Help!! Clothes stink

[Nonononon]

Nothing wrong with washing machine as all other loads come out fine.

I washed a load the other day and when it Was dry it had that awful "fousty" smell, you know like almost damp smell?
So I put everything back in and put it on a 60degree wash for 3 hours!! (I know..) but they still have that weird smell.
All the clothes are some of my favourite ones and I don't want to throw them away.
Is there anything I can use to get rid of that smell??
I was thinking maybe that dettol wash stuff?
BUT then it can't be bacteria because I washed everything for 3 bloody hours on a 60 so surely that would have killed any bacteria if thats what it was??
I don't know what's happened 🤷‍♀️

Have you hung them outside yet? I did a load the other day that didn’t smell washed at all when I hung them out but by the time I took them in they were the same as any other load. Even better if you can leave them to get rained on!

Are you overloading your machine?
Have you run a cleaning solution through the machine recently and is the soap dispenser drawer clean?
What washing powder do you use? If non bio, use a biological for a while.

Yeah maybe because they dried too slowly??
I use a clothes horse and it takes quite a while for them to dry.. I don't have an outdoor washing line.

So how do I get the smell out??

Agree - drying too slowly is what causes the smell but IME once washed again the smell comes out . Have you got clothes wash and conditioner with febreze or other lasting smell to use? Also it may be that you need to clean the washer out .

That would drive me insane.

What clothes are they? This happened to me with a leather jacket, it got that smell and it wouldn’t go. I washed it and dried it loads, it was still there. I ended up just throwing it away.

Maybe just go a bit OTT with the wash stuff. What do you use? I use lenor scent boosters, a liquitab and comfort in blue skies. My clothes come out smelling nice.

(:

Take the detergent drawer out of the washing machine and soak it in dilute bleach. Scrub it to get rid of the slimy build-up. Clean out the space it came from with more dilute bleach and a washing-up brush to get right to the back.

Put it back together and run a 90° wash with something like white tea towels - there'll be some bleach in there so nothing coloured.

Wash your clothes again, half a load at a time, put them on the clothes horse then put it outside until they dry. If you can't do that, put them in a room with an open window and a fan pointing at them. While the washer's empty, leave its door open and take the detergent tray out so it can all dry out. Wash it every month or so to stop any build-up. Run a 90° wash every few months.

Soak them in the bath with a cup of white vinegar before rewashing them - works a treat.

It's because you were drying them on a clothes horse in humid conditions.

Give your machine a service wash, dissolve 2 dishwasher to abs in water and add to draw Or baking soda, add a bottle of white vinegar to the drum and wash at 90 with nothing inside. Give draw a scrub and the hole where draw slots in.
after doing that’s to the machine chuck the clothes in the bath and soak with white vinegar and rehash. Should solve it.
Always keep one or two bottle of white vinegar around as they are so cheap and great for neutralising smells, used to have to use it on ds tshirts as he had a bad bo problem and clothes would come out still smelling of bo!

Sounds like it's because you can't dry them very quickly on an airer alone. Can you hang on clothes hangers- I sometimes have to hang upstairs in bathroom with windows open to allow air to blow over and through.
Anything in the airer is rotated and placed next to the open back door if I can't use the outside washing line.

I have the same problem and thought it was the tumble dryer until I put something on today which didn't go in the dryer.

I suspect I'm not very good at leaving the washing machine to dry, I tend to shut the door/cupboard door as it looks tidier so think that's the root of the problem.

Going to try baking soda and vinegar in the morning, want to do it now but trying to get DS to sleep!!

Nice!!! Thanks for the tips.
I'll try the vinegar trick after I've cleaned the washing machine (although I have only just used a cleaner for it...)
The air drying them outside in half loads... I'll come back and let yous know (and anyone else who may find this thred in the future with the same issue...)

Wish me luck!! 🤭

Also, use powder containing bleach (for Persual, it's the green box) rather than washing liquids or pods. Don't use low temperature or quick washes - your machine will be full of germs, which will be added to each wash you do.

Hot, strong and very, very long is the order of the day!

Were there any black jeans? Some are dyed with a really rank smelling dye that takes a million washes to get rid of.

I occasionally forget about a load of washing and it goes musty. Easily fixed. First off stick a cup of white vinegar in the drum with the clothes and do a short wash cycle. Then wash it again at 40 with biological washing powder and a good dash of vinegar in the fabric conditioner drawer. Job done and I promise your clothes won't smell of vinegar.

Well this is what I did and it's worked a treat!!

First; I got an old purple throw (that I was going to throw out as it didn't matter how many times I washed it, it always had an odd smell)
Stuck that in the machine with loads of bleach (didn't need to clean the soap tray as I use pods so that was clean anyway)
Put it on a 90degree long wash.
Then guess what? The throw came out the same colour some how! But smelling lovley so thats now saved and my machine is nice and clean.

Next: I got all the smelly clothes (and decided to add a couple of bras I was going to throw away due to them never smelling fresh, I just assumed it was because they were old?) And put them all in the bath with just enough water to cover all the clothes and then added a whole bottle of white distilled vinegar; I had nothing to lose at this stage..

Soaked them for about 3 hours (again, why not) and then washed them in two separate loads on a 40degree wash. When washed I made sure to give them plenty of room to dry, spaced out on clothes horse, hangers on Windows and radiators with Windows open etc (clothes line would have been better yes but I don't have one)
This morning, all fresh as a daisy!! Even the old bras in was going to throw away
It was the vinegar trick I swear, so cool, I'm not going to forget that and I'll stock up on some bottles (they're only about 35p each!)

Also I'll make sure to bleach my machine every month or so and keep the door open after a wash so it can dry out.. And not over load the damn clothes horse!

Thanks everyone. 💜

×walks off smelling lovley×

Another thing to try as a preventative measure is adding a cap of Linen Fresh Zoflora to the fabric conditioner compartment of the machine (instead of FC not as well as). It makes clothes dried indoors smell line dried and also kills bacteria so the machine stays fresh.