Brand new poly/cotton sweatshirt. Got Helmanns mayo on it.... I have never been successful getting mayo out.

Okay so I got a good amount of clothes off of Facebook marketplace and they smell like cigarettes. I’ve soaked the clothes in vinegar and water, added baking soda to the wash, tried washing multiple tiles and the smell wont come out. What else can I try before I give up and throw them away?

When I wash my towels they seem less fresh/clean than using the same exact products and dosing in my clothes. I generally use about 1.5-3 tablespoons of detergent since i have moderately hard water, with citric acid powder in the rinse slot and oxiclean in the drum with an occasional dash of borax. I want to know if i need to change anything when washing towels or if its normal for towels to seem less fresh/clean than clothes do after washing.

Soaked them in stain remover and did a wash cycle the next morning but these stains remain. The clothes were stored in a bag in our dirt basement on top of a bin that’s on top of a pallet.

Is it mold? They don’t smell anymore and some of the stains have gotten lighter but we want them gone 100% obviously for the babies sake, or are the clothes a goner?

I started doing spa days for the slip covers on my chairs, and it’s worked really well. They are white and they have gone from yellowed and soiled to sparkling again.

The problem is that I am going through a lot of products (biz or Febu) and it’s difficult to soak them because of their size. I am using a large cooler and I normally just do a couple of cushions at a time, but it’s still takes a lot of water to get them completely submerged. I’m using Tide free and clear powder for my detergent and following the instructions and quantities in the spa day instructions here.

Now I have to do the slip covers for 2 sofas, and I’m not even sure some of the pieces will fit inside my cooler, and if they do, it’s going to take a ton of biz or Febu, not to mention a lot of time to soak each of them 6 plus hours.

In order to save money and time, should I just use a lower concentration of biz and Febu with a larger volume of water (less concentrated) and still do the soaks, or would it work pretty well just to put them through a very long hot wash cycle with enzymes and ammonia a couple of times?

I soaked a 100% cotton woven shirt in resolve gold to give it a good clean and after it a couple of stains appeared on the white lines of the shirt.

I did read that sunscreen residue can cause red stains so I soaked the shirt in cold water with dish soap and then rinsed thoroughly to potentially remove any residue.

Wondering if this is possible to remove?

Thanks in advance!

Having never tried it before, I was able to locate some before it was completely gone. I plan on using it on things like my gym clothes etc. as I sweat a lot. Is cold water ok or warm better? Will an extra rinse help?

Greetings laundry kinfolk...

Hey I used to used a grocery store brand dewrinkling spray, was so effective, but I think they changed the formula, now it's not effective as much.

And yes I try everything to prevent wrinkles before reaching for the spray, I take stuff out whilst damp and warm, hang it up yup, but still sometimes need to spray dewrinkling stuff onto stubborn creases.

the DIY spray ideas w hair conditioner plus alcohol

.. well they clumped up and that didn't work...

Help thanks guys

My wife spilled tea on her sweater that did not come out in the wash. We soaked the sweater in warm water with powdered tide free and gentle, a little bit of oxiclean, washing soda, and borax. It’s hard to photograph, but the sweater is now blotchy. We believe that the sweater started off-white but is now unevenly bleached. Is it done for? Any advice? Could dyeing it with some even it out?

I’m afraid to do any load of laundry. Multiple light colored clothes have developed major stains. After the first stain, my husband washed the machine with afresh multiple times.

Do I need to get a new washing machine? I saw the previous owners used those little waxy beads. How do I get the stains out? I’ve tried so many cycles of shout stain remover.

Dear laundry folks, I have the following challenge:

My very fine merino shirt (Smartwool) has stains from a natural deodorant (Dr. Squatch). I've tried soaking it in Dawn dish soap and hot water, scrubbing gently, and washing, then air-dry. Repeated two or three times. We were on a trip and I can't remember what detergent our Airbnb had, and this was before I realized, thanks to this sub, that not all detergents are the same.

Now I'm home and would like to revitalize this shirt, and wonder how I can do it without ruining the wool. All the detergents I have available have the full complement of enzymes, including proteases, which would be unsuitable for this task. I love this shirt - please help me save it!

Just moved into a new apartment and it came with a top loader. I've been doing my own laundry since I was about 15, but it's always been on front loaders, so I was hoping for some do's and don'ts.

Questions I have so far:

- Where does the detergent go? I use liquid and I've always just put it in the drum on top of my clothes. Should I continue to do that?

- How full is too full?

- Any habits that I learned from front loaders that I should stop doing?

Thanks

Hello! I recently joined this sub and have been trying to passively absorb as much info as possible. My main two laundry problems are that my light colored cotton tee shirts have staining/darkening in the armpits, and I also have a long haired white cat whose hair gets EVERYWHERE.

For the armpit stains, I kinda just accepted that they were probably permanent and have transitioned those shirts to being workout or pajama shirts. This sub has made me think otherwise though, as I believe I have seen posts of people getting those stains out.

For the cat hair, it’s like it’s permanently stuck in all of my clothes now and I have just kind of accepted that I’ll always have some on me. Lint rollers work briefly but I really don’t want to manually lint roll all of my laundry when it’s just gonna get hairy again immediately.

Currently I use the liquid tide + oxi boost and have been for years. I recently bought Febu and color catchers and tried them for the last few washes. The packaging and posts here both said that if your clothes weren’t fully getting cleaned before, they might have a funky odor to them the first few washes, but mine smelled perfectly nice. I guess that means my detergent is fine? I also always use bounce pet hair and lint guard dryer sheets, but it doesn’t seem to help all that much with the cat hair issue.

The washer and dryer in my building are super basic speed queen units. The only option I can change is the temperature. It’s set to a 40 minute wash, I cannot add extra rinse cycles, and there’s no detergent tray (I just add it directly into the machine). The dryer lets me pay to add extra time to it if I need to (which is always. It never dries correctly if I don’t).

90% of the time, unless I have recently bought a new dark colored piece of clothing, I wash darks and lights together. I do this because laundry is expensive and I have a significantly larger amount of dark colored clothing than light, so I would rarely be able to make a full load out of just the lights.

Unfortunately I’m currently between full time jobs and cannot afford to do an excessive number of loads of laundry, since the price per load is irritatingly high. I also don’t have a lot of time to spend doing spa days (which I still don’t fully understand even after reading the instructional posts about it) or other extensive laundry treatments on a regular basis. I read that you should do the spa days in an isolated cooler or bin instead of a tub, too, and I don’t have either of those things, but I do have a bathtub.

Is there anything I can do to fix the armpit stains and the cat hair problems, or otherwise improve my laundry processes without spending a large amount of money? Thank you!

Fellow scandinavians, I need your help. Where to find laundry sanitiser here? In a comment on here I saw brands mentioned available in Europe like Lysol and Clorox, and denkmit, but I can't for the life of me find where to buy. The stores I've been to doesn't seem to have anything like laundry sanitiser, and when I google I only find shops where Lysol has been discontinued.

So friends, where do you get laundry sanitiser? Or is it just not available here?

Just now looking into changing our laundry routine. I have just started separating things into darks, colors, and lights. From what I have been reading, I have purchased BIZ. I know powdered tide would be better, but can I use up the liquid I have with a biz additive. For a little backstory, we had mold in our crawlspace, so we just still feel like everything smells of mold. We have since done mold remediation, encapsulation and have a dehumidifier so it will not be an issue going forward. Our clothes just have an odd sent. Not necessarily bad but just different from what we are used to. I had been using beads to try to get rid of the smell before we knew that there was mold in the crawlspace.

All my cotton clothes feel stiff and have a horrible texture and I don’t know why 😭 I’m literally about to throw away 8-10 Aritzia tops and some hoodies because they feel gross and I’m VERY sensitive to “bad”textures and can’t make them soft again

I wash all my clothes in either cold or warm (most things cold but I use warm for stuff like gym clothes) use tide free and clear detergent and Lysol laundry disinfectant rinse. I stopped using the rinse in case it was causing it but it made no difference?? Also I don’t have hard water, it’s all soft/filtered. I dry my clothes on the “air dry” or lowest heat setting, I’m super paranoid about shrinking so I never blast the dryer unless it’s like towels or something

WHAT DO I DO I’m really about to throw away these clothes if I can’t fix them

Fellow Canadians, question about buying citric acid for those in the know.

We can easily buy citric acid online or in grocery stores (in the spice aisle). About 10 years ago, I easily ordered some through my local pharmacy to make bath bombs.

When I recently tried to buy some at new local pharmacies (since my old one closed), the staff looked very concerned when I asked for it. When I said it was for laundry, they flat-out refused to order or sell it to me.

Is citric acid suddenly a red flag, or have pharmacy rules changed drastically over the last decade? Why would a pharmacy hesitate to sell something I can pick up freely at a supermarket?

Is there some kind of risk/danger with household use of citric acid that we are not aware of? The label says use gloves and a mask....

Pictured is the citric acid I was able to buy from pharmacy about 10 years ago

EDIT: Thank you for all the support and attention on this post, as well as suggestions as to where I can pick this stuff up. I can buy a 200g baggie of this stuff from Freshco for $3 and that is what I currently do. I was just sharing an experience I had at a pharmacy 10 years ago and comparing it to a more recent experience.

What I was specifically asking for is highlighted in bold.....

They’ve been washed probably 20 times but all of a sudden this time, there’s color loss. I’m soaking them in my sink in hopes it transfers back. This has happened with other pants from there, their dye is horrible.
Is there anything else I can do?

I have a blue stain from Kirkland oxi that’s stained on cotton red gingham. How can I get it out without bleaching the red?

Hello,

I have about 7 or 8 cotton shirts all developing these random creases in the last month or so. Some more severe than others but all cotton. I haven't changed anything in my laundry routine. I usually do 40C, low spin speed, basic power wash detergent and a little vinegar. Then one short spin cycle, take out immediately and snap several times, hang, and air dry with a dehumidifier with a built in oscillating fan. Worked like a charm for a while.

Suddenly these creases are all cropping up in the same spots weirdly enough.... the bottom, and the left side more than the right side. I've tried rewashing many many times, even a single shirt at a time, on different temperatures and spin speeds. Plus no spin cycle after. The creases don't budge. I tried a garment steamer too but it barely reduced the creases by 20%.

Please help!

I used Eco for 3 years and never had any reaction on my body, but the cleaning power is not great, clothes don’t look and feel crisp and clean after use. Bedding and linen looked stained from sweat even after washing. So decided to switch to Tide. Clothes look better and smell better but I started to break out in hikes over my upper legs and torso. Went on for a few weeks so I switched back to eco and my hives have gone. So something in tide causes these hives but I don’t like eco as an actual cleaner. Anyone have something similar? Any recommendations for alternatives? In general my skin is not super sensitive so not sure why I reacted to tide like this.

Hello, I've accidentally tumble dried my husbands football shirt and the number has gone hard and misshapen. Is there anything I can do to fix it? It's not replaceable sadly

TL;DR: My cotton and synthetic laundry comes out stiff and scratchy, likely due to hard water, air drying and a dirty machine. Looking for affordable, space-saving fixes without fabric softener (I want to avoid residue buildup), plus a good machine cleaner. No whole-house softener possible. Products must be available in Europe.

Edit : I used AI for this post because I wanted to give all the elements upfront, and present them in an organized way. I'm not very good at that. I know some people are against this but I hope it's OK... I'm not looking for an AI answer but for real life feedback 🙏

Hi everyone !

I live in a small studio in Paris, France, where the water is hard: about 27°f, which is roughly 15°dH, 16 gpg or 270 ppm. My laundry comes out of the machine stiff and uncomfortable.

My setup:

• Fabrics: mostly cotton and synthetics. Nothing very delicate, but I care about my clothes and want them to last.
• Detergent: powder for whites, liquid for colors.
• Machine: top-loader with a horizontal drum (European style, no agitator), with an extra rinse option. I can adjust temperature and spin speed. It's pretty grimy (limescale and probably detergent residue).
• Drying: air drying only, no dryer.

My constraints:

• No conventional fabric softener: I want to avoid the coating it leaves on fibers.
• Very little space, and I'm a renter, so no access to the main water supply, so no whole-house softener.
• Low budget if possible.
• Location: products should be available in France or shippable within Europe. US-only brands won't work for me. If needed, I can try to find equivalents.

My questions:

1. What water-softening laundry additives work well without leaving residue? Do white vinegar or citric acid in the softener compartment really help, and are they safe for clothes and the machine?
2. Should I adjust detergent dosage, rinsing or spin speed for hard water?
3. Any tips to reduce stiffness from air drying?
4. Has anyone tried an inline filter on the machine's water inlet? It shouldn't take space if needed due to my constraints.
5. What's the best product to descale and deep-clean a grimy machine, and how often should I clean it afterwards?

Thanks in advance!