Wearing cloth face masks and face coverings have become a part of our daily lives. The majority of us have to wear them when entering any place of business, while visiting friends & family members, going to medical appointments and those who attend school need to wear them too.
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I hand wash our cloth face masks on a daily basis and hang them up to air dry. Once a week I place them into a mesh laundry bag and machine wash them and tumble dry low. In between that time, I hand wash which helps to keep them looking nice for a longer period of time. Besides, I’m not running up my electricity and water bills to machine wash them on a daily basis.
Here are some tips for hand washing cloth face masks.
1. Liquid Soap – You can use liquid laundry detergent, hand wash or liquid antibacterial soap. Personally I use the antibacterial version as I feel it’s best to try to kill as many germs as possible. Not just Covid-19, but flu and other viruses too.
2. Sink Washing – Fill up a clean sink with hot water and the liquid soap. I use a rubber spatula to swish the water and liquid soap around. Hot water helps to kill germs too!
3. Soaking – Toss no more than 3 cloth face masks into your soapy water. Let them soak for 10-15 minutes. Once the water cools, open the drain.
4. Rinsing – Under warm running water rinse the dirt and soap from the mask. You can gently wring them if needed to get the water out after you’re done rinsing them.
5. Drying – We recommend hanging them to dry. If the weather is nice take them outside and hang them up. Indoors you can hang them up on a peg rack, drying rack, towel bar, etc. Let them thoroughly dry!!!
6. Extra Precaution – If you’re still worried about germs you can hit them with your steam cleaner for a few seconds once they’re dry. Don’t own a steam cleaner? Set your iron onto the steam setting and shoot 3-4 bursts of steam onto your masks. Let dry.
Your face masks should be washed after each time you wear them. Sadly, a lot of people are wearing them for days if not weeks before cleaning them! Take a few minutes of time to regularly clean them to prevent the spread of germs.
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I do clean my mask any day that I wear it and hang it to hang dry. I like the idea of the steam cleaner.
This is good information and a reminder for a lot of people. I had to make my mother (91) throw her cloth mask away. She was wearing and throwing them in a drawer with ll of her mask. I got her a pack of paper mask and the rule is you wear it today and throw it away at the end of the day.
Very good rule! I hate when I’m out and about and see people wearing filthy & dirty looking masks! WTH? That totally defeats the purpose. Clean and sanitary is what you need. It takes less than 5-10 minutes to hand wash a face mask!
This is a good post. They do need to be cleaned every day or else… what is the use? We have extras in the car for emergencies too.