As an aspiring runner, a work-at-home mom, wife to a dude that lives at the gym, a mom to a little stinky boy, I do a LOT of laundry. A ridiculous amount, in fact, and much of our laundry is sweaty, stinky and dirty. Fortunately, thanks to my own trial and error and the wisdom of my mom, I have developed a pretty simple, chemical-free method of removing the dirt and sweat smell out of our clothes.
Monday's are laundry day in the Bahorich home. Honestly, this is because I hate doing laundry. I never can find the right matching sock for the pair, I'm always out of hangers, and it is a ton of work to carry our laundry up and down our stairs and through the house. I despise have laundry piled up where guests can see it on our main level, and I am not a fan of having some clean laundry downstairs when it all belongs in the closet.
So... I attempt to get it all done in one day. It is not a perfect system but I feel so much better the week's that I do not have to think about laundry because it is "complete" for the week.
The only thing that bums me out about this process is when I grab a clean "work"out shirt for a day full of conference calls and a gym visit, and behold, the stink of sweaty clothes is still lingering in my laundry! I hate it! This pregnancy, I believe, it has gotten worse. My keen sense of smell has amplified my quest to fix this issue, and thankfully, I now have a 5-step process for keeping your gym clothes clean and smelling fresh!
First, the “before the wash” steps:
1. After a run or a workout, if you can, hang the clothes to dry. This can be outside (that is best), on a drying rack or even just on the sides of the laundry basket. Cramming them in a laundry basket just amplifies the sweat smell in the clothes.
Now for the actual washing steps:
2. Try out a vinegar pre-wash. Load your sweaty clothes into the washer and set the washer on a “quick wash” cycle or a “rinse only” cycle. Then put a dab of plain white vinegar into the liquid detergent dispenser (for quick wash) or just into the washer with the clothes (for rinse only). For a top loader, I would suggest something like 1 cup; however, we have a front loader and I don't usually do nearly this much. Set the temperature to cold and let the washer do its work.
3. Once the first round is done, set the washer to the regular cycle that you would use. Keep the water temperature set on cold, and add 1 cup of baking soda to the clothes. Put your regular detergent into the proper receptacle. Once again, just let the washer do the job!
4. Ideally, from here, hang your clothes dry. Up until recently, we had these great drying racks that we had stacked all over our guest room for those clothes that are not suppose to dry. Now that this room is turning into a nursery, I will have to find a new place for them. If you cannot air dry your clothes, put them in the dryer on the lowest temperature setting possible.
5. Use wool dryer balls with some all natural essential oils on them. There are a lot of preferences; however, our favorite is to dot a few drops of Purification on each wool dryer ball for everything that we dry. The Purification helps remove the smell in the dryer and adds a bit of extra freshness instead of using a chemical-filled dryer sheet.
And then, ta da! Clean, neutral-smelling clothes! I find that I do not need to do the vinegar/baking soda steps every single time I wash my workout clothes, but when my clothes really need extra help to get nice and clean, this does the trick every time.
What are some of your tricks that you have found for your smelly workout clothes?
Also, if you are interested in knowing more about using essential oils, head on over to my page to learn more or pop me a question. I would love to chat about them!
5. Use wool dryer balls with some all natural essential oils on them. There are a lot of preferences; however, our favorite is to dot a few drops of Purification on each wool dryer ball for everything that we dry. The Purification helps remove the smell in the dryer and adds a bit of extra freshness instead of using a chemical-filled dryer sheet.
And then, ta da! Clean, neutral-smelling clothes! I find that I do not need to do the vinegar/baking soda steps every single time I wash my workout clothes, but when my clothes really need extra help to get nice and clean, this does the trick every time.
What are some of your tricks that you have found for your smelly workout clothes?
Also, if you are interested in knowing more about using essential oils, head on over to my page to learn more or pop me a question. I would love to chat about them!
