What's the best way to get a smell out of curtains?

Hey all! My housemate has moved out, she's not western so her standards of hygiene were different.

Her curtains and bedding smells awful. Her bedding is going to a local cat sanctuary, I washed them on a 2 hour 60 degree wash with double detergent and they still smell.

Her curtains are washable polycotton, how can I get the smell out of them?

16 comments

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.
- 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.
  
  I eyeball it, probably a generous cup (roughly 250mL) per load, maybe more?
- Washed them twice with white vinegar today it worked a treat! Thanks so much
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.

16 comments