Washing cleaning rags with family towels?

[NatureMomma]

We dont use paper towels, but use washcloths for cleaning everything, including really gross nasty jobs. I use Thieves cleaner (essential oil based) and vinegar for cleaning. They get put in the wash with all of our towels and washcloths for showering and I'm wondering if it's sanitary or clean enough. I use detergent from Whole Foods and bleach. They smell clean and fresh, (smell like bleach) but what are your thoughts- is this gross? yay or nay?

Edited April 15, 2016 by NatureMomma

[StephanieZ]

I don't wash gross rags with any other stuff that isn't also gross.

 

I have a *lot* of cleaning rags, dog towels, bath mats that live under cat boxes, and other gross things that I wash . . . And I have a dedicated hamper in the laundry room closet. :) That hamper gets a few other random things thrown in, especially kitchen towels, but I sort them out before washing and I do my best to avoid contamination at all. We have way too much cat poop and dog vomit and other grossness in our lives to mix it all up on purpose, lol.

 

Once a week or so, I gather my pile of nasty cleaning rags out of that hamper, add in dog towels from the floor of the garage, kitty-litter-strewn bath mats (after shaking them out) and wash all that nasty stuff on its own. 

 

Now, occasionally a few kitchen cleaning rags might get thrown in with a load of kitchen linens, but, the really gross stuff always gets it's own load. 

 

And, I wash on hot, with bleach. With a pre-wash if there is obvious gross factor (read, poop). With an extra rinse. ICK.

 

I know all that stuff comes out clean, and it'd probably be fine to mix it all up, but, no, I won't do it. Too gross. 

[1GirlTwinBoys]

I was all of our cleaning/garage rags separate from our bathroom towels that we use.

[mamiof5]

Nay. I can't mix them either

[zoobie]

I wash the downstairs bathroom hand towels with all of our napkins and cleaning cloths. I do it separately for ease as much as anything, but they get washed every other day unless there's a huge spill or gathering that uses more napkins than usual. I use borax and hot water but no bleach.

[Katy]

I tend to use disposables or brushes for nasty stuff, and I wash gross things separately, but actually I tend to think as long as you're using actual chlorine bleach, enough that they smell of bleach afterwards, you're sanitizing them enough. Obviously if someone gets really ill - stomach flu, etc, then I'd say wash separately with bleach or use disposable paper products.

 

ETA:  the reason I say this is that bleach IS really effective for everything.  Not using bleach would change this equation for me. 

Edited April 15, 2016 by Katy

[itsheresomewhere]

I wash them separately from the rest of mount washmore. I keep them in a 5 gallon bucket until wash time.

[Amy in NH]

For really gross stuff I use old holey socks or rags which are at the end of their lives and then dispose of them.

[NatureMomma]

They do smell very clean to me, like bleach, but you all have convinced me to wash them separately. Thanks for your input! :)

[mom2samlibby]

I wash all our towels together.  Kitchen towels, dish cloths, norwex enviro clothes, wash cloths, and bath towels.  It never occurred to me to wash them separate.  If they are really yucky, I wash them on the sanitize option, but most of the time I wash them on hot only.  They always smell clean when they come out.  

[HS Mom in NC]

I segregate that laundry into 3 different hampers and 3 different loads: 
 

kitchen towels and cloths for washing and drying dishes and kitchen surfaces

bathroom towels and washcloths for washing and drying people

microfiber cleaning cloths for cleaning the bathroom surfaces and gross spills

Each load is washed separately in hot water. No exceptions.

[nd293]

Depends on what you mean by 'really gross'. If we're talking potty-training accident gross or meat juice gross I'd probably use toilet paper for the worst of it, then rags and then they'd go into the wash. We also use rags for cleaning and I'm really not fussed - they go in with whatever else is being washed on a cold wash and they aren't bleached. We're pretty much the healthiest family I know, so I don't think it's done any harm!

[Pawz4me]

We use paper towels for truly nasty stuff.

 

I do separate loads for just about everything.

 

Bathroom towels (all white) get their own load, although I do throw in white underwear and socks with them.  Hot water and bleach.

 

Kitchen towels and dish rags get their own load.  Hot water and bleach.

 

Cleaning towels (which are almost all microfiber) get their own load.  If the cleaning towels are really dirty/nasty then I run a "clean machine" cycle afterwards or at least run the machine through an extra (empty) rinse cycle.

 

Sometimes I'll throw the odd piece of pet wash in with the cleaning rags (like the dog's microfiber towel), but not often.  Usually it's a separate load.

 

I have a decorative hamper that I use for storing used cleaning rags and dish towels/rags until I have enough of each for a load.  Each load is separated within the hamper -- I use old pillow cases as laundry bags for each type of load.

Edited April 15, 2016 by Pawz4me

[Loesje22000]

For those who split up in several washes, would you still do the same if it results in several 1/4 loads?

'saving' gross textiles until I have a full load, would make some things even more 'gross' I suppose....

 

 

 

 

[Pawz4me]

For those who split up in several washes, would you still do the same if it results in several 1/4 loads?

'saving' gross textiles until I have a full load, would make some things even more 'gross' I suppose....

 

Yes.  Our washing machine adjusts water usage for each load, and it wouldn't take much extra electricity to wash/dry such a small load.  But it doesn't bother me to save up gross stuff that's all going to be washed together and then used for more gross stuff.

Edited April 15, 2016 by Pawz4me

[gardenmom5]

it  depends upon for what they were used.  normal cleaning - throw them in with towels.  dh's greasy stuff - they're kept seperate. (I also keep a pile of  "on their last legs" rags for him to use - ones I don't care if they're thrown out. )

[SparklyUnicorn]

I wash them together.  I don't wash in hot because really the water doesn't get hot enough.  I do dry on high heat though and that is hot enough.  I think if you are using bleach on top of that you don't have anything to worry about.

 

 

[marbel]

I wash it all together unless it's something very greasy (like car grease, not cooking grease) or highly scented, like the orange wood oil we use.  Sometimes I use hot, sometimes warm water, but it all goes in a hot dryer.  I do a bleach load occasionally but not every time.   But we don't have cats; if the dog pooped in the house I'd probably do those separately after I finished freaking out.   If the laundry is getting clean, I'm not sure separating things makes a difference.  

 

 

[J-rap]

I wash a separate load for gross stuff, but if one of those items happened to be mixed up in a load of regular stuff, I wouldn't fret about it.

[Cinder]

I wash everything together, no bleach because we're on septic. But for *really gross* stuff I have a stash of throw-away rags or will use paper towels.

[skimomma]

I wash all together and no bleach.  We don't generate enough laundry to do separate loads.  If I waited long enough to have enough, things would mildew.  All is either dried on hot in the drier or out on the line in sun.    I only do 2-3 loads of laundry a week, one of which is the cleaning rag, kitchen towels, napkins, hand towels, hankies, socks, undies, and dh's t-shirts load.  All other clothing in the second load.  Sheets and bath towels every other week in the third load.  That has been my method for 15 years and we are all still alive and healthy so it must be OK.  Any time I doubt myself about this (or many other things), I think of how people in this country lived 100 years ago.  I relied on laundromats for many years and got into the habit of minimizing and streamlining our laundry to save my time, sanity, and money.

 

I do run separate loads for cleaning rags, hand towels, napkins, and hankies anytime someone is sick and I always run guest towels and sheets in their own dedicated load since I know not everyone is as lax as I am about these things.  I also always ran cloth diapers on their own load.

[kandesmom]

I wash all our towels together. Kitchen towels, dish cloths, norwex enviro clothes, wash cloths, and bath towels. It never occurred to me to wash them separate. If they are really yucky, I wash them on the sanitize option, but most of the time I wash them on hot only. They always smell clean when they come out.

I use Norwex cloths, too. You are not supposed to wash them with anything linty.

 

I wash my cleaning rags with my whites. So they get thrown into my designated whites hamper until laundered. Washed with bleach on a heavy duty hot water cycle.

Edited April 15, 2016 by kandesmom

[8circles]

I can't remember imagine anything gross enough to need to wash separately. If someone has been vomiting, there's usually plenty of that to do its own full load on sanitary setting. There is no really gross everyday laundry. We don't have pets - is that the difference?

 

I separate laundry by temperature. Hot load (towels, sheets, undies, socks. Cold load (everything else). Besides the odd sanitize load if someone is sick (1-2 times a year).

[Mom22ns]

If they come out smelling like bleach, you have nothing to worry about. Germs are not going to survive that. 

 

I use paper towels for anything really nasty, but wash everything else together. If I have something so nasty I don't want it in with my regular clothes, I'll separate it, but that doesn't happen a lot. I have very few little white laundry and don't use bleach though. If I was using bleach, I'd throw it in together without hesitation.

[lllll]

nm

Edited April 18, 2016 by _kathy_

[mom2samlibby]

I use Norwex cloths, too. You are not supposed to wash them with anything linty.

 

I wash my cleaning rags with my whites. So they get thrown into my designated whites hamper until laundered. Washed with bleach on a heavy duty hot water cycle.

 

I haven't had a problem with washing mine with the towels.  I don't have enough of them to do their own load.  But, I looked to see if I was "ruining" from washing them with towels and this is what I found.  It looks like I'm find washing them this way.  Our towels don't give off a lot of lint.  I've never seen lint attached to them.

 

Lint free laundry†would be items like sheets, t-shirts, jeans etc. We do not recommend laundering Norwex microfiber with towels because the microfiber tends to pull lint off the towels. It doesn’t hurt the microfiber, just leaves you picking lint off of it. We want to make your life easier, not make you pick lint off of your cloths.

[Wabi Sabi]

All bath towels, rags, washcloths, dish towels, etc. are washed together on sanitize in my house along with a small squirt of Dawn soap in addition to the laundry detergent. 

[Guest]

Bath stuff has its own load with bedding. But my kitchen rags and cleaning rags do go in together. I usually run two washes on them with pretty heavy duty detergent, no bleach.

[Murphy101]

I bleach our cleaning rags, so they go in with all the whites.

 

I have 10 kids so I have very few whites. Mostly just socks and cleaning rags.

 

"Cleaning" rags are NOT the same as my bath and kitchen linens, none of those are white either.

Edited April 15, 2016 by Murphy101

[Ravin]

I throw all handkerchiefs, towels and sheets, including for dirty jobs as you describe, in on hot wash with a 15 minute soak, with Kirkland environmentally friendly detergent and oxy-clean. Works fine. No one has issues.

 

DH's sheets and the nice towels get washed with darks load on cold, with no oxy-clean because he's sensitive to powdered anything.

 

The only thing I absolutely try and separate is nice work/dress clothing not going in with nasty rags. That's about it. When we had a CD'd baby, I kept the diapers separate when they were tiny, but as they got bigger eventually would throw rags in with, similar treatment to the towels/sheets above. Now that we have no diapers, I still throw underwear in the hot load periodically.

 

I don't use bleach on anything ever. Prefer not to have it in my house. Ick.

[Rosie_0801]

I wash everything in cold water and cleaning rags would usually go in with anything except underwear, not for any good reason, just because it feels icky!

 

It's all going out to hang in the sun anyway.