I’ll start: my ear wax. Several months ago, I observed what I thought to be extra wax coming out of my ears. Since then, I can’t stop trying to keep my ears clean. Wash in the shower with soap every day. Stick my finger in there when nobody’s looking to try to get some out. And so on.

I don’t use q-tips, and I know the advice is to simply let it come out when it wants. But I hate cleaning the gunk off my AirPods! Stupid ear wax, I think I feel some now.

  • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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    3 days ago

    A few years back I bought one of these on a whim and I’ve found it to be an excellent ear wax removal tool. Just take care when inserting - that’s the motion that can shove wax deeper or impact your ear drum.

    A quick Googling shows that there are a ton of other tools with a wide variety of shapes and materials, but this is the one that I can personally vouch for. Cleaning the wax off of the finned end after use requires a strong jet of water, that’s the only downside I can think of.

      • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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        3 days ago

        I saw a box of these on Amazon for $6. You’re really going to quibble over a few bucks?

        Besides, these do a better job than wads of cotton on sticks. So it’s worth a few bucks.

            • blackbrook@mander.xyz
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              2 days ago

              That changes the equation enormously. I read their text, and they do say they should be discarded after a use. That could be CYA, though. Do you just wash them with soap and water, or wipe them with alcohol or something?

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                2 days ago

                Oh, they say that? Weird, I distinctly recall the box saying “reusable” when I bought them years ago. I guess it’s like the thing where Q-tips are labelled as “not to be crammed into your ear-holes”, to bring it full circle.

                I clean them using a hand bidet, the high-pressure stream of water from it blasts all the wax out from between the vanes. Soaking them in some kind of soapy water or solvent sounds like it’d work well too, if you don’t have a high pressure water stream readily available.