6 Ways to Effectively Sanitize your Clothing

Laundry is a really tough task but it’s a very important one. As clothes are used every day, it’s best to clean them properly. In this article, you will learn all about how to sanitize clothing.

Why is it important?

With the rise of sickness during these times, ensuring that you and your family got the best hygiene is a part of the daily task. From putting on masks and regularly spraying alcohol and sanitizers, maintaining cleanliness is one of the top priorities.

This also applies to clothes. As we use a wide variation of clothing every day, from our undergarments to shirts and coats, making sure that they are as clean as possible should be a serious business.

But this can be a bit taxing and confusing for you. Keeping track of what products and methods to use is hard enough in itself, especially if you’re going to do the work. Well, you don’t have to worry!

This in this comprehensive guide, I will tell you all about ways to sanitize your clothes.

6 Ways to Sanitize Your Clothes

In sanitizing your clothes, you can use a wide array of products to use. Most of these methods are going to be based on your preference so be sure to read them all for you to know what is the best fit for you.

1. Warm Water

It’s well known that heat can kill off most bacteria. If you are going to wash your clothes in the washing machine, make sure to turn it to the warmest water temperature. The heat of the water will kill off most of the bacteria, especially if you wash it together with laundry detergent.

Although, this method should be done sparingly. Prolonged exposure to high temperatures can cause damage to the fabric of your clothes. It’s recommended to do this once a month.

This method is great if your clothes are exposed to sick people or if your clothes are thrifted and you want to ensure cleanliness before wearing them.

 

2. Bleach

Bleach is a go-to product when it comes to the sanitation of your clothes. If you want the cleanest method, using bleach is the one for you. A half-cup of any laundry disinfectant will ensure to kill off most of the germs.

A few things you need to note is that bleach is a very strong chemical. If you are going to use it you must place safety precautions such as:

• Use gloves when having direct skin contact, especially if you ate hand washing.
• Do your laundry in a well-ventilated area. If you are doing it indoors it’s best to open your windows.
• Don’t apply bleach directly to your clothes without diluting them first.

If you want to read more about disinfecting your clothes with bleach, you can read here.

 

3. White Distilled Vinegar

Putting a half to a full cup of vinegar in every wash can help you disinfect clothes as they have acetic acid. Not only is it good for killing off germs, but distilled vinegar also softens your clothes. It’s best to add the vinegar during the second or the rinse cycle.

This method is great if you don’t want to use any harsh chemicals such as bleach as a disinfectant. As this is not a tough chemical, using it as a regular part of your laundry shouldn’t be a problem. It also works with white and colored shirts.  To know more about vinegar you can read here.

 

3. Borax

You can easily disinfect your clothes with a half cup of borax. This method works best with hot water as borax is dissolved with heat.

For this process, make sure that your clothes are heat safe otherwise, it can cause damage to the fabric.

 

4. Hydrogen Peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide can also be added to your laundry to disinfect your clothes. A cup of three percent hydrogen peroxide to your laundry will ensure the cleanliness of your clothes. Note that you shouldn’t put hydrogen peroxide directly on your clothes as it has bleaching property. This is a good alternative if you want a less harsh chemical than bleach but retain its perks.

If you are going to use old hydrogen peroxide from your cabinet, make sure to check it first. As the cleaning abilities of hydrogen peroxide lessen over time, test in it out is great to ensure its ability. To do this you just need a clear glass.

Just pour the hydrogen peroxide on the glass and see if it fizzles. If it does it means that it still works.

Sanitizing Clothes Exposed with Virus and Germs

People with viruses us very prevalent in our times. Unfortunately, a lot of us will encounter sick family members. If this ever happens, countermeasures to ensure the spread of the virus is limited should be done. This includes the proper sanitation of clothes exposed to viruses and germs.

Below are the tips on how to properly handle the clothes of someone with a virus.

• Always wear gloves and a mask. Before handling anything that came in contact with someone sick, you must always be wearing a layer of protection to keep you safe.
• Place the clothes on a separate hamper. To stop the spread of the virus, putting the clothes on a different hamper from anyone else is going to make your task a lot easier.
• If the clothes are all around the room and come in contact with other objects such as chairs or shelves, make sure to also sanitize those with bleach or alcohol.
• After collecting the clothes you can wash them at the highest temperature possible to help clean off the bacteria.
• Though hot water may help, adding chlorine bleach to the mix will help kill the virus.
• After using you finished washing off the clothes, you should also wash your washing machine. To do this you can either use bleach or any of the products I listed above. Then, pour water on the highest setting and let it wash.
• For the drying of clothes, going for a sundry is the best. The heat and ultraviolet light from the sun will help kill off the remaining pathogens that may have survived the washing.

And then you’re done, the clothes are now less likely to transfer any virus to the remaining members of your family. You can watch here for more information.

Sanitizing Thrifted Clothes

With the budget getting tighter and the cuts made with salary, money for new clothes may be harder to come by. During the past year, the rise of thrifting old clothes has become a thread. This method of acquiring clothes is a very good one as thrifting not only helps the environment but also helps people with low income to have a chance to experiment with fashion more.

Although, this may come with a few setbacks. Since most thrifted items are second-hand or stuck on the boxes of countless companies, clothes that came from thrift shops can harvest a lot of bacteria. But don’t fret! This problem comes with an easy solution.

In sanitizing your thrifted garments it’s great to know what type of fabric they have and the materials they are created with. This is to ensure that you don’t accidentally damage your clothes. Once you know that, here are some methods to sanitize your thrifted clothes.

Use Baking Soda and Vinegar

This may sound that we are going to make a science project but we are not. We are here to sanitize your thrifted clothes with easily accessible household condiments. So get your basin and let’s start on the cleaning.

You can soak your thrifted items in a cup of baking soda for around half an hour. This is to eliminate any smell from the clothes. As thrifted objects most commonly sit around in storage for a lot of time, they have a very moldy smell especially if they are not washed before being displayed.

By using baking soda, you can ensure any unwanted odors will be removed.

After rinsing it, we will now use the vinegar. You can either mix the vinegar with laundry detergent or separately soak your clothes in it after. Vinegar is great for removing bacteria that may have latched on your items.

This method applies to a wide range of clothing as they are no harsh chemicals and is sure to not damage your clothes.

Germicidal Solution

Letting the clothes soak in on a germicidal solution for 2-3 hours before you wash them in the washing machine is also a great way to wipe off the bacteria.

Hot Water

As long as the fabric of your clothes is not heating sensitive, letting them sit on boiling hot water will remove any form of virus and pathogens on your clothes as heat kills most of them.

In Conclusion

I hope this article helped you with sanitizing your clothes. Most of the items needed are either in most households already or very accessible and cheap. May the guide help you clean your clothes properly and give you a good time wearing them.