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!!

Non bio has chemicals as well (and the worst of these are preservatives). Washing at 60 is not as effective as you think with non bios because of the preservatives. You are better off washing the clothes without detergent on a long cycle at a low temperature. Agitation and good rinse cycles are better at cleaning.

You can also try not washing at all and letting natural bacteria take control of the skin and mucous membranes.

Whites - bedding/ towels/ underwear/ school shirts - together at 90
Hot coloureds - bedding/ towels/ kitchen towels/ underwear - together at 60
Regular coloureds - everything else except bras and hand wash only - together at 40
Bras and delicates - together on a hand wash cycle at 30

Am I strange but I shudder at the thought of underpants and tea towels going in to the wash together.

No separating here.. I do everything on a 60 or 70 with added dettol or disinfectant

I put tea towels/ cleaning cloths/ dishcloths/ white cloth napkins etc all in together on a 90 degree wash , which gets them nice and clean, and doubles up as the maintenance wash for the machine- obviousy only do this every few days.

Bath towels get used more than once here, so it's easy to make up a full load of towels.

Chuck them all in on hot wash. Still alive.

Ah this thread is brilliant!

From the NHS link:
Always remove any vomit or faeces from clothing before washing

• that's where I've been going wrong all these years

You can also try not washing at all and letting natural bacteria take control of the skin and mucous membranes.

Can you expand on that a bit eledon? I don't quite understand.

I chuck everything in together .
Pants in with towels the works! I bet some of you are reaching for the smelling salts!
In at 40 with a scoop of oxy stuff as well as detergent. I'm still standing

So do some of you run a separate diswasher load for chopping boards, bowls and utensils that have had raw meat etc on them? And then run a dishwasher load with plates that have only had cooked food on them? It seems that would be the same logic as separating tea towels from pants. They are being washed. That's the point.

I do dog bowls, food recycling caddy and washing up bowl together in a "grubby" dishwasher load ontop

You put the washing up bowl in the dishwasher? My mind is boggling.

But my mind is REALLY boggling about some of the "logic" around towels and T towels.
I say this as a woman whose mother was PHOBIC about bugs and underwent some pretty grim medical treatment to try to help her.
I really do wonder about the standard of science education in the UK. A mix of commercial advertising and Mumsnet threads clearly isn't cutting it.

Yes gnu I'm a bit of a slattern but I balance it out with certain things I'm scrupulous about. Have you never seen one of those pieces on television where they take samples from sink/chopping board/door handles and develop bacteriology slides?

What's unscientific about a belief in the power of lots of lovely piping hot water?

I wash whites and lights seperatly to darts, but apart from that, I wash everything together. What on earth is the point of washing different types of towels seperatly?

I wash whites and lights seperatly to darts, but apart from that, I wash everything together. What on earth is the point of washing different types of towels seperatly?

I am again at pp who say they wash every towel after one use. What a criminal bloody waste of money, time, water and electricity.

gnushoes You put the washing up bowl in the dishwasher? My mind is boggling.

I don't have a dishwasher. Perhaps I need to get another washing up bowl to wash my washing up bowl in?

Yes- everything goes in together

I was told to top and tail with regard to my first born who had to be totally wiped and airways suctioned on delivery, due to pooing meconium discovered in the breaking of my waters, just before birth (inhaling meconium for a newborn can be serious).

Because she had been wiped of her vernix she had lost the moisturiser and antibacterial salve that she needed. The top just was the usual cotton and warm water on each of the eyes, the nostrils, around the neck, ears and a dash of warm water over the head. I was told to build up her natural bacteria and to use olive oil as a moisturiser under arms and around the neck. It worked, but it was scary how dry she became, even hours after her birth.

The bottom was another matter. It took a wee bit more than wipes to get rid of the huge meconium poos that followed (bless her). Obviously a bit more attention was paid to this part of her anatomy.

My other two babies, though overdue, kept their vernix (it wasn't wiped) and they had no problems. I was told to keep the vernix in their folds for a couple of days post birth.

Dark
Lights
Colours
40/60 wash with a splash of dettol laundry cleaner.

I bung everything in together, with some dettol laundry cleanser! Like someone said upthread - a washing machine is capable of washing things like this together without being detrimental to anyone's health - I think it's mad separating everything for fear of 'different germs' crossing over! 😂

It's pretty much impossible to avoid germs without living in a bubble. Door handles, ATM keyboards, money, shopping trolley handles etc must all be filthy. Having said that, I once heard someone say she would never use a library, because you didn't know where the books had been .

But back to the point of the thread, I put everything in the washing machine together, nearly all on a 40 cotton wash, except some of my delicates, which go on a hand wash programme. I've never thought about cross contamination. The point of the machine is to clean things and a fair amount of rinsing goes on. If there is anything left, it will be massively diluted to almost homeopathic levels.

DP and I are never ill and we generally share our (thankfully quite big) bed with various cats (we have 4 of our own and also foster - we have 6 kittens as well at the moment - a fair few of these like to sleep on the bed. There is a cartoon that goes round the internet that basically says, if you have a cat, it's arsehole has touched your surfaces and furnishings. For this reason, I tend to wipe up before cooking, not afterwards.

I routinely put the washing machine drawer, oven door glass, cat food bowls, food waste caddy, kitchen bin and even once a cat litter tray in the dishwasher, but I did do a cleaning out wash after this and that was a one off before carrying out some urinary analysis on a sick cat - he needed to pee on clean litter so wanted to avoid anything in the tray or from other cats.

I don't have a dishwasher. Perhaps I need to get another washing up bowl to wash my washing up bowl in?

Don't you EVER give it a good scrub and scale it with boiling water? That's the low tech version.

We had an outbreak of dysentery in our halls of residence when I was a student Barbara. I've been less relaxed about letting bacteria run completely wild ever since

All towels in at 60 degrees
Bedding 60 degrees or 40 degree depending on care label
Pants socks t shirts 40 degrees and separate colours from whites
Most other items by care label
I like hot washes but hard to find towels that state a decent hot wash. I use tesco currently and do ignore the lower wash symbol on them! Most of our bedding care labels are 40 degrees but dd has allergies so risk hers at 60