Clothes Stink!

I work with a woman with developmental disabilities and she pees in her bed every night and her urine is very strong.  What I have used and seems to work well is to add 2 cups of vinegar plus 1 cup of 20 mule team borax that you get at Target to your laundry in addition to your laundry detergent .  -Kim 

If you have a front loader, always leave the door ajar when the machine is not in use or it will develop a funky smell that can make your clothes smell bad too. Never leave wet laundry in the washing machine overnight- that also makes things smell sour.

 You might try adding white vinegar to your machine’s fabric softener cup. And finally, when none of that helps, I use a bit of Oxyclean stain remover. If you dab some on a sock or something, it will lightly scent the whole load. I am super sensitive to fragrances and find this to be okay on a limited basis.

good luck!

Laundry is my hobby 

Some of our microfiber fabrics are the same way. I have found at least a cup of vinegar in the rinse water does the trick. Baking soda in the rinse also works.

Try soaking the shirts in a bit (substantial) amount of baking soda + water and agitate the shirts a bit— that will remove lingering odors... let it sit for a while too... run it through a regular wash but add a bit of vinegar to the wash cycle/rinse cycle... I usually let stinky stuff air dry in the sun since that tends to also get rid of funky smells. 

Add vinegar to the wash, in the bleach compartment.  We found the cheap clothes do smell, unless you buy 100% cotton.  Otherwise if you like the synthetics buy a higher quality one like from the Gap.  Found those don't smell.  Running in the dryer helps rather than line drying, though not good for environment. Don't let them sit wet too long either.

I’ve been successful with a Home Depot bucket and a good long soak —- at least 24 hours —- with 1 cup baking soda and then a final rinse with vinegar.

I’ve had good luck using about a half cup of vinegar in smelly laundry. Just put it in with the detergent. I also sometimes pause the washer during the main wash cycle for a couple hours to let it soak (with the vinegar/detergent mix). You could also try borax. 

You don't say what their odor is, so I can only suggest adding borax or washing soda to the wash water, and then vinegar to the rinse cycle. I also like to soak clothes for at least 1/2 hour since I think it gets them cleaner.

Some odors like mold require special treatment to eliminate.
 

Is this your washing machine? It might needs its own cleaning with vinegar. Google it. 

Sounds like mildew. You should wash them in vinegar, without detergent, and that should get rid of the stink. You might also need to clean your washing machine if it has mildew. 

I'm a big fan of an OxyClean soak for kid's clothes before washing. If that doesn't do the trick, vinegar in the wash cycle does wonders for stains.

Do you have a high efficiency washer? Our clothes kept coming out smelling like wet dog and it turned out our newish machine needs to be cleaned with an Affresh tablet every month or two to remove soap residue or some such nonsense. It solved the problem for us though I’m still not convinced efficiency washers can handle the funk of kids’ clothes. 

My guess is you need to get the residue off your washer and out of clothes. Bay Area has soft water and it is easy to use too much detergent. That build up in the washer and on clothes can get stinky.

White vinegar can work wonders.  White vinegar run through the wash cycle alone without clothes can help. Also adding white vinegar to rinse cycle helps destink the clothes.

And finally, leaving the washer door open will help keep air circulating and keep down the musty smell. 

And use less detergent... The HE brands don’t foam up but less is generally more.

Happy laundering!

Are they cotton? If not, get 100% cotton instead. If they are cotton, you may want to try soaking in baking soda or washing soda and hanging in the sun. 

Try putting half a cup of vinegar in with the wash.  I use environmentally friendly liquid detergent and vinegar in every load.  Otherwise my washer leaves thing smelling slightly moldy.  Works like a charm, and will help keep colors too.

There are possibly a few reasons for the smells:

1) the washing machine and/or dryer is not clean and has mildew inside the drums. You can try searching online for simple ways to clean your machines (I think running baking soda mixture in a empty load) or there are some detergents you can buy to clean the machines. 

2) it could be that your dryer isn’t drying 100% of your clothes. They may feel dry when you remove them from the dryer but actually there’s still humidity in the cotton threads. You can try to dry them a little longer than usual, or hang them in the sun to air dry. 

3) bacteria in the clothes. The bad smell sometimes is due to bacteria. Usually they can be removed by washing using high temperature water but if your washer doesn’t have that function or can’t get the water hot enough, you could try boiling the clothes once to rid of the bacteria  then subsequent washes can be in the washer.

i hope the above is helpful!

You could try adding something called "anti-icky-poo" to the wash in addition to the laundry detergent and/or spraying the clothes with it and letting them soak then washing them. Its an enzymatic cleaner.

I soak my daughter’s clothes in one cup of apple cider vinegar before washing, does the trick! 

Something that helped us was being really mindful not to put wet or damp clothing or washcloths in the laundry basket with the clothing. We had several rounds of our washed/dried clothing smelling like vomit and could not figure it out. We made this switch and it has helped greatly. We use unscented detergent (whole foods brand or eco brand) and wool dryer balls. 

Since you singled out the brand of t-shirts I’m guessing other clothes in your house don’t smell. So just try another brand of all cotton t-shirts. It may be that this particular blend of cotton at Target is retaining smell. 

Otherwise I suggest cleaning your washer with a bleach cycle, and if there’s a lint trap on the bottom empty that out (the one in your washer I don’t mean the dryer), switching to a different brand of detergent, and adding Oyxclean to the laundry once in a while. We don’t have a problem with clothes but our towels tend to retain stink so I have tried all these options. Washing more often instead of letting the clothes sit also helps. 

Do you have a front loading washer?  If so, that is the culprit.  They do not properly drain - it is a terrible design flaw. Wash at the laundromat or a friend's house and see if that fixes the problem.