If you ever needed a reason to be thankful for being alive in this era, then all you need to do is compare your current living situations with that of the past. Hygiene wasn't a very big thing back then, and they didn't really have a lot of clean-anything. In fact, everything in this list below is so gross, you'll be left wondering just how people made it through the day without barfing 5,000 times.

1. Gotta pee or poo? The pots are kept under the bed!

People back then would just pull out a pot from under their bed and go number 1 or 2 if they had to in the middle of the night. As to why this wasn't situated in some common relief area is a big mystery. How do they sleep with that smell?

2. Got a bad tooth? Your barber will help you pull it out.

Dentists didn't exist back then, so all the responsibilities of grooming would fall under your barber's purview. From cutting your hair to pulling your teeth out to even performing minor surgeries. And you thought going to the dentist was a pain.

3. Wiping the king's butt was an actual job.

There's a job with a description of carrying the king's poo-stool around. But that's the easy part. The harder part was to assist the king in cleaning after he went number 2.

4. Are you poor? Then no TP for you. Just leaves!

Dried leaves were used as toilet paper. Seriously. Chlorophyll up your ass, woohoo? 

5. People didn't really change their clothes.

Can you imagine going a day or two without changing your clothes? It's almost unthinkable. But back then, people went for days, weeks and sometimes months without changing. Imagine the body odor. Imagine it.

6. Leeches were used to drain blood if you were sick.

This isn't a deal breaker, but it still is kinda gross. Leeches were used to cure most ailments. It actually works.

7. Like wearing a wig? It's filled with lice.

Why did people even wear wigs when it was filled with lice? Seriously, why?

8. Eagle dung was the epidural of the middle ages.

Giving birth is a painful process. Modern medicine has afforded us the luxury of pain killers. But back then, it was oil, vinegar and eagle dung.

9. Is this grass? No! It's a woman's pad!

The dreaded monthly period was way worse back then. And because pads were made using old rags or cloth wrapped in absorbent moss.

10. People used urine to wash their faces.

This was practiced among the nobles. A woman would wash their face with urine because they believed that it had antiseptic ability. Scientists today say that urine can be used as a cure for acne. Still, would you like to smell like pee?

11. Want some makeup? You gotta use Ceruse lead powder.

Here's a fun fact: lead is poisonous. But because vanity was more important, and because it gave women who used them enviable creamy white skin, they continued to use it.

12. Got freckles? Use sulphur!

If you had blemishes, or freckles, sulphur would be used on your skin to minimize their appearance. Sulphur! The stuff snakes hate!

13. Everyone bathed in the same water.

It's a cesspool of disease this one. It's a wonder there were still so many people back then.

14. The Tudor House toilets were freaking filthy.

It seems quite cool and grand to live in the Tudor house. Up to the point you need to take a piss or release a big fat poo. The toilets were rarely cleaned or emptied and became a breeding ground for infection and disease.

15. Cauterizing wounds were the norm.

This is effective, but also, extremely painful.

16. Water tanks were lined with lead.

Clean water was scarce. Lead poisoning on the other hand, was quite common.

17. Urine, not just for face, but as an antiseptic.

Most common antiseptic: urine. Plenty of it around. 

18. Beds had bugs, and bird droppings.

Imagine sleeping on a bed that had all of that. I can't.