Wash and dry your clothes at a higher temperature (100–135°F) for at least 30 minutes to ensure sufficient killing of germs. It's safe to wash a sick person's dirty laundry with other people's items. If handling dirty laundry from a person who is sick, wear gloves and a mask.
Hot water that's at least 140 °F (60 °C) kills most viruses and bacteria. 1. Wash or soak your laundry in hydrogen peroxide and borax. If you don't want to use bleach to disinfect your laundry, a combination of hydrogen peroxide and borax can also do the trick.
Hot water washing at a temperature of at least 160°F is advisable. You can use a steam jet during this process.
To use vinegar to disinfect your laundry, try adding 1 cup to the rinse cycle. Not only can it kill germs and bacteria, but it's also a great natural deodorizer. White vinegar can be used on colors and whites, keeping clothes bright, and works as an effective fabric softener, too.
Chlorine bleach is the gold standard for germ killing. Adding 1/2 cup of bleach to a large load of laundry is recommended for disinfecting. Of course, bleach will fade the laundry, so you can't use it on your colored clothes or good clothes. I tested using bleach to disinfect laundry in several different machines.
To sanitize laundry with hydrogen peroxide, first wash with detergent, then run another cycle with the peroxide for 30 minutes to an hour and a half. Longer wash cycles kill more germs than shorter ones. Hydrogen peroxide effectively kills many human pathogens, including E.
Sanitizing kills bacteria on surfaces using chemicals. It is not intended to kill viruses. Yes, EPA registers products that sanitize. Disinfecting kills viruses and bacteria on surfaces using chemicals.
White vinegar has an ingredient known as acetic acid, which can kill viruses and bacteria so they can be easily washed away during the cleaning cycle. A half cup of white vinegar can act as a disinfectant and a deodorizer—removing those pesky germs and working to soften your fabrics.
Adding vinegar directly to the wash with your laundry detergent may compromise its cleaning performance. Laundry detergents are formulated for specific pH levels, which may be disrupted by the acidity of vinegar, leading to less effective cleaning. It's best to avoid mixing them to ensure optimal results.
Add half a cup of baking soda and half a cup of white vinegar to the washing machine drum before starting the wash cycle. Baking soda and vinegar are great at removing tough stains and can effectively fight against harmful bacteria in your laundry.
Hotels often use a combination of high-temperature washing cycles and industrial-strength laundry equipment to maintain linen freshness. This process effectively removes stains and disinfects the fabric.
OTEX detergent
OTEX is considered the gold standard in laundry disinfection, trusted by hospitals, care homes and other social care organisations.
Laundry sanitizer may be used as an additional measure against germs, but it isn't essential for most laundry tasks.
OxiClean™ Laundry & Home Sanitizer kills 99.9% of bacteria & viruses around the home, including laundry, couches, carpets, tile & more.
Using vinegar in laundry is simple. You can add it to the fabric softener dispenser in your washing machine or pour it in during the final rinse cycle. When adding vinegar towards the end of the cycle, manually pause your machine right before the final rinse cycle and add a 1/2 cup of diluted white vinegar to the load.
Unfortunately, laundry detergent alone isn't enough to kill harmful germs. Luckily, disinfecting your laundry is relatively easy and inexpensive, so you won't have to go completely out of your way to do it.
Distilled White Vinegar
From cleaning to deodorizing, white vinegar is a safe, natural product that has many practical uses around the house—and it's a powerful laundry disinfectant, too. Add one cup of distilled white vinegar to the rinse cycle when you want to sanitize a load of laundry.
Using vinegar undiluted in your washing machine can potentially cause damage to the appliance. The acidity of vinegar can lead to corrosion and harm the rubber parts of the machine, which may result in leaks.
Borax is effective to kill germs, bacteria and other organisms. It is a disinfectant, biocide, insecticide, pesticide, herbicide and fungicide. Just one more reason to add it to a load of laundry.
Liquid bleach is one highly effective option: The University of Arizona laundry study found that adding bleach to the load reduced the number of viruses by over 99.99%. 1 For normal loads, a 3/4 cup of bleach should be enough to disinfect the items, according to the Clorox website.
Sanitize objects and surfaces that come in contact with mouths (such as, toys, infant feeding supplies, countertops, and other surfaces that touch food). Disinfecting kills remaining germs on surfaces. Killing germs can further lower the risk of spreading disease.
60°C is the perfect temperature for killing bacteria, viruses and removing stains. This wash setting is also highly recommended for washing towels and bedding, but obviously this setting is going to increase running costs as the higher the temperature the higher the cost.
The major types of sanitizers are heat, radiation, and chemicals. Chemicals are more practical than heat and radiation for food production facilities.
It's the dryer—not the washing machine—that lays waste to harmful microorganisms. “High heat drying for at least 28 minutes is the most effective way to kill viruses,” Reynolds says. The “high heat” setting is key. Energy efficient, low-heat settings may not get the job done, she says.
While vinegar on its own is a miracle worker, it becomes a superstar when coupled with baking soda. To perform this deep clean, you'll need to run two towel-only loads. But, in this method, you load the towels with a quarter cup of baking soda first. Then run the washing machine on the hottest cycle possible.