Laundry questions

[bright_eyes]

My dish cloths, face cloths, and tea towels always end up pretty smelly by the time I go to wash them. I usually hang them if they're wet (like the dish cloths) before putting them in the laundry. But I'm having a hard time getting the smells out of them. And on top of that, I've been washing them with my bath towels, and now my bath towels are smelly. I wash everything in cold except for my towels and kitchen laundry, which is why I wash them in the same load. I use whatever natural detergent I have on hand and I'll throw in some borax but the smells still remain. Dh told me that I shouldn't be washing our bath towels with the kitchen stuff, but it feels like it would be such a waste to wash the kitchen stuff all by itself since it isn't a lot of stuff. I had figured that hot water plus borax and soap would be good enough that I could wash the stuff altogether.

So I have a few questions:
1. What is your laundry routine for washing kitchen laundry? Do you wash it with other clothes/towels? Do you find it stinks up the rest of your laundry? How do you prevent the kitchen cloths from getting smelly in the first place (is this even possible)?
2. How do you get smells out of laundry? How can I get my bath towels to smell nice again? Should I not be washing them with any of the kitchen stuff?

[chattyprincess]

1. What is your laundry routine for washing kitchen laundry? Do you wash it with other clothes/towels? Do you find it stinks up the rest of your laundry? How do you prevent the kitchen cloths from getting smelly in the first place (is this even possible)?

I wash all towels together, color me crazy but I am not doing teeny tiny loads of kitchen laundry! My towels no longer smell (thank the lord!) I REFUSE to have bleach in my home...it scares the crap outta me! so it took me tons of trial and error until I came up with my clean towels "recipe"
I use All free and clear laundry soap (liquid) I fill the washer with HOT water and add up to the 4 line of laundry soap, a full scoop of oxi clean and vinegar in the softner area. As long as I do this and dry them hot, they NEVER EVER EVER smell, even when wet. My MILS washcloths actually make me gag when I use them cause the smell like downey when dry, and rotten disclothes when wet!
I know alot of people only do cold water and so do I but towels/washrags etc imho are breeding ground areas that need to be sanitized! plus its good for the washer to be ran on hot occasionally! (or so says my repair man best buddy!)
I don't use tons of rags in my kitchen but if you change it out every day or every other day and allow it to dry before sticking it in the laundry bin that will help!!
2. How do you get smells out of laundry? How can I get my bath towels to smell nice again? Should I not be washing them with any of the kitchen stuff?
See above!

~Kate

[ChetMC]

I'm pretty militant about only running full loads... so I have no issue with running dish towels, bed sheets, and bath towels together. I'll even throw sheets and towels in with cloth diapers to top up the load if I don't have enough. My theory is that after 2+ hours, in water that's 95 degrees Celsius (over 200 Fahrenheit), Borax, and lots of rinsing anything and everything is dead and long rinsed away. I have no problems at all with stink.

My guess is that you need hotter water, less soap and more rinsing. Any one of these might solve your problem, but I can't imagine that all three together won't do it.

[tessie]

As above - hot water, vinegar and a good rinse. Oh, and dry promptly.

[newbymom05]

I wash dishcloths separately and have never had a problem w/ odor. I keep a small laundry basket and when it's full I do a load (small cycle). I wash sheets and towels together. I do all those loads w/ hot and add borax, sometimes bleach if I've cleaned something nasty or someone's bee sick.

I think the key to smells is keeping everything dry. If I have a wet dishcloth, I'll lay it over the washer until it's dry, then put it in the basket. I also use a new cloth daily.

[artemis33]

I often do a seperate load of kitchen laundry because between wash cloths, towels and cloth napkins I can make a small load by the end of the week. I hang wet things on the utility sink until they dry, wash them in hot water (do that for sheets and bath towels too), and add a generous squirt of BacOut to the load.

[cristeen]

My big question for you would be - what are those kitchen cloths made out of? Because if they contain any synthetics, which is probable, that's why you're having difficulty getting the smells out.

I definitely agree with the pps - hotter water, vinegar, but rather than less detergent, I would guess they're not getting enough, or the detergents you're using are not effective on the messes you have. If you can find washing soda (I have trouble finding it), maybe add a scoop of that to the load and see if that helps - it boosts the cleaning power of the detergents.

Of course, you could also try washing with Dawn dishsoap to get the smells out - check out the cloth diaper forum for tips on diaper stripping... if you read enough of the threads on (diaper) stink, you'll find that oftentimes they all come back to synthetic fabrics holding onto smells.

[TheGirls]

I wash all towels together, with hot water and oxi-clean. I don't use oxi-clean for everything, but for smelly stuff it works really well.

We also only have 100% cotton dishtowels, napkins & cloths. I agree with a PP that synthetics can hold smells.

[sunnysandiegan]

I'd definitely start with the source. What are your items made of? How many times are you using them before washing? Do they dry completely before being added to other items?

[1jooj]

I use an oxyclean kind of thing, too, and to all the above advice I would add SUNSHINE! Hanging outside in the sun all day is wonderful, free and effective.

[elisheva]

Agree with the comments about synthetics holding odour - I have the darndest time with my Bummis diaper covers staying musty. I've heard that adding a small amount of dish soap to the load will solve this, but I haven't tried it yet.

As far as getting the stink out of normal cotton towels and things...I find that I'm only able to get rid of the odour if what I'm washing has dried completely before it gets into the washer. I have occasionally left things sit too long in the washer in the summer and the whole load gets musty. The only way to get the smell out is to dry the whole load and then rewash it. A total waste of energy so I try to be on my toes about this, but sometimes life gets in the way.

If I were in your situation, I would make sure all my rags/towels that were stinky were dry before washing them in hot water - maybe a rack for this purpose?

Another solution which may or may not be practical for you: I stopped separating our laundry by use (i.e. just bathroom stuff, just baby clothes, etc) and now everything goes into the same load so my dishrags are getting washed much more frequently - I toss them in the basket with everything else at the end of the day and DH takes them down to wash. This way I also always have a ready supply of towels/dishrags without waiting for them to accumulate into a load large enough to wash over several days' time.

[mommy2two babes]

When I wash those items I put a cup of baking soda in the wash cycle with hot water and detergent. I also put a cup of white vinegar in my rinse cycle.

[ASusan]

Originally Posted by bright_eyes

So I have a few questions:
1. What is your laundry routine for washing kitchen laundry? Do you wash it with other clothes/towels? Do you find it stinks up the rest of your laundry? How do you prevent the kitchen cloths from getting smelly in the first place (is this even possible)?
2. How do you get smells out of laundry? How can I get my bath towels to smell nice again? Should I not be washing them with any of the kitchen stuff?

replying w/o reading the pp.

1. I try to keep kitchen laundry separate from other laundry. But, DH conspires against me and frequently kitchen stuff is washed with other things.

When you rinse and hang a kitchen thing, (I'm picturing you doing this by hand in the kitchen, wringing it out in the sink & draping it over the stove handle - not referring to your laundry rinse), have the last rinse be in COLD water. This was the single most helpful thing for me to keep my kitchen cloths and face cloths (in the bathroom) from smelling. I used to rinse and squeeze with the hottest my hands could stand before I hung it out, thinking this was bad for the germs. No, the germs like to propagate under warmish conditions. The COLD water for this rinse-and-squeeze helps control odor.

2. To get smells out of laundry:
a) wash smelly things separately from other laundry.
b) wash potentially-differently smelly things separately. e.g., wash kitchen cloths separately from diapers (my most extreme example)
c) HOT wash; maybe even a hot rinse, if your laundry allows. Helps to kill germies, assuming that your hot water is heated hotter than your hands can stand. Hot water also allows the oils/fats and other things that hold smells to break down. (Dawn can also help you out here, as a PP suggested - it breaks down the oils.)
d) use oxyclean (or Bac-out or baking soda) in a soak or at a minimum in the wash load. Oxyclean, IME, is the strongest of these three, and an overnight soak will really help in the stain/stink department.
e) use vinegar in the rinse cycle.
f) hang in sunshine to kill germies.

I would separate kitchen and bath things until you have control over the odor. Otherwise, it seems that you'll have continual cross-contamination, if you will.