Being clean involves a lot of things. One of such things is observing proper clothes hygiene. Since we wear clothes every day, we must know how to take good and proper care of them.
Caring for clothes does not benefit the clothes alone but our bodies as well. But how do you begin to take care of your clothes? This is what we would be looking at today.
When it comes to taking care of clothes, many people do not know how to go about it. Worse, many people do not even see a reason why clothes deserve care.
However, like we stated above, caring for your clothes is good, not just for the clothes, but your body as well. That is when you care for your clothes, you care for your body as well.
To understand that, let us look at some reasons why caring for your clothes is important.
- It preserves the clothes
When you take care of your clothes as you should, it preserves the strength of the cloth, allowing you to enjoy it for longer.
- It keeps you clean
When you wear clothes that you take good care of, it keeps your body clean and fresh as what you wear would be clean and free of germs and bacteria.
- It improves your mood
Wearing good, clean clothes can significantly improve your mood and your confidence as well. This can lead to better, brighter days for you.
- Prevents diseases
You can avoid clothes hygiene diseases when you keep your clothes clean. Theee are infectious organisms that can spread through clothing such as enteric bacteria such as Salmonella, Shigella, Campylobacter, E. coli and C. difficile and respiratory and enteric viral strains such as norovirus, rotavirus, adenovirus and astrovirus.
We have seen that taking care of your clothes has serious benefits that cannot be overlooked.
So, how then do you take care of your clothes? We have outlined some clothes hygiene tips for you to follow below.
1. Wash your dirty clothes
Washing your clothes when they are dirty is something you should do regularly. There is no benefit in wearing dirty, smelly clothes. The clothes do not have to be visibly dirty before you wash them.
As long as you have worn them for long periods, you should consider washing them. If you perceive any funny smell on the clothes, that is a sign that they should be washed immediately.
To make things easier, you should aim to do your laundry at least once every week.
That way, you can ensure that you wash your clothes regularly. You can either wash by hand or make use of a machine.
When washing your clothes, make sure to separate white clothes from coloured ones and wash them all separately.
2. Use a mild soap when washing your clothes
People often use harsh soaps on their clothes, resulting in colour loss. This could cause the cloth to lose quality and fade quickly, which is not something you want.
That is why you should go for soft soaps that would clean your clothes without any downsides.
Make sure you only use laundry soaps on your clothes.
3. Spread your clothes properly to dry
Nothing dries clothes better than the sun. As soon as your clothes are dry, you should take them out to the sun and spread them to dry.
That way, they can dry properly. Avoid drying your clothes inside. Not only does it take more time and result in poodles of water in places where they should not be, but the clothes would not dry properly.
The only alternative to drying clothes in the sun is to use a tumble dryer.
4. Air your clothes as soon as you remove them
When you remove your clothes, especially one you are wearing for the first time since washing or that you wore only for a short while, make sure to hang it or put it in a position that would allow air to touch it.
That way, you can get rid of smells and make the clothes okay for wearing next time, without washing them. You can do this once or twice before you wash the cloth.
Remember, this depends on how long you wear the clothes and under what condition.
5. Avoid using bleach on non-white clothes
If a cloth is not pure white, there is no reason why you should use bleach on it.
Using bleach on a coloured cloth could ruin it. Restrict the use of bleach to solely white clothes.
6. Store your clothes by folding them or hanging
Hanging or folding your clothes properly as you store them is the best way to go. From your jeans to your t-shirt, everything should be neatly folded and stored. That way, you can get rid of wrinkles and creases from your clothes.
You can iron them before storing them, although not all clothes require ironing. It is important to iron your clothes thoroughly because dirty clothes can harbor bacteria that lead to skin infection.
7. Don’t wear smelly clothes
It is usual to see people to sniff their clothes before wearing them. Some will sniff and choose not to wear the clothes, while some others will sniff and decide its that too bad to wear.
Wearing smelly clothes, especially for long hours will give you an odour. If you sweat in them, it will be worse. Thus, avoid wearing any clothes that smells, so you don’t smell.
Following these clothes hygiene tips can help you look good, avoid diseases, and smell great.
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Collins Nwokolo is a human physiologist, writer and health enthusiast. He loves writing helpful articles on health and fitness, which he enjoys sharing with everyone.
