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?

We each have a basket for clean masks by the door and a bin to put them in when we get home. They are all washed after one use.

At the start, when it was less clear how the virus was transmitted, we were encouraged to wear clean clothes to work each day, but to be honest nobody’s ever checked. I generally wear clean clothes every day anyway (hot flushes taking their toll!)- not things like coats though.

I don’t think general clothes carry the same degree of risk as a dirty mask- you’re not breathing through your trousers all day.

I feel it should be once a day but I often forget and I'm not the most organised. I really only wear it when going in the supermarket and haven't been in anywhere else where it's needed.

Every day but I have a collection of the same ones only type I can wear so people probably think I only use the 1.

We have about a dozen cloth ones, my mother made them for everybody she could think of, so they go in the wash after one wear.

We have a small basket of clean ones on a shelf by the front door.

It depends. If I wear it all day it goes in the wash. If I wear it to pop to the shop for milk I will wear it again.

Also keep a couple of clean ones in the car in case I go out without one.

I’m a teacher and teach in mine all day. Definitely a new one every day. Bit more relaxed at the weekend as I may only wear one for 5 minutes in a shop.

kids are at secondary. They wear theirs for one day then put in the wash.

But all 3 kids have preferred mask, and they have 6 each, so it might look like they are always wearing the same one.

I wear one occasionally to pop to shops, (mosly online shopping) so don't wear it for long or veyr often. So mine sits in my pocket and gets chucked in the weekly wash

Do you all wash your coats every day as well

I wear and wash multiple a day. Once it's been worn for a trip around the shop it gets put into a bag and then washed with the washing that evening. If I then had a school run later on I would wear a fresh mask. Have a stash of about 15 masks as well as disposables which allows for changing multiple times a day and washing.

I hope all the people who don't wash them regularly aren't the same people who say 'why should we even wear masks they don't work otherwise we wouldn't have had a 2nd lockdown' but I suspect that some of them will be the same people.

In dds school of 700 secondary school students, they each bring in 3 disposable or 3 clean reusable masks per day, as do the teachers. Only 2 cases of Covid in the school since the pandemic started. Me and her elder sister only wear a mask once too. Have a bag for used masked which are washed regularly at 60 degrees. Oldest dd wasn't physically in college at all since March 2020 and I've been working from home for the same length of time. However we are very behind on vaccines so the masks are a necessary evil at the moment and I have a lot of underlying health conditions as well.

All of ours get a wash after each wear. They’re tiny so it’s not like they really add to the wash load, we just throw them in with our normal washing. After they’ve been washed and dried they get dumped back into a basket by the door full of all the clean ones ready for us to grab as we head out of the door to work/outings.

Quick heads up: if you're using re-usable masks, give the elastics a snip before you toss them. They're doing wretched things to animal life.

New one everyday, used ones go in the wash basket, clean ones go in a drawer in the living room. I have to wear them for work so have it on my face constantly for nearly 8 hours a day so ends up with oil/grease/makeup etc on it and would be so gross if not washed. My husband only uses his for shopping so will use the same one for about a week.

Mine is grimmer than covid itself. My germs so, hey-ho

@AnUnoriginalUsername

We have a pack of disposable ones because I cba to wash masks and hate them smelling of washing powder and being on my face. Gives me a rash and headache.

Whereas I can't bear the smell of the disposable ones. I find that they smell so chemically - yuck!

We’re only allowed to wear FFP2 masks where I live. I have a few that I wear on rotation as you obviously can’t wash them every day. They get worn 5-10 times with long ‘airing in the sunlight’ breaks in between, also depends on whether I’ve worn it all day long, or just for 10 minutes to go to the shop.

I have one mask in the centre console of my car. I'm not convinced it's ever been washed tbh. Maybe once...

Not got covid yet! 🤞

Mine gets washed after every use. I just find it gross not to and also kind of defeating the point of wearing it. Yes we don't wash our coats everyday but coats don't go directly over the face.

We wash the cloth ones every day. And the single use ones actually wash quite well if you leave them in your pocket....

@Nancydrawn

Quick heads up: if you're using re-usable masks, give the elastics a snip before you toss them. They're doing wretched things to animal life.

Yep I do this x

I change mine every hour & do a special mask wash daily.

[quote fiheka]@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.[/quote]
I suppose with the masks we are at least less likely to smell them.