Learning how to do laundry to begin with is a new challenge when moving into college. Now a pandemic has upped the ante.
Many students living on campus at Winona State have their own laundry facilities that are similar to a laundromat. For those who live off campus, you may have a washer or dryer in your home or apartment. If you don’t fall into either of these categories, then it’s likely that you’ll have to do laundry at a laundromat.
Regardless of your laundry sitch, here are some tips to help you keep your clothes clean and yourself COVID-free.
Because COVID-19 can last on fabric materials for 72 hours, the virus could still be present on the clothes you wore over the last few days. It’s important to keep this mind whenever handling your laundry or someone else’s in the near future.
Here are a few more pointers for doing your laundry during this pandemic:
- Remember to wash or sanitize your hands before entering and after leaving the laundry room.
- Don’t touch your face while doing laundry.
- If you’re using a public laundry room, wear a cloth face covering and use gloves.
- Disinfect the machines before each use by wiping down buttons, door handles, doors, and the lint trap.
- Keep your distance in the laundry room as best as you can. Are more than four people already there? Then wait for someone to leave before entering.
- Don’t shake dirty laundry because doing so could send the virus into the air.
- Sort your laundry before you go and fold your laundry when you’re back in your room to decrease the amount of time in the laundry room.
- Use hot water when washing or high heat when drying clothes whenever you can because this helps kill the virus. Also, make sure your clothes are completely dried before bringing them back with you.
- Don’t idle in the laundry room while waiting for your clothes to be washed or dried. Go back to your room or home, if possible, while the machines are running. Set a timer to know when your load will be finished. Typically, one load of laundry takes up to one hour in the washer and another hour for the dryer.
- If for some reason your personal laundry gets mixed up with someone else’s who is infected with COVID-19, it’s totally okay—both your laundry will be cleaned the same.
Regularly cleaning your laundry is yet another way you can do your part and protect yourself and others around you from infection.
The pandemic won’t last forever if we work together. So, don’t throw in the towel… but go ahead and wash it!
– Amy Nelson ’19
