Do you wash your bathroom towels with your kitchen towels?

[Bluerose27]

Just that really.
I like to keep on top of washing, especially when the sun is shining. So today I had half a load of bathroom towels and half a load of kitchen towels so I threw them all in on a high temperature.

I feel like it's two different types of germs mixing though.

But I feel a bit silly as I type this. If I'm crazy to worry about this please let me know gently!!

Washing bathroom towels at 30 is disgusting, there must be all sorts of faecal bacteria and skin fungus all over them

Don't be so ridiculous. You do know that huge swathes of the planet don't even have access to hot running water, right? You think they're all dirty from using towels covered in bacteria and fungus?

Get a grip.

No, everything separate.

Tea towels one loads
Bathroom towels one load
Bed linen one load
Bath mats one load

Thing is, it would be fine to wash that stuff at 40 if you then tumble dried it as that would kill any remaining germs.

If you're not tumbling, you should wash at 60 for a mix of kitchen/bathroom stuff.

I suppose it also depends how people use the towels. Some people clearly shove towels right into their arse crack so they'd be worse!

If you wash things at low temperatures you might not be killing the germs but you are still agitating the washing until all the dirt and germs get shaken out of it, and the germs will get rinsed down the drain. They might not be dead, but they're not left on your washing either. Or at least not in quantities that will cause you any harm (unless perhaps you are already vulnerable).

Towels together at 60
Whites together at 40
Colours together at 40.

Threads like this always make me feel like a right clart!

A hot wash kills the germs. A 30 degree wash simply pampers them. Disinfectants can irritate the skin.

Use a hot wash, you disgusting trolls

As for the huge swathes of the planet not having access to clean water - yes, that is a major cause of infant mortality. That doesn't make it ok to was your arse towels with your tea towels at 30 degrees, you're just washinging everything in niicely scented bum soup

It must be germy before it gets to the wash, does everyone sort their wash wearing disposable gloves

Bed linen, towels and kitchen cloths/towels all go in a bin bag to laundrette and come back clean, dry and folded up. Don’t really care think about what happens to them while they are away.

Blimey, do people really separate stuff in this way? Do they wash each person's pants in a wash on their own?

I really dont get this thing about germs on washing, unless you are immuno suppressed. Lot of nonsense whipped up by companies trying to invent a problem so they can flog something

God, I just feck it all in with a colour catcher and hope for the best! Occasionally I might do a towel wash on a higher temp but not often enough to note.

Everything in together on a 40 or a 60 wash depending on how stinky towels are. Ordinary soap/detergent is really quite harmful to the majority of microorganisms.

As for the huge swathes of the planet not having access to clean water

No, I said hot running water. Do keep up.

No clean drinking water is, indeed, a problem.

Not being able to boil wash the fuck out of every type of towel separately, is not.

Of course I do. They all come out clean after a 60C wash.

I'm thinking that some people's laundry may have obvious poo crumbs, maybe this is why the worry about germs.

www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/can-clothes-and-towels-spread-germs.aspx

Do keep up.

It's been proved (by Which? Magazine standard of testing) that machine cycles at 60 simply don't stay at that temperature long enough to kill bacteria; it's more important to use the right detergent. And anyone with eczema or tricky skin should avoid biological powders as the enzymes left behind on the items also eat the good bacteria on your skin. That was Told to me by a dermatologist- not Which magazine!

Which is why you should wash towels, bedding and underwear at 95

Everything gets washed together on a 30 degree wash! Pants they get into close contact with bums too should they be separated? It's only me a dd so no huge piles of washing anyway - generally a light wash a coloured wash ( whatever towels used go into those categories) and a bedding wash. Life's too short to spend a whole day sorting washing out!

My washing machine doesn't even go up to 95!

Nope seperate loads ! Always

And it's brand new, I only got it within the past few weeks.

tireddotcom72, that's gross. Would you do the washing up with dirty knickers instead of a sponge?