Bring Back That Fresh Linen Scent

Even though laundry rooms are frequently visited by piles of clothes that bear all sorts of interesting odors, they should always smell great afterwards. You might think that your laundry room is starting to smell bad due to the accumulation of laundry. That very well may be the case if you have a mountain of dirty gym clothes hidden in the back corner. However, that peculiar odor may be coming from where you least expect it to be from. Your first step should be to open up the top of your washing machine and give it a sniff. If it's smelling strange, your clothes aren't going to be as fresh as they potentially could be. Let's make your washing machine smell fresh again. After our quick cleaning process, you'll once again be looking forward to putting on a shirt that smells like clean linen every morning.

If you learn something new from this easy read, take a peek at our Ultimate Guide to an Efficient Laundry Room.

You may be surprised to hear that an appliance that is intended to do the washing for you, actually needs to be washed. That doesn't make much sense, right? However, every one of your appliances need routine maintenance in order to perform at their highest potential rate. Washing machines tend to build up a mixture of bacteria, dirty water, limescale, and even extra laundry detergent. This cocktail of relatively unoffensive ingredients will cause a sour smell to come from your washing machine, which will be imparted into your clothes.

The Process

You will need a 1/2 cup of baking soda for every 2 cups of vinegar that you use.

For top loading washers, you want to start a wash cycle with the temperature turned all the way up to the highest option. Add the 2 cups of vinegar and baking soda once the water level has begun to rise. Allow the cycle to finish, and then run another hot cycle without anything inside of the washing machine to rinse it out.

For front loading washing machines, add the vinegar to the detergent dispenser and pour the 1/2 cup of baking soda inside of the washing machine. As with the top loading machine, make sure that you run a second wash cycle before doing further laundry. You want to rinse out the machine first.

Front loading washing machines have a rubber seal around the door, and those can also be part of the issue. Mix a bit of water and vinegar together, in a 1 to 1 ratio. Wipe the seal thoroughly down, inside and out.

Your washing machine should be good to go! However, if you have a strange scent that just won't budge no matter how strong of a natural deodorizer vinegar may be, you have another option. Run an empty wash cycle, and let the machine fill up for about 5 minutes. Add a few capfuls of eucalyptus oil, turn the cycle off, and allow it to soak overnight. Eucalyptus oil will work to clean away any detergent, oil, and dirty water build ups that may be left behind. This treatment has the added benefit of not only cleaning the washer, but it'll smell fantastic. Finish the washing cycle the next day, and you're cleared to start washing your laundry!

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