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Last year, many readers asked questions about disinfecting. One of those questions was how to disinfect clothes!

Way before the pandemic, I was sanitizing my husband’s laundry because he is a first responder. His clothes get nasty!

If I wake up in the morning to do laundry and see his clothing in a trash bag, then I know it was a gross night at work for him.

When he started in this field, I researched all the ways to disinfect, sanitize, and properly clean clothes to make sure I got his things as clean as possible. These are all the tips I have learned, but I have also done additional research for you to include current pandemic safe information.

Chemistry Cachet brings you the best information, but we also like to make it simple for you. Many websites get way too confusing and have too much extra details not necessary for the post.

How To Disinfect Clothes

 

Before we start, make sure you check out a few things about your clothing.

Here is a list to be familiar with before you sanitize or disinfect your clothes:

1. Can the clothing be washed in really hot water?
2. Is it heavily soiled?
3. Has it had direct contact with hazardous material?
4. Can the fabric be bleached or is it colored?

I mention this list first because all of these things play a factor in how you will go about disinfecting your clothes!

All-Purpose Disinfecting For Clothes

This section is going to be the all-purpose section. Regular clothing, basic disinfecting, and anything that isn’t hazardous. These are the steps I take for my husband’s dirty laundry or if anyone in my home has been sick.

These guidelines are straight from the CDC too (always follow CDC guidelines!!). These steps work for virus disinfecting!

1. Take your dirty laundry basket to the laundry room, make sure not to toss or shake the basket. This prevents anything from falling out onto carpets or rugs (this is just an extra precaution).
2. Put on regular gloves to add your clothes to the washing machine.
3. Turn the washing machine to the hottest water setting you can, and add in the proper amount of laundry detergent.
4. After clothes have finished, dry them in the dyer completely (you can also put them out in the sun).
5. While clothes are being washed, disinfect the laundry basket (this is usually the step people miss). I spray mine down with pure rubbing alcohol and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes. Wipe off.

How To Disinfect Contaminated Clothing

If you know your clothing has been contaminated or you want to use a disinfecting product for your washing machine, then you have a few options.

First, chlorinated bleach is going to be a disinfectant. Not all clothing can handle bleaching products, so it is important to check the label.

Second, you can try a product like Lysol laundry sanitizer. Follow the directions on the label for this product and use the same instructions as listed above.

Webmd says hot water alone won’t cut it when it comes to disinfecting, but that isn’t true according to CDC and EPA. I think you need to analyze what your clothing has come into contact with. I only use a product like this if I know clothes are contaminated with something. Hot water and regular, good quality laundry detergent are still the best way to disinfect your clothes.

 

Do you have to disinfect your clothes?

Regular hot water and laundry detergent are typically all you need. This laundry expert told CNN, these regular laundry steps are usually the best things to do for your clothing.

If you have contaminated clothing, you can add a disinfecting product to your washing machine with your load of clothes. I keep some on hand in case I need to use it, but I typically just do a hot water load with good detergent.

Can I add vinegar to washing machine to disinfect clothes?

No! Vinegar does not disinfect and is not recognized or approved by CDC or EPA.  I use vinegar for odor removal in clothes.

What about adding hydrogen peroxide to laundry for disinfecting?

If you recall from our DIY oxygenated bleach, we use hydrogen peroxide in the mix to whiten and brighten. In this post, we have a few methods for using this DIY solution. The best way is to soak the clothing in a bucket or bowl filled with the water and peroxide solution. This makes sure it stays potent enough to work. The thing about adding something homemade to an entire load of laundry is how it will break down and get diluted. Another method we mention in this post is using powered hydrogen peroxide which holds up better in a load of laundry. Hydrogen peroxide is not recognized by CDC or EPA to disinfect an entire load of clothes, but it can help clean things.

Can anything homemade work for disinfecting clothes in the washing machine?

I have mentioned this before, but I want to add this in to our post for you today.  I love making homemade and DIY products that work! You can read so many fun articles in our cleaning tab about this. HOWEVER, DIY solutions are made simply, and they have no formulation to  be stable. This means if you add DIY or homemade things to a large load of laundry, it doesn’t have the capability to be stable or work under that much dilution. This is why you don’t see me doing many homemade laundry things (like homemade laundry detergent). I only share things that work well, and this is not one of them.

If you want to insure safe and proper disinfecting, hot water and good laundry detergent are your first steps. Adding in a formulated product like we mention above are the second steps. I love adding things to BOOST laundry though like washing soda, borax, or vinegar into laundry 🙂 Just remember, these BOOST your regular detergent. They don’t disinfect or work as well on their own.

What type of laundry detergent is best? Can DIY laundry detergent be used?

Like we said in the paragraph above, homemade laundry detergent is not a good idea. You need to use something that has been proven and perfected by scientists to ensure the best cleaning. Homemade laundry detergent can ruin your washing machine, clothes, AND it is not actually detergent. It is soap.

Over the years doing some very dirty laundry my husband has come home with, I have tried out different detergents. Many years ago before I had a blog, I stripped by husband’s work clothes and realized how DIRTY they still were. This is a really good way to see how well your detergent is cleaning. I switched over to Tide laundry detergent, and it cleans the best for us. In fact, it is the only one that works so powerfully on his fabrics.

So, when it comes to disinfecting your clothes, make sure you are using GOOD laundry detergent.

Keep it simple, most clothes are going to be clean and disinfected with hot water and laundry detergent!

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