Everyone enjoys the pleasant and refreshing scents associated with freshly laundered clothing. As a result, there is a significant demand for clean garments. That’s why an estimated 30 to 35 billion loads of laundry are laundered each year.
Knowing how to make your clothes smell nice is a wonderful thing. And there is a slew of options for doing so. It aids in making the most of your journey while also allowing you to live a pleasant and odor-free existence.
What Causes Bad Smells In Laundry?
Even after doing the laundry, there are some reasons why your clothing might smell differently from what you expected.
And so you might wonder why your clothing still smells funny.
Let’s examine some of the reasons for awful smells in the laundry.
- Clothing type
Clothing type affects the way your laundry smells. For synthetic clothing like polyester, I wouldn’t advise that you sweat in them.
Especially if you’re the workout or athletic type because they tend to retain bad smells when you sweat. And the smells often tend to remain on the clothing even after doing the laundry.
- Leaving clothing in the washer
Leaving clothing in the washer is also another reason your laundry may have bad smells.
Washed clothing is wet and when you leave them in the washer say overnight, they tend to develop bad musky smells due to mold.
Mold develops steadily in areas of less light and much dampness. Places like your washer.
So, you might find that your nice clothing has got some really bad odor that takes forever to remove.
- Long time between washes
When you come home after a long and tiring day, it’s pretty difficult to want to wash your clothing at that minute. So, you just toss it in a basket with the dirty clothing.
This sort of habit is what makes bad smells develop in your laundry. Your laundry should always be done on time to remove the odors that arise from leaving dirty clothing for too long.
It’s not also a good idea to pile up dirty clothing either unless you like different types of odors on your clothing. You wouldn’t want that.
- Improper drying
After doing their laundry, many people sometimes just prefer to tumble dry or air dry their clothing. This is a good thing to remove the moisture from the clothing.
But when these pieces of fabric are not properly dried after washing, they are bound to have a moldy smell.
They would even get worse when you store them and the colors can stain other clothing it is stored with.
- Improper washing
If you perform hand washing for your clothing, it’s essential you wash them properly or they would not be clean.
It’s true when also using a washer. If you do not utilize adequate detergent for your laundry or perhaps less, it might result in your laundry getting offensive odors.
You do not want that for your favorite fabric.
How Do I Make My Laundry Smell Good?
Everyone loves clean and nice-smelling clothing, so when you do your laundry, you can follow these tips to make your laundry smell good.
- Use perfumes on them.
You can use perfumes, or colognes as they’re formally known if you want to treat yourself to a wonderful dinner outside but your favorite outfit smells awful.
Even though they conceal the scent, colognes are an excellent resource. However, if you use too much, the smell will get stronger.
- Air-dry your clothing
If you want to make your laundry smell good, I would recommend you properly air dry them.
Of course, tumble drying them in a dryer is not bad, both drying methods take all of the moisture away.
But properly air-drying them would leave your clothing feeling nice especially when you use nice smelling detergents during washing.
Also, ensure that this is done properly before storing to avoid dampness and bad smells in your clothing.
- Extract Mold from your washing machine
If you run your washer frequently without cleaning it, mold will eventually grow in the dark, wet interiors.
According to estimates, mold has been discovered in at least 17% of front-load washing machines.
If you wash your laundry in it, the musky odors will transfer to your clothes.
You should also take care of your washer if you want your clothing to smell great after it’s been washed.
Also, avoid leaving your items in the dryer for long periods.
- Utilize essential oils
To make your laundry smell so good, add essential oils to it. You can choose from a variety of perfumes. To make the oil stand out, simply add 1½ teaspoons of the oil to your clothing along with an unscented detergent.
Citrus, orange, or peppermint-scented oils can be used. Whichever one most appeals to you.
- Do your laundry on time
Many individuals like to pile their dirty laundry until they are pretty much heavy.
Piling up laundry makes the smells on each piece of clothing rub off on each other.
If you want your clothing to smell nice, you should ensure you wash your clothing on time.
Of course, everyone sweats but if you are the workout or heavy-duty type, I’ll advise you to wash your laundry on time to prevent bad smells from being retained on your clothing. You can use heated water to do this.
- Use nice sprays for your clothing cabinets
Spraying nice fragrances on your clothing cabinets is also another way to make your laundry smell good. After a washing and drying cycle, you can apply nice smelling fragrances to the corners of your clothing cabinet.
This gives the cabinet a good smell which will rub off on your laundry as you store them.
So that when you bring out that favorite piece of clothing, you don’t have to worry about any funny smells.
- Use nice smelling detergents
There are many detergents that can give your clothing a nice smell. Although some give off heavy scents.
It’s advisable to pick nice-smelling ones that are suitable for your type of clothing whenever you visit the grocery store.
You can try Tide liquid detergents or probably Tide Pods.
- Use Dryer sheets
Dryer sheets come in handy especially when you need to do some urgent task and they’re also portable too.
They’re pretty easy to use and give nice smells to your clothing just like fabric softeners do.
After washing your clothing, get them out and place them in the dryer. Then add some dryer sheets and while they soften your clothing, they also add good fragrances to them.
You can also create your unique scent by making DIY dryer sheets.
- Clean with baking soda
You can use baking soda to refresh your clothes as well. Baking soda neutralizes the effects of acid-induced smells because it is mostly alkaline.
If your clothes develop foul scents after being washed, add a teaspoon of baking soda to the rinse cycle or soak them for a few minutes.
This will eliminate odors and ensure that your clothes smell fresh.
- You can use fabric softener
Just like Dryer sheets, fabric softeners are another way to add some nice scents to your laundry.
They help to make clothes soft and also remove static from them while adding nice smells to your laundry.
To use it, you need to apply it during the rinse cycle of your washer and you get a nicely scented laundry.