From smelly neighbours to nasty viruses and unwanted conversations: your daily commute is full of annoyances. Here’s 3 great tricks to survive your trip to work and back.

Yes, you made it! You managed to drag yourself out of that cozy warm little paradise called ‘bed’, jumped in the shower, carefully chose the outfit the world will see you in today, packed your laptop and up and away you are.

Work, here you come! But first there’s the bustling jungle called ‘public transport’ to get through. Packed with all your fellow commuting heroes in a train, bus or subway, on the way to office heaven. With these tricks you’ll make it safe and sound.

1) Scarf-to-the-rescue

Even if it’s summer, a scarf is your best friend when it comes to public transport. Bring a warm and thick one in the winter and a thinner one when it’s hot. Sprinkle it with a bit of your favorite scent, et voilá. Here you have your own little protective cocoon to seclude yourself from the masses. When you are lucky enough to have a seat, snuggle up in it and dream away a little. If you have to stand and your personal space is invaded, use it to cover your nose with it as a hideaway from other people’s morning breaths, armpit odors and greasy snack smells.

2) Holy earplugs

Bourgeois ladies next door babbling absolute nonsense on a piercing volume for the whole coupé to enjoy, phones ringing, a guy screaming in his phone over the hum of the bus engine, while the teenager in front of you has a wave of distorted emocore oozing out his headphones. All you can think is: ‘silence, silence, my kidney for some silence!’ So a pair of good earplugs is not a thing of luxury, it’s a bare necessity. What if you could control the volume of your surroundings? With Knops, the earplugs with a volume switch, you actually can.

3) Wash your hands

So many people, so many bacteria’s and viruses. Your daily public transport journey gets you exposed to all kinds of potential hazards for your health. When you grab a handle bar in the bus or a door knob in the train: your hands are the way pathogens travel. Ugh! Make sure to prevent them from getting to your mouth and nose by really, really cleaning your paws when you arrive at your destination. Soap and water will be your anti-flu heroes.