How to Sanitize Your Clothes & Remove Germs

Clothes can get infected with almost anything from a single cough or sneeze. And even if you wash them consistently, clothes can hold allergens, bacteria, and viruses that could demand a specific washing method to get rid of.

But don’t worry, with the right washing machine, you can clean your clothes as profoundly as possible while getting rid of all those germs effectively.

Below, we’ll show you everything you need to know about this, including some tips on how to get rid of germs fast and leaving a long-lasting effect. So take a look!

How Do Germs Get into Clothes?

First off, how do germs get into your clothes in the first place?

Well, that’s easy to know. Germs are literally everywhere you go. For example, you’ll be exposed to germs as soon as you wake up and go to the bathroom. After getting out, you’re likely to go put on a shirt and pants to go to work. Right then, you’re placing germs in the clothes.

When you go outside, then the germ exposure maximizes. You will be exposed to the people around who sneeze and cough. People who shake your hand, tap on your shoulder, hug you, or even just trip with you while on the subway. The germs will surely hop on your clothes either way.

This is not something to be scare or anxious about, though. Germs are everything, and most of them are harmless. But some of them may eventually become harmful agents, such as viruses, bacteria, or allergens. So it is vital to get them off your clothes as effectively as possible.

Why Sanitize your Clothes?

You may not be convinced about sanitizing your clothes yet. Well, don’t worry. We’re going to convince you.

Let’s start by separating the cleaning and disinfecting terms from each other.

While cleaning refers to removing impurities from the clothes. This goes from dirt and dust to stains, particles of food and skin, and body fluids. Cleaning may remove some germs and bacteria, but it doesn’t get deep enough.

In contrast, disinfecting means getting rid of the small microscopic stuff that may eventually cause disease or slight health issues. For this to happen, you can’t use water and detergent. You can’t expect a mild chemical to get the job done.

Here are a few different reasons why disinfecting your clothes is critical:

  • It prevents germs and bacteria from growing. Even the smallest of particles may eventually become a potentially dangerous agent. Disinfecting prevents that.
  • Stops the spread of viral diseases. Anything from the flu to novel coronaviruses can all transmit from one person to another through clothes. Sanitizing may reduce this spread exponentially.
  • Leaves your clothes even cleaner than usual. If any stain or a stubborn area didn’t clean with detergent only, it would do so with a disinfectant or similar alternative.

That’s why you must pay attention to this article, read every tip, and follow everything to the letter. Cleaning your clothes the right way will be a lot easier after that.

Steps to Sanitize Your Clothes

1. Do Laundry at Home

If you’re looking to disinfect your clothes as deeply as possible, then you must look for a way to wash your clothes at home. In that case, you will obviously need a washing machine. While this may be inconvenient for some and expensive for others, it’s all worth it.

Washing your clothes somewhere else will expose your garments to more germs and bacteria that you would have at home and provide a less effective cleaning process.

Following the same idea, it’s essential to avoid washing clothes in public places. If you live in an apartment, going to the laundry room feels practical. Similarly, visiting the Laundromat across the street may seem a lot more affordable than getting your own washer.

But both ways of doing the laundry are awful if you want maximum sanitization. These public places contain many more germs, bacteria, and allergens than anything you could find in your own machine. And what’s even worse, disinfecting the appliance in these places is probably not possible.

Try your best to not clean your clothes outside of the home and you’ll have an easier time sanitizing those garments.

2. Use the Right Washing Machine 

Along with doing the laundry at home, there’s nothing like washing clothes the right way with a proper washer. So you must be using one that gets the job done precisely how you need it. There are tons of excellent models to go for, but few can really match this quality.

Luckily, you can find the right one with our help. The LG Auto-Front Smart Washer, for example, is a perfect example of a quality model. We brought it up because it offers everything you could need to get those garments thoroughly cleaned.

In fact, we could go as far as to say it is the best washing machine in Bangladesh you can find. As it does everything you could expect a washer to do, plus a lot more.

It all starts with its 6 Motion Direct Drive technology, it moves the drum in different directions, cleaning the clothes as profoundly as you could expect.

This technology uses the Scrub, Stepping, Tumble, Swing, Rolling, and Filtration processes while cleaning. Your clothes will move in 6 different ways while washing, ensuring maximum detergent reach, so even the most stubborn of germs get washed away.

Despite this movement, the clothes still get treated softly. You won’t have to worry about the machine damaging your garments at all.

This adds up to an already fantastic washing machine. Once you this on your cloth-washing arsenal, getting rid of those germs becomes a lot easier.

3. Clean for Enough Time

Not all washing modes will clean your garments as you expect without proper time. So, you should try to let it wash for enough time, usually something that keeps the clothes moving for at least 50 minutes straight.

The idea is to make sure that the detergent and water act on the clothes. By cleaning the right way, there’s a higher chance that germs and other impurities will go away. So, it’s almost necessary to leave it working for as long as possible.

In that case, the LG Smart Washer will help you enormously with its TurboWash system. It will clean your clothes as deeply as necessary while preventing any waste of time or water in the process.

This system rinses the clothes for only 120 seconds. Yes, 2 minutes is more than enough to rinse your clothes entirely while saving you tons of time that other washing machines do not. The rest of the time, the washer will be cleaning your clothes, making sure the detergent gets deep into the fabric before rinsing.

The advantage is that the appliance ensures maximum absorption of the cleaning agents, getting rid of impurities while also leaving a protective layer (depending on the cleaning product you’re using) that protects against other germs.

It doesn’t matter how fast you want to wash those clothes. You can be sure this washer can get the job done fast enough and without leaving germs behind.

4. Wash with Hot Water

There’s a lot of evidence about the power of hot water to clean germs and bacteria away from surfaces. Sure enough, it also acts effectively on fabrics from any garment. That’s why most washing machines also come with a hot-water capacity.

The focus of using hot water is to kill bacteria forcefully. Or at least prevent the germs already present to become potentially damaging elements. This is done by using water at about 60 degrees Celsius.

There’s another advantage of using high-temperature washing modes. It cleans clothes a lot faster and effectively. Because hot water softens up the clothes while cleaning, the water can reach even deeper into the fabric and clean everything more effectively.

You don’t have to go hot all the way, though. Some fabrics may be fragile enough to become brittle or just get damaged by hot water. In that case, using a warm-water mode should be enough to sanitize.

Because not all washing machines come with the ability to use hot water, we strongly recommend the LG Front Washing Machine as an excellent choice. It comes with a built-in heater that ensures proper cleaning effectiveness using hot and warm water as necessary.

By using hot water over cold water while washing your clothes, you’ll sanitize everything a lot better. Germ or bacteria will immediately die in the process. So don’t overlook this tip.

5. Always Use Some Disinfectant

Nothing will help you more than pouring some disinfectant on the clothes to reach the highest level of sanitization.

Some disinfectants are safe to use with garments to ensure that you clean them deeply, getting rid of germs, bacteria, and any other agent you don’t want.

It’s essential to use the right disinfectant, though. If you use chlorine bleach, for example, you’ll damage your clothes to the point of no going back. They will lose their colors and possibly even dissolve the fabrics leaving almost unusable garments in some cases.

Here some disinfectant alternatives you can consider:

  • Vinegar

You don’t have to use artificial chemicals to kill the bacteria that grow in clothes. In fact, something as simple and cheap as vinegar can get it done. Thanks to its acetic acid, it removes even the deepest of germs in the water. You just need to add half a cup into a full bowl of laundry for it to work.

Vinegar also works as a fabric softener, which is fantastic. You’ll get both the sanitizing and softening effect so your clothes will end up pristine.

Yet, it is strongly recommended to use detergent and other forms of cleaner when using vinegar. Otherwise, your clothes will end up with a slightly undesirable odor.

  • Peroxide

Killing germs with peroxide is also possible. Not many people know this trick of adding a cup of peroxide to a bowl of laundry before the washing starts. The just let it do its work.

It’s important to remember that peroxide is similar to chlorine. There’s a chance it will cause discoloration or slight fabric damage if you apply too much or incorrectly. Only pour peroxide on the bleach container, or even better yet, leave it to thin out on the water before the cycle starts.

Peroxide is generally safe and will kill germs, bacteria, and allergens at the same time. So it’s worth a try.

  • Borax

If you can’t use a disinfectant, peroxide, or vinegar, then borax can be an excellent alternative. It works perfectly with hot-water cycles, as it gets deeper into the clothes to remove even the most stubborn germs.

Borax also works slightly as a detergent. By applying only half a cup of borax into a bowl of laundry, you’ll be getting an extra-cleaning capacity to remove the impurities in every sense.

  • Pine Oil

Lastly, you can always use a pinch of pine oil. There are some disinfectants based on pine oil precisely because of how effective it is.

While this disinfectant is mostly used on floors and other hard surfaces, it also works on clothes and the right procedure. So you must only use a pinch or less than a quarter of a cup.

You must get an 80% pine-oil disinfectant. Otherwise, the product won’t remove those germs as you expect.

When using a disinfectant, it is essential to remember a few things:

# Be sure you and/or the person you’re washing clothes for are not allergic. These products are seemingly harmless, but they can cause profound allergies and skin problems if misused.

# It’s typically advised to only pour the disinfectant while cleaning the clothes (halfway through the cleaning). This will prevent any damage from the disinfectant while still ensuring proper sanitization.

# Pour the disinfectant with the help of a dispenser. Most washing machines allow you to pour just a bit of any cleaning product (like disinfectant) in a small dispenser that slowly pours them into the bowl. This will avoid any damage to the clothes.

# If you want to leave the washer working and get on with your work, you can just pour on the bowl with water before placing the clothes inside. This should let the disinfectant spread before the clothes are in. Once you pour them in the bowl, the disinfectant will do its job.

A more effective way is to just open the bowl and pour the disinfectant directly mid-operation. In that case, the “Pause” mode on the LG Smart Washer will help you enormously.

This feature lets you pour the disinfectant within 3 seconds. And if you do it within that time, the washer won’t stop, so you won’t have to resume later on. The machine will keep moving your clothes while disinfecting.

Either way, just be sure to use disinfectant for the best sanitizing results. Otherwise, you’re likely to end up with clean but not wholly sanitized laundry.

6. Don’t Leave the Clothes Soaking

It is pretty common to leave the laundry soaking before hanging it to dry under the sun. While this is not necessarily bad for the clothes, it could let some germs and bacteria grow in the process.

Most germs love humid things, and damp fabrics are perfect for their growth. So using a washing machine dryer is always the way to go in that case.

A dryer will remove all the possible moisture from the clothes. And it can typically work swiftly no matter the type of fabric. So if you’re looking to prevent the clothes from getting germ and bacteria after washing them – using the dryer is the way to go.

Luckily for you, the LG Front Loading Washing Machine with smart technology offers this type of dryer. You can clean your clothes thoroughly with the first cycle. And once it finishes, the appliance will start drying the laundry right away.

This will remove even the tiniest of water particles from the water. Using the Eco Hybrid drying system, you can also expect the clothes to finish up almost ready to be stored in your closet. You won’t have to wait more than a few minutes for the laundry to fresh up a little to store them.

Another advantage of the Eco Hybrid is the ability to save time and energy. In contrast with other dryers, this one uses a lot less electricity and gets the job done in half the time. You’ll be more than pleased by its performance.

Whether you use this washing machine or any other, it is vital to use the dryer on your clothes. You will prevent a lot of germs and bacteria that could otherwise grow in just a few hours.

7. Always Steam After 

If you want to get the sanitization to the next level, nothing will help you like exposing the garments to direct steam after washing.

Cleaning the clothes with steam afterward uses both the advantage of hot water and the ability to reach even further into the fabrics.

At the same time, steam cleans up even deeper by softening up the clothes and removing unwanted particles. In contrast with a normal washing cycle and drying, this eliminates allergens and other undesirable impurities.

Because the LG Smart Washer doesn’t stay behind in any way, you can also expect it to have this steam feature. With the TrueSteam function, the washer passes the laundry through an Allergy Care cycle. Here, all the clothes get deeply sanitized, reducing over 99% of all the particles left behind.

If you tend to suffer from allergies, then you’ll love having a quality washer that also sanitizes this way. And it’s all thanks to the effectiveness of steam.

You can also use a standalone steamer if necessary. That would double-down on the sanitization while softening up the garments as nothing else can.

8. Disinfect the Washing Machine 

To ensure a long-lasting sanitizing effect on your clothes, there’s nothing like disinfecting the washer before and after using it. Or better yet, at least once or twice a month.

This disinfecting of the washer machine will eliminate all the stubborn germs and bacteria that stay behind after doing the laundry. These contaminants will eventually build up and grow inside the machine, causing foul smells and infecting your clothes.

Luckily, disinfecting the washer doesn’t have to be a bother. It’s actually pretty straightforward. Here are a few steps you can follow:

  • Look for a high-density disinfectant like peroxide.
  • Fill up the bowl of the washer with hot water.
  • Then pour 2 cups of the peroxide on the bowl.
  • Run a cycle for at least 5 minutes so the water can get deep into the crevices.
  • Without draining the water, now add 2 cups of baking soda to the water.
  • Run the cycle once again for at least 5 more minutes.
  • Now you can drain the bowl.

To finish, you need to spray some vinegar in the rubber and plastic areas (including the bowl and lid). Then wipe it out with fabric.

Your washing machine is now ready for some more cleaning without infecting your next batch of clothes.

While running a cycle on your washer may seem harmful for the appliance, it is actually not. This gets even clearer when you add the Direct Drive motor on the LG Smart Washer.  Such a high-quality motor will prevent the slightest of damage from running a cycle with only water.

You can also expect the plastic and metal on the bowl to withstand even the most potent disinfectants. So you’re sure to enjoy an excellent cleaning experience on your washer.

Bottom Line

So, are you ready to start sanitizing your clothes? Then don’t hesitate and use the LG front loading washing machine. You won’t regret using a washer than truly helps make the disinfecting process easier and faster.

When it comes to using a  washing machine that sanitizes clothes deeply, this one indeed stands out. So don’t dismiss it!

Either way, it’s time to take care of your health by disinfecting those clothes. Use our tips, and you’ll have no problem!

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