Dealing with smelly family laundry
Some second-hand clothing items are in great condition, but not others are not. Learn how to clean not-so-nice second-hand clothing before wearing it.
We asked experienced members of our community to share their experiences using cloth nappies. This series covers childcare, travel, returning to work and more.
A group member talks about her experiences with getting smelly preloved kids’ clothing clean again.
With kids growing out of clothing so quickly, I prefer to get as much of my child’s clothing second-hand as I can. Some of it is in pristine condition, but some of it is stained or smelly despite being visibly clean.
I have tried a lot of different things to try and get these items clean again.
The first thing I try are long warm washes with double detergent and laundry booster. Some secondhand clothing has gone through multiple long warm washes with double the dose of detergent and laundry booster that I would normally use on my own laundry and it still comes out of the wash smelly. Honestly, in some of these loads, if I had not added detergent and laundry booster myself I would have said I forgot to add detergent altogether!
I am reluctant to wash family laundry in hot (60ºC) washes, but recently I have washed at 50°C with no ill effects.
Cleaning second-hand clothing with chlorine bleach
The items I receive are usually dark or coloured, but if they were white or I was sure they were colourfast (polyester), I would add them straight into a bleach sanitise instead of running multiple washes. For white and colourfast items I would choose an in-wash sanitise using a dilution for moderately stained items.
If dark or coloured second-hand items are still smelly after two long warm washes with detergent and laundry booster, I soak them in diluted chlorine bleach. This involves multiple plastic boxes of bleachy water, using a small-scale sanitise at the non-colourfast dilution.
I have had a few items come out with patchy colour loss. In these cases, I suspect I have overloaded the bucket or not submerged items thoroughly. However, they come out smelling great. I consider this a small price to pay for children’s clothing that isn’t smelly when I’ve exhausted other options.
My tips for others are to wash the family laundry as hot as you think items will take, add a lot of detergent and laundry booster, and add even more detergent if there are no suds 30-40 minutes into a long wash.
If second-hand clothing isn’t clean after a few long washes, then consider bleach sanitising them.