Sharing is Caring, Especially When It Comes to Cleaning

How to Rid Your Laundry of Body Odor

Clean Laundry | Flat Rate Carpet BlogDuring the summer it’s hard to stay smelling fresh and clean all day long, but if your clothes smell of body odor before you put them on you won’t stand a chance of making it through the day. Getting stubborn body odor smells out of your laundry is easy, and with a few simple steps you won’t be stuck stinking all summer long.

If the smell is only a slight odor that lingers over your clothing, try sprinkling your laundry basket, and the clothes inside of it, with baking soda. Baking soda absorbs odors, and is great at removing body odor smells, as well as other scents.

For a strong smell in the armpit area of your shirts, coat the affected area with a paste of baking soda and water. Allow the mixture to sit for half an hour before laundering.

Adding one cup of distilled white vinegar to your load of laundry will help kill the bacteria that cause body odor on your clothing, and leave the clothes smelling fresh.

For stubborn smells, follow all of the above steps and when the washing machine has filled with water turn it off for a few hours. Allowing the clothes to soak up to four hours in the machine before starting the rinse cycle will definitely make body odor vanish. If you don’t want to dedicate four hours of your washing machine to soak clothing, just set aside the stinky clothing in a bucket or bathtub full of water and white vinegar.

Give yourself a head start in smelling fresh by getting stubborn body odor out of your clothes.

Decoding Your Laundry

Have you ever wondered what those tiny symbols listed under care instructions mean on the tags of clothing and textiles? For all of you who wonder, enjoy this little explanation on those rather important and super vague symbols. May you never go confused or ruining clothes, again.

Hand Wash Only: This symbol shows a hand reaching into a small basket with water inside.

Machine Wash: Small basket partially filled with water. Sometimes it will have a number written in the basket which indicates water temperature.

Machine Wash Delicate: This symbol also shows a small basket partially filled with water and two horizontal vertical lines under the basket.

Chlorine Bleach (Or any other kind of bleach): If you garment has a white triangle symbol, you may use chlorine bleach to treat and wash the item.

Do Not Use Chlorine Bleach (Or any other kind of bleach): A black triangle with an “X” running through it means that you should NOT use chlorine bleach on the item.

Tumble Dry: For an item that can go in the dryer, you will see a small square with a circle inside. The number of dots will indicate the proper dryer temperature: 1 dot = low heat, 2 dots = medium heat, 3 dots = high heat

Hang Dry: A small square with a half circle at the top (which kind of looks like a drooping clothes line) indicates that hang drying is highly recommended (especially outside in the sun and wind).

Ironing: If ironing is acceptable for the garment you will see a small iron on the tag. Again the number of dots (like with the tumble dry symbol) will indicate the proper heat.

Do Not Iron: If ironing is not acceptable or recommended for the garment, you will see an iron crossed out with an “X.”