My husband and I were recently THROWN UP ON at a concert by a very drunk idiot. I washed the contaminated clothes immediately after, but they were still stained / reeked. I searched the sub and bought some FEBU to soak the clothes in. After a 6 hour soak the water was brown and smelled like puke 🤢.

I then did the longest wash I could (we live in an apartment building with communal Speed Queens in the basement) with Tide Free & Gentle and more FEBU. I almost cried when I took the clothes out - perfectly clean and odorless. My top was from Poshmark and it feels cleaner than it did when it arrived. I also used FEBU on my regular laundry and some old oil & blood stains came out of clothes that have been washed and dried at least a dozen times.

Thank you for helping save my husbands favorite jacket and my limited edition Trader Joe’s Halloween mini tote! I did NOT want to pay $25 to replace a $4 bag.

I bought this coat on Depop and it smells a little weird so I want to wash it but unsure how

Advice on how to wash pee from this weighted stuffy that says spot clean only? Potty training toddler had a nighttime accident and the entire bottom of this stuffed Dino soaked up a bunch of it. Tried spot cleaning with Dawn and water but still smells like pee

So visiting a friend and went on a 7 day cruise where i dressed up every night-wigs, corsets, hair fascinators, heels, hoop skirt, chunky jewelry. Came back and had the case open and his cat randomly decided he needed to release his liquid manly scent all over the suitcase that held ALL those accessories.

So laundry friends, I’m no stranger to eliminating cat pee smell, but that’s why I’m at a complete loss as to how to clean any of these unwashable/soakable items.

Most pressing on the list is my steel boned corsets. They are all brand new and high quality (not plastic) and it hurts my soul to see them so saturated. 😔 I would think dry cleaning a corset for a stain, but this level of wet makes me worry about rust/corrosion of the busk, grommets and/or inner boning and I dont want to dry the pee into them either. So any recommendations on how to go about washing these would be greatly appreciated!

As for the other things, I can shampoo the wigs but should I add anything to ensure the smell goes away without stripping the style of it? The hair fascinator’s are mostly fake flowers and feathers on a felt round. Is there anything I can do to save those?
I think I am just going to have to hose off the suitcase and hoop skirt, but any kind of remedies for that odious odor are always welcome!

Pic of the purr-pee-traitor included 😼

USA, renter, top loading communal washer on a timer

So I have been lurking on here for months and finally have the perfect selection of detergents, and enzyme boosters. I thought I had it all figured out until I read one post that changed everything.

Living in an apartment I realized I don't have TIME! Time was the missing element.

Since my husband and I are currently not homeowners, fingers crossed hopefully within the next year or two, I am stuck with the apartment washing machine that everyone must use, an ancient Maytag that uses dials, and more importantly a TIMER. The timer continues regardless if the lid is left up. So if I were allowed the clothes to soak, it would automatically go to the rinse and empty cycle.

So with all the fancy detergents and enzymes I have, what I don't have is the proper time for these enzymes to work. The ancient Maytag does an entire load in a half an hour. Laundromats aren't that much better, with paying extra I might get 45 minutes in total.

So I'm literally just dumping money down the drain for what my needs are. Those enzymes not only need the proper temperature, but also time, the proper duration for them to finally work and break down sweat, oil, and other DNA in my towels and laundry.

I know I could do this in a bathtub, but I honestly don't have the strength to lug around wet clothing. What clothing is heavy, and honestly lugging it around would wipe me out.

So I decided to get a cooler so that I can let clothes and stay in there for several hours, allowing the proper amount of time and temperature for the detergents and the enzymes to do the work they were intended to.

I can put this in my bathtub and then drain the water out and then with the wheels and the handle wheel it to my communal Maytag to just rinse out the clothes and towels and to use the Downy runs.

What do you think?

Are there any credible eco friendly alternatives to colour catcher sheets? I've started using Dr. Beckmann colour collector all in 1 sheets. I use 2 per wash and they always come out grey and horrid looking; which makes me think they are working at catching loose dyes. But I worry about throwing away synthetic fibers needlessly.

I'm looking for opinions of others who use colour catcher sheets. Do they actually work? Or am I being tricked? If they do work, have you got recommendations for eco friendly varieties?

My current wash (in a UK front loading Smeg):

I sort into whites, lights, and blacks.

My clothes are all natural fibers .

40 degrees wash

Waitrose bio detergent+ vanish

Citric acid rinse.

Is there anything that I can add to a load of laundry that will remove breastmilk stains? I use Tide Free & Gentle and FEBU.

Right now, I’m spot treating but it’s very tedious and this new mama ain’t got time for that 😭

Just doing a drive by (a quick look at wool and borax) and I notice a number of recommendations for using cheap vodka for odors.
Why?
Is the assumption that everybody has cheap vodka laying around?
Is there a particular reason not to use rubbing alcohol?
rubbing alcohol = isopropyl alcohol,
70% is ~$0.10/oz
90% is ~$0.15/oz
The cheapest vodka at Walmart is $0.185/oz. 80 proof 40% ethyl alcohol,
quite a few vodkas are priced at ~$0.23-$0.28.
Everclear at Walmart is 75% ethyl alcohol
$0.71/oz

So I’ll try to keep the rage low key as to not distract from my main question. But our brand new (purchased in July) whirlpool 4.2c top loader has broken for the second time with the same spin cycle issue. Both times the repair technician cancelled day before the repair because of “parts” and that was already after waiting a week for the appointment. So now we wait another week for a reschedule … for the second time… FOR A NEW MACHINE.

Deep breath

So I decided to take out some of my anger on some clothes in a 5 gallon bucket. I purchased a screw on lid and was expecting to just fill it with hot water and roll it around on its side until I had enough.

I figured I’d just glance at what the laundry YouTube community had to say about washing in a 5 gallon bucket and everyone’s using this plunger technique … which to me seems way less efficient than just rolling the bucket around like a front loader.

From anyone with experience, is there something I’m missing for why so many people suggest the plunger method? I don’t get it. Thanks in advance.

I was recently gifted a very fancy very expensive Margaret Howell wool sweater. I want to make sure I take proper care of it. I did initially wash it in the washing machine on a wool/hand wash cycle at 20 degrees, but is that best avoided? How often should one wash a sweater like this to begin with? I expect I'll wear it a fair bit but doubt I'll use it much without an undershirt. Is actual handwashing better? If so how does one best go about that?

Please help me save my towels. I have cotton Imabari towels from Japan. I normally use Nellie's powder which leaves them feeling incredibly soft and smelling really clean. They were starting to look a little dingy though.

I washed them in hot water on the towel setting of my LG HE front loader with level 1 of Oxyclean and level 2 of Tide powder hoping to brighten them up.

After washing and drying, they are no longer soft and feel like they have a sticky residue.

Please tell me I can fix this.

I have this (not so) fluffy jacket which I really really love, but over time of wearing it the Fabric turned like clumpy :(

Is there any way to save my jacket?💔
I don’t care how time consuming the method may be as long as its successful

First pic is with flash, second is without. I have no idea what this stain is from, but I have not been able to get it out of this shirt to save my life. I've used normal Dawn, Dawn power wash, an enzyme-based stain remover more than once, and oxygen bleach with the load.

I'd like to try once more to get the stain out but my last resort will be to tie-dye it. Any ideas? Thank you!

Preface: My husband has a tshirt that is akin to a baby blanky for him (has had it for 15+ years) he likes to use it to cover his eyes at night. Before we got together he washed it maybe once a year. I wash it every few months when I think about it, but with the age and how worn out the shirt is I wash it in the sink multiple times in a row.

How often SHOULD it be getting washed? Is there a safe way to wash in the washer? I’m scared to use a garment bag and potentially ruin it.

Small edit to add: before I started hand washing it he was running it through the washer every few months with the bedding but it started getting a lot of holes in it - which is why I started hand washing it in the first place. It’s been getting washed regularly since we moved in together.

I'm getting a rotten fish smell in clothes loads. It's noticeable even just a few minutes into the cycle if I open the door. It's putrescent if opened 30-60 minutes into the cycle, but the clothes come out at the end of the cycle smelling like basically nothing. I tried once with a load of kitchen towels, and they smelled like wet towels about 30 minutes into the cycle, so I think it has something to do with the clothes. The towels come out smelling slightly like wet towels, and I'm ok with that, as long as it doesn't get worse or indicate a potentially larger issue down the line. Primarily cotton, but not exclusively - for both towels and clothes.

Is this anything I should be concerned about?

I'm using febu (1 scoop), tide (4-6 tablespoons depending on load, scant bubbles), citric acid (in wash-1 T and rinse-1.5 T), and washing soda (1 oz). Clothes are washed on normal, stain cycle, extra rinse, extra dirty, extra fast spin. Towels are washed with the same settings, except towels instead of normal.

Thank you guys for sharing your secrets
It looks like a brand new hat :)

New to the sub and also detergent stuff in general. I've always just used what my parents used. I'm not typing it here because I have pretty bad ocd and would rather not go through a crisis thinking about how unclean I was.

All free and clear seemed to be the most recommended through googling but no one in this sub likes it so I suppose I'll steer clear.

My specific needs I'd like to get met:

1. Unscented

2. No boosters (I'm audhd and struggle really badly with laundry, so I'd like a one and done step)

3. Canadian friendly. We don't have many US products

Tide free and clear seems to be the most reccomented, but all I can find is free and gentle. Are they the same? Do they work equally well? And also, is liquid, powder, or pods best? Are there better options?

Sorry if these are commonly asked questions. I did browse around but frankly couldn't understand most of the explanation comments, I'm not very bright.

Any advice on how to get rid of the moth ball smell would be appreciated!

So I thrifted a sweater yesterday and washed it today. When I took it out of the washer to hang up to dry I noticed a lot of fibers were sticking up off of it (frizzy looking) and it had an odd smell. I checked the care tag and apparently it’s 100% cashmere. The tag says to hand wash with cold water but I already ran it through a regular wash cycle. Please tell me I can fix this. It was so freaking soft!

Hi I used shout triple acting spray on all my shirts (decided yesterday was the day to finally tackle those collar stains).

I sprayed and scrubbed it in with a bristle brush. Did a cold wash cycle in the washer and then 15 min in the dryer on low heat. I could smell shout but decided to let them alr out overnight.

Still smelled this morning. Did another cold wash today and hang-dried them outside. Some smell worse than the others. Anything I can do or am I screwed? Would dry cleaning help? Thanks!

Hi beautiful people, i hope this is the right place to vent and get help in my spiral. I am getting a new machine and its a science! I used to have the perfect one - Beko HTE7716WBC - it had everything i loved: it was slim (47 in depth), wash&dry hour programme, and button to adjust duration/time of each programme.

They stopped making it so now im in this trouble situation, cause i cannot find a perfect washer that has all listed above.

We are 2 students living together, so the capacity isnt needed for a family of 4. I want to invest in a good one a little bit, otherwise i would find anything on facebook market place. So budget is medium - aeg, lg and samsung ones are too expensive. Czech republic europe market.

I found some options and reaaaally struggle to decide, cause none of them combines what i want and i’m spending endless hours comparing them, chatgpt isnt helpful anymore.

Beko BM5DFT48447W - has wash&dry, i can adjust the time, but, is not slim.
Beko BMM5DFO5741WPB - slim!, no wash&dry - just one programme called drying and then drying function that can be added to programmes (that is enough for me), BUT as it seems you cannot adjust the lenght of programmes?! Even very old machines have this feature and i don’t get why it doesnt:( maybe its hidden under the “easy start” function which i still don’t understand what it does … THIS ONE WOULD BE SO NICE BUT WHY I CANNOT ADJUST THE TIME?
Hisense WD3I8043BWF2 - has wash&dry quick, i assume i can adjust the length of programmes, but don’t really understand it, i’ve read that they move a lot:-), i don’t really trust this one …
Gorenje WDG2PS954A1D2 - looks perfect, just discovered this, where is the catch? No reviews anywhere to be found … ah found it - doesnt have an option of delayed washing:/ not a deal breaker but really good to have

I am really thankful to anyone who find 10 min of their time to help me in this situation … Or if you have any experience with those models or brands above, i will be deeply thankful!

I’ve cleaned the washer both where you deposit the detergent and softener I’ve cleaned with soap and white vinegar. I’ve cleaned the inside with white vinegar as well as different types of cleaning solutions. My detergents are Tide clear and tide detergent very little and now and then the Lysol sanitizer I don’t mix them together just one or the other but the detergent is always the same. But when they come out of the washer they have this either dark blue or black stains. They don’t have anything in their pockets or new clothes that may discolor and stain other clothes we usually wash those separately for the first time. I’m not sure what else to do.. does anyone have any tips to get these stains out and to avoid this in the future?? TIA!!

I know there’s been discussion around the formulation change from Everyday Care to Triplecare, but now that it’s been out for a while what do people think about the new formula? I’m still on my first bottle and it seems very watered down compared to the old formula. I’m wondering if the viscosity is unrelated to the actual concentration of active ingredients, or if this just more enshittification.

I have a laundry-related question, I swear!

My male cat is adorable and I love him so much, but he refuses to pee in the litter boxes we have in our carpeted basement. He’ll poop in them just fine, and he tends to pee in the same spots. He’s ruined an antique curio cabinet—I didn’t notice right away. The basement smells like cat pee, and it can sometimes waft up to the first floor. Lately, I’ve noticed that when the HVAC comes on, the smell will come through the upstairs vents—the intake is near one of his favorite pee spots. I have a very sensitive sense of smell, so I notice it more than my partner.

Kitty is fine and has a clean bill of health. The vet said this is behavioral, but we can’t seem to catch him in the act to try and fix the behavior.

We’ve covered up any furniture we don’t want to get peed on with plastic sheeting, and we use both disposable and reusable pee pads for his chosen pee spots. I recently had to buy replacement reusable pee pads, because they’re hard to wash with one side being waterproof.

I have two questions:

1. What can I use to get out the urine smells/urine from the reusable pads? We use powered Tide in our top loader (no agitator) and try to “line” the drum with the fabric parts of the pads facing into the machine to try and get the fabric in contact with the water and detergent. (I hope I’m describing our method in a way that makes sense). Without lining the machine, the pads get stacked on one another and don’t get as clean.

2. Any tips for getting the urine/urine smell out of the carpet? I’m prepared to eventually replace the carpet and the pad and likely have to clean/seal the concrete, but it’s not in the budget right now. I just don’t want to smell pee everywhere.

We’ve tried Nature’s Miracle spray and carpet foam, My Pet Peed spray, and another kind of enzyme carpet spray made for pet urine. Shampooing the carpet helps temporarily. Do I just use Nature’s Miracle or something similar in the water tank in lieu of water? I’m at a loss.

TL;DR: Cat pees outside the box in a carpeted basement. Reusable pee pads are used where he pees the most. This is a behavioral issue, not medical. Struggling to get cat pee out of both the pee pads and the carpet. HALP!

Recently (rather stupidly) washed my blue batik skirt with a red shirt so the original white accents are now pink. I’ve tried rewashing with oxiclean and soaking in vinegar/cold water but it’s still pink. Is there any hope in fixing it or am I screwed.