House smells of dirty clothes...how???

[user1471523870]

I am wondering if anyone can suggest something I haven't thought of....
We live in a 3 bed terrace house, no carpets, all refurbished recently, tidy, no pets, I'd say overall clean (cleaner comes one day a week for 3 hours, the rest of the time we keep on top). It's two adults and one toddler who goes to nursery full time Mon-Fri.
Problem: when I come in from outside the first smell I get is of dirty clothes!!! The typical smell of the pile of laundry, or when your bed linen needs to be changed if you see what I mean....
I honestly don't know what I am missing: the beds gets changed every week or more often if needed (but could really the smell travel down to the front door?), I emptied the laundry basket but the smell stayed, I washed the sofa and the only set of curtains we own, I washed the cushions on the sofa.... I even washed and put away the coats/jackets that were on the coat stand, just in case it was that...

Any idea at all what it is and where it might come from??

How odd. Is it a musty smell? Could it be from camp?

*damp

Could it be a slow leak somewhere ? I once had a similar situation which was eventually found to be a small , slow leak from the piping for a washing machine which had caused the floor the washing machine stood on to start to rot.

do you open the windows regularly?

As soon as the weather cools down and we have to keep doors and windows closed the house starts to smell a bit stale. I cook a lot, we have two dogs, I don't get on with scented cleaning products and despite cleaning, hoovering etc there is a faint smell if the windows are always closed.

Also the first time we put the heating on there is a distinctive dusty/stale smell, I think from dust and whatever on, in and around the radiators.

Ooh actually like a pp we had a tiny slow leak from pipes behind the loo, which made a small damp patch where the wall met the floor, barely visible behind the skirting. I cleaned and bleached the whole room regularly and couldn't get rid of a faint smell like damp cellar + cat wee. As soon as the leak was located and fixed the smell went and never came back.

Thank you! Very helpful comments. I now will start looking for possible leaks. It makes sense it might be a leak as we just had the small downstairs loo refurbished. It looks fine but it's just next to the entrance door.... that could be a clue!
Also, I keep the windows open as much as possible both upstairs and downstairs (as the weather is still ok most are open 8am to 8pm or even longer).

Soft toys? My dds room smelt a bit musty...I washed all her soft toys and it sorted it out.

Do you mop the floor or does the cleaner mop the floor?
If it’s a manky old mop that smells then the floors would smell... and if it’s all through the house it would explain why you can’t pinpoint the smell.

Hoover bag that needs changing can cause this too (the Henry hoover used at my work makes the whole office smell of this!)