After each weekly grocery trip-my DD washes hers; hangs them to dry in the summer and in the winter runs them through the dryer. She also takes a couple of plastic bags to put her meat into; then puts them into the cloth bags. DD uses Lysol/clorox (depending on what she has available) to wash her bags and only her bags are in that wash cycle, she also runs an empty cycle after the washing of the bags; again with the Lysol or Clorox. Seems like alot but it does keep her family from getting ill.