Whether you love or hate them, masks have become mandatory that everyone must wear in public places. From school to work, or a quick stop at Target, masks are a necessity, just like your keys, wallet, and phone. Since these thin pieces of fabric are covering your nose and mouth daily, they need to be properly cleaned more often than you think.

According to John Hopkins Medicine, masks are supposed to be cleaned after each wearing. However, this is very unrealistic for most people. The more realistic approach would be to wash your mask every day or every other day. This does seem like a lot of work, especially for high schoolers, but the best way would be to have two or more masks and then rotate between them when one is dirty or in the washer. 

Keeping your masks clean is important because they can become contaminated. They are not supposed to protect you entirely from viruses, but to decrease the chances of you becoming sick. It is often forgotten that when you put on your mask, you are also touching the material with your hands that have been who knows where. If you do not wash your mask, bacteria can be transmitted and not only affect you, but your friends and family as well. 

The proper way to clean your mask would be to either wash them in your laundry using hot water or hand wash them. If you choose to hand wash them, use hot, soapy water and scrub the mask for at least 20 seconds. Then, you can dry them in the dryer or let the mask air dry. The blue surgical masks should just be disposed of after each use and not washed. 

A plus side to wearing the masks is that you can buy ones with different patterns. From the East logo to Dunder Mifflin written on the front, you can practically personalize them with any design. Just remember to wash your mask frequently to allow them to be the most effective. Much to many’s dismay, masks are not going away anytime soon so we each have to adjust and power through it.