# Homemade Laundry soap = disgustingly smelly clothes



## nfpmom (Jun 4, 2004)

Help!

My DD has a detergent allergy and so by necessity I have switched to homemade, soap-based laundry soap. I use the ubiquitous Fels Naptha/ Borax/ Washing Soda dry recipe.

I started washing my clothes with this about 4 months ago. Within a month of use I noticed my clothes felt funny and looked totally dingy. I even had to resort to bluing to make the whites look brighter.

I could handle a little dinginess, but then the clothes just all started REEKING. Like the most disgusting rotten mildew sour smell. Even clothes that might have been washed a month prior and not worn since then (and not initially smelly after taking out of the laundry), developed a nasty odor in a month's time.

I had to re-wash all of our clothes in Zum laundry soap (100% soap) and it smells fantastic , but my DD immediately broke out in a rash from the fragrance, I am guessing.

So I guess I need to return to the homemade soap (DD's skin looked good on it) but I don't want us to be all smelly.

Someone else must have encountered this issue... can you help me? Thanks!


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## Naturalyst (Feb 3, 2007)

I have found that if I use as little as many people on MDC recommend, my clothes do not come clean and smell too. So, we use more laundry soap and it's a dry blend of soap, washing soda and borax (we don't bother with all the fuss of melting it and keeping around large bottles of liquid - we use a food processor and get it all to a fine powder that dissolves readily even in cold water wash). Also (and, I found this makes a world of difference), put a good 1/2 - 3/4 cup of distilled white vinegar in the rinse cycle. Not only does this help eliminate any soap residue that can make clothes look dingy, it seems to do its part in ridding clothes of anything that may produce odor. Trust that your clothes will not smell like vinegar when they are done.

Hope that helps.


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## melanienader (Jul 9, 2009)

I second the vote on the use of vinegar, even if you soak your clothes in vinegar, they won't come out smelling like vinegar. Put it in the rinse cycle, not only will it help, it also keeps the colors from fading as much.

If you can hang them on a clothesline in the sun, that will help too.


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## summermay (Apr 11, 2008)

We had the same problem. Homemade and organic laundry soap but we want the mainstream smell...

Our compromise is now a second round washing, purely in vinegar, or adding lemon juice. So the first round is just to get the laundry clean and the second round to get some nice smell into it.


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## familyblackout (Dec 12, 2008)

I had the same problem- dingy clothes, and I can still smell that sour mildew smell when I think about it! Oh, goodness, was it bad. "New" clothes quickly turned dirty and smelly.
The advice I received was "use less soap, you must have a soap buildup." I dropped the soap from my recipe and within a couple of washes, everything was back to normal. Just today, I have to say, I was folding a bright orange T-shirt that I had bought from the thrift store last year, worn a couple of times, then put away because it just looked dirty, dingy, and smelled terrible. I wore it again for the first time this week, and today I was looking at it, marveling at how clean and bright it looked!







:
HTH

Oh, rinsing in vinegar does help speed up the process, and in my "fix my homemade laundry detergent journey" I've found adding a couple of drops of EO to the vinegar gives a nice little smell to the clothes too. Good luck! I know how depressing and frustrating it can be!


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## JoyfamMama (Feb 17, 2009)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *familyblackout* 
I had the same problem- dingy clothes, and I can still smell that sour mildew smell when I think about it! Oh, goodness, was it bad. "New" clothes quickly turned dirty and smelly.
The advice I received was "use less soap, you must have a soap buildup." I dropped the soap from my recipe and within a couple of washes, everything was back to normal. Just today, I have to say, I was folding a bright orange T-shirt that I had bought from the thrift store last year, worn a couple of times, then put away because it just looked dirty, dingy, and smelled terrible. I wore it again for the first time this week, and today I was looking at it, marveling at how clean and bright it looked!







:
HTH

Oh, rinsing in vinegar does help speed up the process, and in my "fix my homemade laundry detergent journey" I've found adding a couple of drops of EO to the vinegar gives a nice little smell to the clothes too. Good luck! I know how depressing and frustrating it can be!

So basically, you just use washing soda and borax - no soap at all??

Also, I second the vinegar - the difference was amazing from the beginning. I ADORE the results of fabric softener, but I can't stand the thought of using it anymore. The vinegar both softened, and made them smell great!


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## nfpmom (Jun 4, 2004)

Thanks for the replies!
I've decreased the soap in the homemade mix and added an extra vinegar rinse. So far so good... I'll lyk in a month


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## christianmomof3 (Mar 11, 2005)

I use that recipee, and never had any problems - in fact it works great for us. But, we do add vinegar to our wash loads most of the time so perhaps that is the trick?


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