A sour or musty smell clinging to your clothing makes you seem dirty. Most of us have washed our clothes as directed, put them through the dryer, and unloaded them only to find our laundry smells musty. We launder clothes to keep them clean, ensure our skin stays healthy, and maintain good personal hygiene.
Luckily, figuring out how to get a mildew smell out of laundry doesn’t have to be a headache. While there’s a wide range of commercial laundry deodorizers, they are typically expensive and contain toxic chemicals. Our clothing spends long periods in contact with our skin, so the cleaners we use on it are important.
A musty smell on your clothing is caused by the build-up of detergent and fabric softener, mold spores, and even a filthy washing machine. Discover how to remove a musty smell from laundry using familiar household items like baking soda and oxygen bleach. Making your own deodorizer saves a trip to the store and is a budget-friendly way to ensure your laundry smells fantastic.
How to Get a Mildew Smell Out of Laundry
It’s disheartening if your laundry smells musty, especially after it’s fresh out of the washing machine or tumble dryer. Musty clothes and towels are disgusting, yet not uncommon. Due to how we wear and launder fabrics, mold and must are inevitable.
We put our clothes in the washing machine to give them a fresh scent and get them ready to be worn again, yet sometimes, this fails. Find out how to remove a musty smell from laundry to ensure your family can access clean clothing and towels.
Why Your Laundry Smells Musty
When we take our clothing out of the dryer, we’ve all experienced an occasional mildew smell. Nothing is more irritating than discovering your clothes smell after you just laundered them.
No matter the source, it’s crucial to have techniques for removing musty odor. Wet clothing allows microorganisms to thrive and release odor-causing particles.
Whether they retain water from the wash cycle or perspiration from use, damp clothes are the ideal home for mold and bacteria. Fortunately, there are several ways to stop and get rid of microorganisms that cause mildew odor in your garments.
How to Remove a Musty Smell From Laundry
Baking soda is a natural deodorizer, brightener, and cleaner to eliminate bad odor. Baking soda powder is inexpensive, whereas chemical deodorizers are pricey. Grab a cheap box of this cleaning powder and bid your stinking clothes farewell.
Wash your garments without detergent and with a cup of baking soda powder on the hot water cycle. Rinse the load once more to remove the remaining baking soda. If laundering the items doesn’t eradicate the mildew smell, don’t dry them.
Only dry the clothes once you can no longer detect the mold smell and rewash them to erase any remaining stink. If it’s warm and sunny, hang your clothes outside to dry. In addition to being gentler, line drying offers some natural disinfection.
Removing the Mildew Smell From Laundry
Using distilled white vinegar is one of the best pieces of laundry advice to remove musty smell from an article of clothing. Frequently, washing on a regular cycle is insufficient to eliminate the foul odor of must.
The scent will still remain even if you wash your musty clothing with liquid laundry detergent. White vinegar gets your clothes smelling fresh right out of the washing machine.
Wash your clothes on a warm water cycle. Pause the washer during the final rinse and pour one cup of pure white vinegar directly into the drum. Your apparel is cleaned and sanitized with white vinegar.
Getting a Mildew Smell Out of Laundry Using Oxygen Bleach
Remove unpleasant odor from your clothes with color-safe oxygen bleach powder. Oxygen bleach makes a great addition to any laundry room. Compared to conventional chlorine bleach, oxygen bleach is greener and doesn’t have a strong smell. The oxygen bleach eliminates the bacteria that give off odors, leaving your shirts odor-free.
Mix the oxygen bleach and water in the basin and soak the stinky garments in a solution of oxygen bleach powder and warm water for at least an hour. Take them out of the bleach soak, wring out the excess liquid, and put them through a wash cycle as directed.
Tips to Avoid Musty Smelling Clothes
The mildew smell on your attire is typically caused by moisture. Wet clothes left folded or on the floor after wear are more prone to harbor water and grow mold. Simple precautions prevent mold from growing on your outfits.
Use dryer balls while tumble-drying your clothing to ensure the fabric dries uniformly. As soon as your clothes are dry, remove them from the dryer to prevent humidity from the exhaust from creating an ideal setting for mold growth.
Material accumulates fabric softener, which contains bacteria. Avoid adding fabric softener or a dryer sheet when drying your garments, although it can seem counterintuitive.
Soak your shirts in a solution of white vinegar or oxygen bleach every few months. Regular soaking removes residue from the cloth and eliminates mold spores before they start to smell. Check for washing machine odor and clean the drum and rubber seals with white vinegar if required.
You may seem unhygienic if you don’t know how to get a mildew smell out of laundry. A musty odor is unpleasant and ruins even the most fabulous outfit. Thankfully, learning how to make your clothing smell clean is simple. Use items from the pantry and laundry room to ensure your clothes come out of the washer without a mildew smell.
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