know they make sanitize for your phone that clean them with UV light. They might make one that is big enough to put a book in? I don’t think it would damage a book? Have you looked into those? That way you can still read your books!!! I have never been concerned with germs so I don’t sanitize my books, and I won’t be starting that anytime soon, but I hope you find a solution that works for you!
I’m probably just going to wipe them down and try to get through this madness without giving into my anxiety :/ That being said I’m going to loo into the UV light thing for my phone. Thanks for the tip!
Well dang, now I will. At stores I too reach for the one in the back– and have been doing so long before this whole mess started 🤷♂️. Admittedly, I’ve been reading too much of the news lately so my OCD is at critical mass. I’ve never thought about this before either, but I suppose a wipe down or a once over with a spray wouldn’t hurt. You just never know who might’ve grabbed the book before you 😬
I know. I thought I had made so much progress with these OCD thoughts and now it feels like standing on a ledge again because I know how this can go.
But yeah a wipe down won’t hurt! Good luck to you!
So interesting and funny that you brought this up! I was thinking about if it was a good or weird idea to sanitize library books before returning them. I’m pretty clean all the time even before the pandemic, but I do move books from room to room, on errands, etc. and thought about if that spreads germs. I might look at least in doing a microfiber cloth or something when my library reopens.
The cloth seems like the best idea. I’ll probably just wipe them down and try not to drive myself crazy thinking about it!
What I’m wary of when I’m borrowing books from the library is that God knows what the previous borrower did with the book. They could have easily picked their bogies, not washed their hands and then proceeded to read and turn the pages. Particularly if the book is worn, I think it’s absolutely necessary to vigorously wash your hands before and after use.