We throw everything together in the laundry bag, from our white tees, our grandmother’s woollen socks, to our new Forever 21 jacket and even our latest jockeys or BVDs.
While there are so many things to keep in mind for washing your clothes the right way, here we look into what happens when you wash your unders along with the other laundry.
1. Your underthings have poop on them
Researchers have shown that an average pair of underwear may have about a tenth of a gram of poop during a day. So, you put it into the washing machine along with other clothes and guess what? There will be about a 100 million E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus in the water. A research done by Dr. Charles Gerba, a professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, has concluded that putting just one chunk of underclothes with other clothes during washing can transmit 100 million E. coli into the water. And the strain continues in the next chunk also.
2. You are using cold water
The fully automatic washing machines have made things pretty simple for us. The ideal temperature to wash clothes is getting dropped and it is absolutely fine if we are washing them at 15 degree Celsius. But, we must know that the temperature needed to kill the bacteria in our clothes, particularly, underwear, is minimum 40 degree Celsius. The need to wash your underwear separately in hot water increases all the more if the wearer is suffering from some infection.
4. It may mix up bathroom and kitchen-related items
We are very particular about keeping our kitchens squeaky clean. But we may not as much give a thought to washing tea towels along with underwear. If we do not separate the two, kitchen towels may get infected with Staphylococcus aureus and E.coli and the bacteria will then transfer to the kitchen utensils. So in a way, you had a particle of poop for your lunch today.
5. A strong detergent is not the solution
Most of us rely on strong detergents to clean our clothes. But with the kind of temperature we use and the negligence we have towards a detergent’s making, chances are that our clothes are infected. You must use a laundry detergent with bleach if you are not using very hot water to clean your underwear. If the chances of infection are high, you must take both the measures together. You can also use a laundry disinfectant if lower temperatures are used.
6. You may be using liquid detergents
Liquid detergents are known to not contain bleaching agents. They are not sufficient to clean underwear and other unclean clothes as it is the bleaching agent that frees the clothes of infection carrying bacteria. Powdered detergents are better off as they mostly contain bleach.
