When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Heres how it works.

But while we might think that were saving ourselves precious time, we could be making our clothes dirtier.

In fact, these common laundry habits will spread more germs than you realise.

Loading a washing machine with colored clothes

They’re very thick, and they take a long time to dry.

Number one: never put them in a hamper when they’re wet.

Number two: they can be quite germy.

Women holding pile of towels

They can contain faecal matter yes, you wipe your bottom with them and other bacteria from the moisture.

So what about our dishcloths that we use on a daily basis?

The same rule applies to tea towels: never put them in a hamper when wet.

Waffle Splatter Hand Towel -…

They also contain a lot of germs because tea towels can harbour E. coli.

But like other garments, always check the care label first before throwing it in.

Target

Matouk Athena Wash Cloth in…

Nordstrom

Amazon Basics 100% Cotton…

Prime

Washing machine in laundry room

Woman changing white bedsheets

Clothes soaking

Man sneezing into tissue

Cleaning with a mop in yellow bucket

A person taking blue stained pillow with yellow patched out from a printed pillow case

Using an under-desk elliptical while working seated at a desk

The Ordo Sonic+ toothbrush photographed in front of a blue background.

the 1ZPresso J-Ultra coffee grinder with foldable handle and external adjustment dial for easy grind adjustment

Ninja Crispi spring colors

the 1zpresso k-ultra hand coffee grinder, a 7 inch tall coffee grinder with magnetic catch chamber and 48mm stainless steel burrs

Ninja Air Fryer

Switch 2 console and accessories

iPhone 17 Pro case renders

NYTimes Connections

Fire TV interface on the Fire TV Stick 4K (2nd gen)

A person holding a Nintendo Switch 2 playing Mario Kart World

Cristin Milioti in "Black Mirror" season 7 coming to Netflix

Five Copilot+ PCs shown side by side