How clean are your towels?
Warning to the germaphobes out there: best look away now! For the rest of you, brace yourself for what we’re about to tell you.
A study to come out of the University of Arizona has found enteric bacteria in 89 per cent of E. coli in 25.6 per cent of kitchen tea-towels.
From drying the dishes in the kitchen to enveloping yourself in a towel after a bath, towels are actually an absorbent vessel of germs.
Disturbing isn’t it?!
That amount of bacteria lurking in your towels is enough to rub anyone who values cleanliness up the wrong way.
To help lessen the bacteria in your home, here’s a guide to the nasties that could be lurking in your towels and what you can do about it.
Bath towels
Sure, it sounds harmless enough – bath towels are used to dry your body after you’ve had a lovely shower and you are clean all over. Don’t be fooled, however – every time you dry yourself with a towel, dead skin cells are collected in the fibres. As well as washing bath towels every three to five uses, you should also avoid fabric softeners when washing towels and instead use some vinegar in the load. To help strip away the build-up of detergent, body soil and fabric softener, first wash towels in hot water with one cup of white distilled vinegar. Then, wash again in hot water with your regular detergent. This will clean your towels as well as make them smell fresh and clean even when damp.
Face washers
As dirt and bacteria tend to get caught in the fabric of your washcloths, depending on how often you use a face cloth, it should really be cleaned after each use. Otherwise you are essentially smearing your pores with bacteria.
Kitchen towels
Given the amount of food, waste, grime, mess and different liquids are on the go in our kitchens it should come as no surprise to hear that the kitchen towel is the dirtiest of them all. And if you are using a dirty kitchen rag, you may actually be introducing hundreds of thousands of bacteria to your kitchen. To keep kitchen towels clean you should wash them after each use. If this is not practical, try dipping them in diluted bleach and hanging them up to dry. To do this, just fill your sink up with water and two teaspoons of bleach. You should wash your kitchen towels at least once a week.
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