Woman reveals reason why you should always wash thrift store clothes before wearing them: 'The gasp I let out!'
A woman advised shoppers to wash their thrift store or estate sale clothing before wearing them after a shirt she bought created murky water.
The woman, known as @poopypaigey on TikTok, revealed the brown water in a video after hand-washing the shirt and using the stain remover.
The TikToker began noticing the water color change shortly after she began spot-cleaning the shirt.
'I was like, all right, it just has to have accumulated dirt, whatever. So I doused the entire thing in the cleaning solution,' she said.
The thrift shopper was disgusted by the liquid, and she told other TikTok users that if they didn't wash their second-hand clothes, they could be wearing all of that grime on their bodies.
@poopeypaigey advised shoppers to wash their thrift store or estate sale clothing before wearing them after a shirt she bought created murky water in a TikTok video
@poopypaigey revealed in her June 22 video that she bought the light-blue Christian Dior shirt for her boyfriend.
According to her video update, the shopper purchased the dirty shirt at an estate sale.
After she bought that shirt and three others at the sale, @poopypaigey washed them all, and she only had problems with the light-blue button down.
She also claimed that the light spots on the dirty shirt were from the stain remover.
@poopypaigey was not able to remove the spots from the shirt, and she admitted that she may have accidentally bleached it.
The estate sale shopper still has all the Christian Dior shirts from the estate sale, but she is planning to sell them, noting the other button-downs are in 'amazing condition.'
'I didn't realize that he doesn't wear a size large button-down... I'm doing what any reasonable person would do - I'm going to resell them,' @poopypaigey said.
@poopypaigey revealed that she bought the light-blue Christian Dior shirt for her boyfriend at an estate sale she'd heard about online
Like @poopypaigey, experts advise shoppers to never assume new clothes are clean.
Philip Tierno, PhD, a clinical professor of microbiology and pathology, said clothes are 'riddled with various types of organisms' during their production and sale during a 2023 interview with Self.
'The benefits far outweigh any concerns and as long as you're strategic with what you thrift and how you clean it, you should be just fine,' wrote a blogger from The Sensible Fay.
'Properly sanitizing your preloved garments will help prevent the spread of disease and make the most of your purchases.'
TikTokers who watched @poopypaigey's videos were shocked, and one person shared their own horror story about how they learned the hard way why washing new thrift store clothing is essential.
Experts and other social media users advise shoppers to use caution when wearing new clothing if not pre-washed
'I got bed bugs in college because I left some clothes from the thrift store in my laundry basket for one day,' wrote a commenter.
Others admitted to seeing that color of water in the past from washing thrift clothes, and one person wrote they would've 'thrown it away.'
One person wrote: 'I love to thrift, but all of it gets heavily stain removed and put in its own load in the wash.'
'I always wash everything I get even if it’s brand new,' another commenter wrote.
'You don’t know who’s touched it, tried it on, maybe it fell on the floor and was stepped on, who knows.'
