How Often You Should Wash Your Sheets During Covid-19 Pandemic

• The rise of the Covid-19 pandemic has increased the people's concern about hygiene standards considerably.
• Under such circumstances, health experts recommend paying more attention not only to our hygiene but also to the cleaning routine of our home.
• In the article below, we'll explain how often you should wash your sheets and what additional measures you should take in order to prevent your home from the virus.

We live in pretty uncertain times - the covid-19 pandemic has become our everyday news. Living in such an ocean of information, it's hard to separate genuine news from fake ones. The discussion about how long the virus can live on different surfaces - is one of those controversial topics.

However, one thing is clear - people are much more concerned about their hygiene and their home cleaning routines. Anti-bacterial washing detergents were definitely one of the things people grabbed from the shelves first.

So, how exactly often should you wash your sheets during the Covid-19 Pandemic? And are there any additional measures you should take while washing your linens? About all of this and more - in the article below.

How Often You Should Wash Your Bedding

Experts say that the virus does not stay long on the clothing and other textiles. Therefore, there is no need to go crazy about washing them after every use.

However, such linens as bed sheets, pillowcases, and towels (especially hand towels) - should be washed much more frequently during Covid-19 pandemic situations than before. If usually it is recommended to wash your bedding at least every two weeks, under current circumstances we'd suggest you change your sheets at least once a week. And there are a few reasons why:

• You should wash your sheets and towels more often because of the constant and intensive usage of them.
• Hand towels and pillowcases are usually used by more than one person in the household, therefore the chance for the germs to spread around naturally increases.
• Bed sheets are capable of carrying various types of dirt: sweat, dust mites, dead skin cells, body fluids, debris, etc. Besides, if a person tends to sweat a lot every night - the conditions for the bacteria to build up are even better.

Important: It would make much more sense to wash your linens more frequently if you would intensify your self-hygiene routine too: wash your hair more often, shower, change your own clothes, especially those you go outside with.

How You Should Wash Your Bedding

Sorry to disappoint you, but there are no magical cleaning solutions you could use to wash your linens during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The simple hot water, laundry detergent, and time is the only magical combination for washing your sheets.

However, there are some extra things you should pay attention to before washing dirty sheets:

• Don't shake the dirty laundry or touch your face with it (no matter if it's towels, bedsheets, or similar). That's necessary because if the virus somehow appeared on your textiles - shaking will spread it around.
• Use the hottest possible temperature when washing your sheets. Very hot water is a key element when it comes to removing the germs and various bacteria from fabrics.

TIP: It is still important to pay attention to the care label of your textile products, too hot water might damage your textiles. For example, if you have a high-quality linen bedding set - very hot water might cause the shrinking process, as linen sheets should be washed in mild, warm water. Therefore, in cases like that, you might want to look for specific cleaning measures for the natural linen fabric in order to comply with the hygiene standards.

• Dry out the linens completely. Don't leave your sheets soaking in the washing machine after the washing cycle is done. A damp and warm environment is perfect for the remaining germs to start spreading again.

TIP: If you don't have the washing machine and usually hand-wash your sheets and other linens - make sure you have enough bedding sets to change the dirty ones. If necessary - stock up on extra pillowcases, sheets and towels so that you would not have to wait every time you wash your dirty linens.

How You Should Wash the Bedding of a Sick Person

In case you or your family member got the virus, in addition to previously explained washing instructions, there are some extra measures you should take in order to prevent the virus from spreading around.

• Gloves. Make sure you have stocked up on disposable gloves because they are very important when handling the sheets of a person who's got the virus. Gloves can perfectly prevent you from catching one.
• Hot water. Now, this is a very important aspect of cases like this. Laundry detergent itself is incapable of removing all of the germs. In fact, it mostly gets rid of stains, skin cells, body oils, dust mite...but not the virus or bacteria. The combination of extremely hot water and laundry detergent is what actually kills the virus.
• No shaking. As we've already mentioned previously - it's not recommended to shake the dirty laundry, especially if it's of a person, who's got the virus.
• Drying process. Just like very hot water, very hot air also kills the leftover germs from the textiles. If you have a dryer - use it to dry out your laundry completely (that's very important because leaving the fabrics damp creates a pleasant environment for the virus to spread). Therefore, dry out your linens completely before using them again. If you don't have a dryer - simply air-dry your linens and make sure they also dry up completely.

TIP: Direct sunlight also has a great effect on removing the leftover bacteria and germs from the fabric. Therefore, if you have an option to air-dry your linens in the direct sunlight - that'd be great.

• Cleaning afterward. When you are done with the washing process - clean your equipment. First of all, disinfect the laundry hamper or any other basket where the dirty laundry happened to be. Second, clean the washing machine - empty the filter of it, disinfect the drum, clean the door seals. Finally, wash your hands!

TIP: To clean your washing machine faster and more effectively - simply run a cleaning cycle program. (most of the automatic washing machines definitely have that). For a stronger effect - pour some fabric softener before.

All in all, there is no strict schedule on how often you should change your bed sheets. It really depends on your lifestyle and organism. For example, if you go to the gym every day, you should probably wash your sheets more often. Also, if you tend to sweat a lot - you should change your sheets often enough to maintain an appropriate hygiene level. Therefore, the best way to decide how often you should wash your linens is to not only follow the media advice but also pay attention to your own experience.

Now that you know what the general washing recommendations are during such a period of time - you can adapt them to your own schedule. Remember, mental health is crucial in this time, therefore do not get lost in all of the information and simply keep following the hygiene recommendations approved by experts.