that fabric conditioner is VILE?

[BrazenlyDefying]

We are staying in a (very nice and modern) holiday let this week. No complaints apart from one. The entire house REEKS of fabric conditioner. The owners have obviously splashed out on nice white cotton bedding and thick, expensive towels, but it's all ruined by the stench. You get into bed and all you can smell is the chemical reek. You can't dry yourself with the chemical reeking towels because they're so "conditioned" that they slip all over you without actually absorbing anything.

Why do people do this? It doesn't smell clean, or laundered. It smells artificial and nasty. Just don't. At home we don't use conditioner at all, the water is soft and it's totally unnecessary. Laundry straight in off the line smells wonderfully fresh, the fab con stuff doesn't.

Should be banned!

I am with you on this. Why does most of it smell so strong? I can smell my neighbours washing if I open my balcony door and she is two floors below me. I share my washing machine with my next door neighbour and he uses Lenor conditioner. I used to put a few things in with his stuff if he wasn’t doing a full load but have stopped as the smell of the conditioner on my clothes is vile. I can smell the stuff on joggers clothes as they run past on the road. It’s grim. I live in a hard water area but won’t use conditioner. I’d rather have slightly rougher washing than stinky washing.

Please can you tell me the brand of it cause I have yet to find one that you can smell around the house and I love it. So if you can let me know that will be great !

Doubley My theory is it's so strong because a number people have lost their sense of smell due to smoking, drinking and or eating high sugar and salt foods.

I hate it too, almost as much as those plug in air freshener things. It smells synthetic and sickly sweet.

Another white vinegar fan here. Much cheaper & less damaging to the environment. We have our own private drainage and the vinegar is fine in it.

We also have a holiday let attached to the house. I wash all bedding & towels in fairy non bio with white vinegar in the rinse cycle and line dry it. I don't even have a tumble drier. Nobody ever complains about smell or allergies and the towels are soft.

Christ! Is fabric softeners the new toilet brush?

I used to think it was ridiculous and unnecessary until I moved to a very hard water area...

I did try white vinegar/bicarb at first but there was an AMA in here that said that can damage the tubing as and that other countries market product as softener not conditioner and we are a bit weird that it is sold here on basis of making clothes smell 'nice' rather than dealing with hard water Or something like that. It was a while a go so I don't remember exactly but it convinced me

I don't go overboard though and try to use eco ones (though I'm not sure if I am being duped by the eco label and they are also bad for the environment)

To the posters saying that the posters who don't like it are being dramatic, you do realise that some people are more sensitive to smells than others don't you?

Have a read of this: www.google.com/amp/s/amp.abc.net.au/article/8501018

Op, I'm with you, I hate the chemical smell. I can only just bear the smell of the washing powder without sticking another smell on top of it!

Skyla Ive just looked in the cupboard and my neighbour’s is Lenor Gold Orchid. It reeks. I’m not sure what neighbour two flats down is but I’d say it’s even stronger than this one.

It certainly seems to be dividing the crowd!

What we need to know is the correlation between the 2 - are all the non-conditioner using people the same ones who don't have toilet brushes??

I don't like it either. I buy a bottle now and again to liven up the laundry but end up using it very sparingly and only on things like jeans to make ironing easier.

The laundry detergent is unscented too so our clothes smell of nothing in particular.

Although I can understand those who live in hard water areas wanting to use something to soften the clothes. Soda crystals ?

I love fabric conditioner. I like my clothes soft, not crispy.

I took our duvet to be machine washed at a dry cleaners who asked if we wanted softener I nearly shrieked, No, No thank you. Well they washed in something so smelly I had to hang it up for more than a month before the stink went.

God knows what it was.

Oh and a toilet brush does the job without stinking of chemically produced 'perfumes' . Just keep it washed.

I'm a Londoner and I hate fabric conditioner. I don't use it, and I have no idea why people "have to" just because they have hard water? Just put your clothes on and you won't notice after five minutes.

I wish all hotels and B&Bs etc would use scent-free products. I find individually-owned holiday lets are the main culprits, whereas larger hotels seem to be okay. I did actually mention this on a review I wrote once.

Also, I no longer buy second-hand clothes because of stuff like this, because sometimes the smell won't wash out. Walking into a charity shop can be almost as bad as walking into a perfume hall in a department store, because there's so many different smells all at once.

My clothes are not crispy. Anyway if they were I prefer that to smelling like a chemical dump thank you.

I really don’t like it and because I don’t use it I’m super sensitive to the smell. I’ve never found that a house smells of it though or been bothered by the scent on other people’s clothes. It only bothers me if someone uses it on my clothes, towels or bed linen.

I agree, hate most fabric conditioners. The smells really get up my nose. After reading some of these replies I will look for something a bit better for the environment. At the minute I use a cap of fairy conditioner and fairy powder as I find them gentle and love the smell.

’walking into a perfume hall in a department store‘

That’s exactly how I feel if I have to wear something that’s been washed with it.

@CounsellorTroi

Agree never use the stuff. As if it wasn’t bad enough you can get stuff which makes your fabric conditioner smell stronger. Wtf.

I use that to counteract the smell of humidity when you have wet clothes drying inside.

Fairy is the one my mother uses and it just as bad as the others to me.

You really can't win on MN.

You are a filthy fucker if you don't shower 8 times a day / mop 3 times a day and hoover before mopping / change your bedding after each use and wash towels daily, yet you are overpoweringly stinky if you use fabric conditioner?

(we have eczema sufferers in the house so don't actually use much conditioner at all)

I cannot stand line dried towels. A friend of mine does it and I take my own whenever I visit. Bloody horrible.

I can take or leave fabric conditioner.

Slimy chemical gunk. You are definitely not being unreasonable, it is vile.

@CounsellorTroi

Agree never use the stuff. As if it wasn’t bad enough you can get stuff which makes your fabric conditioner smell stronger. Wtf.

Maybe that's what they're using. Or just a whole bottle in one wash. it's highly offensive either way.

@AuntyPasta

Fairy is the one my mother uses and it just as bad as the others to me.

I know right? I've actually met quite a number of people who claim that Fairy non-bio is scent-free when it actually smells awful. The thing is if you read the ingredients on the packet, it actually says "perfume". People really do use so much perfumed stuff that they literally can't smell it on themselves after a while. It's not so different from smokers - they don't realise how bad they smell until they give up and suddenly they realise how much everything in their house stinks.