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3 Things to Always Carry When Venturing Out for Supplies During Lockdown: Gloves, Stylus, Pen

Simple preparations mean you don't have to touch what everyone else is touching

By Rain Noe - March 25, 2020

in Object Culture | Coronavirus

More localities are going into lockdown, but we're still allowed to venture out for essentials like gas, food and supplies. When heading out into society, I always bring gloves, a stylus and a pen, and I leave my dedicated shopping bag behind (unless you thoroughly disinfect it every time, plastic bags are, sadly, safer).

Gas is the most recent thing I left home for. I'm driving less, but I still need to bring gas back to the farm for the on-property-only farm truck, the chainsaw, the wood chipper and even the mower (mowing season started early down here). The gas pump at my nearest station is self-serve, requiring users to touch the pump handle and the credit card touchscreen. I don't.

I always bring:

- Latex gloves* (don't worry if you don't have these, see below)

- A cheapie capacitive stylus that I got as a freebie at some conference

- A pen

The simple guidelines I follow:

- No gloves for touching anything I own (including the stylus)

- Gloves for touching things I don't own

For instance, my sequence at the gas pump:

1. Open gas caps on my car and/or gas cans (no gloves)

2. Dip credit card into reader (no gloves), careful not to touch dipper housing

3. Use stylus to punch in zip code on keypad (no gloves)

4. Stylus goes back into the little-used side thigh pocket on my Carhartts, business end pointed down. This will be disinfected later.

5. Put glove on, right hand only (to save gloves)

6. Grab gas pump handle

6. Select fuel by hitting button using the gas pump handle or nozzle itself

7. Fuel car

8. Return gas pump to dock

9. Remove glove (using this technique), throw it in pump-side trash can

10. Affix gas caps and go

11. Wash hands as soon as possible where you don't have to touch more surfaces

In this manner, I believe I'm reducing my exposure to potential COVID-19 germs, though I'm obviously not a medical professional. (Not being careful enough with the potentially germy tip of the stylus is probably the weak point of this system.)

The stylus comes in handy for both physical-button keypads and capacitive touchscreens, which is what my nearest supermarket has at the self-checkout. However, the local Lowes where I get supplies has a resistive screen. After dipping your credit card to pay, you must sign this resistive screen, typically using the all-plastic stylus attached to the machine.

Image by Mike Mozart is licensed under CC BY 2.0

I do not touch the attached stylus. The rubbery capacitive tip of my own stylus will not register on a resistive screen, but all you need is something hard, so I tilt my stylus to make the edge of the hard collar surrounding the tip come into contact with the screen. This is crude, but enough to get it to register. Your signature will come out way sloppy, but it's sufficient to get the payment to go through.

Capacitive orientation, making contact with the rubbery tip.

Resistive orientation, pressing the hard silver part against the screen.

At the animal feed collective, the clerk provides a paper receipt that must be signed in order to pay. I never touch this receipt. If it's curly I flatten it using the stylus held in my left hand, and sign it using my own pen held in the right hand. I don't take the receipt. The pen and the stylus then go in different pockets.

*Gloves. I have a small stash of latex gloves on hand for certain farm tasks, but recognize that you may not (and they'll probably go into short supply, if they haven't already). Absent the latex gloves, I would probably carry a dishwashing glove that I'd turn inside out after each use, and would bleach at home.

Failing that, I'd get creative: A regular glove covered in a plastic bag, maybe? I think some protection is better than no protection at all.

And styluses are pretty cheap--just a few bucks each at Walmart, for instance (2 for $4.88 or 10 for $5.99). Alternatively, if you need a DIY project while you're cooped up and have the materials on-hand, Instructables has a tutorial for how to make your own.

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Do you have any crazy rituals you follow when venturing out for supplies? I'm especially eager to hear how you shop for food--I can't figure out a good way to reduce potential germ transmission, short of disinfecting everything before we bring it home (and how do you disinfect a pineapple?).

o

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. JC

5 years ago

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Not easy to find but a small pincer that you can keep in your wallet to pull your credit card out when getting the card back.

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Sue Brettell

5 years ago

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While we're all being told by our leaders to wash our hands scrupulously for 20 seconds, nobody has reminded us about cleaning the taps etc! Not all of us have taps you can manipulate with an elbow like surgeons. I'm not advocating over-obsessiveness though. I'm a bit OCD so I know the impact it can have on daily life and on partners.

Shopping is probably the most difficult aspect – or more precisely, dealing with shopping when you get home. We live in a boat surrounded by wildlife, so harsh chemicals are not an option. After the last shop I filled a bowl with hot soapy water and vigorously wiped over all the packaged items. The combo of soap and friction kills the virus. For veg and fruit (increasingly sold loose to save on plastic) I used a solution of bicarb of soda and white vinegar to wash them, as both are edible. I have no idea whether that's enough, but it's better than nothing.

What about pets? Our cat went up to a neighbour she loves, who stroked her as we talked from our safe distance. Too late it occurred to us to wonder whether the virus would transmit via a pet's fur. We're all self-isolating, classed as vulnerable. Yet there we are stroking the cat as she wanders between us!

It's all happened so quickly, even the most conscientious of us are caught out. I don't think government guidelines are adequate. The virus lives on most surfaces far longer than one would think but people are not being given enough safe protocols to follow.

By the way, in the UK we're told to stay 2 metres apart. That's approx 7 feet, a whole foot more than the prescribed American safe distance mentioned in Lee's comment.

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Lee Waters

5 years ago

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I feel it is important to take precautions, be aware of changes to this dynamic situation and to follow guidelines from trusted public health officials to the best of our abilities. I also believe this to be a public health threat of unprecedented proportions in most of our lives. However, something about this process you describe seems to me, — a person who is not a medical professional and who is willing to admit I may be wrong here — to be a bit...excessive and bordering on being, all things considered, perhaps mildly pathologically so. I mean, it seems rational to practice social distancing a d to avoid touching public surfaces and items and to wash our hands regularly, but something about the way you describe this internal and external dichotomy and the way you refer to the receipts (never touching *those*) just causes a bit of concern that you are having trouble dealing with the new stresses this pandemic has created which might lead to longer term issues in the aftermath. I say this out of concern, not to mock or belittle anyone, and as I said, I may be 100% wrong and should be more, let's say *neurotic* about what I allow to touch me. I am, for instance right now leaning against the glass at a transit station in nyc, the spice tee of the virus, and the contact my coat is making with the external object is not something I'm remotely concerned about. If I were that concerned about everything in the world, I think I would be in danger of serious mental meltdown. Perhaps this is not the case for you.

With all that said, while writing this comment, I moments ago barked at a "gentleman" pacing while speaking on his phone who kept absent-minded ly standing 1 foot away from me even as I moved away from him in various directions, at first politely and finally with "dude, 6 feet, we're all supposed to stay 6 feet away from each other, please." I'm sure there are people who would think I was unhinged for making a scene, whereas to me it seemed perfectly appropriate to get this clueless guy "with the program". Just as it was unbelievable to me that he was being so careless, someone reading my comment might say the same about my attitude toward your precautions.

Do what you have to do to feel safe, be sure you have support, mental and physical, for the time being and afterward, and I wish you all the best through this period. This too shall pass, as they say.

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mike a

5 years ago

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2nd idea.
in your garage or entryway. make a "sanitation station" out of a cardboard box without a lid. (the virus only last on cardboard for a day). Put everything that came in from the outside (groceries, keys, wallet, anything) in that box on your arrival, and spray down with whatever cleaning spray you have, or wipe down with sanitizing wipes, or dip anything that can survive getting wet, in a nearby sanitizer bucket filled with 1/3 cup bleach and 1 gallon water, and let air dry inside the box.
this will allow you to keep the outside germs outside. The can of corn you bought from the store could have been coughed on by someone an hour before you bought it, and the virus could survive in your cupboard for 17 days.

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mike a

5 years ago

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I learned this from a hospital worker friend. Set a hamper near your front door, with a plastic trash bag in it. As you enter your house. strip down and put your dirty "outside clothes" in there. Head to shower and after, get dressed in your "inside clothes". Make sure to leave your shoes outside or inside the front door on a special mat, or inside a box where you can step in, take them off, and leave the shoes inside the box. then at the end of the week make sure to take the plastic bag to your washer and dump the contents in without touching the clothes. Wash in warm or hot if you can.

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