Unwashed clothing, shoes, and other contaminated items can cause reactions for one year or longer.

Here’s what you gotta know about cleaning poison ivy off your clothes and shoes.

Or pick up the soiled items with a clean, heavy cloth to avoid contact with your skin.

How to Remove Poison Ivy Stains

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Urushiol can transfer from items and penetrate rubber, so thin latex gloves won’t provide reliable protection.

Using your gloves, drop the affected clothes into the washer.

Add yourregular laundry detergentto the water.

vinyl gloves and detergent

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If you feel that the contamination of urushiol is significant, you might want to wash a third time.

Dry the Clothes

Play it safe by air-drying the clothes on aclotheslineordrying rack.

For this job, it is particularly important to wear heavy gloves to protect your hands and wrists.

put on vinyl gloves when handling poison ivy stained clothes

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Take out the insole if it is removable.

Use a soft-bristle brush to scrub the inside and outside of the shoes and any separate insoles.

Be careful not to get the items soaking wet, but see to it to clean every surface.

choosing a wash temperature

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If the leather seems stiff after the process, treat it with leather conditioner.

While it might take several attacks, it is possible toremove poison ivy completelyfrom most home landscapes.

Allergens: Poison Ivy / Poison Oak / Poison Sumac.Johns Hopkins Medicine.

rewashing the garment

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line drying fabric

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items for cleaning poison ivy affected shoes

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handling the shoes with gloves on

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using a brush to scrub the shoes

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letting the shoes air dry

The Spruce / Ana-Maria Stanciu