Certain units require you to exchange your “outer clothing” for “inner clothing” as soon as you walk through the door.
For Robinson, who lives in New York City, it's about keeping her space clean. “I love New York. It's a wonderland,” she says. “But it's also very filthy, and there's no getting around it.” The idea of bringing that dirt into the apartment through her outfit that day is something she doesn't like.
There are countless subscribers to “Outer Clothes/Internal Clothes Creed,'' and the number one reason for changing their wardrobe seems to be cleanliness. However, other factors such as comfort and safety also come into play. Many inherited the habit from their parents, while others pointed to the pandemic and becoming parents themselves as motivations.
Robinson is also one of those who influenced her outdoor dressing habits, as her parents “liked a very clean house.” She explains that her wardrobe is two of hers and not kept in separate drawers. Instead, when she walks out the door, whatever her outfit she's wearing will garner external validation. After washing, it becomes suitable for indoor use again.
Of course, this leads to some important questions. For example, what gets on our clothes in the vast world? And is it actually harmful if we bring it home?
Graham Snyder, medical director of infection prevention and hospital epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, has some good news and some bad news.
First, the bad points. For those who are repulsed by the idea of germs, they are everywhere and basically impossible to avoid. “If you just wash your bed linen and put it on your bed, surprisingly, it's not sterile,” Snyder says. “If your idea is to avoid all microbes, that won't happen. The question is, what are the microbes that can harm you, and how do you keep them away?” ”
Well, good news. Infection traced to fibers, Snyder said the route of infection is not common. (These cases are typically cases of sharing particularly dirty fabrics, such as locker room towels, and sharing items that have not been properly laundered.) Certainly, harmful things like lice and scabies mites can get on your clothes, but in most cases, germs on clothes are not dangerous. Snyder says washing your hands when you get home is a much more effective infection prevention strategy.
Still, he admits he's not thrilled about the idea of wearing street clothes indoors either. “My rational brain thinks that if I don't change my clothes right away, the chances of me getting sick from something are small,” he says.Still, “I feel guilty about wanting to differentiate between clean and dirty. And that's the type of person I am.” [who thinks] The bed is a clean place. So, I take a shower before going to bed at night. ” He also changes into clean clothes before getting into bed.
Emily Goodstein, a small business owner in Washington, D.C., similarly sees her bed as a pristine place, isolated from the swamp of the outside world. While some of her concerns stem from practicality – she points out that dirty pillows can cause acne, for example – it's really about atmosphere. “I want to be completely relaxed in bed,” says Goodstein. “I don't want to worry you, but is the bed uncomfortable?”
Things get a little more complicated when multiple people share a bed. When she started dating her husband, Goodstein needed to convert him to her own philosophy. Despite some mistakes, she said, he learned fairly quickly.
Afra Ansari, a medical assistant in Rochester, Michigan, also follows a strict rule of not wearing a jacket in bed. While on vacation with her friends, she had to share a bed with one of her friends. Her friend had just arrived from the airport, and “she immediately went to sit on the bed and I was like, 'Please don't do this,'” Ansari said. “If we are sharing a bed, we need to make it clear that the only clothes allowed on the bed are pajamas.”
For many intimates enthusiasts, the issue goes beyond discomfort and potential germ risks. Comfort also plays an important role.
“There are certain jeans and leather pants.” [that] I can’t even sit down,” said Drachelle Pereira, a TikTok creator based in Nashville. She takes off those clothes as soon as she gets home, preferring more stretchy loungewear. “I want her body to relax and feel at home in her own space.”
But Pereira is also motivated by cleanliness and childhood experiences. “It’s important to mention that I was raised by immigrant parents,” she says, who came to the United States from India in the 1990s. “When I got home from school, I changed out of my school uniform into my house clothes. And I had to take a shower every night before I could take off my home clothes and get into my pajamas that were reserved for my bedroom.” She still does the same. Procedures are followed (minus the uniform).
Some professions have fewer outdoor clothing options and an emphasis on safety precautions. Cedric Dark, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, avoids taking hospital gowns out of the house because of the risk of body fluids being splashed in the car. And thanks to a research paper he read decades ago, there's one accessory he never wears while working. [infections] It exists in a gentlemanly bond and can pass from patient to patient. And I thought, wow, I hate wearing ties. ”
Other jobs are just as dangerous, if not more so. Nick Newman is the Environmental Health and Lead Clinic Director at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Although the majority of children he sees with elevated lead levels can trace their exposure to substances in the home, the second most common cause is “household exposure.” It means that someone, generally a parent, brought dust into the house, most often from construction or renovation work. This is why when Newman meets a new patient, he always asks his parents, “What do they do for a living?”
In one of Newman's cases, “the father came home from his job at an e-waste recycler, and his wife said, 'He came home dusted up and was playing with the kids.' The health department was initially perplexed that no lead was detected in the home, given the children's high lead readings. But Newman said “we all put the pieces together” that they were exposed through their father.
While large companies often enforce regulations to prevent lead exposure, Newman says smaller businesses, such as “mom and pop” construction companies, may not have similar safeguards in place. . But the solution for people whose jobs may put them or their families at risk is very simple. As soon as you get home, you should change out of your work clothes and take a shower.
After Jonathan Lynch, an assistant professor of biochemistry at Johns Hopkins University, had a child, he became concerned about chemicals that could get on his clothes in the lab. “I felt like I walked around all day wearing this. I don't think it tracks things around me, but I didn't notice that something had splattered on my shirt and suddenly I had a baby's face on my shirt.” “I felt more self-conscious when I was rubbing it in,” he says.
So now he changes into new clothes when he gets home or sometimes before leaving work. He admits it's not necessarily logical, but thinks it's a way to deal with “fear of the unknown.”
