Washable fabric masks are a thing right now. The CDC recommends that each member of your household use a fresh mask every time you leave the house. I store a face mask in my purse, in my car and at home, but I still sometimes walk out the door without a fresh mask.
When you arrive home, you should carefully remove your mask, fold it inside out, place it in the wash, and wash your hands. Wash in warm water, hang your mask to dry after flattening pleats and straightening the nose wire to keep it in shape.
OK, you already knew all of that, but I’m here to give you a simple way to organize and manage this new piece of essential gear.
I’ve been hanging our clean masks over the closet doorknob, but I wanted a better solution. Most importantly, face mask storage in my house needed to be as close to the door as possible, because grabbing a fresh mask is not yet a habit for me. Since my laundry closet is just steps from our main door, the wall between those two doors seemed the best choice. That small bit of wall has had our two critical lists for our girls for years, our insanely popular Getting Out of the House list and our Screen Time Rules list. But the girls are older now, and we haven’t referred to those in a few months, so it’s time to switch up that wall for masks to keep us safe.
My favorite little household helpers, 3M Command Hooks (affiliate link), are perfect for this important job at my house and at yours. You only need a small amount of space and any smooth surface. If you have a laundry room, you’ll be able to fit something like this in there, no problem.
Every time I write about these little 3M beauties, I wonder if there is anyone who hasn’t used them yet. In case that’s you, here are three tips for success:
- Clean your wall surface with alcohol and let dry.
- Peel and attach the Command Strip (red) side of the adhesive pad toward the plastic hook.
- Peel the wall side (black) of the adhesive and apply to the wall. Push firmly and let rest for about five minutes. Most importantly, don’t overload. Each Command Hook is rated for specific weight. Stay under that weight rating when you use them.
Easy peasy.
We’ve got four people in our family, one of whom is wearing smaller masks, another who doesn’t like us to touch her stuff…
and a third who prefers to wear his sports colors. I’ve bought some masks that go with my work uniform, so I prefer they don’t wear mine. Four hooks, no problem.
If your kids are going back to school this fall, having a safe spot for clean masks is–dare I say it?–essential in the most literal sense.
It’s the little things like this that keep our homes organized, even if you’ve got other hotspots you are trying to tame. When the times change, as they will with kids in the ouse, don’t be afraid to move things around, create mini-systems like these to get and stay organized, and make it easy to keep the people you love safe.
Do you have a creative way to store your face masks? I’d love to see it. Please comment below.
I clip a mesh laundry bag to a pants hanger and hang it on the laundry room doorknob to contain dirty face masks. It’s easy to zip i the bag closed and toss in with the next hot water wash. I do as you do, reshape the mask and hang to dry.
I use a hanging drying rack with clips to dry the masks – hangs above the washer and folds up after use to save space. Once dry, each mask goes into the appropriate Ziploc bag. Also keep one mask each in the car in a Ziploc bag in case we forget to grab one as we go out the door.