Why you should always wash your hands after handling gross laundry

Handling laundry that’s dirty or “gross” might seem like a simple chore, but it actually exposes your hands to a lot of germs and bacteria. Here’s why you should always wash your hands after dealing with such laundry—and why it matters for your health.

When you pick up dirty clothes, towels, or bedding, you’re touching items that may have been contaminated with sweat, skin cells, body fluids, or even fecal matter. These substances can carry viruses and bacteria that cause infections. For example, if someone in the household has been sick with a stomach bug or flu, their laundry can harbor those germs[3][4].

Washing your hands after handling this kind of laundry is crucial because:

– **It removes harmful germs:** Soap and water physically wash away dirt and microbes from your skin. This reduces the chance that these germs will enter your body through touching your face (mouth, nose, eyes) later on[3][5].

– **It prevents spreading illness:** If you don’t wash properly after handling contaminated clothes, you risk transferring those germs to other surfaces around the house—doorknobs, kitchen counters—or directly to other people[4][5].

– **It helps fight antibiotic resistance:** By reducing infections through good hygiene like handwashing, there is less need for antibiotics overall. This slows down the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria[2][4].

Experts recommend washing hands thoroughly with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds—making sure to scrub all parts including between fingers and under nails—to effectively remove pathogens[1][3]. Hand sanitizer can be helpful when soap isn’t available but isn’t as effective against certain types of germs found in gross laundry situations.

In short: Always treat dirty laundry as potentially germy. Wash your hands right afterward to keep yourself healthy and stop spreading bugs around your home.

Your clean hands are one of the simplest yet most powerful defenses against getting sick!