My m.i.l. is in a nursing home. I do her laundry because the facility's laundering beats up her clothing and loses things. We visit once a week, so things pile up and sit in the hamper. I have been setting the washer on pre-soak, heavy soil, extra-rinse. I use medium warm water (setting 4 out of 5). I use Tide Free and Gentle He. I have tried both washing soda and borax. But the odor remains.
If you have one of the newer washing machines that don't actually fill up with water you will have to dissolve it first. I keep an old milk gallon jug. Fill it up and add the powder. Then pour it in with the laundry.
It also works great to clean your washing machine too.
First off; use ONLY cold water. Warmer water isn’t good for washing away body wastes of any kind because the heat expands proteins (urine, feces, sweat, saliva, blood, milk) and makes them sticky, leaving behind traces of those proteins, and their smells. Cold water keeps the fibers of whatever you’re washing tight so the proteins have less “hiding” places to stick to, and the soap and cold water together wash them away.
Rinse with cold water and vinegar. Try a cupful per load until you start to notice things are smelling better…. and get rid of anything that still holds onto the smells after a couple of washings. Don’t put anything in the dryer that doesn’t smell better after a washing or two.
The heat from the dryer will set the proteins that don’t wash away, and industrial dryers run extremely hot… so the clothing that was being done in the facility may never smell right again, but you could try to save everything with this method…. Or you may find that some materials never smell right again no matter what. I was able to rescue some of my mom’s clothing with this method, but ended up throwing away about half because facilities ALWAYS use super-hot water and dryers, thinking along the lines of “sanitation”/hotter is better….the stink was well set into some of the items, and just not worth the effort.
Btw: the vinegar smell doesn’t linger for long, and it’s worth putting up with to get to the end result of deodorized clothing.
https://www.agingcare.com/search?term=urine+laundry
https://odoban.com/
I'd like to try vinegar. What kind do you use? Plain vinegar? Distilled white vinegar (which I use to clear drains)? Thanks for any responses, and I apologise for raising this on someone else's thread, but it seems there are definitely some experienced vinegar users here!
If you wash with vinegar, don't add detergent: 1 C. vinegar to the washing machine, & go through the whole cycle. You can wash with detergent afterwards.
The link below talks about using vinegar for smelly diapers - but it's good for just about any clothing. It also explains the chemistry of why it works & why vinegar plus detergent in the wash doesn't work.
https://clothdiapersforbeginners.com/washing-cloth-diapers/vinegar-and-cloth-diapers/
good luck!
I try to be a good nephew. I care for my uncle.
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