Getting your boyfriend to practice better hygiene requires that you stop cleaning up after him nor engage with him when he is dirty.

Commenting on his poor hygiene isn’t enough.

So far, your words of criticism haven’t been working.

He isn’t practicing better hygiene.

You have to take action.

If he lives separately from you, refuse to visit him as a long as his place remains filthy.

This is when you are taking decisive action.

This is when you are showing your boyfriend that there are consequences for his actions.

If he is not brushing his teeth, showering, or grooming himself, refuse to be intimate with him or allow him to visit you until he does.

You see, you have to begin taking action.

Simply telling him to do better and practice better hygiene isn’t enough when you have been doing exactly that and he hasn’t been following through.

In his mind, those are nothing but words.

He tells you what he knows you want to hear.

He will clean his house, start picking up his dirty clothes, put away his cigarette butts and pieces of stale food that he has left sitting around, brush his teeth and take a shower.

Unfortunately, he tells you all of this, knowing that this is what you want to hear.

He does a lazy job of following through.

Instead of cleaning out his space, he stuffs things away underneath beds or couches or into closets.

He didn’t do any cleaning.

He put some stuff away.

Instead of taking a shower, he throws some water on his face and puts on some cologne.

You aren’t going to fall for this because you are better than that.

Again, you have to let him experience the reality that there are true consequences for what he is doing.

Make your boyfriend practice better hygiene by being an example in how hygienically you live your own life.

Your example lets him know that it can be done.

Give him tips on how to do it and stay with it.

This doesn’t mean that you do the cleaning or grooming for him.

You shouldn’t pamper him.

Were you to do it, he assumes you would continue and he wouldn’t put any real effort to do it on his own.

He doesn’t know how to be as hygienic as he can.

There is a likelihood he grew up in a dirty household or has always been around dirty unhygienic friends.

He has learned this poor behavior through life experience.

Show him how to be hygienic by giving him specific instructions on what cleaning products to get to clean his space.

The products should be easy to use and be highly effective in keeping dirt off for a while.

Your selling point here is in how easy these products are and how he doesn’t have to use them too often in order to maintain a clean space.

When it is his grooming, you should give him tips on how to maintain his personal hygiene in a fashion that is less time-consuming.

Since he is lazy, you could tell him that cutting his hair once a week makes it easier to maintain or using an electric brush makes it easier to brush his teeth.

Find practical avenues by which you make it easier for him to do what needs to be done.