Anyone got any ideas for washing handkerchiefs

Notagranny44

I've just been filling in a survey on my local council's waste management strategy and it has made me wonder how we can reduce our use of single-use items.
I always seem to have a runny nose and/or phlegmy throat, so use quite a lot of tissues. I would happlily move to using handkerchiefs, but have early unpleasant memories of washing them before my Mum had a washing machine!
Would soaking them before washing in a bucket of salty water or bio wash powder mean that I could just put them in the machine to get them clean.
Any thoughts anyone?

Use Kleenex fgs

I wouldn’t dream of washing snot

We’re team hanky , I just chuck them in with the towels and tea towels on a 60 wash . My mother uses tissues and I have to go through the pockets when I wash her clothes 🤮. If I miss one it’s always in a dark wash and everything comes out with tissue bits 🤬

I changed from tissues to hankies a few years ago. Much kinder on my nose!
Unless I have a cold I just put them in with the whites on a 60 wash.
If I’ve a cold, I soak in a Milton type solution then wash with the whites.

As a severe hay fever suffere I am not keen on cotton hankies. I shudder at the days when I was a small child and my mum safety pinned one of my dad's hankies to my clothes so that I always had one to hand. By the nd of each day I had a soggy, messy rag pinned to my jumper. Ugh!

Unless I have a very bad cold, I just put my hankies in to the ordinary white wash at 90 degrees centigrade along with my underpants, bath and face towels and my bed linen.

Certainly, steeping them in a solution of salt and water similar to what we used for messy underpants when we had periods will help too, if you dislike the thought of just bunging them into the white wash.

I have never used paper hankies, as I cannot stand the smell of them, and find the texture of them unpleasant too.

Sarnia

Back in the 1950's when I helped my Granny with the washing she had an old saucepan which was kept just for boiling handkerchiefs. She added a chunk of Sunlight soap to the water and let it simmer for an hour or two before rinsing.
I'm sure times have changed since those days, Notagranny44 but you have brought back a fond memory of post-war wash days.

My Mum did exactly that!

Disgusting thought.
I have never used or washed cloth hankies.
I can see that a pocket share might look nice in a breast pocket.
But if it ever got used for anything at all I would bin it.
Personally I separate one toilet roll from the pack keep it apart and use that.
Disposed in the loo.

Momac55

I wouldn’t dream of washing snot

Yup

I wrote
pocket square. above.
But my phone is too young to have heard of them so presumes to correct me.

I find this thread really, really disgusting! Buying additional potentially toxic products to 'cleans' the hankies isn't eco friendly either.

Really !!!

My husband and I always use hankies (as well as tissues) and I just put them in with the other washing. They come out fine. If they've got blood on them I soak them in salted water first.

Sarnia

Back in the 1950's when I helped my Granny with the washing she had an old saucepan which was kept just for boiling handkerchiefs. She added a chunk of Sunlight soap to the water and let it simmer for an hour or two before rinsing.
I'm sure times have changed since those days, Notagranny44 but you have brought back a fond memory of post-war wash days.

I used to boil the hankies in a saucepan when I first got married, just as his mother had done.
I had to go away for a few days, and on my return, he happily told me that he had done the hankies, but couldn’t find the saucepan, so had done them in a casserole dish in the oven.
It’s take me over 50 years to wean him off the disgusting things and use tissues.

I just don’t find a cotton hankie very absorbent. They are indeed quite disgusting, sorry, I’m all for - a tissue especially when I have a cold.

welbeck

I wrote
pocket square. above.
But my phone is too young to have heard of them so presumes to correct me.

Oh so true🤣🤣

Always used hankies … and even in the 70s80s used to boil them in a saucepan first… now they just go into the washing machine. My sons keep trying to get me to use tissues instead!
No thank you.

Witzend

Sorry, but IMO fabric handkerchiefs are gross.
I’d have to boil them, but preferably chuck them on to an open fire.
Thank goodness for tissues!

I’m all for reducing waste and recycling, BTW, but there are limits…

I totally agree. Sorry I don't want snotty hankies up my sleeve or in my washing machine. I upcycle and recycle many things but draw a line at that. Unlike wipes I'm sure tissue ( as it's paper pulp ?) degrades and isn't a problem.
I'm sure I read somewhere that someone was making fabric toilet wipes to wash rather than toilet paper - even more horrible at least it's soft now not the rough Izal from a kid or newspaper....

Hankie brigade here. Soaked overnight and then washed with other white items, no problem.

Always use tisduesir kitchen roll as don't like using a hanky when its already been used for nose blowing etc. Prefer to dispose of the tissue to get rid of any germs that may be lurking in the paper. No doubt someone will tell me that the germs will be non active once in the tissue.

Just put in the washing machine on 40 degree wash. Gosh surprised anyone washs at 90 degrees now, bad for clothing and for the environment and your purse!
Always preferred cloth hankies to tissues as they just disintegrate with any liquid on them, usually used for cleaning mucky little faces and hands, spills and not really used for proper purpose but do have another one for real purpose in my handbag.

Washing at 90 degrees isn't very environmentally friendly! I wash OH's hankies with normal 40 deg wash (use tissues myself but he insists on cotton hankies). Modern detergents deal with snot fine - but I don't use lower than 40 degrees for anything, despite all the ads suggesting washing in cold water.

They are disgusting things. Use good quality tissues. Handkerchiefs turn my stomach. 🤮

Mum likes a hankie or two so I asked her advice.
Wash them on their own in the machine at 90 which is like a boil wash for at least an hour with a spoonful of bio powder.

That gets rid of any bacteria.