Teenage boy laundry help needed

[leannan_si]

Ds is 14 and has that lovely teenage boy smell. :yuck: He wears deodorant (Tom's) and uses body spray, but he still smells really strongly sometimes and I've started to notice that when I take his washed laundry out of the dryer that it smells like teenage boy, but warm and very strong. :puke: I'm thinking that if the smell isn't coming out of his clothes in the wash, then it's contributing to the over all stink level making it worse. Any tips on getting the smell out in the wash? Are there any brands of soap that are better than others? Right now we're using Purex Naturals and I tried adding some Borax to see if that helped but no such luck. I am serioulsy begining to dread the comming years when I have multiple teenage boys. :eyes:

[tumblewieds]

I'd rinse with vinegar instead of fabric softener and I'd cut back the detergent you use by half.

[stickcow]

I suggest Charlie's soap. I bought it for washing diapers and started using it on everyone's clothes.

Normally my tshirts don't last so long because the armpits get funky and start to REEK once they warm up to body temp, but no such problems since i switched to Charlie's.

[Storymama]

Ditto the vinegar suggestion, and maybe presoak the items likely to be smelliest, too. Baking soda in the presoak might be good.

Sometimes T is a little prone to that Funky Wafting When They Glide By thing, and I have found that asking her to scrub down with salt scrub (in an oil carrier - I buy a premixed kind at Trader Joe's, but you can make your own easily) takes care of the problem for a long while . . . I think it's a bit of overgrowth of normal body flora fungal stuff, helped along by all that lovely teenage hormone and oil production and fantastic diet and so on. She's a perfectly competent bather, it's not a hygiene problem per se - it's just that basic bathing doesn't kill off the stinky microbes :gross:.

...and then once it's off HER, it's not getting on her clothes anymore, either.

I dunno if you can convince a guy that this is not a Girly Girl thing to do (the salt scrub) but my own bottom line in dealing with this sort of thing is to remind them that I'm not just being a nag; if I can smell it, so can certain attractive members of their circle of friends :-P.

[AmericanMomma]

I use ERA and fabric softner. I never thought about vinegar though. That's a great idea.

It really helped cutting down the size of his load. Otherwise yes, the smell was still there when the clothes come out of the dryer and it seemed worse because it was hot.

Good luck!

[Bonny]

I havn't struggled w this w my teens (yet) but I had a hard time finding a natural or fragrance free detergent that was powerful enough to take care of dh's really stinky stuff. Switching to something a little heavier duty worked.

[leannan_si]

Sarah- I'm going to try this. I feel sort of "Duh" on the vinegar. I use it for cleaning, I don't know why it didn't occur to me to use it for this.

stickcow- I've used Charlie's before, but we had trouble with it. I can't remember what the problem was exactly, but I remember that my SIL who sells it said that we either had to stop using our water softener or not use Charlie's, that they were incompatible. :dunno:

Mandi- This is a great idea and may very well be the problem. I already have the salts and my MIL gave me a 4 Theives EO for Christmas. I can't wait to tell Ds that he has to scrub with salt. He already thinks I'm his crazy mom, I can't wait to see his face. :-P I'll definety do the presoaking too.

American Momma-I'll try this and see if it helps. thanks! :smile:

Bonny- This is what I'm afraid of. :meh: I really hope that it doesn't come to that, but at this point I'll do whatever I can to get rid of the stink.

[aleutsi]

Ds is 14 and has that lovely teenage boy smell. :yuck: He wears deodorant (Tom's) and uses body spray, but he still smells really strongly sometimes and I've started to notice that when I take his washed laundry out of the dryer that it smells like teenage boy, but warm and very strong. :puke: I'm thinking that if the smell isn't coming out of his clothes in the wash, then it's contributing to the over all stink level making it worse. Any tips on getting the smell out in the wash? Are there any brands of soap that are better than others? Right now we're using Purex Naturals and I tried adding some Borax to see if that helped but no such luck. I am serioulsy begining to dread the comming years when I have multiple teenage boys. :eyes:

Just curious.. do you have a front loader? I never had this problem until I got a front loader washer. Smaller loads help, as do vinegar washes and washing on "heavy". But over-all my clothes are just not getting as clean as they use to and they don't stay clean for as long as they used to. I used to be able to wear a shirt many times before it smelled funky. Now it smells funky after one day. I've tried every soap available to me, too.

[Bickery]

Do you wash in hot?

That helped with my brother's clothes.

[Kathy 4J mom]

Just curious.. do you have a front loader? I never had this problem until I got a front loader washer. Smaller loads help, as do vinegar washes and washing on "heavy". But over-all my clothes are just not getting as clean as they use to and they don't stay clean for as long as they used to. I used to be able to wear a shirt many times before it smelled funky. Now it smells funky after one day. I've tried every soap available to me, too.

Hey Annie,
I was having this problem and my washer just smelling damp. I have a cleanout underneath it that was holding some stuff in. Plus I don't always use HE detergent so apparently the suds get into the works and help to make that smell. I ran a cleaning of bleach through and it helped. then when I was at home depot I found these cleaning tabs that you drop into the tub (not the detergent basket)and run a hot water cycle through and it helped to get the smell further gone. I think the package said it was sodium percarbonate ???? And I'm pretty sure that is oxyclean- so my plan now is to run oxyclean through it every now and then b/c it is cheaper than the tablets I used.

[aleutsi]

Hey Annie,
I was having this problem and my washer just smelling damp. I have a cleanout underneath it that was holding some stuff in. Plus I don't always use HE detergent so apparently the suds get into the works and help to make that smell. I ran a cleaning of bleach through and it helped. then when I was at home depot I found these cleaning tabs that you drop into the tub (not the detergent basket)and run a hot water cycle through and it helped to get the smell further gone. I think the package said it was sodium percarbonate ???? And I'm pretty sure that is oxyclean- so my plan now is to run oxyclean through it every now and then b/c it is cheaper than the tablets I used.

Thanks! I will try the oxyclean. I'll also look for a cleanout - interesting!

[JaamE]

Just curious.. do you have a front loader? I never had this problem until I got a front loader washer. Smaller loads help, as do vinegar washes and washing on "heavy". But over-all my clothes are just not getting as clean as they use to and they don't stay clean for as long as they used to. I used to be able to wear a shirt many times before it smelled funky. Now it smells funky after one day. I've tried every soap available to me, too.

we do and i hate it. nothing smells clean unless i use vinegar and the boy stuff i have to wash 2-3 times

[leannan_si]

I'm going to plug my ears and sing "lalala Can't hear you...." :-P Our dryer we replaced with a high efficiency model and I've been coveting a front load washer to go with it. I hadn't heard that they cause stink clothes before.

[leannan_si]

I was everything in cold, but I'll give that a shot, Thanks! :-) nt

[aleutsi]

I'm going to plug my ears and sing "lalala Can't hear you...." :-P Our dryer we replaced with a high efficiency model and I've been coveting a front load washer to go with it. I hadn't heard that they cause stink clothes before.

Well, we did buy a discontinued model. Yours will probably be wonderful!

[Bickery]

I'm going to plug my ears and sing "lalala Can't hear you...." :-P Our dryer we replaced with a high efficiency model and I've been coveting a front load washer to go with it. I hadn't heard that they cause stink clothes before.

Stink clothes have not been a problem for us with our front loader.

My ex is one of the stinkiest people alive.

[Kim]

We've tried to go with naturals here (for the adults) and it is just too....stinkalicious. NT

[gfrach]

FWIW, I've used Bi O Kleen liquid laundry detergent for 10+ years and have no problem with stinky clothes. No teenager here, but the man who used to live here had oily skin and his clothes still didn't stink.

Doesn't mean it would work for others who've tried natural detergents and not had them work, but thought I'd mention it.

[Amanda]

Front loaders are notoriously not-great for washing diapers, because without the strong agitation, the invisible stink motes just don't come free as easily. I am betting the same thing is true for body odor in clothing.

We bought our front-loader BECAUSE we anticipated many years of cloth diaper washing, not realizing that it was a poor choice for that job. I love it otherwise, but there are definitely drawbacks.

I used to have to run multiple loads, and use hot water, and oxy-clean, and bac-out. Sunshine also helped somewhat (line-drying) but I rarely did it - too logistically challenging.

Sorry I'm not more help. Thanks for going through this before me so that I can learn from your experiences!

[leannan_si]

I did his laundry this week and it's SO much better! I soaked his shirts in warm water with baking soda first, then washed in warm with vinegar instead of fabric softener. I was afraid to try washing in hot yet, because he wears a lot of black and red and I was worried about bleeding. But there was no stinky smell when I opened the dryer! I think what really helped the most though was the salt scrub. I mixed him up some sea salt, vit. E oil and four thieves EO and asked him to scrub himself with it and make sure that he got his arm pits really good. :jester: Luckily, he didn't even bat an eye at it and just went along with it all. I guess he's learned by now that when his mom asks him to do crazy stuff, it's just easier to do it and appease her. ;-) I tried to not be obvious about it, but I was sneaking little smells of him all week and the stinky smell is gone. Just a body spray smell. :yay: Thank you all so much!

[Rosemary]

Front loaders are notoriously not-great for washing diapers, because without the strong agitation, the invisible stink motes just don't come free as easily. I am betting the same thing is true for body odor in clothing.

We bought our front-loader BECAUSE we anticipated many years of cloth diaper washing, not realizing that it was a poor choice for that job. I love it otherwise, but there are definitely drawbacks.

I used to have to run multiple loads, and use hot water, and oxy-clean, and bac-out. Sunshine also helped somewhat (line-drying) but I rarely did it - too logistically challenging.

Sorry I'm not more help. Thanks for going through this before me so that I can learn from your experiences!
The no agitator is my biggest beef with my front loader. I don't have stink problems but I find that our clothes, particuarly the kids, just don't get as clean as they used to...granted, my kids get pretty darned dirty, but still. I am hoping that whenever I have to buy a new one, the technology is a bit better than mine which is about 3-4 years old now.

[aleutsi]

The no agitator is my biggest beef with my front loader. I don't have stink problems but I find that our clothes, particuarly the kids, just don't get as clean as they used to...granted, my kids get pretty darned dirty, but still. I am hoping that whenever I have to buy a new one, the technology is a bit better than mine which is about 3-4 years old now.

Yeah, same here - stains are just not coming out of DH's work clothes. And we do have a stink problem. Mine was a discontinued model that we bought on sale right off the floor last year in January. When it's time to update it I'm going to be thinking really hard if I want to go the front loader route again. Sure it save a LOT of water... but I want clean clothes!

Still, I'm going to try some tips that have been shared in this thread before I give up all hope.

[Storymama]

Front loaders are notoriously not-great for washing diapers, because without the strong agitation, the invisible stink motes just don't come free as easily. I am betting the same thing is true for body odor in clothing.
I wonder if it's possible to add something gentle but slightly agitating to select loads, like diapers. I use these (http://www.amazon.com/Nellies-NDB-R-Dryer-Balls/dp/B0009IB6T2) in my dryer - primarily because they do a fantastic job getting all the pet hair off, I dunno if they really speed drying like they claim or not. (See footnote if anyone is interested in the dryer balls.) But it seems to me something like that in the wash would increase the agitation factor, without hurting the washer or causing other problems; I can't say I've ever seen a product like that for front loaders though :meh:.

*Note: Two things about dryer balls. Don't buy the cheaper ones, they aren't worth it. The Nellie's brand is worth the extra money. Also, they need a little hole drilled in them, I found. Otherwise, they get poofy when hot, and then when they cool down, they deflate (Boyle's Gas Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyle%27s_law), anyone??) After deflating many times, the walls fatigue and break up. With a tiny hole drilled to accomodate the changing pressure with the changing temps, mine have lasted perfectly. I really like how well they clean lint and pet hair off dryer stuff!!

[Storymama]

I did his laundry this week and it's SO much better! I soaked his shirts in warm water with baking soda first, then washed in warm with vinegar instead of fabric softener. I was afraid to try washing in hot yet, because he wears a lot of black and red and I was worried about bleeding. But there was no stinky smell when I opened the dryer! I think what really helped the most though was the salt scrub. I mixed him up some sea salt, vit. E oil and four thieves EO and asked him to scrub himself with it and make sure that he got his arm pits really good. :jester: Luckily, he didn't even bat an eye at it and just went along with it all. I guess he's learned by now that when his mom asks him to do crazy stuff, it's just easier to do it and appease her. ;-) I tried to not be obvious about it, but I was sneaking little smells of him all week and the stinky smell is gone. Just a body spray smell. :yay: Thank you all so much!
Yay! Collective YAAPS Brain strikes again :thumbsup:! The scrub I buy uses a blend of almond oil and . . . something else, I am too lazy to go look LOL! That's what I used when I used to make my own, though.

[laurata]

I'm going to plug my ears and sing "lalala Can't hear you...." :-P Our dryer we replaced with a high efficiency model and I've been coveting a front load washer to go with it. I hadn't heard that they cause stink clothes before.

I've not had any trouble with my FL causing stinky clothes. I need to clean out the catch and run a vinegar cycle every 3-4 weeks, but it's no big deal unless it get clogged and I do diapers and have an outlet error... Then... Well, lets just say I clean out the outlet religiously. :yuck: