When the housing market crashed in 2007, Americans got thrifty! With new economic strains put on many families, people became more comfortable with buying used. Thrift stores have been around a long time and not only are they great places to find furniture and decorations for your home, but they also make staying fashionable more affordable!
Indulging in fashion is always fun, and for many budget-conscious consumers, thrift stores are a fantastic way to get and keep their wardrobes stylish through ever-changing trends. For these nifty thrifty ones, part of the fun is staying within their budget goal. They enjoy the hunt for treasures among the racks of used clothes because they know that fashion should be fun! It shouldn’t be a source of stress over breaking the bank.
Today, thrifting has even gone virtual. You can now buy used clothes online to keep up with your favorite fashion blogs. Many people have begun to use the internet to sell their previously loved garments to other people in their town via social media forums and local websites. Buying used clothes has become an engaging pastime in itself!
Saving money and recycling clothes is a positive shift, to be sure. However, the reality is that many of these preloved clothes are simply not sanitary. Most consumers know to wash their thrift store finds before wearing them, but sometimes these items may need a more in-depth clean. Just like anything imported, clothes from someone else’s closet come with someone else’s bacteria and germs and should be thoroughly washed and sanitized before hanging them in your own wardrobe.
So do you want to snag great finds at insanely low prices and continue to be healthy? Then you need to learn how to disinfect thrift store clothes and how to wash second hand clothes effectively, and you’re in the right place!
Can You Catch Diseases from Second-Hand Clothes?
Buying from a thrift shop in person or online is a great way to save a few bucks (and since some of the clothes they’re selling are even designer items, it can feel like stealing!). However, many still ask, can you catch diseases from second-hand clothes? Unfortunately, the answer is yes.
Second-hand clothes are often a breeding ground for all sorts of pathogens. We usually do not know precisely from where a piece of clothing in a thrift store has originated. Who owned it before? Did the previous owner have a skin disease? Where was the clothing stored? A lot of questions go unanswered when shopping in a thrift store or online, so it’s best to learn how to disinfect thrift store clothes before wearing them. As the adage goes, “better safe than sorry!”
In some extreme cases, people have even experienced skin candidiasis, fungal diseases, dermatitis, chicken pox, and scabies from unkept secondhand clothing and shoes. You probably won’t, but it is possible you can catch gonorrhea, different types of hepatitis, and syphilis from preowned clothes. Some secondhand garments may also house creepy insects like bedbugs, lice, and even fly eggs. Are you thoroughly disgusted yet?
So apparently there is enough concern here that it warrants the need for disinfecting your new-to-you thrift store clothes before wearing them. Making sure to clean them thoroughly is imperative. This article is not meant to scare you but inform you of the severe problems you can encounter and why you should sanitize before wearing anything used.
How to Wash Second-Hand Clothes Properly
Washing preloved clothes with regular detergents is often not enough to thoroughly remove parasitic organisms such as mold or mites because some of those microorganisms are biologically wired to withstand harsh conditions for survival. A simple wash may not do the trick. You can’t always get the potential threat with normal laundry methods, but what you can do to clean thrift store effectively is use strong reagents that are specially formulated to deal with pesky parasites.
There are many options on the market, but OdorKlenz is a natural, safe, and powerful detergent additive that stands out from the rest. Disinfecting thrift store clothes with OdorKlenz will kill parasites and other pathogens in one wash and completely rid them of that funky thrift store smell at the same time. It does not have a fragrance, which is an especially great feature for thrift store clothes – you want to be able to smell them carefully to be sure there is no residual mildew. If you are looking for safer cleaning products than the standard chemicals available, OdorKlenz is the perfect pick! We guarantee that our detergent can freshen up any pre-worn clothes in no time at all.
Tips and Tricks: 4 Ways to Disinfect Thrift Store Clothes
When buying vintage clothes, you may wonder if a simple wash is good enough. Well, first off, with OdorKlenz, you can be sure that your chosen treasures will come out of the wash funk-free. It is also the best additive for disinfecting thrift store clothes.
- Avoid trying on clothes to see if they fit in the thrift shop before you get a chance to wash them. If you must try out the fit, try them on without taking your clothes off. When going thrifting, wear form-fitting clothes you don’t mind getting dirty or wrinkled. This takes a little bit of planning, but you will be glad you did!
- After you’ve washed the clothing, iron it out twice. The heat will kill off any stubborn pathogens that managed to survive the cycle. Though with the power of OdorKlenz, this truly is just a precaution.
- If you cannot iron the piece of clothing directly because of the fabric blend, try “shadow ironing” (a term for ironing out the material while it’s still wet with another piece of cloth over it for protection).
- For curtains or other non-clothing items, run them through the sanitize cycle on your machine (if it has one). We don’t recommend this for clothes because the extreme heat can drain color and do damage to your garments. It is ideal, however, for other fabrics you may pick up at a thrift store!
Don’t Forget When Pre-Worn Clothing Shopping
It’s always fun to save whatever dime you can when shopping. Just remember that it’s better to spend a little too much on new clothes than ending up with sky-high hospital bills because of dirty clothes. If you buy thrift store clothes, you could be exposing yourself to someone else’s health issues so just make sure you disinfect your clothes with reliable detergents. If after washing you are still unsure, use our other tricks for effectively disinfecting second-hand clothes and enjoy your new finds!
Our Recommended Solution…
The OdorKlenz Laundry Liquid offers the important step in eradicating odors out of your fabrics. Have confidence in an odorless wardrobe and trust that your linens will be free of any funky smells. Ideal for any fabric odors including smoke, grease, body odor, mildew, fragrances, chemicals, urine, or musty smells. Just use 1/4 to 1/2 a cup in your laundry load, mixed with your regular, unscented laundry detergent.
- Contains No Masking Agents or Fragrances
- Safe to Use on All Washable Fabrics
- Provides Complete Odor Elimination. Say Goodbye to Foul Odors in Your Clothes for Good!
We are confident that our OdorKlenz Technology will drastically reduce the odors in your home, if it doesn’t live up to your expectations, we will issue a full refund within 30 days of your purchase!
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Hear What People Are Saying About Us…
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