How To Properly Wash Your Cloth Face Mask
You finally bit the bullet, and MADE your own homemade face mask — or — you bought a cloth face mask from someone who was making them and selling them.
Guess what? That face Mask has to be washed well after each time you go out among the public.
You should never re-wear a mask that hasn’t been washed. That will spread the germy germs so rapidly! And, that defeats your entire purpose in wearing the mask.
But, how the heck do you wash a homemade cloth face mask?
Don’t worry, we got you.
This is how to wash a handmade cloth face mask
First, you want each person in your family to have their own, dedicated face masks. That’s right, masks — plural. Like, each person needs a couple masks, to allow time for your masks to properly dry in between washing and wearing.
If you have a sewn face mask, you can wash it on the gentle cycle — HOT water — in your washing machine.
If you have a no-sew face mask, you may need to take it apart, and wash the fabric and the ties. Wash them in a gentle cycle with HOT water.
You can tumble dry on low-heat, but an EVEN BETTER idea is to let them dry outside in the sunshine.
Sunlight is a natural germicide, so sunlight those babies up!
You ALWAYS want to wash your hands immediately after taking the mask off and throwing it in the washer. Remember — your mask may have virus germs on the outside.
Remember, the mask is an extra safeguard! This doesn’t mean you can skip social distancing and other precautions that are necessary to stop the spread. It is just one extra weapon in our pockets toward preventing the virus.
Thank you for posting this. I’m a frontline nurse and I appreciate the tutorials to give the general public another option to help stop the spread of germs. Some well intentioned DIY masks makers are trying to send these to the hospital for frontline health care workers to use… I don’t know about other jurisdictions, but we can’t use homemade masks when working. Because these aren’t authorized gear and if we get sick while using this we won’t be covered by WorkSafe. Also, something to be aware of as we have more discussion of these DIY masks, the purpose of the masks are to slow down the spread, but keeping everyone’s germs in. Masks (even surgical ones) are not meant to keep germs out if everyone is already properly physically distancing. I have friends that argue with me that as nurses do wear the surgical mask as a barrier in case a patient cough or sneeze into our faces. True, the mask will act as a first barrier for such exposure to droplets. This is because we have no choice be to be in extremely close proximity to patients. Also, we also wear goggles and face shields to protect our eyes. There are absolutely no reason anyone should be this close to strangers in public. Anyway… Because of where I work… I get very sensitive about the words used like “masks”, I think “covering” for general public use is clearer, and that the coverings isn’t to prevent the wearer from getting infected, it’s to stop the possible spread of the virus in case you have it yourself. Thank you for your time and reading… I appreciate your post.