The internet is collectively cringing in revulsion over a video posted by health influencer Tara Woodcox after she seemingly admitted she would (or at least encouraged others to) wash her dirty underwear in hotel coffeemakers while travelling.
In the video from 2025, Woodcox promises to show viewers “one of the coolest tricks ever,” as she sits in what appears to be in a hotel room. She then describes a specific scenario that travellers may or may not have found themselves in before: “say you’re travelling and you didn’t pack enough underwear.” It’s definitely not an ideal situation but Woodcox has a solution.
The health influencer goes on to observe that every hotel room has a coffeemaker and at this point it becomes quite clear where this is going. Yes, she actually recommends putting your used underwear “where you would put the coffee grounds” and letting the hot water run through it. The next step is to use a hairdryer to dry the wet underwear.
That’s pretty gross
As someone who quite enjoys making use of hotel coffeemakers (for coffee!) I’d like to make a personal plea to everyone out there: please, please do not do this. Thankfully most sane people understand how gross this is and would never even dream of stuffing their dirty underwear in a coffeemaker.
While underwear in the coffeemaker is not the worst thing you can find in a hotel room, most who viewed Tara’s video were rightfully disgusted by the advice. “Let’s bring back having consideration for others!” One commenter wrote in response to Woodcox’s video. “I’m shocked this video hasn’t been deleted, this surely has to be evidence for hotels to take action.” Popular baking influencer Janelle Nichol added.
Of course, this has to be a joke right? Firstly, it would be almost impossible to fit your underwear in the coffeemaker in the first place. Secondly, It seems too insane that somebody would seriously recommend doing this, and that is more than likely the case.
The clue is in Tara’s own caption which recognizes how gross her advice is as she writes, “Needless to say I don’t drink hotel room coffee anymore.” It seems she intended the video as satire but it quickly ballooned into a viral clip which has since been stripped of the original context.
Context matters
As the video was shared without the caption on other platforms like X, people naturally assumed this was all genuine. Some called it a biohazard, pointing out that hotel staff likely don’t clean the coffeemakers that regularly. There were even whispers of legal action and expensive lawsuits.
Her video reminded some of old urban legends relating to hotel staff not using coffee machines in hotel rooms due to their reputation for being used in such unsanitary ways of which guests were blissfully unaware. While the video posted by Tara Woodcox may be satire, it seems to have opened many people’s eyes to the potential gross possibility that drinking from the coffeemaker in their hotel room might not be such a good idea.
Published: Feb 23, 2026 08:27 am