Any ideas for a decent substitute for disposable gloves?

cheeser

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I usually wear disposable gloves to do chores around the house when my eczema flares up. Otherwise, my hands can crack and bleed something fierce, and can sometimes become infected. And doggone it, stress is one of the things that can cause my symptoms to flare up.

Unfortunately, it has been quite a bit of a challenge lately to get disposable gloves when I need them, so I'm trying to figure out some ways to improvise. Thus far, those plastic bags that newspapers come in work okay for things like washing dishes, but they're not much help for most household chores, such as cooking, cleaning, pulling weeds, etc.

Any ideas? *asks hopefully*
 

DreamerRose

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Get the regular yellow or other color rubber household gloves. If you wear them out of the house where they might get contaminated, wash your hands with the gloves on with bleach and water. My eldest bought some the last time he was here that must have been too small for him, but they are perfect for me. Just as snug as a disposable glove.
 

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Any kind of plastic bag , including small trash bags, could be altered using duct tape or gorilla tape as needed. If you need something really tough, an aluminum foil base formed around hands could be wrapped in duct tape. A cardboard form could be used as could plastic wrap. It kind of depends if it needs to be water proof or just tough. Cloth gardening gloves could be taped/ plastic covered as well ( some come rubber coated) or used for some cooking chores. Oven mits could be plastic covered too.
I was able to find disposable gloves in with hardware stuff. They are used with chemical strippers, painting, staining etc.
Today I found a big box of gloves at Sam’s Club in the edge of the department that had pharmaceutical supplies but oddly they were near the vitamin waters.
 
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cheeser

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Get the regular yellow or other color rubber household gloves. If you wear them out of the house where they might get contaminated, wash your hands with the gloves on with bleach and water. My eldest bought some the last time he was here that must have been too small for him, but they are perfect for me. Just as snug as a disposable glove.
Alas, I haven't even seen the non-disposable kind of gloves at the stores in a while. The shelves are still pretty bare. But I'll check with Amazon to see if they have the reusable kind of latex gloves. Those are usually a PITA since I have to sprinkle baking soda or cornstarch in the gloves to try to keep my hands dry, and have to change to a fresh pair as soon as my hands start feeling a bit moist. But sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. :)
 
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cheeser

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Any kind of plastic bag , including small trash bags, could be altered using duct tape or gorilla tape as needed. If you need something really tough, an aluminum foil base formed around hands could be wrapped in duct tape. A cardboard form could be used as could plastic wrap. It kind of depends if it needs to be water proof or just tough. Cloth gardening gloves could be taped/ plastic covered as well ( some come rubber coated) or used for some cooking chores. Oven mits could be plastic covered too.
I was able to find disposable gloves in with hardware stuff. They are used with chemical strippers, painting, staining etc.
Today I found a big box of gloves at Sam’s Club in the edge of the department that had pharmaceutical supplies but oddly they were near the vitamin waters.
Hmm. I might have to go that route, but I I don't know if that would provide the level of dexterity I'd need. But you never know until you try something. :)

I mean, I appreciate that local business are donating all of their masks and gloves to hospitals and healthcare professionals during this crisis. Maybe I could just threaten to stop doing any housework until this is over so I don't get my hands wet! :wink:
 
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cheeser

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Won't dishwashing gloves work for your purposes? Unless those are in short supply now too. Last time I was at the store they had them but it seems like 1 day is a million years in this situation.
They might, if I could find them. :wink:

It's like going on a scavenger hunt every day. My son said that making the grocery list these days is like a little kid making a Christmas wish list. You write down everything that you'd like to have, knowing that you're only going to find a very small fraction of that under the tree on Christmas morning. So it's kind of exciting when someone comes home from the store, and everyone crowds around to see what we actually got. "Oooh, look! A bag of rice AND some pintos! Woo hoo!"

If I had known then what we know now, I wish we wouldn't have stopped going to the grocery stores during Dad's last few weeks, instead of coasting on our hurricane supplies. Oops.
 
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cheeser

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The household gloves DreamerRose DreamerRose is talking about are generally made of latex (i.e. rubber) lined with cotton. If you need something larger, you can find similar gloves that are meant for men in hardware stores. PVC Long Cuff Oil Resistant Gloves

Margret
Well, the Harbor Freight in our area doesn't have any kind of gloves available for sale to the general public, as they've donated them all to local hospitals and clinics -- which was a very nice thing to do, and is much appreciated. But maybe I'll see if I can find *something* at a hardware store that's at least somewhat water repellent for doing stuff like cleaning the bathroom mirrors and wiping down the countertops, spot cleaning laundry, etc. Every little bit helps. :)
 
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cheeser

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You may be able to get the nitrile gloves at NAPA stores, Lowes, or Home Depot or maybe other auto parts outlets in your area. They are referred to as mechanic's gloves.
I haven't had any luck yet with stores like Lowe's, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Grainger, etc. But I never thought to check places like Auto Zone. I'll give that a try! *fingers crossed*
 

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I haven't had any luck yet with stores like Lowe's, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Grainger, etc. But I never thought to check places like Auto Zone. I'll give that a try! *fingers crossed*
When you checked out Lowe's and Home Depot, did you look in the paint or tool sections? That's where you can find disposable gloves in boxes of 50 or 100 individual gloves.
 

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I was trying to find gloves for the office, and I knew that Costco had them in the automotive section, but they were out. And then I noticed that those were the ones the employees were wearing. . .that's pretty smart of them.

Anyway yeah, check the smaller stores, they may have some left.
 
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cheeser

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When you checked out Lowe's and Home Depot, did you look in the paint or tool sections? That's where you can find disposable gloves in boxes of 50 or 100 individual gloves.
Yep. No luck. And at this point, I don't even care if the gloves are made from latex, vinyl, nitrile, magic beans, or whatever -- or whether or not they've even disposable. My standards have come down quite a bit. :wink:

On the bright side, I'm glad that so many business are donating all of their gloves and masks to the healthcare professionals who so desperately need all of the supplies they can get. And I'm glad that so many people are taking this threat seriously, and are taking all of the precautions that they can. :)
 
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cheeser

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I was trying to find gloves for the office, and I knew that Costco had them in the automotive section, but they were out. And then I noticed that those were the ones the employees were wearing. . .that's pretty smart of them.

Anyway yeah, check the smaller stores, they may have some left.
I'll drive around and see if any smaller stores are open. Maybe I can scrounge up some of those cellophane type gloves that people wear to handle food, or to color hair, etc.

Ooh, and I did just find a couple of pairs of nitrile gloves on the patio where we keep the garden stuff. Yay! I'm going to take very good care of them, and try to get them to last as long as I can. :)
 

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When I was at the small IGA in town on Tuesday the cashier mentioned they were selling boxes of disposable gloves at their cost. She even went and got a box for me from the rack at the end of her counter. Generic, 100 gloves per box, sold for $4, limit one per customer. You better believe they have my business!

Cashier was wearing neither gloves nor mask. If you think about it, the gloves should maybe be changed for each customer. But no mask?

To pharmacy today to pick up a prescription curbside. They have surgical type face masks, limit 2 per patron, $3.99 each. They are the flat, pleated kind. We bought 2.

I was hoping they would be the sort of bowl shaped ones I used to get at Lowes, and used for sanding or painting because I have an idea. Make a fabric cover for the mask, with two straps on the inside to hold a coffee filter. After use, toss filter and wash cover. Reuse mask. We have 3 or 4 of this kind of mask, discolored from age but never used. I will have to work on this. Not sure how to adapt for flat mask.
 

Jcatbird

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For those who cannot get any masks, I don’t know how much protection these offer but they are no sew friendly and very quick to make. Better than no mask? Perhaps something like this could go over your old masks. A coffee filter inside your mask sounds reasonable too.
 
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cheeser

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When I was at the small IGA in town on Tuesday the cashier mentioned they were selling boxes of disposable gloves at their cost. She even went and got a box for me from the rack at the end of her counter. Generic, 100 gloves per box, sold for $4, limit one per customer. You better believe they have my business!

Cashier was wearing neither gloves nor mask. If you think about it, the gloves should maybe be changed for each customer. But no mask?

To pharmacy today to pick up a prescription curbside. They have surgical type face masks, limit 2 per patron, $3.99 each. They are the flat, pleated kind. We bought 2.

I was hoping they would be the sort of bowl shaped ones I used to get at Lowes, and used for sanding or painting because I have an idea. Make a fabric cover for the mask, with two straps on the inside to hold a coffee filter. After use, toss filter and wash cover. Reuse mask. We have 3 or 4 of this kind of mask, discolored from age but never used. I will have to work on this. Not sure how to adapt for flat mask.
Awesome! Glad you were able to get some gloves, and that you already have a few masks on hand that you might be able to adapt.

Thankfully, we still have some surgical masks, as we were already taking precautions for the usual flu season while caring for my terminally ill father. Hopefully more people will start wearing masks when they go out. I was pretty much covered from head to toe as best I could while on my little scavenger hunt the past few days, and the lady in front of me in the checkout lane sneezed all over me, without even bothering to try covering her mouth. She may have been at least six feet away from me, but I'm sure the droplets from explosive sneezes like that travel a heck of a lot further than that. :gaah:
 
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cheeser

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...dollar stores maybe?
Unfortunately, I struck out pretty much everywhere re: disposable gloves.

But this morning I finally managed to buy two twin-packs of the reusable yellow latex gloves at a little grocery store off the beaten path. Yay! So I'm going to take really good care of them, and try to get them to last as long as possible. :)
 
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