Try using white vinegar, baking soda, enzyme-based detergents, or laundry sanitizer.
Something like https://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Labs-Concentrated-Efficiency-Biodegradable/dp/B09MSP7M5Y/ ought to help.
this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2025
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Seconding this. I've had good success adding white vinegar to a hot wash for all sorts of smelly things, like dog bedding or stanky gym clothes.
Good tip! How much vinegar would you add?
I use white vinegar for the towels and items my bunnies have accidents on. It works great. I typically use about a half cup.
Just a tip: use a load that is only vinegar and no detergent. The detergents will neutralize the vinegars.
Ooooh good tip thanks
I eyeball it, probably a generous cup (roughly 250mL) per load, maybe more?
Excellent thanks Klem
You can get 30% acetic acid at hardware stores, which is just white vinegar concentrated 6x. It's cheaper per mole of acetic acid, so get some to use for cleaning and save the food-grade 5% for cooking.
Would this not destroy the curtains? I'd be reluctant to put that high a concentration of acid on fabric
Typically one would dilute the acid a bit first, but I don't think that aceitc acid can do much damage to typical fibers quickly enough to be an issue. I use it at about 12% and I have no cause to think it's hurting my clothes, sheets or curtains.
Interesting, I'll have to keep an eye out for the concentrated stuff
Washed them twice with white vinegar today it worked a treat! Thanks so much
Are you insinuating that anyone who isn’t a white European smells bad?
She is a white European.
Did mentioning the fact that she is not western add anything though? You could have just as easily said "my roommate was unhygenic and now her stuff smells bad"
I don't mean this in a judgemental way, it's just good for us all to think about the way unconscious bias peeks through when we speak.
Thanks for your input
Ah, so you're insinuating Europeans smell bad. That makes it better?
sigh
The purity checks of the western left are oh so wearying. I guess that's what happens when you don't have actual problems in your life. You make problems up to get offended by.
I'm curious about this, too. We had a couple heatwaves out here and with my working outside, I've gotten paranoid my work shirts have a smell I'm now stink blind to. I've tried adding oxiclean recently but no one's been like "wow there's no old sweat smell on you anymore" so I don't know if it's working or if it was ever a problem.
This is not really an answer to your question, but I find the best moment to do a smell check is right after a shower. The clothes I wore before the shower smell way less "still okay" after the shower. Though I'm not sure whether that's enough of a difference for your problem.
I'll try it out!
I second the white vinegar comment. It works wonderfully on getting biological odors out of laundry.
One of the ways shirts end up stinky or holding on to armpit smells is the carrier oils in deoderants. You can spray a generous amount of white vinegar onto the armpit seam of your shirts to help breakdown deoderant residue and then run it through the wash.