Happy Monday! Today is my big laundry day. I chose this day after a lady in my old ward (with 5 kids and tons more laundry than I have) said she gets all her laundry cleaned and folded on Mondays because "everybody hates Mondays anyway, so why not just get a huge, undesirable task out of the way" or something to that effect. Embrace the crappiness of Mondays, I guess?
Anyway, I can't stop thinking about something pertaining to laundry. I was Googling who knows what about a month ago and came across an article that said something like this: You can never know if the germs in your dirty clothes have been killed because who knows if the water gets hot enough or even if your dryer gets hot enough. It has haunted me ever since. Who knows? Who knows???? I thought I was washing my clothes and therefore they were coming out clean. Simple as that. I have been laundering a lot of throw-up covered clothes lately, and WHO KNOWS if they are actually clean and germ-free? I dry my clothes on medium heat because I'm pretty sure the high heat setting on our ghetto, old dryer was leaving burn marks on my clothes. What's a mom to do if all the bodily fluids on her family's clothes are still hanging out in the fibers and we are essentially wearing all the junk that we were trying to get rid of? Become racked with torment and confusion??!!
Has anyone else researched this more and know better than me? How can I get germ-free clothes? Because I can't wash everything in hot water ... some clothes require cold or warm. You know? Also, do you have a big laundry day, or do you do it throughout the week? (I actually have the big laundry day and then do little batches throughout the week as needed.)
My doctor dad had a saying: We don't believe in the Germ theory. He would tell us this everytime we started being too germ aware. What he meant (because obviously there really are germs) is that the pay off to worrying about them is smaller than the cost of worrying about them. Just practice basic hygiene (i.e. wash your hands) and then live your life. Plus, soap kills germs not just heat, and I am assuming you put soap in your washer?
ReplyDeleteas for laundry. I actually like Mondays because it is the reset day and for one bright moment I have met all my goals perfectly. As for laundry, I have one laundry day a week but sometimes (embarrassingly enough) I don't get to folding the clothes for several days which makes laundry seem worse than it really is.
ReplyDeleteI have a laundry day (for sheets, towels, blankets, etc) and do other random loads throughout the week to keep up and Braden folds them after the kids go to bed :)
ReplyDeleteI'm not too concerned about the laundry germs. Are your kids rolling around in uncooked chicken juices?? Then I'd be worried. Mostly laundry is to get muddies, food, and bodily fluids out of right? I mean, we are carrying germs around all the time which is healthy. But, if you've been sick and you're trying to sanitize clothes?? Then yeah, you want those germs gone. When we've been sick, I just send the clothes through twice, drown the little buggers.
Using that logic about laundry germs, our hands NEVER get germ-free...and we'd need to scald them pretty badly for the germs to truly be washed away.
ReplyDeleteI think the soap and the agitating in the washer is similar to the soap and rubbing that we are taught (and has been proven) is most effective for getting those pesky germs off. And add the heat from the dryer, and I think they're pretty well taken care of!
That is frightening; just like that map comic you sent Taylor and how one of the diagnosis was for people who freak when think how everyone has a skeleton inside their bodies. It's a disturbing thought to look at someone and picture the skeleton. General Conference was a mental battle yesterday when I recalled that. Anyway, tangent.
ReplyDeleteCommon sense says that the soap is going to kill the germs, that's how they die on our hands. I'm pretty sure the clothes are fine. The other day I forgot to add detergent to some of Archer's laundry but I wash his stuff on the sanitize setting and it came out smelling great (I've read the soap doesn't always wash completely out) so I just tossed them in the dryer.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to Mondays. I too try to get all my big stuff started on Mondays I feel like it gets the week off to a productive start. Plus my house is pretty much a disaster after a relaxing Sunday comes to a close. A girlfriend and I call it MESSY MONDAY and we call eachother each Monday to say "happy Messy Monday" and commiserate about the coming chores of the day/week. It makes it a little more fun and we always laugh a lot.
Taylor, you're right. Embrace the germs! I read an article in NYTimes about a year ago that said our society is getting way to sanitized, which is a theory for why there are more kids with allergies. Who knows, but after that I let Sienna eat off the floor without worry.
ReplyDeleteZ & Kathryn, I never even thought about comparing it to washing our hands. Duh.
Angela, I have absolutely not idea what you are talking about...? And, again, that makes me laugh.
Kathryn, you reminded me of another NY Times article I read that also said that we, in general, use too much clothes detergent and that it doesn't wash out. Ever since, I have cut my detergent use waaaaayyy down. And a happy Messy Monday to you! Now, I need to fold laundry!
And, Amanda, my kids MAY have been rolling around in raw meat juices. It can neither be confirmed nor denied. (LOL.)
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