Laundry That Actually Smells Clean

There is a particular smell — slightly sour, noticeable when a towel gets wet — that no amount of extra fabric softener fixes. In fact fabric softener is usually making it worse. Here is what is actually going on.

The machine is the problem, not the powder

Modern washes run cool, which is good for bills and fabrics and excellent for the bacteria and mildew living in the door seal, the detergent drawer and the drum. That biofilm smells, and it transfers straight onto clean laundry.

Then stop doing three things

• Overloading. Clothes need room to move or they do not get clean. If you cannot fit a flat hand on top of the load, it is too full.
• Too much detergent. Counter-intuitive, but excess detergent does not rinse out. It stays in the fabric, holds onto moisture and feeds the smell. Use the line on the cap.
• Fabric softener on towels. It works by coating fibres in a waxy film, which is exactly why towels stop absorbing and start smelling. Baking soda in the drum, or a splash of white vinegar in the rinse drawer, does the softening job without the buildup.

Dry it faster

Most laundry smell is really slow-drying smell. Wet washing left in the drum for six hours will smell whatever you did to it. Get it out promptly, hang it with air moving around it, and open a window rather than drying it on a radiator in a closed room.

Rescuing towels that already smell

Hottest wash the fabric allows, no detergent, a cup of baking soda. Then a second cycle with a cup of white vinegar in the drawer and nothing else. Two cycles, no products, and they usually come back.