Sometimes I forget I have a load of wash in the washing machine that has begun to smell musty. How can I get rid of the smell that sometimes remains in the cloths even after washing them again?
By mary jean gerry from Budd Lake, NJ
When I've done this, I re-wash the load, adding Oxy-Clean. Just in case you use cold water when washing, Oxy-Clean needs hot water to dissolve. I let the load sit and soak for a while before finishing the cycle. This seems to take care of the problem for me.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I have made 2 rules for myself. 1) I cannot put any clothes in the washer or dryer unless I first set my loud kitchen timer for 35 minutes. 2) When the timer goes off I must drop what I am doing and go directly to the washer or dryer.
Between all of using my family, this happens fairly often. If it doesn't smell too bad, I usually just do a quick wash with warm water & 1/2 the amount of laundry soap. If it smells strong, I add borax to the wash.
With towels use the hottest water you can vinegar is good to use so is oxi clean. I use oxi-clean instead of clorox, clorox eats up the clothes oxi clean doesn't.
I am in Phoenix AZ where temps reach over 100 consecutively. My husband works outside, so sometimes when he gets home his shirt smells sour. I thought it was from sweating and the shirt drying slowly. Anyway, I noticed that sometimes after a few hours my clothes smell sour.
I always check them before I put them on, but they start stinking. I am not sweating. I am wondering if there could be something wrong with the washer. This is maddening. I really hate that smell.One day I was going to school and I realized that people were covering their noses and sniffing when I walked past them. I didn't really think about. Once I went home I took a sniff of my clothes and they smelled horrible. I used vinegar, baking, and borax. I still to this day don't know why my clothes smell even though I put them in the laundry.
Please does someone have some advice on what to do. Also when I put my clothes in the washer and then I put them in the dryer, my dryer smells weird. Is it my dryer that needs a fix?
If it is body odor than detergent should take it out. Make sure you are showering daily and washing clothing that touches your skin every wearing.
I live in a rental unit. The laundry room is shared with 2 other families. Most of the time after washing and drying my clothes they smell like they where washed with sewer water. The clothes are apparently stain free and washed with good detergent. I never let the clothes sit in the machine after washing, they go in the dryer. The clothes after being dried feel greasy and have a bad sewer smell to it.
I go to bed and if my sheets have that smell I do not sleep properly and often have headaches. We exposed the situation to my landlord and he doesn't care. My question is, is it possible my clothes are washed with sewer water some how? and can that be the cause of my headaches?
Thank you!
My clothes seem to smell okay when they are washed. The problem I run into is that when I start to sweat or my clothes get wet by rain or moisture from any sort, they stink.
The smell is an awful sour smell. I tried borax and vinegar and new detergents. I even cleaned my washer as instructed. No luck so far. Please help.I once had problems with my washing machine leaving my clothes smelling fausty. I cleaned the filter and then followed a tip I had read in a magazine by putting a wash on -with no clothes inside- using just Coca -Cola (full sugar one, not diet).
Good luck, Monique :)
I use a 1/2 cup of baking soda to a load of laundry with towels which tend to smell like this. Works great.
This sounds a little weird, but every time I do my laundry, afterwards they end up smelling bad. The weird part is that I know what I smell like after I've been sweating. When I take them out of the washer, they seem to smell clean and fine.
It's when I take them out of the dryer that I notice the smell. It's not super strong, but strong enough to notice. I end up covering myself with perfume to try and at least mask it. But it's become a problem that is bothering me.I washed my clothes and later used a hand towel to clean my face with. It had a bad sour smell to it. I had a cut so I used a towel again and poured hydrogen peroxide on it and noticed it started bubbling. Doesn't that only happen if there is bacteria present?
I need help with this matter. Do I change detergent or try vinegar or ammonia to clean the washer? Why do my towels have bacteria on them after washing?I would rewash them and in the rinse cycle add a cup of white vinegar. No fabric softener. It will fix it.
Recently I discovered my clothes have started to smell sour like vinegar. I use Gain detergent and fabric softener along with baking soda. What else can I do?
By Laken M
1. Run your washer with bleach to kill bacteria in your washer.
2. Use white vinegar or Borax in your wash instead of baking soda.
My work clothes get washed regularly by themselves. The smells don't go even after they've been washed. Shall I hand wash it? Any recommendations would be helpful.
By F. C.
Some times I use All liquid detergent and baking soda. I used this even after a fire for the soot smell. Thought this might help. J
I have well water and all the laundry after a wash and dry is fine, but if it ever gets damp again from sweating or anything it then has a very rotten spoiled smell to the clothing. My husband's shirts after work smell like rot, what can I put in the wash to keep this from happening?
By Stephanie
Try adding vinegar to the rinse cycle of the washing machine. When the clothes dry you won't smell the vinegar and it keeps bacteria levels down and works to soften the clothes.
Why do my clean clothes smell after awhile? I rewashed clean clothes because they smelled and now they smell again after being in the laundry basket. Please help
By Barbara from Youngstown, OH
When you go to wash your clothes, towels, etc., put 3/4-1 cup white vinegar in the water with the detergent and fabric softener. This will get all the leftover detergent out of your items and keep the fabric softener fresher, longer in your clothes.
Seasonal temperatures and humidity changes in your home will cause clothing to begin to mildew much quicker. I've had to rewash clean clothes to get rid of the smell as well. I started adding 1 TBS of baking soda to the wash and that helped; transfer to dryer immediately and dry thoroughly. I also use Febreeze liquid in my wash sometimes. Changing to a front load washer was the best solution. Clothes are air-tight in a front load vs the lid gap in a top load.
