If your kitchen towels are loaded with bacteria, you might be spreading them around.
Key Takeaways
Lets say youve just sliced some raw meat while cooking dinner.
Or is it fine to put it in your hamper with your clothes?
We talked to laundry experts to figure out how to wash your kitchen towels to eliminate bacteria.
Heres what they had to say.
Play it safe and choose hot orthe sanitize cycleif your towels wiped up surfaces with raw meat or eggs.
Patric Richardson, author ofHouse LoveandLaundry Love, says he never uses hot water while doing laundry.
I find with modern fabrics, detergents, and machines that it really isn’t necessary.
I always use warmand the express cycle, he says.
Chlorine bleach in my house is a never, Richardson says.
I use oxygen bleach all the time for things like kitchen towels.
It gets them clean and keeps that icky smell out while being safer for the fabrics and the color.
Experts recommend against it.
Ironically, your clothes may be dirtier than your kitchen towels, microbially speaking.
I wouldnt recommend washing them togetherthe stains are a bigger threat than the microbes, Dr. Roberts says.
But you could wash them withbathroom towelsas both are typically contaminated with microbes.
The one by the sink that I dry my hands on?
Every few days, Richardson notes.
The stack of them I use when I am cooking, wiping up stains, and cleaning the counter?
Right after using them.
Towels that are frequently wet or have stains should also be tossed in the wash as soon as possible.
One of the best ways to keep your kitchen towels germ-free, according to Dr. Roberts?
This can protect your towels and decontaminate your kitchen surfaces.
