I’ve been managing to not put anything in my ears despite wax and itching, except my fingertips just at the very outer rim. This because I finally started listening to my doctor after losing my hearing again to ear wax buildup. He said that touching inside the ear at all interferes with ear wax flow and leads to buildup, so I have been not messing with them for a couple of years and it has in fact been working fairly well.
But yeah I really agree I wish there were an easy way. If I had more money or civilized non-USA health care, I’d get them cleaned by a skilled person with a water pick every 6 months or so. But since I do live in this messed up backward place, I live with partly impaired hearing, chronic ear infections and itching. But at least by not sticking anything in my ears I can still mostly hear ok.
But hey, you’re in Canada – ask your doctor about having them use a water pick to clean out your ears from time to time.