How To Effectively Disinfect Your Laundry?

Last Updated on July 15, 2020

Although some well-known brands have a few products that fit into this category, they are not very common, and you won’t find them available in many supermarkets.

• Pine oil disinfectants: you can use pine oil disinfectants on white and colored fabrics and with warm and hot water. Make sure you read the labels because, in order to disinfect your clothes properly, these disinfectants must contain 80% or more pine oil and be poured into the washing machine before the wash cycle.
• Phenolic disinfectants: like pine oil disinfectants, phenolic disinfectants can also be used on white and colored clothes and are equally effective in both warn and hot water. You can either add them to the wash or the rinse water (assuming that rinse water is at least warm, of course).
• Liquid chlorine disinfectants: people commonly use the term chlorine bleach to refer to this product. It is incredibly effective in hot, warm, or cold water.

The problem is that it can only be used on white fabrics. Once again, you will have to carefully read the product’s label because chlorine bleach is only useful if the concentration of sodium hypochlorite is between 5.25% and 6.15%. These are all categories of products extensively tested and certified by the USDA Textile and Clothing Laboratory. No matter which one you use, you must always read and follow the instructions to make sure you are doing the right thing. That’s the only way you are going to disinfect your clothes effectively without damaging them.

4. How To Disinfect Your Washing Machine And Dryer

By using the disinfectant products mentioned above, you will be simultaneously disinfecting the clothes and the interior of the washing machine. So you won’t have to worry about that. Just make sure you disinfect the entire outside of the appliance correctly – as long as you do it right, any common household disinfectant will do the job. If there’s a chance that contaminated laundry has been placed in a dryer, you will need to clean and disinfect it. Here’s how you should proceed: – Put on disposable gloves. – Remove any lint from the lint screen and throw it in the garbage.

• Mix ¼ cup of chlorine bleach with 1-quart water. This will be your cleaning solution – 1000+ ppm.
• Dip a cloth into the solution and wait a few seconds for it to get completely soaked. Use it to wipe the entire interior of the dryer, including the door. Be methodical, otherwise, you may miss some contaminated spots.
• Grab a clean cloth, dip it in plain water, and rinse the interior.

If you don’t have a washing machine in your house and you usually wash your clothes at a laundromat or in the communal laundry room in your building, the disinfecting process will be a lot more tricky. But it can be done. You need to make sure that no one else is in the laundry room (you don’t want to contaminate a random person nor your neighbors), and you will have to disinfect the surfaces of the washer and the dryer. To minimize the risk, fold clean laundry at home. As long as your careful enough and follow these tips, you won’t have any problems whatsoever.