Best way to get scent out of second-hand clothes?

[Ginevra]

I do not like for my clothing to have a scent. I just want it to smell like nothing. I *think* the culprit is something like Downy Unstoppables or some sort of laundry additive that is meant to last through several washings or wearings. 

One dress I just got from Thred UP is *very* heavily scented and I really hate it to an unspeakable degree. I have washed it twice, and, though it may have lessened, I can still smell it just walking into the laundry room where it’s hanging. A few of the clothes I bought I need to return for fit, but I am considering returning this smelly dress as well, although I like the look of the dress just fine. 

What says the Hive? Can I expect to remove the scent? Do I have to wash it twenty times? Should I just send it back? 

[Pen]

Send it back.  Unless you utterly adore it the time and cost to get odor out imo isn’t usually worthwhile.  

The best initial approach though for me is too hang it out in fresh air.  Only works for some scents/ items however

[rebcoola]

Wash with vinegar and hang dry.

[mumto2]

I would return it unless you love it.

[kbutton]

If you put it in a basin with water but no soap, does soap rinse out of it? Some people just really overuse soap. If that's the case, sometimes washing with plain water can help.

Fabric softener can sometimes be stripped out with vinegar, but mostly you have to just outlast it.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, kbutton said:

If you put it in a basin with water but no soap, does soap rinse out of it? Some people just really overuse soap. If that's the case, sometimes washing with plain water can help.

Fabric softener can sometimes be stripped out with vinegar, but mostly you have to just outlast it.

I haven’t tried that but I don’t think that’s the case. It smells very much like the chemically-floral scent of laundry aids. Or else someone had a bad overuse of body perfume with a low-quality perfume. 

I think I’m going to send it back. I like the dress but it’s not crucial. 

[marbel]

I have had to get rid of used clothing because some things will not release the scent.  Heavier cloth, in my experience.  Jeans for sure. 

Some fabrics will finally release the scent after multiple soakings in baking soda, multiple washings, and hanging up outside for days... and days.

Oh, I see you are sending it back.  Good call.

[Pen]

3 minutes ago, marbel said:

I have had to get rid of used clothing because some things will not release the scent.  Heavier cloth, in my experience.  Jeans for sure. 

Some fabrics will finally release the scent after multiple soakings in baking soda, multiple washings, and hanging up outside for days... and days.

Oh, I see you are sending it back.  Good call.

 

Or months.

[Momto6inIN]

I'm not terribly big on essential oils, they are just not my thing, but someone suggested Young Living' s Purification to me when I was desperately trying to get the pig manure smell out of my son's clothes when he worked for a farmer one year and it worked really well.

[MercyA]

I once found an awesome Columbia hoodie at a thrift shop for my DH. It smelled like pot. He liked it so much he didn't care. It probably took at least half a year for the smell to completely wash out.

We still call it the pot hoodie.  🙂 

p.s. When I was in college, I was so naive that I thought everyone was just burning incense in their rooms because they liked incense. Also, I thought the smell of pot *was* incense. 

[Terabith]

29 minutes ago, MercyA said:

p.s. When I was in college, I was so naive that I thought everyone was just burning incense in their rooms because they liked incense. Also, I thought the smell of pot *was* incense. 

Me too!!!

[itsheresomewhere]

Run a rinse cycle and then soak in biz overnight. Wash once or twice ( depends on if it is still smelling).  Hang outside to dry.  This usually works well.

[cintinative]

Not the same thing but I bought Tide Odor Rescue tablets to help with sweaty smells that seem built into my workout clothes. You add it with your normal detergent. It works great, and it even worked really well with some smoke-smelling clothes from a campout. I washed them twice with Oxyclean and detergent and the smell was still there--once with odor rescue got rid of the campfire smell.

ETA: Also the towel my husband kept in a cooler with the brisket he had smoked. That I almost gave up on because even after two washes it smelled of bbq--it worked great!

https://tide.com/en-us/shop/type/laundry-booster/tide-odor-rescue-with-febreze-odor-defense

Edited October 28, 2019 by cintinative

[catz]

Doing a soaking heavy duty load with some extra oxi clean seems to work pretty well here.  My daughter loves shopping at Goodwill.  

[Pen]

3 hours ago, itsheresomewhere said:

Run a rinse cycle and then soak in biz overnight. Wash once or twice ( depends on if it is still smelling).  Hang outside to dry.  This usually works well.

 

Is Biz fragrance free?  

It seems like Biz (or Tide) type products will give their own fragrance. 

[itsheresomewhere]

20 minutes ago, Pen said:

 

Is Biz fragrance free?  

It seems like Biz (or Tide) type products will give their own fragrance. 

The powder version has no smell.  The liquid version is a migraine inducer. 

[cintinative]

3 hours ago, Pen said:

 

It seems like Biz (or Tide) type products will give their own fragrance. 

 

FYI the Tide Odor Rescue pods (it is not detergent, but they are like little packets) don't add any fragrance. At first you will smell something very faint akin to bleach but it fades very quickly. I don't use any scent in my laundry detergent either so I would definitely notice if it added scent. 

[Katy]

I've always found All Free & Clear + Vinegar instead of fabric softener in the sanitize cycle takes out almost everything.

The exception is either mildew or body odor in synthetic "wicking" workout gear.  So far when that's gotten to the point of needing to throw it out I bleach it.  So far everything has been 100% polyester so the bleach didn't damage anything, just stripped the smell, but YMMV.

[cintinative]

1 hour ago, Katy said:

 

The exception is either mildew or body odor in synthetic "wicking" workout gear.  So far when that's gotten to the point of needing to throw it out I bleach it.  So far everything has been 100% polyester so the bleach didn't damage anything, just stripped the smell, but YMMV.

 

Is it a color-safe bleach? This is actually why I bought the Tide Odor Rescue. I would wash my synthetics and they would start smelling almost as soon as i starting working out--it does not take 10 minutes to add a smell to a garment. It was like it was baked in the fibers. The Odor Rescue has removed that for me--I just have to use it every few weeks or so. But color-safe bleach would be cheaper--my workout gear is not white. 😃

[Katy]

4 hours ago, cintinative said:

 

Is it a color-safe bleach? This is actually why I bought the Tide Odor Rescue. I would wash my synthetics and they would start smelling almost as soon as i starting working out--it does not take 10 minutes to add a smell to a garment. It was like it was baked in the fibers. The Odor Rescue has removed that for me--I just have to use it every few weeks or so. But color-safe bleach would be cheaper--my workout gear is not white. 😃

 

No, not color safe.  Real chlorine bleach, the kind you can use (very diluted) to sanitize drinking water.  The trick is synthetic fibers.  Plastic doesn't generally bleach, even if it's spun into fine threads and woven into polyester fabrics.  Natural fiber fabrics would likely be ruined.