OP here--thanks for the helpful replies. Not sure I can use rubber gloves to wash dishes at work without my colleagues thinking I am crazy, but I can at home. Cold water hand washing also sounds like an easy and logical fix.

And actually, yes, I can catch viruses or bacteria from my own hands--though obviously I cannot infect myself with something I already have. But I can use the sign-in pen at my son's preschool in the morning which may have been touched by someone infected with something else (no, wait, this is preschool, so it for sure has been touched by someone infected with a cold, strep, something fun) and then I get to work. If I don't wash my hands when I get to the office, if I eat anything with my hands during the day (say, my lunchtime sandwich), I will then get that fun germ. If I don't wash my hands until I am ready to eat, I will have already put my previously preschool-infected hands all over my computer mouse, pen, etc., making the handwashing of an hour later irrelevant. No?

I started wearing gloves to wash dishes every.single.time. Was a pain in the beginning, but now it takes a second to put them on and I don't even think about it.

If I remember, I put some heavy duty lotion on first, then the gloves. Washing the dishes with hot water is like a spa treatment with the glove/lotion combo.

(well, maybe not really, but I like to pretend it's just as good as a spa treatment)

having just gotten over a nasty staph infection that landed me in the ER twice, i am now a hand-washing fanatic...

Stop washing your hands so much OP.

The only way you will get a virus from your own hands is if you put your hands in your nose, eyes or mouth. If you can manage to not pick your nose, suck your fingers or poke your own eye, then you will not pick up viral or bacterial things from your own hands.

(sneezing, etc is different but OP is not asking about respiratory droplets that are inhaled.)

do you drink coffee or caffienated soda/beverages? The caffiene is a diuhretic (sp?) so it pulls water OUT of your system and dries out your skin. Stop the caffiene if you want to improve really dry skin/lips.

Anonymous wrote:I know this will gross some people out, but I only wash my hands after I use the bathroom or when I am about to prepare food and I have not gotten sick yet.

If that does not work for you try washing your hands with cold water and get a very mild soap (dont use dish liquid) for your hands.

This is me too, and I don't think it's gross at all. It also so happens that I have a bladder the size of a pea so I go the bathroom a lot, therefore wash my hands a lot....
Anyway, I just buy the huge bottle of CVS brand Ultra Healing lotion and plunk it on my desk. And I apply it constantly. No way around it for me. I have lotion with me at all times (I travel a lot for work so I have accumulated a ton of those mini bottles of lotion) and they are in every bag. It's just life.

Also, I use rubber gloves for almost all household tasks (including preparing meat).

I know this will gross some people out, but I only wash my hands after I use the bathroom or when I am about to prepare food and I have not gotten sick yet.

If that does not work for you try washing your hands with cold water and get a very mild soap (dont use dish liquid) for your hands.

The cold weather has barely begun and already I am sick of the endless cycle of washing my hands (in a desperate attempt to avoid at least some of the illness just waiting to hit me and my kids this winter) and applying lotion, only to wash it off again, then apply it again, etc. etc. My poor fingertips are already dried out. Sigh. Wanted to vent, but would also welcome hand moisturizing approaches that have worked for you.