How to Get Rid of Odor in Clothes

It’s so sad when your favorite garment picks up an unpleasant aroma that just won’t leave. Beyond the obvious (washing your clothes or taking them to a dry cleaner) here are some of the ways people solve the problem:

Destroy Odors with NonScents Shoe Deodorizers

NonScents Shoe Deodorizers aren’t just for shoes. While the sachets are shaped to make them easy to slip into your favorite boots or sneakers, their remarkably effective odor destruction technology can be applied just about anywhere. Put the garment that’s giving you trouble in a small bag with one or both of the deodorizers. Let it sit overnight to give the NonScents odor control technology a chance to work.

If the odor hasn’t been destroyed completely, try moving the deodorizers to a different spot in relation to the clothes (ideally close to where the odor is emanating from) and give them some more time to work.

Cover Odors with Fragrances

This isn’t really a solution in our book, but it’s a popular choice in almost every area of odor control. A lot of products use fragrances to cover bad smells with less objectionable ones, and some home remedies use essential oils to similar effect. Unfortunately making your clothes smell like lavender instead of something bad doesn’t really seem like a solution – you’re still dealing with strong odors that can give you or people around you headaches.

Worse still, sometimes the new smells don’t cancel out the old smells and you’re stuck with a bizarre hybrid aroma, something like vanilla-and-spilled-chili. Nobody wants that.

Absorb Odors with Activated Charcoal or Baking Soda

Putting your garment in close proximity to activated charcoal odor control products (ideally in a small bag, as we suggested above), can help absorb some of the compounds that are making it smell bad. Unfortunately this absorption is a passive process – a bit like hanging a net out to try to catch odor molecules as they float by. It’s slow, weak, and inconsistent.  Baking soda’s absorption powers are even weaker than charcoal’s.

Neutralize Odors with Baking Soda or Ammonia

Baking soda and ammonia can modify some odor causing compounds in such a way that they no longer smell bad. With this in mind, some people dissolve baking soda in water and soak the problem garment in the mixture for a long time (hours or overnight). Beyond the fact that some garments don’t respond well to being submerged in water that long, baking soda and ammonia only work on specific types of odor compounds, so you may not solve the whole problem.

Air Out Your Clothes

Putting the garment in a breezy, open area can help clear out some odor compounds loosely trapped in the fibers, but it’s not going to do much for stubborn aromas.

Solve Clothing Odor Problems with NonScents Shoe Deodorizers
They’re not just for shoes!