OK, silly question, but I have to know. My children's laundry smells horrible. I can't explain how paint peeling awful it is. And, my laundry detergent is just not doing the job. Right now when I take the clothes out of the dryer, I still catch a vestige of the scent and it's not a pleasant thing. Can anyone recommend a really good detergent that gets the stench out? Thanks!
I do an overnight soak with 1/2 cup of baking soda. Then a rinse, followed by a hot wash with Biokleen laundry detergent, with vinegar (in a downy ball) added to the rinse cycle of the hot wash.
White vinegar. I try to avoid all of the chemical fragrances that are put into laundry products. I no longer use dryer sheets either...the smells are just too strong and who knows what those chemicals might do to a vulnerable body. I use dryer balls now and they work like a charm...just my 2 cents :-)
I have other ideas, feel free to contact me if you'd like. Be well, D.
I wash my poopy diapers in Tide powder and white vinegar. My diapers come out smelling clean so I would think it would work for your kids clothing. Also, is it possible you aren't using enough soap? It sounds like the clothes are getting completely clean.
We just had an issue with a load of laundry and it came down to a shirt of hubby's. What we did was soak that shirt in a bowl of white vinegar for a couple of hours and walaa the smell is gone!! Sooo I think I would try to run some white vinegar in your load of laundry or even run it on a soak cycle if you have one. The white vinegar smell does NOT stay in the clothes. It's a cheaper method than detergent at least. I buy the big bottles at Sam's club but you can get them at any grocery etc.
Put some white vineager and baking soda in the wash when u wash them~it doesn't ruin anything but it does take the smell out after a few washes! Use it alone with whatever detergant you normally use!
Works great!!!!
I agreee with the other moms, white vinegar works really well! I use it in my husband's work clothes and kids play clothes. I use about 1/4 to 1/2 a cup per load.
I use Mela Power and if I have something smelly on the clothes, I add some Sol-U-Mel to the load.
It may actually be your washing machine. Especially if it is a front loader. they can get mildew in them. You are actually supposed to dry the door and rubber after every load and leave the door open for a couple hours after a wash. And you are supposed to clean them every month - they sell a tablet you put in there. I did not know this and just went to get a new washer, because the one in the house I just bought made my laundry smell moldy. After I spoke to the salesman I realized what the problem was (I still got a new washer - Elextrolux makes one that deodorizes and I love it), but I will make sure I take better care of this one!
Tide, but once you start using it, it's hard to go to any other, and it is pricey...make sure you always have coupons!!
a bit of eucalyptus oil in the wash is really good for your clothes, gets out all the germs and deodorizes without harsh chemicals, dyes and perfumes. Or you could do baking soda....
I use All and Downey liquid fabric softner. All gets the bad small out, but my husband likes the good smell too! LOL Anyway, you can also put 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide in your wash and it gets rid of the germs that cause the smell. I use it to get the clay stains out of my son's baseball pants and it works GREAT! No more scrubbing for me. Sorry, a little happy about that! Anyway, hydrogen peroxide is great for a lot of laundry things. It works sort of like bleach without the harmful effects of bleach. You can google it and find some. Good Luck!
I use non-chlorine bleach (Publix Greenwise bleach) especially with socks, underwear, or kids' clothes that are really dirty. Many people have suggested vinegar and sometimes I use that as well.
My son has feet issues so I get the issue. Borax and white vinegar in the wash. Soak whites in bleach & cold water for a couple of hours, rinse well and then wash. We live in the boonies and have well water that has a sulphur smell and high rust content - wanna trade? LOL
Charlie's soap! Also, A. C.'s method works great! I just did that a couple of days ago, almost to the letter.
Tide sport HE. Or if you do not have a high energy washer they make regular too.. The regular is on sale for 4.99 right now.. But the HE doesn't go on sale very often..
Baking powder. If it is underarm smell that clings to the clothes, make a paste with the baking powder and water, and leave on for an hour or longer if possible. You can also add baking powder with your regular detergent.
I LOVE Arm & Hammer detergent. My family noticed when I switched to it. It's fragrant & lasts until you wear the clothes! & surprisingly, it doesn't trigger my allergies....
Laundry soda detergent even great for babies. Bouncy dry sheets of your favorite scent.
Arm and Hammer Pink. The resular A& H is good , too but the pink has a nice scent to it that tays with the clothes.
And add a bunch of baking soda to the laundry. I buy a huge box at Walmart and keep it in the laundry room.
Tide sport with the one with the black cap.....it works great !!!
I use baking soda in the wash and white vinegar in the rinse. I know you're thinking that the vinegar will smell bad but it works great. I use this with my hubby’s workout clothes.
PS: I had a front loader and this helped with the bad washer smell too.
I recently had a problem with all our clothes smelling like mildew - YUCK!
So here's what I did, and it seems to have worked.
I had been using liquid Gain detergent and fabric softener.
I switched to powder Tide (I love the powder because I sprinkle half of the scoop in the water as the washer is filling, then sprinkle the rest on top of the clothes after I load them - that way, I feel like the detergent is getting to all the clothes, and not disolving in the bottom water and never really getting dispursed throughout the clothes), Downy fabric softener, and a sprinkle of Oxyclean powder in particularly soiled loads. I also have a bottle of white vinegar sitting with my laundry detergents, as well as baking powder, and I randomly (lol) use either of those in place of the Oxyclean.
Also, I was told to decrease the size of my loads, so that they get fully soaked with water and detergent... larger loads, naturally, prohibit a good wash through the water...
Another thing I do is for really pungent loads (my husband's work clothes, for instance - he works at a sewage plant) I'll soak them for a while, maybe hours, or ideally, overnight, then let that wash cycle through... and if it's really, really bad, I might even run it though another wash, figuring that the heavy odors soaked out into the last load, but I want to wash it again, to get it in fresher water to even do a more thorough job...
My husband actually told me the other day that he thinks this has definitely fixed our problem. He says his clothes smell so good now... a co-worker of his actually jokingly asked him if he started wearing cologne, because he smelled so good! LOL
I see quite a few people suggesting vinegar. I agree. I read this trick online because we were having that nasty mildew smell on our towels. Now I do this every wash (not just the towels):
Detergent (one with a nice scent, we use Tide)
Vinegar
OxyClean powder
+bleach if it's a run with whites or items that can use bleach.
once in the dryer, use a dryer sheet.
I had issues using detergents with any kind of scent...but the vinegar helps dissipate that too so it's not so strong, keeps it very subtle! Everything comes out smelling pretty nice!
