Why do my clean clothes smell musty

[Oregonhunter5]

I have great wife. She does her best. But the clothes and towels smell like mold to me. We don't leave clothes wet laying around. Is it the washer? It's making me smell like a dirty sock.

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[Certaindeaf]

It probably is mold.. you probably haven't used your furnace this year yet. just the way it goes

 

[Kevinkris]

well it depends on if you are the only one who smells it. other than that, if you want to see if the smell is coming from your washer or dryer, buy a couple new towels and send them through the wash. my guess would be your closet though. you may have moisture sticking around in your home that is feeding mold. maybe try taking everything out of your closet and give it a good scrub and use a fan for a while, probably best to let the fan blow all day while youre at work. in my last apartment this was a monthly process to prevent that smell from coming back, mildew was a real issue there though.

 

[Oregonhunter5]

It comes out of the dryer smelling this way before it hits any closet or drawer.

 

[deadeye]

Do a load of whites with more bleach than usual and hottest water available to clean the washer. Use some Calgon with extra soap or color safe bleach to get the clean ones smelling better. If on a well it could just be the water. Maybe ask the wife if she changed soap or softener brands also. If you have a front load washer it may need wiped down with bleach water on the door seal.

 

[Phrank]

Add a couple of teaspoons of TSP to each load ($10 for a big box at home depot). Clothes washers and dishwashers performance went to crap when they removed phosphate from the soap. Flock the enviro-weenies.

 

[Oregonhunter5]

Do a load of whites with more bleach than usual and hottest water available to clean the washer. Use some Calgon with extra soap or color safe bleach to get the clean ones smelling better. If on a well it could just be the water. Maybe ask the wife if she changed soap or softener brands also. If you have a front load washer it may need wiped down with bleach water on the door seal.

Deadeye this sounds good. We are on a well. I also heard there's two tubs in a top loader. Sometimes in between the inside and outside one it gets nasty.

 

[Oregonhunter5]

Add a couple of teaspoons of TSP to each load ($10 for a big box at home depot). Clothes washers and dishwashers performance went to crap when they removed phosphate from the soap. Flock the enviro-weenies.

What's tsp

 

[Kevinkris]

actually if you are going to use extra bleach you should use warm water, a little trick i leaned in my MA course. if the water is too hot, it will break the bleach down, leaving you with a hot saline water solution which is not very good for cleaning.

considering i missed the part about them coming from being cleaned with the smell, maybe check incoming water lines for breaking and check the air filters in your dryer. many new models will have an internal filter that wouldnt normally need changing for a long time. they should be anti-microbial but life makes its own homes sometimes.

 

[drew]

What's tsp

Trisodium phosphate. It's a cleaner. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisodium_phosphate

 

[Phrank]

What's tsp

What Drew said.

 

[ruger45blackhawk]

Do a load of whites with more bleach than usual and hottest water available to clean the washer. Use some Calgon with extra soap or color safe bleach to get the clean ones smelling better. If on a well it could just be the water. Maybe ask the wife if she changed soap or softener brands also. If you have a front load washer it may need wiped down with bleach water on the door seal.

I concur!
I was constantly noticing my parents towels smelling moldy! I researched it and found out indeed cleaning the door seal on front loaders as well as running bleach through the washer regularly will kill bacteria and mold in between the 2 tubs of the washer. I even removed the smell from our older top loader by doing this easy treatment.
By the way I have been doing the laundry for my family 26 years and counting! (I speak from experience)
Even my 24 year old daughter states I'm the best stain remover out of clothes!!

 

[Kevinkris]

I concur!
I was constantly noticing my parents towels smelling moldy! I researched it and found out indeed cleaning the door seal on front loaders as well as running bleach through the washer regularly will kill bacteria and mold in between the 2 tubs of the washer. I even removed the smell from our older top loader by doing this easy treatment.
By the way I have been doing the laundry for my family 26 years and counting! (I speak from experience)
Even my 24 year old daughter states I'm the best stain remover out of clothes!!

sounds like a great way to get you to do the laundry

 

[Squidly]

sounds like a great way to get you to do the laundry

Never do well, what you don't want to do twice.

 

[Squidly]

Trisodium phosphate. It's a cleaner. Trisodium phosphate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Make sure it's the real TSP and not the substitute. It just so happens that I bought some today at Ace for laundry and dishwasher booster.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Obviously your guns are filthy. A clean house smells like Hoppe's #9.

 

[ruger45blackhawk]

sounds like a great way to get you to do the laundry

I guess it's always been my choice. My wife does a majority of the cooking so it's a great tradeoff! I don't mind doing it either.

 

[jbett98]

If you do own a front loader, always leave the door cracked open after a wash.

 

[Certaindeaf]

I moved a long drained and tipped every which way (4 months) front loader once.. water was still sloshing around in there somewhere.

 

[308]

We throw a cup of white vinegar in the wash machine when this sort of thing happens. It seems to to a good job getting rid of that moldy towel smell.