That's what I've always done my entire life even before the virus - the outside is gross (basic things like knowing people use the washroom and don't wash their hands and then touch knobs you do, etc). How did you not?

...which, if it turns into a cultural habit, will both protect against getting infected but also make future humans more susceptible to diseases since their immune systems have not had enough exposure. It might also lead to an increase in allergies, as can already be seen in the higher prevalence of such in modern clean suburban housing projects versus the countryside. A bored immune system will find other things to attack, including harmless agents or even the body it is part of.

Incredible that it takes a global pandemic for people to care about hygiene lol

There were no significant threats in the West before corona to justify high level of hygiene. How many people does the average person know who died of something preventable with good hygiene?

Secondly, increased hygiene has it's own set of problems. You dont kill just corona, you also kill the countless harmless pathogens, but who are important to keep your immune system on its toes. Its suspected that the reason there are so many allergic persons in the West lately it's the increasingly sanitized world around us.

I'm right with you -- I used to only wash my hands when I felt like I could've touched something gross, or when using the bathroom. And before cooking for other people. It wasn't something I really thought of too often.

Now, anytime I do anything, I wash my hands. Feels weird not to. Don't know if that is ever going away since I'm doing it instinctually already now

...and you didn't do that already? I'm not being funny, but since I was a little kid I was always taught that as soon as you get home you take off your shoes and go wash your hands. I actually do the same at work where the first thing I do is go wash my hands after arriving at the office. I think I assumed everyone did the same already.

A lot of people wear their shoes on their bed and don’t wash their hands after using the restroom. Sadly, I think your assumption is off the mark :(