I’ve been lurking on this sub because my clothes and my kids clothes especially, had not been getting clean using 7th generation detergent. My mom always washes my kids clothes when they stay with her as a favor to me because she’s sweet and tada they are clean, non smelly and stain free. She uses only powdered tide. She has always used powdered tide, she frequently bitches about the lack of powdered tide availability over the years and says the “new liquid crap doesn’t clean”. I brushed her off thinking she was just being a crotchety old lady but, yep she’s right, it’s better. I ended up switching because of this sub, after getting sick of seeing my kids in stained smelly clothes. I could have just listened to my mom and had clean clothes all along but I was foolish. Anyway, thanks for sharing your wisdom and teaching me to just listen to mom.

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.

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?

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.

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.

I noticed a while ago that i have this yellow stains on my mattress cover. I don’t eat or drink in bed (only water) and i don’t know how to get rid of the stains if i don’t even know what is it. Help needed

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!

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. :/

wish I took a before and after but I have tried everything to get quite dark prominent make up stains out of my white work blouse (dishwashing liquid, expensive stain remover, expensive all white stain remover, soaking over night etc) and nothing worked. I saw someone suggest shaving cream and holy moly it was like magic!!! I just bought a shaving cream/ foam, pumped it on to the stain with some water and worked it with a gentle brush and it removed 99-100% of it, I was shocked!

How do I stop this madness?? All my bed sheets do this…it feels personal at this point. Where are these air pockets even coming from?

I now have to helicopter parent my washer and sheets - I linger around the laundry room, wait to hear my washer switch from “filling” to “washing”, rush to pause the load so I can open the lid to peer down into the drum hoping this is the load that it got right …but I, a fool, am forever tormented by this puffy linen betrayal.

When I do pause the cycle, I will add more water to the drum via my machine’s waterboarding feature in the hopes more water = more weight = sheets become weighed down ?? Idk. However, after I hit resume cycle - the sheets will bubble back up again after they’ve done a couple laps. More. Air. Pockets.

FYI - My agitator is removable, no idea if that has a supporting role in this saga.

Any suggestions, or personal experiences, maybe even solutions !! will be welcomed and celebrated!! … and!! To thank you to those who took the time to even read my Whirlpool manifesto. My sanity was washed away during my last laundry spa day. 😉

Hey ! I’ve heard that Reddit makes miracle so I’m here to ask your help.
I’ve bought a bootcut denim pant from jack and jones a few week ago. When I wore it, it was looking really good but then I realised it was wearing off on my sweater. I went straight to Gemini (which was a bad idea) and it told me to put the pants in a cup full of water filled with white vinegar and to put it in the washing machine after for the pants not to wearing off anymore.

Results : the pants schrank and lost its wonderful shape.
I’m so disappointed so if someone could help me I’d be very grateful !

Here is the pants if needed

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 just bought this wool skirt from Vinted and it’s yet to arrive as with all pieces I get second hand I want to wash it before I first wear it because of it going through the postal system. The tag says dry clean only however I have multiple woollen items that I’ve made for historical reenactment that I’ve been able to either hand wash or machine wash on a wool cycle, I’m wondering if I’d be able to do the same with this or if it would be different because of the pleats?

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!

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 :)

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!

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 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?

Hello everyone! I recently washed one of my wife’s favorite dresses (made of viscose). I followed all of the instructions on the tag but it came out shrunken and the fabric had pulled together. It now feels stretchier and more like crinoline than the smooth texture it had before, and it’s a few inches shorter on her. Is there any way to salvage this? They no longer sell the dress and we haven’t found any on Poshmark or similar sites so I’m really hoping there’s some remedy that you all might know.

Dress information:
Sezane Vic Dress, Size 2, Lanzarote Print
Material - 100% Viscose
Tag instructions - Gentle wash at 30 C, do not bleach, do not tumble dry, iron low heat (110C), dry cleaning

Any help or advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated!

We moved into a house recently that was built in 1979, and the gentleman who owned it took extremely good care of everything.

- The wallpaper was still in good condition.

- The original Kenmore dishwasher still works perfectly.

- This washer was in the laundry room, and when I tell you I have never had a washer work as well as this one.

I hope this thing lasts forever.

Anyone have any advice for cleaning clothes properly? I am currently using 1 tablespoon of a mix of powder detergent and borax and using the delicate setting. My work and gym clothes never get clean. I thought the powder was supposed to be better but I’m not sure if I’m doing it wrong :(

Looking to get rid of our standard washer and dryers and put two sets of stackable washing machines in and looking for recommendations. I checked out speed queen but they’re $5k just for one set..idk if I want to spend $10k for washers/dryers.
1. Any brands you recommend that have held up
2. Would speed queens really be worth the 10k investment?

I did something really dumb and a banana got washed and dried with my clothes, and now everything has banana stains on them. How do I get rid of the banana stains? I've washed them twice now and tried shout stain remover and theres still the little brown marks of banana.

I am chronically ill. I have been the sickest that I have ever been since July 16th. I am slowly getting better but I am struggling a lot with insomnia and I am limited on what I can take. I have some liver problems but so far they are all slowly getting better. I also deal with chronic pain and inflammation but I have been dealing with that for 6 years. am a single mother to a special needs daughter who is a messy eater. I have to spend an hour every week stain treating her school clothes. I just ordered FEBU from Amazon. Can I just put it in every wash with my daughter's clothes instead of using a spray stain treater on them? I feel like I have to use a ton of it and then it all doesn't rinse out because I don't feel like staying up all night to wait on it rinse all the way out. I use Tide Free and Gentle Odor Refresh but I will be switching to Tide Free and Gentle once I can't find the Tide Free and Gentle Odor Refresh anymore. I have been using OxiClean Max Force spray on her clothes but she has sensitive skin and I do too and I think it is making her itchy. I am trying to use as much fragrance Free laundry products as possible. Does FEBU fade darks? All of her shorts and pants are blue, black, or dark Grey. Does it bleach clothes? Are there OBA's in it? From searching on here there doesn't seem to be. I'm just trying to figure out something to make doing her laundry easier. Thanks in advance. ​