Today marks the official start of winter, but my body has been feeling wintry for more than a week. When the temperature started flirting with freezing, my hands immediately got dry and chapped (more on that in tomorrow’s post) and my nose suddenly sprung a leak.

I don’t mind the nose runs, actually–there’s something really gratifying about taking a brisk winter walk and then coming in and blowing your nose to kingdom come – lots of clear, cleansing fluid that I imagine is evacuating from my nasal passages any bugs that might have tried to hitch me a ride to sick-ville.

But still – it can be messy, and sometimes the faucet turns on before I’ve arrived back to a warm, tissue-supplied location. So what’s a girl to do? Sniffing the drips back into your sinuses is a great way to trap germs in and catch a quick cold. Wiping on your sleeve is not pretty…or germ-smart.

One option is to carry a wad of tissues everywhere you go. That’s ok, but then what do you do with the disgusting tissues after you’ve blown? Shove them into your pocket and germify your coat?

That’s usually exactly what I do, but through the wonders of being a media professional, I recently got a free sample of Sniffle Buddies, an absorbent wristband that’s made from organic cotton and bamboo and is machine washable. The idea is that if you wipe your nose and catch the drips on the band, you can contain germs, eliminate the tissue-wad, and re-use the material instead of running through boxes and boxes of Kleenex.

Sniffle Buddies was originally conceived for toddlers who are loathe to stop what they’re doing to find a tissue. But the Sniffle Buddies folks also advertise it for adults – specifically to take to yoga class and catch sweat and nose runs alike.

They lost me there – I took it to my class, and though I could have wiped once or twice, I didn’t dare, because all I could think about was how my wrist might then touch my mat, or how my wrist had moved along the floor during some lying-down poses. No thank you, germ collector!

But for those aforementioned wintry walks, it’s actually quite nice, and it survived my machine-wash tests beautifully. I’m sure I’ll toss it in my bag for any snowshoe adventures I might have this winter, and maybe even for the walk to yoga class, even though it will stay with my things before I hit the mat.