How to Have Great Smelling Laundry

Grab a clean towel from your linen closet, hold it to your nose and inhale deeply. If it does not have a clean, fresh, just-laundered scent--or worse, if it smells sour or bad in any way--you will want to try these steps.

Things You'll Need

• Baking soda
• White vinegar
• Clothesline

Instructions

1. Add 1/2 cup of baking soda to every load of laundry. Baking soda removes odors from laundry, including smoke, sweat and other grimy smells, allowing your clothing and linens to better absorb the fresh scent of your detergent, softener or the fresh outdoors. Add the baking soda along with your laundry detergent.

2. Pour 1/2 cup of white vinegar into the washer during the rinse cycle. You can also use it in a fabric softener dispenser. The vinegar will remove sour or moldy smells, along with fabric softener buildup that can actually clog up your fabrics--and your washing machine.

3. Dip a clean dish towel in fabulous-smelling liquid fabric softener and through it into the dryer with your wet load of laundry. The smell is much richer than dryer sheets, and as a bonus the softener will last much longer than a box of dryer sheets. Plus, you wont be adding those sheets to landfills.

4. Remove clothing from the washer as soon as possible. The longer your damp laundry sits in the washer, the more opportunity it has to pick up a mildewy, sour smell.

5. Dry your clothing outside. If you don't have room for a full clothesline, hang items on plastic hangers along your patio, or try a more compact umbrella-style clothes dryer. The sun and fresh air will add a delicious scent to your laundry.

Tips & Warnings

• Switch brands of detergent and softener periodically, as you will become accustomed to the scents and unable to smell them.

• Don't overdry your clothing. The heat will remove the fragrance from your detergent and fabric softener.

Resources

• Make Laundry Products