When we buy brand new clothes from stores we often cannot wait to toss them on and show them off to all our friends and family.
When we buy these brand new clothes most people assume that these clothes are clean. You just bought them from the store and they’re brand new, surely they should be clean. Well, after this amazing experiment from CBS 21 that found some incredibly alarming news. Of the clothing they tested, all of them had bacteria, including the brand-new, packaged women’s underwear. In fact, the the only item that didn’t have bacteria on it was a pair of shoes from a thrift store.
When we pick up our brand new clothes we don’t usually think about how the clothes got to the store and what has happened since the clothing got in the store.
The countless people that have touched the clothing just going through the rack, the people at warehouses and any materials that are used to protect the clothing as they’re shipped. It all adds up and it’s easy to forget when your mind just automatically assumes that your local store cleans the clothes before putting them on the rack.
It’s pretty disgusting to think about, but you never truly know what the hygiene of everyone who had tried those shirts on before you.
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For the experiment, CBS 21 collected three pieces of clothing from a brand new store, one shirt, one pair of pants and one pair of shoes. The items were taken directly off of the rack and were the typical kind of clothing you’d find at any store.
For a comparison they also purchased the same set of clothing from a thrift store. They also decided to throw in a package of brand new women’s underwear to settle a debate once for and all. The reporter involved had asked her family members if they bought clothing new and a debate between family members erupted on whether packaged underwear was clean.
They were going to find out if packaged underwear is safe to wear when you get it brand new!
They took the articles of clothing to a University professor at a local University. The results the professor found are absolutely shocking!
It turns out that all articles of clothing with the exception of the thrift store shoes had tested positive for bacteria. Including the pair of packaged women’s underwear. It beggars belief, but in fact none of the thrift store clothing had more bacteria than the brand new clothing. It either had the same amount or less.
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The lesson I was always taught was to wash clothing you got from a thrift store so this news absolutely shocked me as you would usually expect brand new clothing to be far cleaner than the thrift store. In fact, the thrift store shoes were the cleanest item out of all them!
So what should you do when buying any new clothing? Experts recommend that you wash your clothing on the hottest cycle for the fabric along with some bleach to make sure they are truly clean before you put them on.
For shoes, and other items you cannot throw in the wash, an antibacterial wipe was recommended. You should clean the inside to make sure all the bacteria is removed before putting it on.
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