It is normal to wash face masks every day, isn’t it?

[Bvop]

Promoted by another thread - but also by a couple of friends who always seem to be wearing the same face mask: what’s normal re washing? I have one mask all day at work but it goes in the laundry basket when I get home, as do the kids’ and if we go out again we get new masks from the basket of clean ones. This is normal, isn’t it, and it’s gross to wear the same mask unwashed for more than one day?

Yes, every day

I wash mine in disinfectant then rinse well and leave to dry over night.
I wash them every time...

@getyourfreakon

This thread is making me even more sick of the general public than I already am. How has this been difficult to grasp? Yeah, you're required to wear masks. Do you really need it pointing out that they need to be washed? How often do you wash your knickers after wearing? You're just paying (muffled) lip service. It doesn't take a high IQ to figure out how hygiene works during a pandemic.

I don't think my IQ is bad at all but I'm not clear how washing the masks regularly makes you much safer. Any viral particles that could land on your mask would also land on your clothes. Any particles that you are going to breathe in you would have already breathed in before you took the mask off. I get that for every day hygiene you might want to wash regularly, if you think you might get bad skin etc, but don't get how it helps protect you from catching Covid. I get that other people would be at risk from touching your unwashed mask but I'm really not clear what the risk is to you yourself from rewearing it. Are all the people washing masks every day also washing their clothes every day?

They need washing every day at least! And then you should change them after an hour or when they get damp, no matter what. So everyone really should have 5 or 6 masks on them for daily use, and a pouch to keep dirty ones away from clean ones.
Having said that I only follow this because I am in a medial job. If I weren’t doing my job, I’d probably just have one per day as seems to be the standard.

We haven’t been able to see friends or family indoors since January. Or since November for those in high tier areas 🤷🏻‍♀️

September here (Glasgow) 😞

I really don’t understand how people wear them for days or even worse, weeks, without suffering from spots etc?

@StormcloakNord

Oh dear. You'd hate me lol

I have about 3 masks I often scramble to find. Bought them at the start of this pandemic and they've never been washed whoops!

I only wear them because I have to though, not because I think it offers any form of protection.

Yeah, that us too. But we have only 1 each. I think I might have washed them last around Xmas.

I'm in and out of clients houses all day so like to have a clean mask each time. I have a crafting side business and have made myself lots of them. They go in with my washing and then popped on the radiator overnight.

I only wear masks in shops, where I am in and out as quickly as possible.

Have a few blue surgical ones kicking around in my bag, pocket, door of the car. Rarely get a new one. DH has a reusable one which is washed every couple of weeks.

Counting the days until we can ditch the bloody things forever!

Mine’s been washed half a dozen times since July. It gets worn for 30-45 minutes a week and spends most of its time in the glovebox of the car.

[quote fiheka]@mswales forget covid. Masks should be washed every day from a basic hygiene point of view. You are breathing moist bacteria breath onto fabric. Not to wash them is very unhygienic.[/quote]
Since when is other people’s hygiene anything to do with anyone else? If it’s just cleanliness we are talking about rather than Covid

I saw a guy in a queue a few weeks ago with a disposable one that had been used that often it looked furry. He must have been using the same one for about a year.

Masks definitely drive down transmission - whatever keeps my DC in school and reduce the numbers self isolating, I am supporting. Are people forgetting all the cases in school last autumn before we locked down? School kids haven't been vaccinated - cases are being transmitted and variants are with us. It's not that hard to wash a mask after use!

I have to wear one at work and I wash it every work day and dry it overnight. Most other days I don't bother to wash it as I don't wear it for long if I'm not working.

I change mine about 8/9 times a day when at work.

Wow, I shower daily and wear clean clothes every day. Our bed and towels are changed weekly and my house is immaculate, no shoes inside etc... but when it comes to mask hygiene, I seem to be very lax 😂 I bought 3 new fabric masks about 6 months and I think I’ve washed 2 of them once each. On the plus side, I’ve not caught covid in the past 14 months, so that’s a positive lol

Once been out in one, even if just a 10min shop, goes in wash bin

I have probably washed the silk scarves I use 2 - 3 times in entirety. They spend most of the time stuffed in my pocket or bag. But then I only wear them because it's mandatory and not because I believe they make any difference, they get taken down the second I exit.

Yes, I have a fresh mask daily, sometimes a few times a day depending on where I am and how long I've worn it.

Not only for hygiene and covid reasons, but they also begin to smell.

I only wear mine for 2 mins per day for nursery drop off so they last all week.
But if I wore it longer would wash more often. I don’t go anywhere else where I need one.
We don’t go in to any shops and WFH.

I’ve got the hairdressers next week and that mask will be on hours and washed straightaway though. I have a load of identical masks though, all plain black so no-one would know if it was washed or not!

Is it possible that if those of you who resent masks washed/changed then a bit more often you’d find them more tolerable?

Because I’d hate breathing through a musty dusty old thing too.

I’m also looking forward to not needing them. But until that day I’m going to have freshly washed, ideally dried in direct sunlight, clean masks.

I started getting pimples from mine, then had the realisation that I could start washing them (somehow it hadn’t occurred to me before then - but I am very clean otherwise! Just didn’t click) so now I would say I have about 4 masks on the go and wash them all once a week with the dark laundry. So each is probably worn 1/2 times (but out to shops/on occasional Uber - not for long periods)

Hmmm I shower daily, bedding changed weekly but mask hygiene has clearly passed me by

Main reason is I'm not convinced about masks and would rather distance myself from people I don't live with.

I loose them before I can wash them.

I can't use reusable ones, they make me panic and feel like I am suffocating. The disposable ones are much more tolerable and so I use them (and feel guilty!)
If I was wearing cloth, I would wash after every use.

@RedcurrantPuff I know lots of people's hygiene is very poor. Of course, that is their choice. But I do not understand the lack of basic self-respect.