Over the past twelve months, personal hygiene has taken centre stage in a way that nobody could possibly have expected. Pre-pandemic, we washed our hands although many of us would probably admit not as thoroughly as we perhaps should’ve done. Before the pandemic, the chances of us wiping down our shopping once home were slim to nil. Pre-pandemic, face masks were mainly a preserve of those working in medical settings or within the construction and waste management industries.
Now, however, we’re well aware of just how important maintaining good levels of personal hygiene is for both our own personal safety and the personal safety of others. The team here at Guardpack, a prominent UK wet wipe supplier, wanted to explore how societal priorities have changed as a result of the Coronavirus and why our newfound personal hygiene habits look set to stay, even after the eventual retreat of the pandemic. The main question on everyone’s lips, it seems, will our day-to-day life ever be the same?
Personal Hygiene
Whether it be a packet of antibacterial wet wipes, a miniature bottle of hand sanitizer or a spare face mask, our personal hygiene is now in the forefront of our minds whenever we leave the house – which, at the minute, is admittedly not very often! Through persistent governmental and scientific messaging, we’ve been made as a society to realise just how dirty the surfaces we encounter in our daily lives actually are.
Handholds on public transport, the buttons on the card machine at the store, the packets of food picked up but ultimately decided against in the supermarket aisle. The idea of contact has been central to virtually every aspect of the Coronavirus. We’ve been conditioned, now, to take that split second longer about the surfaces we make contact with and how clean (or, more often, unclean) they might in fact be. This extra caution can only be a good thing. Whether it’s COVID-19, the common cold or anything else, it’s in everyone’s best interests to be a bit cleaner.
Wet Wipes & Hand Sanitiser
Go into any supermarket now and one of the first things you might smell is a faint whiff of aloe vera from one of the sanitising stations near the entrances and exits. When you stop to consider how much “more of an effort” it really is to squirt some hand-sanitiser on or give your shopping trolley a quick wipe down with a wet wipe, you end up sheepishly asking yourself why you’d not already been doing it for years!
We’ve supplied various industries with wet wipes for years, most notably the restaurant and hospitality sectors. What we’re seeing now is businesses of all shapes and sizes coming to us looking for wet wipes. The reason? Customers now value safety and hygiene in a way that they never did prior to the outbreak of the pandemic. Even those businesses whose services don’t overly revolve around touch or contact are looking to up their personal safety supplies as a means of reassuring not only their customers but their employees, as well.
Face Masks
Save for an indignant few whose overly-loud voices seem to garner a disproportionately large share of the media’s attention, the rest of us have adapted to wearing face masks in retail settings and on public transport without too much trouble. As with wet wipes and hand sanitiser, it looks as though lots of people are going to continue using face masks in the future.
Whilst our renewed interest in personal hygiene might be amongst the most noticeable changes between now and this time last year, it’s by far from the only one!
Work-Life Balance
The idea of hybrid working had already been becoming more popular prior to the pandemic’s arrival. Now, however, that adoption will no doubt be accelerated. For many, working from home came as something of a revelation. As a result, many people now love the idea of dividing their work time between the office and the home. The pandemic has helped refocus our minds on what’s important to us; particularly, the value of time spent with loved ones. There are clearly few things that we want to see sticking around beyond the pandemic. Retention of this more balanced lifestyle, however, might just be one of them.
Getting Out And About
“You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone“. This isn’t a new saying, of course, but it’s perhaps never been more pertinent than it has in recent months. Throughout the several lockdowns, one of the recurring complaints we’ve heard from fellow family members, friends and colleagues is the feeling of going a little bit stir-crazy.
The difference in lockdown moods is also telling. During the first lockdown, the UK was enjoying an uncharacteristically lengthy stint of clement weather. The endless Zoom meetings were made semi-bearable by the prospect of a cool drink on the patio after work. Now, though, fewer of us want to leave the house in the cold and dark. We’re starting to realise the importance of fresh air within our lives – or perhaps more appropriately the lack of it.
Contact Guardpack
Nobody can say with certainty what the world will look like beyond COVID-19. What we can safely say is that personal hygiene is going to remain a priority. So, if you’d like to find out more about our range of antibacterial wet wipes and our work as a personal care sachet supplier, then get in touch! Contact us today on 01245 505807 or by filling our online contact form on our website.
