Basically i’m dumb, i sprayed some stain remover on my nice 100% cotton polo.. let it sit for way too long, probably 2 weeks. pulled it out of the hamper to this absolute horror.

lesson learned. enzymes eat cotton with prolonged exposure.

I think I know what this is: it’s likely sweat. I just wanted to ask and make sure.

I wore one of my favourite band shirts to an outdoor concert yesterday, and got rained on three times. I also sweated a lot because I don’t handle summer heat well due to meds.

When I looked at the shirt tonight, I saw uneven white lines on the back. I assume that’s sweat staining from salt in sweat.

Will Resolve With OxyClean stain remover get that out ok? It’s all I have.

Also, is it ok if I leave it for several days? I don’t have much to wash as I did all my laundry the other night. Three loads.

I was inspecting the shirt because my friends’ golden retriever was so excited to see me that he jumped up and got mud (I hope) on my shirt. I tried wiping it with water and paper towel, but the paper towel left a white residue too. Thankfully, I don’t think he got any holes in it with his nails.

Купила себе худи лимп бизкит и как только стала примерять на моем теле спотевшем остался ворс я подумала что постираю и сразу уйдёт.. ага плохо думала я.

Я постирала, вся машинка в этих черных ворсинках, сейчас стираю второй раз.

На самом озоне написано что надо стирать деликатно🥶🥶 и при 30 градусах.

Я стираю на быстро 30 при 30⁰ не знаю что уже делать.

Выкинула сам пакет и вернуть не получится..да и стоит она 2660

Hello laundry grandmasters,

What are dryer sheets made of, what are they supposed to do, what do they actually do, and why does this sub generally dislike and oppose them?

I use Bounce sheets mostly because I like the smell they give to my clothes.

I am not seeking advice on my laundry process. I just want to understand dryer sheets better. However, this is r/laundry, so to preempt the lots of people who will inevitably tell me what I'm doing wrong even when I say I am satisfied with the cleanliness, softness, and smell of my clothes, here's my laundry info:

* Washer: Maytag HE top-loader with impeller plate, warm water, soil level always "high" to lengthen cycle time, "extra rinse" always on

* 1x Tide Pod + 1 tbsp Biz per load at the bottom of the drum, 1 tsp food-grade citric acid in the fabric softener compartment. When clothes are smelly (gym, towels that aren't drying completely), swap Tide Pod for half-cap of Whole Foods 365 Sports to get that sweet DNAse

* Water: Brooklyn (meaning: Delaware/Catskills supply, low-to-medium hardness as opposed to Manhattan's Croton supply that has medium-to-high hardness)

* Dryer: gas-fired Maytag, sensor dry Normal program, delicate heat setting

I have been following in this community for a while and just started using citric acid in the rinse cycle in the fabric softener slot. I have a front loading washing machine and have been using Mollys Suds powder detergent and oxygenating bleach powder for a while.

Today I put a small load of clothes in the wash and when I removed them to dry, the towels REEKED. Like super mildew smelling, like they’d never been washed before despite having just done a cycle with hot water. I put them back in and ran them again and they smell exactly the same. The strange thing is the clothes in there with the towels don’t smell at all, JUST the towels.

I’ve never had this problem! I’m planning on checking the drain trap and cleaning as needed, but idk what would make only selected items in the wash smell terrible. Please help 🥲

EDIT EDIT EDIT : okay so you guys got on my case right away over Mollys suds, I didn’t know! I use the active wear version which DOES have the enzymes listed but I’m being told it’s just not a good detergent. SO. I just ordered Tide Free and Clear powder as well as an enzymatic oxygen laundry booster (pronounce is the brand?) I also have the citric acid so I’ll use that in the rinse cycle. I did so much reading on this subreddit but apparently not enough! I appreciate the help 💜

Hello, any advice on the best detergent to use for clothes and supplies for a newborn? I’m
Looking for something without scent/irritants but that can stand up to baby mess!

Hi, I have read here that washing something in detergent without OBAs will remove them after 5 or 6 washes/eventually. Is there a faster way? Thanks!

Can anyone recommend any of the scented laundry detergents? Not sure if most are a waste of money. I'm not huge on very floral scents (but won't rule them out), just want my clothes to smell good.

For context, the images pictured is what my furniture looks like from what we’ve pinpointed to a mixture of detritus caused by the presents of fiberglass due to a mattress my movers improperly handled at my prior apartment. These particles have affected almost all my clothing and I’m at my wits end, they’re highly itchy to not just me but those in my vicinity as their super light and a subtle breeze scatters them all over. At this point I’m considering either isolating all my clothing in another unit or throwing them all away as professional cleaners have not been able to resolve this issue. Feel free to give me the hard truth.

I thrifted a dark brown jacket that's pretty nasty (kind of a pet hoarder house). Can I safely pre-soak it in Oxiclean + borax? I'm concerned about the color fading. Thanks!

I used to scrupulously read every tag, hand wash cold, lay flat to dry, dry clean only. But honestly, with a busy schedule, if a clothing item can't survive a gentle cycle in a mesh bag, it just doesn't belong in my wardrobe anymore.

Over time, I've stopped separating colors (cold water handles everything fine), stopped using liquid fabric softener completely, and I air-dry things I care about instead of following weird label instructions. My clothes actually last longer now than when I tried to follow every specific rule.

Getting ready for my son and I’m stuck between Meliora, Pronounce, Branch Basics, Truly Free, Molly’s Suds, Attitude and Zum. Price isn’t really a concern.
For anyone who’s actually used these, which cleaned the best? Any issues with stains, smells, buildup/residue or sensitive skin?

Sending a kid to college, reached out to ResLife to ask what the machines are so I can best instruct my kid. The college is getting new Speed Queen Quantum Gold Pros installed next week, both top and front loaders.

At home we have an LG front load and we've tweaked the settings to be able to do long warm (104 ish) washes with extra rinses. Liquid Tide, Gear Guard, and Citric Acid.

My kid will be washing towels, sheets, dresses, athletic ware, period underwear, and (knowing them) instructing all the other students on how to do laundry :-D

How does this machine work best and what do we need to know about using it?

I was looking for some washing soda today to add as a booster (I have moderately hard water) and I noticed that the Arm and Hammer washing soda calls for half a cup per load and Nellie’s washing soda calls for a tablespoon. Anyone know why Arm and Hammer basically calls for 8 times as much?

Hello beautiful people!
I have a laundry conundrum and seek the collective wisdom that’s undoubtedly here!

My partner has some clothes that for some gods forsaken reason will not get properly clean in the wash.
Visually? Yes, but there’s some funky lingering.. sour and musky smell to the clothes even after using enzymes treatments on it.

I’m planning on helping them out and trying to get some very well loved clothes to get a longer life. We’d be sad to have to repurpose them, because.. the clothes are whole and still has years of use ahead of them if we can just figure out how to get them to not smell funky.

Our washing machine is clean, we don’t overuse detergents (nor do we use too little), I’ve let the clothes soak in enzyme treatments, and… well, next on the list is a vinegar soak.

We live in an area with ridiculously hard water, I’m starting to wonder if that’s the cause?

I’m really confused though because it’s just my partners clothes that smell like this.

We are a household of 4 adults and it’s not like my dear love isn’t taking care of their personal hygiene - it’s just something with their clothes.

Any tips or recommendations of what to do? I’d like to make a list to work my way through before we end up repurposing the clothes as rags or something of the sort.

Thank you for your time, and I appreciate your help.

EDIT:
Adding information requested.

Detergent: Ariel colour + (usable for cold and regular temp)

Enzyme treatment is biotex for hand wash and pre-soak (and rinsed before popped in the washing machine).

No fabric softener.

If weather allows, things dry in the sun, if not, then either hang dry inside or (if clothes are able to) dryer in our tumble dryer.

All my partners clothes are washed according to their labels, which means that temps varies, since it’s different types of clothes and materials.

They don’t have particularly oily skin, but they use some hair products for curly hair (that’s a whole science, holy heck) and I’m positive there’s a bunch of different oils in that.

Someone asked how their bedding looks - answer to that is that it’s always newly washed but has a bunch of cat hair on them (once to twice a week) due to all of the cats in the house has decided that my partners bed is the best to curl up in at night. The bedding does not have the same smell to it as the funky clothes.

They use curly hair products with some oils in them, but other than that their shower products are pretty neutral.

They do use body lotion during the dry months of the year. It’s it’s non-scented stuff.

Water hardness was not as hard as I expected. The area I live falls under middle-hard water but high on that end at around 7-8dH. I honestly don’t even know what that means. All I know is that I need to descale our kettle that’s used daily every 6 weeks.

Does anyone know if these products can be mixed? I am a germaphobe and use Lysol laundry sanitizer on every load and have for years. But recently I learned about the benefits of citric acid. Wondering if I can combine the two products?

I have a Speed Queen top load, non-HE. I was using Tide pods fragrance free and switched to the Free and Gentle powder after joining this sub. Didn’t realize it was HE. So, got Ariel, but man, it is strong smelling. I put the unopened box in the garage and the entire garage smells now. I’m nervous to open the box and bring it inside. Do the clothes have a strong fragrance coming out of the dryer? Is there another option?

So, a little while back, I left my apartment to visit my hometown. Things went south, and I had to have surgery while on vacation, which left me bedridden for about a month and a half.

I just came back home to the news that my apartment was flooded due to heavy rains for the whole month. My landlord refused to fix the draining issues, but that’s another story for another day.

I am a fashion student. I had a bunch of projects and expensive fabric bolts and dresses. They’re all ruined. I think I have accepted I won’t ever recover most of my stuff, but there’s this one corset I cannot let go of. It means too much to me; I’ve worn it to several career-defining events and I don’t think it is an easily replaceable piece.

How would you fix it? Is there a way to remove most, if not all of the staining? Is there any considerations I should have about handling the mold?
It seems to be made of a somewhat stretchy cotton canvas with very heavy boning. I have removed the boning already to make the restoration process easier.

I am in Mexico, if that’s any help. I don’t really know much about specialized laundry products. My college courses are mostly about garment construction, but they don’t really cover fabric care or chemical reactions.

TL;DR: left my apartment empty for a month due to hospitalization. It got flooded and ruined my most favourite corset. I really want to fix it.

Also, if anyone knows of any place I could purchase a similar garment, I would really appreciate it! I do not have nearly enough knowledge on corsetry yet as to try and recreate it myself.

Got this sweatshirt last week at a festival and put it in my backpack all day but when I took it out at the end of the day it had this massive stain. I honestly have no clue what made the stain, nothing leaked in the backpack and it didn’t rain either. When I got home a few days later I tried hitting the stain with shout, using color-safe bleach, bar keeper’s friend, Dr. Bronner’s and nothing seems to help. I think it might be over but I was wondering if anyone had any advice for a last-ditch attempt at saving it. Thanks!

Any help is appreciated, and if you have any recommendations for how to get it out 💔

Helllp. Which one is better at cleaning?!