Have to share laundry facilities, washing scrubs?

[krazykchan]

You've seen quite a bit of me these last few weeks. Sorry about that!

I do really like the apartment I live in (it's cheap!). However, we have one washer and dryer to share between all the other tenants. There are 8 other apartments. I've lived here for four years so even though there is no sign up sheet, everyone pretty much knows that I do my laundry on Friday or Saturday every week and I never get bothered about it.

I am worried about washing scrubs. I currently have two pair and they are dark navy blue. Does anyone else have to deal with laundromats or public laundry facilities? I can't use bleach with my scrubs obviously. I don't want to expose everyone else to germs that I bring home from clinical.

How often do you wash your scrubs? I would like to keep my laundry day to Friday or Saturday. However, I can sneak a load in in the middle of the week if I have too.

Also, do you have to wash them separately? Or can you throw them in with other darks?

Should I suck it up and spend the extra 75 cents to run some bleach through the washer after I'm done? Or is running a load of towels on hot (which I always do) good enough?

I do plan on buying a 3rd pair of scrubs eventually so that I won't have to do laundry as often. But at $42 a set...I can't do that right now. LOL

[happy2learn]

Detergent kills many microbes. You are using detergent to wash your clothes, and so would the people using it after you. I wouldn't waste the money on a bleach cycle.

I don't see any reason why you can't wash them with other darks.

My hubby probably brings home salmonella every day since he works with raw food in the kitchen, and uses his pants like an apron...lol. I wash his stinky clothes separately though, just cause they are uber stinky.

What about that bleach you can use for colors?

[Mandychelle79, ASN, RN]

You could run an empty load of hot water and bleach after you wash your scrubs if you are really worried about it. :) I dont do my scrubs separately at home, even wash the kids clothes with them.

[canigraduate]

The only time I would worry about it is if you come home covered in C. diff. Anything else will be washed right down the tubes, but C. diff spores are a little harder to get rid of. I would wash separately and follow with a hot rinse cycle (bleach probably wouldn't help a lot) in that case.

[Jane Doe 1]

You shouldn't have to separate your scrubs from the rest of your clothes while washing. If for whatever reason you get bodily fluids like blood on them, then you should immediately change out of your scrubs. The hospital you work at should have extra scrubs and they will take care of laundering your contaminated stuff.

I had wondered about this too before I started. But if you get blood or something on your clothes they're not gonna let you walk around in it for the rest of your shift and then go home, that would be dangerous.

[1234student]

look on the tag to see any special washing directions. My scrubs are a dark maroon and the first couple times i washed them separate because they would have got the color on all the other clothes. But after 3-5 times I wash them with other colored clothes and have no problem.

[CuriousMe]

I have navy scrubs as well, and I share laundry facilities. I just wash my scrubs with my other dark clothes. I even wash them in cold water (I wash everything but my whites in cold)....they get clean, and I haven't worried about sharing facilities.