How to Sanitize Colored Towels Without Bleach

Sometimes colored fabric can't be bleached but still needs to be cleaned. Learn how to wash and sanitize colored towels, laundry, and fabrics.

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Use as directed.

Question

I run a wellness center where we specialize in massage therapy. How can I sanitize the linens without damaging their color?

Answer

Great question, and one I hear a lot. First, use the colorfastness to bleach test to check if any of your colored towels actually can be washed with bleach. For towels that pass, you can sanitize them with Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach following the instructions here.

For colored towels that don’t pass the colorfastness to bleach test and aren’t safe for bleach, you can use Clorox® Laundry Sanitizer. This product is added to the rinse cycle to kill 99.9% of odor causing bacteria on items with color that you can’t bleach.