Sanitising Underwear

[danemodsandy]

Sanitation Aside:

There are times and places where one's underwear is exposed to view, and it seems to me that clean undies are better under those circumstances than unclean ones.

There is, as your mother warned you, the doctor's office - doctors and E.R. nurses have more stories about Godawful personal hygiene than you can imagine. There is also the gym, and then there's that All-American pastime, the hookup. Can anyone really try to say that bacon stripes contribute much to the suave, romantic image necessary to such a moment?

 

[kenmore71]

Oh dear, this is taking a turn towards the "Dirty Laundry" category...

 

[alr2903]

Yogi, I would have to go with your idea on this topic.  Women of the wringer era washed "teatowels", white underwear, pillow cases and sheets  in hot water.  The water was so hot they all had a stick to lift the items up to the wringer.  My Grandmothers both put LCB in the first rinse tub where they soaked.  They washed subsequent loads in the wash water as it cooled. Please read they had no problem with more detergent and anouther bucket of boiling water as needed. Then the whole lot went to the clothesline in the hot sun and UV until just before dusk, in the winter they hauled the laundry to town for a nice baking in a coin op dryer.  alr2903

 

[stan]

Stop the hysteria

Everyone uses a soap/ detergent of some sort here.

Lets not forget what that it is!
Both soap and detergents are surfactants. In simple terms, that means that the addition of, makes water wetter. It reduces the
" surface tension "
There is a Hydrophobic (tail) and a Hydrophilic (head) end to it. One end attracted to dirt oil ect, the other to the water itself!

A microbe is going to have a hard time hanging on when the poor thing is slipping and sliding around in soapy water. Being sloshed by a agitator, or beaten, squeezed thru a wringer, or spun at 900 RPMs or more, then thrown into a hot dryer, or hung out in the hot sun!
If its not dead by then, it will be worn out from the assault, and won't want to hang on to your panties, it won't care anymore LOL

 

[arbilab]

I wouldn't have brought up racing stripes but since it's already been raised, I never had such issues until I turned 60. In the ensuing 7 years NOBODY has inspected my underlaundry. So nobody but me knows I have that problem. Oops, me and everybody reading. You won't tell anyone, will you?

Seriously peeps. You could boil your tighties in methicillin and alcohol for 10 hours but the millisecond you put them back on they're "contaminated" again.

Sheesh, and I thought *I* was OCD. [wonky eyes]

 

[MrX]

I'd really have to say that unless you've got some kind of a medical condition that is highly contagious, you really do not need to worry about your undergarments that much.

That general undercarriage area isn't particularly dirty or bacteria laden, any more so than any other part of your body. If it is, you're probably in need of a check-up, not a change of laundry habits!

If anything, the most likely problematic garments for bacteria-related issues are probably socks, not underwear. And in that case, only if someone has foot fungal/bacterial problems and that should probably be tackled with medicated food powder and a proper foot maintenance regime including new shoes and airing your feet out in flip-flops / sandals / or even bare feet more often. Smelly socks are only a symptom of footwear problems due to feet being cooked up and too sweaty.

A normal cycle with normal detergent should take care of normal underwear and socks without any problem at all.

If you've got some sort of problem with staining or something like that, perhaps run them through with a detergent with plenty of enzymes. That should take care of pretty much anything!

In general though, there shouldn't be any reason to sterilise clothes. It might actually do you more harm than good! Your body's evolved to deal with a certain amount of bacteria, in fact much of it is quite helpful and lives with you symbiotically.

 

[ozzie908]

One thing about Mothers advice re wearing clean undies..

in case of having got run over by a car etc thats always puzzled me !

Why worry about wearing clean undies as I am sure that after getting hit by a bus or run over by a herd of wildebeast etc will said undies still be in a clean sanitary condition ????? NO I do not think so and if I am unfortunate enough to have to go to the ER dept I am sure my clean undies will cut off for what ever reason so the advice seems to be rather a waste of time.

Austin

 

[frigilux]

In summation...

To each his/her own!

We all have a preferred method of sorting/laundering undergarments and it would seem that no matter the method our health hasn't suffered for it.

Frankly, I'm more concerned about the contaminants in some of my kitchen whites than I am about the undergarments---juices from raw meats wiped up with a wash rag or bar mop; splattered chef's aprons; etc., etc.

Kitchen and personal whites washed together in hot water + chlorine bleach is my preference, old-fashioned as it is. I use the Sanitize cycle for the stain-removal benefits of a profile wash (warm water gradually heated to very hot) rather than for sanitization.

 

[rapunzel]

Why not just buy disposable undies? If persistent skidmarks are the problem and to the extent that they don't even wash out, I'd examine my diet and resort to something more practical. You could always buy some kind of anti-bacterial spray to treat your disposable undies with before you don them, just to be absolutely sure that no microscopic nasties crawl around in there.

As for sanitizing - have you tried autoclaving? Or if such is not available, just put your undies in a pot and boil them on the stove for an hour or three with some lysol, that will kill all the germies.

 

[yogitunes]

NOW that everyone has taken 10 steps back!

or has left the room......

safe to say.....if your in an accident, or hit by a deer......we understand.....just toss those puppies away....

and WE don't even want to think if you go Commando!.....

and to think.......your dress shirts are washed in the same machine used to wash your undies......the HORROR!...run for your lives!!!!

You may not want to have a mouth full of liquid while reading this part.....you have been warned....
heres a thought that will never leave your mind the next time you go shopping!....all thanks to me of course......my nephew, on ocassion will leave cash in his pockets thru the washer/dryer.....crazy as it sounds, he will iron them all flat and crisp.....were Ok with that, it fits in the wallet nice and neat....but makes sense sometimes.......here comes the good part.....wait for it!...........think about when checking out at the store, and the cashier gives you change.....and LICKS her thumb to seperate the bills she is about to hand out to you.......DO YOU KNOW WHERE HER TONGUE HAS BEEN?........but at least she washed her hands after using the restroom, doen't that make you feel better?

were gonna start a new thread soon.....Money Laundering!

 

[yogitunes]

Tide Commercial..........need I say more!

 

[yogitunes]

AND all the more reason to keep 'em clean........you never know when asked to strip!

 

[franksdad]

Occasional Jock itch here due to being a heavy sweater...  I wash all my underwear in a separate load in hot water with All Free and Clear and Clorox bleach.  I used to use Downy fabric softener in the rinse but something someone here (can't remember who or when) mentioned they all reactions "down there" to fabric softener so I quit using any fabric softener on my underwear and I have been itch-free since. 

 

[MrX]

As for Jock Itch, it's caused by a fungus called Tinea which is the same thing that causes athletes foot and ringworm (which isn't a worm btw)

It can be exacerbated by creating a too-sweaty environment / not changing often enough.

In a lot of cases it's just caused by wearing synthetic fabrics too close to your skin for too long.

Wearing looser-fitting cotton clothes and making sure you don't just have one pair of favourite sweaty shoes that you wear every day tends to eliminate those problems before they start.

Sterilising your clothes shouldn't be necessary under normal circumstances.

If you've got jock-itch you'd really want to treat it with something a.s.a.p. to prevent spread. Bleaching and boiling your unmentionables won't really achieve all that much.

Those kinds of fungi require a live host and do not survive very long on surfaces. They typically spread through things like warm, moist surfaces such as those found in water around swimming pools or by sharing towels without washing them. This is why you shouldn't really borrow someone's towel at the gym. Shared gym equipment's also a possibility if it's in constant use and people aren't using towels to sit on.

In general to stop the spread, you need to ensure that clothes are washed and most importantly dried (either in a dryer or naturally) until fully dry.

The detergent, washing action, rinsing action and the fact that the clothes are fully dried will wipe the majority of nasty pathogens out without any need for excessive cleaning.

Simply leaving clothes hanging up after being washed has a huge impact as many pathogens can't survive on dry clothes. So once the clothes are thoroughly dry and the longer they're hanging up, the fewer pathogens are likely to be in them.

Also, if you're regularly getting problems like that you'd want to get checked out for systemic problems, particularly diabetes as it can be caused by excess blood sugar.

I would also argue that it's a bad idea to add too many chemicals to your laundry, especially anything that might be a long-acting sanitiser in the last rinse.
That will remain in contact with your skin and may cause problems. Your skin is naturally home to some healthy bacteria and killing them off with those kinds of products can result in faster-growing bad bacteria taking over.
You also run the risk of growing bacteria that may be immune to the sanitiser product or just irritating your skin.

Remember, if something can kill cells, it's probably not likely to be all that great for your cells either.

I really think there's too much of an industry growing up around appealing to people's OCD nature about 'germs'. In the long run it's not healthy at all.

There's a balance to be struck between cleaning and damaging.

Also, think of the environment too!

Using huge amounts of energy (boiling) or loads of nasty chemicals (particularly chlorine) is really bad for the environment. Washing those items into a city / town sewage treatment facility actually makes life difficult for the microbes that breakdown the sewage to do their job because it kills them off.

There's so much of that gunk in sewage, that plants have to add vast amounts of extra microbes to keep up with the loss due to disinfectants.

If you have your own sewage treatment - if you live in the countryside somewhere and rely on a septic tank or some form of bioreactor / biodigester system to deal with your sewage, you can destroy the whole system by adding too many of those chemicals to the water and cause raw sewage to enter the environment as the treatment fails.

 

[dirtybuck]

THANK YOU ALL!

I've wanted to address this topic more than once when my "unmentionables" weren't coming out really clean, but didn't know how to do it subtly.

Generally, I use either Spray and Wash or some other sort of stain remover on what needs to be treated before I venture to the laundromat. I wash all of my whites together in (what they consider at this establishment, and we've discussed this in the past) "hot" water with mainly a good enzyme detergent. The colored boxers are usually washed with my light colored items.

I've tried hydrogen peroxide, but wasn't quite satisfied with the results. However, on one of the few occasions when I used LCB (Walmart version), I did notice somewhat of a difference, so I'll stay with that method and use it on every other trip.

(And Yogi, I was wondering if anyone else had viewed that certain and distinct Tide commercial. Of course it would be a foreign country to produce it and not the US.)

 

[liberatordeluxe]

I think the oxygen bleach powders will suffice but thanks for your ideas especially laundress.

 

[circlew]

I've used quat sanitizer (GFS Quat-Clean, etc.) on fabrics that needed disinfected after getting wet when basement flooded. Everything clean and fresh smelling afterward.

 

[launderess]

Have Said This Before And Will Shout It From The Housetops

If required:

In the history of modern laundry practices few if any outbreaks of disease have been caused by contact with normally soiled wash and or certainly what has been laundered properly. Go ahead, name one instance of otherwise person or persons coming down with serious illness from handling soiled or clean laundry. You cannot and that is because the chances are near nil.

Leaving aside those with unhealthy immune systems and or washing from persons infected with the few classes of diseases that will transmit via textiles (smallpox, perhaps MRSA and or other seriously infectious diseases), long as one is careful to wash one's hands after handling soiled laundry, and or observes good habits you have more of a chance of being hit by a car than coming down from illness due to being in contact with laundry.

The detergent and sanitizing action of hot water along with soap or detergent is more than enough to reduce germ counts on washing. I mean think about it: for generations there have been persons who only changed their undergarments once a week (or less) and while their BO was another matter, they didn't come down with illness.

Yes, there is a good chance one's washing machine may have E Coli and other bugs inside, but what of it? Your loo especially the toilet and surrounding areas likely have just as vast if not more contamination of the same and yet you aren't worried about using that room are you?

If you swabbed and cultured common surfaces in your home, office, or car and saw what was growing you'd never feel safe in your own skin again. Trust me I've done it (assignment from microbiology class in nursing school)and you just don't want to know. Yet somehow we muddle on daily without all collapsing of disease.

@liberatordeluxe

Most if not all powder laundry detergents in EU/UK that contain oxygen bleach also contain bleaching activators (usually TAED), and as one has also stated in the past are excellent for sanitizing laundry. Indeed the difference between those "professional disinfectant" detergents and their consumer counterparts is the former usually contain a higher percentage of oxygen bleach and activator.

http://www.detergents-intermediates.clariant.com/C12576770047E673/vwWebPagesByID/63E52272050ECA40C125770A002E795C

 

[liberatordeluxe]

TAED is indeed found in our regular powders here in the UK so there really is no need to add anything else. I have seen the Vanish Extra Hygiene but I think its marketing guff and basically a tub of enzymes, bleach and peracetic acid which is basically another oxidising agent. I even emailed Persil and they told me basically as long as you use oxygen bleach powder you can wash underwear at 40C otherwise I have found the elastic disintegrates. Can't beat white underwear with a coloured trim.

 

[launderess]

Can't beat white underwear with a coloured trim

No, you cannot!