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De-contaminate from what? Just toss them in the wash when they are dirty (at least once per day if not more often for heavy use), and have enough extras.
I never bleach anything. Totally unnecessary in my opinion unless you are working in a hospital or have a compromised immune system. Soap and hot water does just fine.
Meh. I do one load of whites a week. It gets hot water and bleach. Kitchen towels go in that load.
Meh. I do one load of whites a week. It gets hot water and bleach. Kitchen towels go in that load.
Ditto.
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Chlorine bleach is corrosive and destructive to textiles especially cotton and linen.
Just do what housewives and everyone else did for ages before paper towels arrived and cloth was all they had; wash the things in hot water then either line dry and iron, or toss in tumble dryer.
Either way the action of laundering greatly sanitizes and the heat from an iron or tumble drying further reduces the germ count.
Another few things; today not all chlorine bleaches kill germs. If the label does not carry an EPA registration number (legally required for all certified disinfectants sold in the USA), then the germ killing properties are highly suspect. If you read labels carefully of many chlorine bleach products including those sold by Clorox you no longer see the words "disinfect" or "kills germs".
That being said chlorine bleach that is at disinfectant strength works rather quickly. After about five minutes (less in hot water) all that is going to be done is done. Prolonged contact does nothing more than possibly damage textiles. Furthermore as anyone who has studied bacteriology or microbiology can attest disinfecting solutions have finite properties. You cannot simply continue adding contaminated items without knowing the strength of solution and thus its power to continue killing germs. At some point the solution will weaken and the bad guys take over.
I've always used bleach on ALL towels. My new washer has a sanitize setting, but I haven't tried it yet. Anyone else use it instead of bleach?
Sanitize is rather a broad term. In healthcare it merely means the reduction of pathogens to a level where they likely aren't to cause harm. Thus swishing your laundry in a bucket of water will "sanitize". Adding chemicals and or heat can kick things up a notch.
Here is the thing; outside of a few limited pathogens and even then only under certain circumstances (smallpox comes to mind) have there ever been reported cases of illness from coming into contact with contaminated textiles. If someone is already ill, has a compromised immunity system and or the very young or old may be slightly more susceptible but still, it takes a whole lot of certain conditions and actions before you can become ill from textiles.
If germs were visible to the human eye and thus could see what is living/growing on every single surface you come into daily contact, you'd never feel safe in your own skin again. I know this because as part of a microbiology course we had to swab and culture various objects including our "clean" clothing. Suffice to say when the cultures came back Lady MacBeth had nothing on me! *LOL*
...outside of a few limited pathogens and even then only under certain circumstances (smallpox comes to mind) have there ever been reported cases of illness from coming into contact with contaminated textiles...it takes a whole lot of certain conditions and actions before you can become ill from textiles...
Not true. The food service industry and Salmonellosis from Salmonella enterica contamination comes to mind. A contaminated kitchen cloth can contaminate food preparation surfaces, utensils, dishes, etc.
Then there's contamination of sheets and towels by Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The contaminated sheets and towels then spread the bacteria to others handling the textiles.
Last edited by Dirt Grinder; 05-25-2016 at 11:32 PM..
Meh. I do one load of whites a week. It gets hot water and bleach. Kitchen towels go in that load.
agree
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