Fels Naphta versa Octagon Bar soap for laundry detergent?

[aggieterpkatie]

I've got another question....are you making sure to put them in the dryer (or line) soon after washing? Sometimes when it's really hot out our clothes will get that funky smell if they're left in the washer for even a day before going to the dryer. They'd be slightly off smelling, but I tried to wear some of hte stuff to do chores, and you're right. The instant I started to sweat again, MAN those clothes were rank!

 

[sufficientforme]

My husband said he felt the same way, that the odor was not pleasant to him with the homemade, so now I alternate between store bought and the homemade and that has solved the problem for us. Fels Naptha has been the best result wise for me.

 

[justinwrites]

@saving I have really hard water. You could walk on it. I hoped the vinegar would help. It has crossed my mind that this could be the problem and a water softener is on my list... Of course, so is world peace.

@Aggie yeah I'm pretty careful not to let laundry sit too long. Those front loader he's are even worse than top loaders about getting funky.

 

[Britesea]

do you have hard water? If you do, try a handful of salt in the wash water with your detergent

 

[CrimsonRose]

we have hard water as well... and hubby works like a dog so ours has a BO smell from time to time... it's hard to get stuff clean in this crappy water...

but here is what I use and it seems to work...

2 cups regular baking soda
2 cups borax
1 cup oxyclean (we use the generic from dollar tree)
1 cup color safe bleach (again cheap stuff)
1 cup salt
1 bar of soap (I use the cranberry scented dial) but have used others too

2 Tbls of above recipe per large load...

wash once with that then in the 2nd rinse add a cup of vinegar... If there is still a smell I wash one more time same as above... that usually does the trick...

as mentioned above you can always add more salt... that helps tons!

 

[mandieg4]

Is it just your clothes or do everyone's clothes smell like that? The reason I ask is Tide laundry soap smells like bad BO to me, especially after I wear the clothes for a few minutes. But the kids' clothes don't smell bad and they were washed with mine. I think its some kind of chemical reaction between the soap and my body. Try a different soap with the same recipe and see if you notice a difference

 

[valmom]

I never thought about adding salt to the mix for hard water We have a front loader, too. I like the less water/soap of it, but overall I'm not thrilled with it. You can't actually soak anything. I think my next washer (yeah, right) is going to have a tub. I use the dry formula laundry detergent and fels because the others aren't available around here. I've never seen Zote or Octagon bar soap (I have seen Octagon dish soap, though, in the dollar store!), but my SO likes the smell of the fels.

 

[SKR8PN]

First post, woot. Uh, ok so I tried making my own using fels and washing soda and borax. I used quite a bit more fels (adding more after some time) as load after load would fail the sniff test. I don't mean right out of the dryer lacking the air freshener odor we're used to, I mean full blown BO. I'm a big guy, and a sweater. My wife is a nurse and works her butt off. We use a front loader HE washer, added vinegar, and eventually added oxyclean. When none of that helped we tried soaking in vinegar water for a while before the wash.

We've given up until the heat of the summer passes and we might try again. Anyone have suggestions?

It may not be your soap...........
I am going to ask what brand of washing machine you have. We are in the process of getting rid of our 10 year old Maytag Neptune washer and dryer because of a mold issue in the drum of the washer that will NOT go away. We did not get in on the lawsuit.........
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/maytag_lawsuit.html

 

[Theo]

We had this problem--the laundry would come out of the wash smelling bad, washing with detergent didn't get rid of the smell, no amount of vinegar or bleach would work. I finally realized that the clothes were getting mildewy (or perhaps moldy, although no spots or stains appeared on the fabric.) The only thing that took out the smell was an enzyme-based cleaner, the kind you use to take out pet stains. Worked great. I also started taking the clothes out of the washer promptly, instead of leaving them all day or overnight. No more stinky laundry.

 

[Emerald]

I noticed that hubbies BO wasn't quite coming out well and so to the original recipe which was
washing soda
borax
fels naphta

I also added regular baking soda and with the whites a small scoop of the dollar store Oxyclean stuff and with my fabric softener (which I have one brand that I can use and love) I add a good glug of white vinegar.. hubbys clothes now are stink free..
Also found with my new front loader that if you shut the door it develops a stink so now we leave it open all the time.. and twice a month it gets the soak cycle with two cups baking soda and two cups white vinegar.. with nothing else.. took care of the stink.

But now since I have super hard water I am going to buy a big bag of the water softener salts and melt a few for each load of laundry and see if it helps with the slight yellowing we have on our whites over time.
Also found that hanging hubbys shirts outside to dry in the strong sun really does help with getting rid of all smells.

OH just forgot- I ran out of softener one week and just used my vinegar(two good glugs) and I put a couple drops of my lavender and spearmint essential oils in and there are times when I think I may just change to that completely. Soft and nicely smelling!