How do you get rid of sour smell in your laundry?
Question:I accidentally left a load of washed towels in the washing machine still wet. They stayed there 2 days, so I dried them in the dryer,(DUH!), and they STUNK to High Heaven! I have ran them through the wash twice using hot water, extra detergent and fabric softner even tried a little diluted bleach. I can still detect a faint "sour" smell. Are they ruined?
Answers:
no actually, put like a cup of vinegar, and some baking soda in the wash again, and it should be fine. if you even look at some vinegar bottles it will say to put it in ur laundry bc it gets out smelly stuff... and no your clothes dont come out smelling like vinegar at all.
Just put 5x more soap then usual and use color bleach. And fabric softener. Never leave clothes in washer machine...
LESSON LEARNED!
Try washing them again in hot water if your color will allow on the long wash with gain and the key ingredients--Borax and baking soda. Add about a cup of each to your load and then your detergent, I like Gain, and the smell will finally go. Borax alone will help with all laundry odors, but with the addition of baking soda, your troubles will be washed away!
Do you live in a place where you can hang them outside in the sunshine? If so, I would suggest repeating the wash with the extra detergent and a scented liquid fabric softener like Downy, then hanging them out in the fresh air. I have done this before and it worked for me.
I have done the same thing. Just wash them again in hot water, don't use a lot of detergent and if they are white use some bleach, but not lots, you want to get the old detergent out.
Make sure you use the Heavy duty cycle on your washing machine. Then dry them, use those fabric softener sheets. They should be like new.
Baking soda with the detergent will take care of it. If your washer has an extra rinse cycle, run them through the extra rinse also. The clothes should smell clean when you pull them out. Good luck.
yeah a cup of vinegar in the wash cycle by itself first then wash the clothes as usual that should do it.
try washing them again,this time use about a cup and 1/2 of baking soda along with your laundry soap and bleach.
hang them in the sun if you can.
good luck><>
I have had this problem too with 2 different types of washers here is what I have found to be the culprit. If you have a top loader check the center of the agitator where you put the softener. It gets gunky and stinky there. Happen to me. When I threw the washer out we dumped it over and holy cow what was in the center almost made me throw up. You have to flush it out with bleach water or just pull it off and take it outside. If you have front loader then you have to give the washer a bleach bath of 2 cups of bleach 1 x per month as per the repairman that was just here for an unrelated problem. He said they all have the problem there is a bit of water that is always left behind and if the washer sits for a day or so without being used it will skank the water that is retained by the machine. So do the bleach bath I have one of those stick up calendars that come in the mail u know the ones that are magnetized and I circle the date for the next bleach bath. Once you do it a few times maybe you don't have to do it as often. Hope this helps. But man isn't that a terrible smell? Yuck!
Re-wash the load but add 1/2 c. baking soda to the water and add detergent and the smell should go away... Good luck..
no they are not ruined. run a washer full of HOT water, add 3 cups of vinegar, and let soak for 2 hours or overnight. Then add regular detergent as well as 1/2 cup of oxyclean and run through cycle. During final rinse/spin, add 1/2 cup of vinegar. If that does not completely remove the smell after drying the clothes, repeat one more time.
Soak the smelly towels in water overnight with soda bicarbonate added.
Run your machine once with soda as well, be careful about using vinegar, as it may corrode its internals.
Then wash your towels again, in a very hot wash with normal detergent. Let them partially dry first (hang them somewhere first), and check if they smell before drying them in the drier.
Dry with a sheet of Bounce - this hould do it.
In warm weather, mold and mildew set in quickly! Vinegar can sometimes work magic, though. Wash them again and add a couple of cups of vinegar to the rinse cycle.
More Related Questions & Answers...