One of my best friends inspired this post today! We are talking about the easiest, most natural way to remove odor from clothes.
Last year, my friend sent me a message and said she needed some help getting a very strong laundry scent out of some clothes a friend gave her.
She said she had already washed these clothes six times in her regular laundry detergent, but COULD NOT get the smell out!
It wasn’t a bad smell, but she cant’ be around chemical fragrance, so she needed it out.
I had one simple solution for her, and she couldn’t believe how well it worked. I realized, this would be a great post for anyone who might need to get some bad odors out of clothes, towels, or anything fabric.
Let’s get started!
Easy, Natural Way To Remove Odor From Clothes
So, what is the easiest, most natural way to remove odor from clothes? SUNLIGHT!!
Not only is sunlight free and natural, but it actually works better than any product you might try!
The secret to this is some simple science.
First, let us show you how to utilize those wonderful sun rays!
How To Use Sunlight To Remove Odor From Clothes
These steps are so simple! I live in Texas, so we have very strong sunlight for the majority of the year. Right now, it is winter, so the sunlight isn’t as strong as it is in the summer. This just means you will need to lengthen the time your clothes are in the sun.
Step 1: Wash your clothes normally. It is also best to start with CLEAN clothes to make sure no dirt or debris is hindering the sunlight (just like cleaning and disinfecting on hard surfaces 🙂 ).
Step 2: After clothing is washed, you can go ahead and dry it in the dryer normally, or go straight to the outdoors while it is still damp (it is your preference here, but wet clothes will get more of the benefits).
Step 3: Hang your clothes outside in direct sunlight. If you have low, winter lighting. Clothes will need 6+ hours of sunlight to remove odors. If it is hot summer light, 3 hours or so should work.
Step 4: Test your clothing to see if the bad odor is gone. If you still smell a little bit lingering, simply hang it back in the sunlight for another hour.
The example I gave above with my good friend’s laundry took four hours of hot Texas sun and her clothes smelled neutral. This was a fragrance scent she was trying to remove, so it can take a little longer.
What Types of Odors Will Sunlight Remove?
Sunlight will remove all scents and odors. It will get rid of mold, mildew, smoke, urine, food smells, fragrance, musty smells, and will make your clothes smell neutral.
How Does Sunlight Remove Odors From Fabric?
Bad odors, as we know from our air freshener post with a scientist, are caused from bacteria. Bacteria can linger in your clothing causing mildew, mold, or sour smells. Sunlight has UV rays which eventually kill bacteria by altering the DNA of the germ.
Does Sunlight Bleach Clothing?
In a way, yes. Sunlight can bleach your clothing, but in a good way. According to this post on Library of Congress, UV rays breakdown chemical bonds and cause fading of color. This will benefit your white fabrics. After washing white fabric, while it is still wet, place outside in the sunlight. Make sure to rotate it a few times so all sides get the direct sun. Any discoloring or dinginess will fade in the sun. Just like with bleaching products.
What about colored clothing? Overtime, sunlight will break down the actual coloring of fabric. However, it would take many many years for this to happen for an extended about of time in the sun. Clothes and fabrics are safe in the sunlight for a few hours at a time to freshen. Sunlight will also bleach or fade stains like food, ink, or blood.
Does Sunlight Also Kill Viral Stands on Fabrics?
Well, this is another topic for another post. In fact, stay tuned over the next few weeks when we share a post on disinfecting clothing. In short, no….Virus strands are a little different than your basic bacteria or odor causing molecules. Also, viral strands don’t linger on fabric like you might think. Washing your clothes in hot water and laundry detergent continues to be the best thing for disinfecting. Again, join us for a post on this in a few weeks. For now, remember that UV rays are going to freshen and remove odors 🙂
There are three types of UV Rays
There are three types of UV rays: UVA, UVB, and UVC. According to the FDA, UVC is really the only thing that will disinfect, but you will not be exposed to this outside in the sunlight. You only get the UVC rays with artificial sources. With this in mind, the UVA rays are what benefits your clothing the most when it comes to odor removal. We will touch more on this in the next post about disinfecting clothes.
I hope you enjoyed this post today! If you try anything out, please tag us on instagram and use #chemistrycachet so we can see it!!
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Wow. I know my friend uses vinegar as fabric softener as you mentioned in the handbook. Was it a free and clear detergent she used or something else?
I am not sure what her friend uses, but my friend uses an organic detergent due to her allergies
Imiss the days when I could hang my laundry outside in the sunlight.
I don’t do it very often, but it sure does help odor removal!
I love posts like this, since I am very sensitive to scents and they are everywhere. I’m in a condo and don’t have a great place to hang stuff, but maybe will bring some to my mom’s. One thing I’ve done is for books that smell super perfumey or mildewy from the library. I put them in a large Rubbermaid container with a small ozone machine. It helps. The ozone machine is not the best, so I need a better one or a better solution, so if you ever think of anything like that, please let me know!
There are artificial UV machines that work good for this and have become very popular. I haven’t found a good review on ozone machines, but I will keep an eye out! I have never personally used one, but I will be researching. Thanks!!
Oh, I hadn’t heard of UV for fragrance, but it definitely makes sense for mildew. I’ll look into that, thank you! I have a big ozone machine that’s great, but too powerful for this application. Thanks for your reply!
I tried that on the mustiness in my bath towels, having them in the sun. We live up North but from 11 – 7, I have sun on my deck and clothes line.
It did not work.
What did finally work was hot water, Borax and letting them soak in my washing machine overnight. I then washed them and used vinegar in the rinse cycle.
I did hang them out to dry.
I do this every couple of months. Except now, they go in the dryer.
– 10 this am!
Yes, hot water is really the best. We talk about it in our disinfecting clothes post 🙂
If fading is a concern couldn’t you just hang the article inside out?
Yes you can 🙂 Although, I have not dealt with any fading even in hot Texas sun
Nylon and other synthetics can go yellow in sunlight. Thanks for your interesting newsletters.
Great tip! Thanks for sharing 🙂