If you wash your clothes after 1 week or after 15 days, a normal machine wash with detergent is sufficient...?

Question

or do we need disinfect them with dettol or savlon or any other cloth washing disinfectant liquid or something like that ?

The reason i am asking this is that one of my friend who lives in a hostel does not wash his clothes everyday but washes them on sundays or whenever he feels upto 15 days. I told him that if he washes them so late he may get some skin infection. He said that when he washes his clothes all germs die in the water because he uses lukewarm water plus the detergent will kill them all.

Is it sufficient to kill the germs, i mean all the bacteria etc. from the sweat etc. must have accumulated on the clothes.

I need to know if he is wrong or right ?

Answer 1

If he's wearing the same clothes every day and only washing them once a week to every 15 days then they will definitely smell and will need a heavy duty wash.  Not so much for skin infection, but the smell of microbes that give off the horrible underarm smell.



Providing he bathes as often as he should, and wears some deodorant daily, or at least put some white rubbing alcohol under his arm pits daily, he can get away with wearing the same t-shirt 2 consecutive days.  



Again, it depends on what he does all day and how dirty the clothes get.  If they smell, they should be washed, it's as simple as that.



Underwear should be changed everyday no matter what.  Not wearing fresh underwear can result in itching and rashes.



I would be concerned about head lice and bed bugs which often are a problem in hostels.

Answer 2

Warm water nor detergent is sufficient in killing germs or mold/mildew on clothes in order to kill these you would have to wash in very hot water and sometimes this is not possible since shrinkage can occur with some fabrics Germs and odors can be removed with one cup of White Vinegar in the washer and washed without any detergent this can be done often and will not hurt fabric it will also disinfect and leave clothes soft and static free but detergent should not be used while using vinegar in this manner as it can lessen the effect of vinegar but if used to just soften then you can add to softener dispenser or add half cup to the rinse water this will also help clean and deodorize the laundry it even sets in the colors and helps stop fading of colors and will also whiten, Vinegar is an all purpose cleaner/degreaser Good Luck !

Answer 3

Depends on if they are wet or moist - if so, mold can grow and that can be gross.

Lukewarm water and detergent is not enough to "kill" germs per se, I use hot water and a Lysol concentrate for my kitchen towels.

But just waiting for 2 weeks to wash a pair of jeans, assuming he's not been wearing them for the whole 2 weeks, is probably okay.  I do my laundry once a week but again, I'm only wearing the item once, and am not accumulating sweat on them.  (Just coffee.  LOL)

Undergarments - I'd rather wash daily and I don't mix them with any other clothing or laundry items.  But, I don't run the washer for one pair of panties, so I do admit to running a small load of them once a week, separate from the rest of the laundry.