Did you know that there were germs hiding in your laundry? These germs can make you and your family sick. Here is what to do about them.
If you aren’t washing all of your laundry in hot water (and I certainly don’t), then you are not getting out all of the germs and bacteria that could be making your family ill. Laundry washed in cold or luck water only gets out about 80 percent of existing bacteria.
Where is all of this bacteria coming from? There is bacteria living in dishcloths and kitchen towels, underwear and bath towels, among other laundry items. Dirty wash water from these items can spread the germs and bacteria throughout your laundry. It can even leave bacteria on the inside of your washer, ready to infect your next load of laundry. Yuck.
So how do you get rid of all of this bacteria? Wash what you can in hot water, such as those bath and kitchen towels. Make sure to dry these items in the dryer. Some dryers come equipped with a anti-bacteria setting. Some washers do, too.
Separate out your items that are of high risk of bacteria and wash them separately to avoid contaminating other clothing.
Finally, you can reduce the amount of bacteria in your laundry by running an empty cycle or a cycle of laundry with bleach to kill remaining bacteria. You should do this at least once per month, or more often, if there is an illness currently in your home. You only need about a capful of regular bleach to kill that bacteria.
If you get in the habit of washing those kitchen towels or your whites in bleach on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, this will do the trick, and you wont have to take any extra steps to keep everything germ free.
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