By P Gosselin
Private daily showers to become a luxury for the privileged and wealthy in Germany?
“What if we showered/bathed only once a week?”
You won’t shower any more, and you’ll be happy, German ZDF broadcaster suggests. Image cropped from ZDF kugelzwei.
What the BBC is to Great Britain, are what the WDR and ARD public broadcasting are to Germany in terms of television and radio presence.
Just some weeks ago, the Instagram site of WDR kugelzwei presented some tips that save heat and energy for citizens to consider: showering only once a week.
After all: “Around 100 years ago, it was still customary to bathe only once a week,” wrote kugelzwei. “Today, people almost look at you strangely if you tell them you don’t shower several times a week.”
The “benefits” of showering only once a week
Supposedly, there are in fact numerous benefits from showering much less frequently, according to ZDF’s kugelzwei. For example, people would maybe learn to become “a little more tolerant of body odor”, and the unwashed would save time in the bathroom every morning.
Use sinks, not showers
Moreover, fitness studios could replace showers with just plain sinks. After a sweaty workout, one could freshen up in cubicle with with a simple sink and a washcloth instead of using a shower cubicle.
Make the weekly shower a public social event
Another idea proposed by the WDR’s kugelzwei is public bathing: “Maybe showering or bathing could become a weekly highlight,” they suggest. “We would celebrate this in public bathhouses – perhaps also in the company of others.”
WDR also cited research from Great Britain on the impacts that lockdowns had on showering. “In a YouGov survey, 17% of Britons said they shower less since the lockdowns. Among younger people aged 18 to 24, as many as 27% skip showering sometimes.”
Stooges with stogies on Saturday night in the tub.
My grandparents told of getting water delivered weekly by oxcart in the early settlement of the Peace River region. I misremember the order in which it was used for various things. In this, my grandmother had her first 2 infants before her health broke down and they had to retreat East.
When my son returned from a year of public works projects in every province of Afghanistan, I asked him what he noticed most about being back home. He noted that Americans are such clean freaks, showering regularly and washing or sanitizing hands throughout the day. He had become accustomed to eating meat that had just been hanging in a 40C market covered in flies, sharing a meal with a pungent Afghani warlord and his band of merry men.
Bathing couple times a week is ok.
The body itself does not stink.
It is your wear that does, if you wash it in cold water.
Every second stinks here in Germany like he pissed in his trousers just because he washes his clothes at 30-40 C.
One has to wash at 60 degrees C at least.
Otherwise, the clothes becomes a biotop for fungi and bacteria.
Then, you really stink around.
Your comment about having to wash your clothes in 60 degrees C strikes a chord. In Canberra, the green government won’t allow hot water systems to be set above 50 C. I don’t see how you can clean dishes, let alone clothes at that temperature.
“Around a 100 years ago, it was still customary to die at 55.”
“Around 100 years ago, it was still customary to bathe only once a week,” wrote kugelzwei. “Today, people almost look at you strangely if you tell them you don’t shower several times a week.”
Around 100 years ago, people also shared the bath water, because it took ages to haul and heat enough to fill the tin tub. So the kids went first, then Mom, then Dad got to bathe last. Should we all go back to doing that too?