As an employee at a thrift store, i'm sick of gross people who come in and say they don't wash their value village clothes before they wear them. i've compiled a list (and by list i mean one reason) of why it's a good idea to wash your thrift store clothes before you ever wear them: A small virus called Molluscum, which is in the pox family and spreads like warts. Molluscum can be transmitted sexually (and without a dr's proper diagnosis can easily be confused with genital warts) as well as through such things as towel sharing, swimming pools, baths, clothes sharing. Molluscum is highly contagious but cureable. It's a major inconvenience and pretty gross looking as well. Anyways, just make sure you wash your second hand clothes before you wear them....i'm sure molluscum isn't the only thing you can catch. That's my 2 cents
That's pretty gross. I didn't know about that molluscum disease, but I'm not surprised and that's pretty funky. When I donate clothes (not that I'm disease infected, but still) I was my clothes. And whenever I buy clothes - whether it be from a thrift store or the mall - it all goes in the machine first before I wear them. I mean, even if the person donating the clothes isn't all diseased or whatnot, you don't know who has what when they're trying the clothes on in the change rooms. I'm surprised that people don't bother with washing the clothes first. That's kinda gross... You don't know where it's been. Thanks for the informative post though!
I havn't washed my thrift clothes a couple times but that was becuase I was just too excited to wear them! brad
Nope, I always wash mine, the second I get home even if its only like one thing I instantly throw it in the machine
Yeah sadly theres been a few times I havent washed them. I know its kinda gross but were all humans sharing this planet and a little germ sharing is only to be expected. I guess cause my dad was so anally hygenic and a hypochondriac that I'm kinda the opposite.
Yeah ive not washed my stuff before, but normally, i do... cause who KNOWS who wore it last.... could be some crazy crackhead lady that...... i dont know how to finish this, but you guys get the drift.
True, Getting my washer and dryer hook up in my second apartment was great!! Who would have ever though one would be excited by such things
whoa crazy, man. thanks for the heads up. i never wash my thrift clothes. i'll be sure to do it now, tho.
only place i ever bought clothing untill i married a taylor. and i still can't see paying what they want for clothing new, let alone name brand austentation stupidity. i am pickey about colors and styles i like, but most thrift stores i can usualy find SOMEthing. lime green short sleeve shirts with nerd pockets and double knit brown poly bells are my style but i'll settle for most any solid colored shirt (including "T"s) and brown or other dark colored pants, other then blue, and of any fabric other the wool. clothing to me isn't something to spend on to try and impress anybody (other then by painting my own artwork on it with machine washable fabric paints), but something only worn to keep warm and or stay out of trouble, and thus to save as much as possible on so as to have the price of what would otherwise be wasted on it on things i really DO want. things i can be creative, or at least play, with. =^^= .../\...
ugh, this reminds me of the time i found this "one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" shirt, and i was so excited i didnt inspect it before i bought it, and i got it home to find it had BIG PIT STAINS!!! X_X so i cut the arms off (and the stains out) and made it into a halter top (after i washed it, of course.) so the moral of my story is...check the pits!
my dad is a biology teacher at our junior college and he says that your skin is impermeable to the bacteria and germs in thrift store clothes....but that its still a good idea to wash b/c if the harmful bacteria gets into your body fluids and travels into your system through the nose, mouth, etc. its gonna be bad. last summer i went thrifting and got this awesome sweater...it has bell sleeves and it must've taken FOREVER to make b/c it's all different colors everywhere. so it hung in my closet for the eight month long summer (in mississippi, they last that long or longer) then one cold morning i decided to wear it. i never washed it because it had been hanging long enough for the germs to die. but thats the only time i've done that. gosh, i LOVE my sweater!
As soon as I come home from the thrift I head to the washer with my bag o' goodies. Those are usually the only loads of clothes I'm sure to get out of the washer and dryer quickly because I'm excited to go through all the stuff again!
yuck! i'd never heard of this so i googled it and sure 'nuf... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molluscum_contagiosum but i'm not worried cuz i have to wash my thrift store clothes at least twice with washing soda and hot water to get out the nasty chemical fragrances from the commercial detergents people use. i guess there are some advantages to being chemically sensitive on occasion.
