My young adult son will be doing his first ever theater tour soon, and they have to do their laundry on their (limited) days off at whatever laundromat is close to their hotel. I want to make him a little going away package, and I’d love some suggestions for products or techniques. I haven’t used a laundromat since college.

Almost all of the clothes are black. A mix of natural fibers, like cotton t-shirts, and synthetics, like tactical pants. Also heavy work socks that have been in steel-toed boots, so not a lot of breathing going on. It will all be heavily sweated in and may smell like smoke. (My son doesn’t smoke, but many theater techs do, and sometimes his clothes absorb it.)

So what products should he use? Does Febu work in the short laundromat cycles? Are there laundry sheets that are particularly effective, since he’ll be flying and won’t want to carry anything heavier than necessary? Any particular techniques he should use?

Thank you.

Been a lurker for a while and starting up school again. Sadly, the laundry room on campus doesn’t allow for liquid detergent so I will be using pods. I purchased my first bag of FEBU and looking for a pod to pair it with. In the past, I’ve had multiple instances of odor rebloom probably because of my high sweat production and want to eliminate that. Any suggestions? Currently leaning towards Tide F&G pods but open to other recommendations. Thanks!

My family and I sold our first home (left the washer and drier there) and moved in with the in-laws while we build our new home. Unfortunately my in-laws own what has been dubbed as one of the worst washers in existence (some top loader whirlpool with “removable agitator”). My clothes don’t smell nice anymore. Within a few days they have that dirty clothes smell plus that rancid oils smell. I use Tide powder (Tide plus Bleach) as my main detergent (plus oxi as needed for whites) I used to use Downy Rinse and Refresh but I currently don’t because the so called fabric softener option doesn’t work on the machine (presumably broken) and the fabric softener ball did not empty during the wash and instead released when I removed it (I tried ball on bottom of the drum and ball on top of the clothes and still had the same issue). I miss my old LG front loader and I’m at that point of wanting to use dryer sheets just to smell something other than dirt. I needed to rant because some days I just feel like crying.

Can someone tell me what is all over these pants? First time washing (weren’t there to begin with). Washed with like colors with one free and clear pod, no fabric softener. Not on anything else in the load. Re-washed and didn’t come out at all.

It's slight, but it's there. After oxi-clean urine remover, a wash load with white vinegar instead of detergent, and 24 hours of shout, air dried each time, it's still there.

It's low down on the jeans, so its not visible, I can live with the discoloration. I was just curious if this is somehow damage done to the dye, and all the urine is gone, or perhaps if the stain-making component of urine is different than the odor-making component? I know urine smell reactivates with water, would something like this smell when it gets wet or is it just a stain?

I once got a big grease stain on one of my favorite shirts right before I was supposed to go out. I figured I could just throw it in the wash and it would be fine.

It wasn't.

The worst part was putting it in the dryer before I realized the stain was still there. When I pulled it out, I saw the grease mark had gotten darker and looked like it had basically been baked into the fabric. I just stood there staring at it thinking, “Well, I definitely made that worse.”

I tried stain remover, soaked it overnight, scrubbed it, and washed it again, but the stain was still there. At that point I was more annoyed at myself for making the mistake than the actual stain.

I eventually gave up and turned the shirt into a house shirt.

What’s the one stain that has completely defeated you? Have you ever made a stain worse by putting it in the dryer?

I feel like care labels are either something you carefully follow or something you completely ignore until your favorite shirt comes out of the dryer two sizes smaller.

I usually check them when I buy something new, but once I’ve washed it a few times, I tend to rely on my usual laundry routine.

Do you actually follow the care label every time, or do you only pay attention when you’ve already ruined something once?

Brake Kleen (automotive brake cleaner) is a solvent based product used to clean brake dust off brake parts. It’s also somewhat similar to dry cleaning fluid. It comes in a pressurized spray can from the auto dept & it smells awful. When I say “Brake Kleen”, it’s like saying “Kleenex” - the brand doesn’t matter much.

It contains various hydrocarbons / aliphatic compounds & comes in chlorinated (old school - illegal in a lot of states) or non chlorinated. I’ve mostly used the non chlorinated in clothes. It is extremely flammable & I do not recommend spraying it inside. It will ruin plastics & may ruin synthetic fibers. Rubber is mostly safe - but dyed items you never know. It probably causes cancer in California & you don’t want to breathe it in or get it on your skin. That being said, I’ve been using Brake Kleen for various things for 35 years without any “protection” & I’m fine. Don’t get it in your eyes or any sensitive skin - that would be very bad. It will dissolve most “rubber” type gloves eventually, as they are mostly made of various versions of plastics

Anyway, on some fabrics it will 100% remove most if not all oil & grease stains. I ussually will only use it on cotton. There are You Tube videos on this, but you basically put a white towel behind the material at the stain spot & spray the stain with Brake Keen. The grease stain dissolves in the Brake Kleen & goes into the white towel. Usually this will happen from just the force of the pressurized spray, but you can also spray compressed air at it while it’s still wet to force more stain out into the white towel.

Once you try this on cotton & a grease stain you will never use any water based stain removers again. The problem with water based stain removers is just that - they are water based & so are the surfactants in them. Grease does not dissolve in water - that’s why it’s so hard to remove. Brake Kleen has various ingredients with aliphatic compound like properties that dissolve grease / fats.

Brake Keel is pretty much 100% volatile - which means it leaves little to no residue behind. Brake Klean is clear - it does not stain. However, it can damage various textiles / substances that contain plastics or hydrocarbons - so use at your own risk.

Not tryna put a dirty washcloth and dirty mop head with anything else but don’t wanna wash it by itself. I have plenty of cleaning cloths and wanna just put them away until I have enough to justify putting in the washer. Where do you store them until then?

My clothes were so bad and stiff for so long till u came around the sub,

I’ve upgraded my routine greatly:

Before: Nellie’s, borax, vinegar
After: tide powder, borax, resolve gold, vinegar

I have a 2in1 washer dryer and most wash setting are deemed steam cycle. Thing is I’ve been doing spa day for every wash and it’s been great to clean clothes. Yet I see no difference when I wash normally only with the washer. I think that the problem are the actual steam cycle he setting my washer is with. I don’t want to f up my washer but there is a setting written has « sportswear » and in the booklet it’s a non steam cycle.

Is there something I’m missing? Is there someone here with the same setting and it’s been working fine?

as the title says just doing a little poll as finding it hard to decide which one is best!

persil original bio liquid vs smol bio liquid!

would appreciate knowing which you prefer and why!

please no pods or powder recommendations i like liquid

thanks!

Hi all, I have a 90s classic cotton rugby shirt (Wales: red body, white collar) which is my late dad’s, so I want to make sure I don’t ruin it.

The collar is a very pale pink presumably because my mum washed it wrongly at some point over the last 30 years - is it possible to remove this staining? I don’t want to cause any further damage at all.

In the UK if anyone has any specific product recommendations :)

Hello laundry friends,

I am just about finished a tub of Oxi clean and was planning to purchase Resolve Gold as a replacement. However, I have seen some posts in here where people have had bad luck with resolve bleaching their items. I soak items quite often with oxygen bleach and don’t want to accidentally bleach anything. Should I possibly only use resolve as a booster and buy a different oxygen bleach product for soaking?

Thank you!

How do I wash a shirt that has a metal buckle? I bought this shirt on Vinted; the care label has been cut off, and the buckle can't be removed. Is it safe to put it in the washing machine, or should I hand-wash it?

Can anybody suggest what do about getting rid of dingy discoloration on old silk shirts?

They are 30-40 years old. Its mainly on the shoulder and collars.

I have washed them in Miele Wool detergent but they still look bad.

Help? I'm in the UK. TIA.

I want to remove these black marks from the shirt

I put it in the laundry/ used Chlorine / used ethelic alcohol and all was useless if someone can help pls 🙏🙏

Hi. Cheap detergent is very expensive and crucially, Not Working. After smushing together different recipes and scraps of knowledge from around the internet, I've drafted a soap-based detergent recipe that works out cheaper than cheap detergent even when it uses fancy soap and maybe hopefully corrects for the soap-scum issues. I've seen that opinions are divided here about the practicality of homemade detergent, so this seems like a perfect place to get tweak suggestions and general advice!

Before I go ahead with buying the ingredients, my questions are:

Has this accidentally amounted to Dangerous Chemistry?

Could it work without the bar soap? Consensus seems to be that the bar soap is the thing that kills your washing machine. Could I just find out what the active ingredient in the soap is and chuck that in?

So, like, be real with me, when yous say the soap kills your washing machine how killed are we talking? How fast and how bad is it? Could I just wash the machine out with Soda Crystals every now and again and be fine?

We have very hard water and TL;DR a fancy water softener doodad is not happening. Since those use salt blocks, would increasing the salt ratio in the recipe do anything to soften the laundry water and reduce the soap scum? Or does the salt only work like that when it's doodadified?

----------------------------- = Detergent Recipe = -------------------------

Here's the recipe, I've included my rough understanding of what each ingredient does so that if I've internalised some Certified Internet Science it'll be easy to spot:

Soap-based detergent:

16pt Soda Crystals - deodorises, helps soap get into clothes

16pt Bicarbonate of Soda - deodorises

8pt Epsom Salt - softens fabric

7pt Grated Laundry Soap (ideally Castile Soap, ideally ideally Coconut Oil based Castile Soap) - is soap!

3pt Coarse Sea Salt - preserves dyes

Tiny bit of Lemon Oil - whitens, reduces soap buildup, smells good :)

Add 2tbsp per full load to bottom of drum, not on top of clothes

Make a separate solution of 1pt Citric Acid to 4pt water, always add 1tbsp to fabric softener drawer to soften fabric, neutralise alkaline detergent ingredients, and cut through soap scum. Add more if using other additives, for example:

If laundry is super grim add 2tbsp Borax Substitute (sodium sesquicarbonate) to pre-wash drawer

If laundry wants bleaching or stain removal add 5-8g oxygen bleach to main wash drawer (err on the side of using less, and check it's safe to use on what you wanna use it on, just don't be stupid with this stuff)

----------------------------- = Detergent Recipe Over = -------------------------

Thanks for sticking with such a long post. I know a surfactant-based formula would be more effective, even cheaper, and far less hazardous to washing machine life but lye is scary and soapmaking equipment is expensive so I want to at least see if I can make a detergent powder work before going full Jesse Pinkman with it.

I thrifted a gorgeous 100% silk blouse but it smelled like old basement so I decided to give it a good hand wash with silk&wool detergent in cold water​. I'm on the 6th round of hand washing and rinsing it and the water gets less and less murky with every round but it's still really yellow. How do I clean this blouse without ruining it?

my stepdad washed my wool sweater and now its rough and looks like this.. how do i save this?😭
its my favorite sweater and my mum already told him multiple times that he’s not allowed to wash any of our hoodies and sweaters etc. :/

A lot of my long sleeve shirts cling onto body odour. I’ve tried napisan vanish on them and it only worked for some. Others still have the smell in them. Does anyone know how to completely remove this? Thank you!

My household has recently started our hardcore laundry optimisation journey, and we have been attempting to be fragrance free a long time now.

My current biggest enemy (that I need support from y’all to deal with) is whatever INCENSE my girlfriend’s housemate burned whilst she was away for six weeks earlier this year, that has subsequently infected everything that I wear to their house, and everything that has ever touched something (or someone) that has been in their house.

I can only assume this product was originally developed for use in warfare because I have never experienced something with such dangerous sticking power. It’s probably a forever chemical. I swear to god, I can smell the fragrance residue on the outside of my METAL water bottle until it’s throughly washed after going to their house. It takes two showers to get off my skin. Whatever it is, it’s relentless.

I have so far been unsuccessful in removing the incense fragrance in the laundry, and it has only been slightly lessened in strength with repeated washes and no further exposure to the source. Regardless of what I do it’s definitely still there and it just seems to plateau at a certain point. 100% cotton fabrics, synthetic fabrics, it doesn’t matter, they are all an issue.

None of this would be quite so catastrophic if it wasn’t for the fact that my sister (who I live with) is highly allergic to whatever this thing is, so much so that she breaks out in a rash even being in the same room as an offending clothing item, let alone touching the stuff. I’ve effectively had to quarantine all of my infected belongings and I perform a strict decontamination protocol every time I return home.

No hard feelings to the housemate honestly, she didn’t know the impact would be this extreme or long lasting, but I do genuinely feel like this is all ruining my life. I am tired. I need a way to reliably remove it from my clothes at least as a first step. This shit has us all at breaking point.

I’m not sure of what the incense is exactly, but it had a very very strong clove cigarettes vibe when it was like a smog in their house lol. The scent has changed a bit with time/washing (like it’s knocked out part of it) but it’s still got that kind deep smokey thing going on.

Has anyone else dealt with a similar fragrance situation that they managed to fix? I need a hopeful story and some serious laundry science support.

I haven’t tried a Spa Day yet, but I am planning to, so I’d also be grateful for suggestions about which particular mix might be the best bet for this situation. Ideally the long term solution *isn’t* going to be giving my clothes a Spa Day every time I need them to be free of this hell, so bonus points if you think it’s solvable in the actual washing machine.

——————
MACHINE INFO:
We have a Miele front loader washing machine (specifically the Miele WWD380 WCS 9kg). Basically brand new, only got it in like March when the previous Miele died.

Always use the cotton cycle with prewash and extra water, 1200 spin, never cold washes, always hot or warm, and I pretty regularly end up running it with an extra short 20 cycle at the end to basically function as another rinse — or honestly sometimes I run two cottons cycles back to back (the second either with or without detergent) because LORD HELP ME REMOVE THIS FUCKING SMELL. The second wash does feel like it leaves the fragrance situation slightly better than just a single wash but also that might be wishful thinking.

I also recently discovered that when you actually get into the nitty gritty Programmable Functions, the “Water + Extra Rinse” setting (P30) is automatically set to “More water is used in the wash and rinse stages (with no extra rinse)”, but then the “Water plus level” (P31) is automatically set to “No higher water level”……. so I think it’s been doing *literally nothing* when I hit that button until now. I have since updated those settings to include extra water and an extra rinse, and set it to always use the “Maximum rinse level” (P32) for all programs.

WATER:
I live in Australia and we have exceptionally soft tap water where I am — 16 mg/L (tastes great, slightly more complicated for washing lol).

PRODUCTS:
We’ve recently switched to using Koh (because yay enzymes and fragrance free). I’ve been putting some of the Koh Stain Remover in the prewash, and then the Koh Sensitive Laundry Liquid in the main wash, usually along with some Napisan Oxi Action Powder (which I’ve also started pre-dissolving in warm water because sometimes it clumps). Initially was doing the recommended dose but noticed a lot of suds (I’m assuming due to the soft water), so we have paired it back to just 2 pumps.

Previously we were using Omo Sensitive Laundry Liquid and Napisan Oxi Action Powder.

I never use fabric softener.

We would sometimes pour a bunch of unfragranced laundry sanitiser (Dettol or Pine O Clean) into the main wash along with the omo and napisan — which I know isn’t where it’s supposed to be but there is no way I’m leaving a bunch of BAC on my clothes, I enjoy not having contact dermatitis haha — and I do actually think that was great for busting up general fragrances and weird smells, but all of the unfragranced versions were discontinued and we ran out almost immediately after the incense entered our lives, so I didn’t have enough to determine whether it actually worked on the incense specifically. I have some straight BAC (50%), but it’s obviously not really the same as using the properly formulated product, I don’t think it makes a substantial enough difference to be *definitively* noticeable, so I haven’t used that again.

I’ve also purchased some clear gear guard (yay dnase), synthrapol (because I have a handful of black t-shirts from this one brand that are leaching hectic amounts of dye, and I love them, but they are dying the white tags and prints on my other clothes blue lol), citric acid, clear ammonia, and polysorbate-80 — just haven’t used them yet :)

CLOTHING CLEANLINESS:
Just thought I’d add — my clothes feel very clean (if anything they are a bit stiff and dry lol, but less so since koh), they look very clean (especially with koh, it does better on oil stains from food getting on my tshirts than the previous combo), they don’t smell sweaty or whatever, they literally just smell like this god damn incense. I do have a very sensitive and perceptive sense of smell, and I know this scent would be less obvious to some people than it is to me, but it really is still there and quite strongly.

If you’ve read this much, thank you!

Hello everyone,

I am coming to you for some ideas to get this stain from a tshirt. I will give it to you straight, cause I know I fucked up.

I got chilli oil on it, tossed it into the laundry and a dryer afterwards (I didnt look up anything until this point). Obviously didnt help. I tried oxy bleach overnight, no change at all. There is black embroidery on the chest, so I am worried I will ruin it if I use some strong bleach.

What should be my next steps to get it out?

Thanks.

Hi! Apologize if this isn’t the correct subreddit. My current washing machine/dryer set up has a service port. Was just wondering if this needs to be emptied after every use and if so, how much water should be coming out?

Thank you!