If you’re trying to remove fragranced laundry products or perfume residue from clothing this article is going to go over all the methods you can use.
These methods can also be used to remove new chemical residues on clothing such as “sizing” chemicals.
Some clothes are easier to deodorize than others. It depends on the fabric type and which type of detergent, fabric softener, or dryer sheets were used.
If the clothing is 100% cotton or linen, then it’s easier to remove fragrance.
Synthetic fabrics are more difficult to mitigate.
It also depends on your level of sensitivity and sense of smell – the extremely sensitive may not be able to remove a high amount of fragrance (especially from synthetic clothing) thoroughly enough.
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How far you have to go depends very much on the person and how heavily scented the item is.
For most people this is the formula I would use:
Start with a few days of airing in the sun, then pre-soak in baking soda, wash in Charlie’s Laundry Soap with added washing soda, do a rinse, soak in vinegar, then finish with an extra rinse.
You can repeat the process if this doesn’t work the first time. If that still doesn’t get the scent out enough for your standards consider other methods on this list next.
I would next freeze the item, after that, I would consider a soak in alcohol or ammonia, and then consider a soak in milk as described below.
Highly sensitive folks should not put the item in their own washing machine or dryer until the scent is just about gone (wash by hand instead).
The following methods are tried and tested by the chemically sensitive for removing fragranced products from clothing:
- Sun – Use the power of the sun and hang clothes outside for prolonged periods of time to help remove chemical odors. Be sure to hang the clothes inside out.
- Charlie’s Laundry Powder – I don’t know why this works better than other laundry detergents but it does. Sensitive folks recommend Charlie’s Laundry Powder as your laundry soap.
- Baking soda and vinegar – Soak the clothes in baking soda and water overnight followed by a soak in straight vinegar the next day. Then wash with laundry soap. (Some people do this the opposite way, soak in vinegar first then wash with baking soda added to the wash). One person soaks clothes for more than a week in straight vinegar (or almost straight vinegar). Changing it out several times and washing the items in between.
- Washing Soda – Soak the clothes in washing soda or add washing soda to your wash. If you do a soak with a lot of washing soda, be sure to rinse with vinegar to remove that slimy feeling.
- Alcohol – you can spray straight vodka on your clothing and let it evaporate the smell off, soak the clothes in straight vodka (or isopropyl) before washing with soap.
- Zeolite – zeolite powder absorbs odors and it can be added to the wash. This can be more effective than washing soda and baking soda. OdorKlenz powder works similarly. Chemically sensitive folks have recommended both, but the types of odors they work on are limited.
- 6 More Methods can be found in this Substack article.
Note: If you’re extremely sensitive and struggling a lot with the chemical residues (including light fragrance cross-contamination, sizing chemicals, formaldehyde, chemicals from the dyes, etc) that come on new clothing here are some more thorough protocols.
Autumn Chittum-Vestal
Any recommendations on removing fragrance from a purchased used vehicle? We bought a 2019 Honda Odyssey with leather interior, and there is a perfume/laundry/dryer sheet scent (yes all three in different locations), and we are struggling to remove the scent. The seatbelt specifically is dryer sheet smell, but the rest is a laundry & perfume scent. We have tried baking soda, hypochorlic acid (force of nature, so ppm 200), “baking it”, so turning the heat on for awhile and letting it set in the sun. Would love any additional recommendations!
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
I dont know any way to perfectly remove fragrance from a vehicle but i would use some of these methods and some of the methods from the removing mold from cars article
Rochelle Esser
OMG! Thank you for this!
I live in an apartment complex where the laundry room and mailroom are combined, so I often have to ask a neighbor to check my mail for me, thanks to the overwhelming laundry product smells, including the drain in the middle of the floor that often leaves the whole room smelling like the absolute worst example of a gas station or restroom stop restroom.
This is the same place where the “community donation colab” is, so on the occasions where I’m able to go into this nightmare room without coughing and wheezing for the next 30 minutes to an hour; having propped open the door and turning on the vent fan, I’ve gotten some pretty good clothing out of there but then spend a lot of time and effort trying to get those nightmare scents out of the donated clothes.
I currently have a nylon jacket and two pairs of jeans to deodorize, and my usual practice of using my personal washer’s soaking and washing cycles with hypoallergenic scent and dye free detergent along with 1/2 c of baking soda for washing laundry hasn’t been successful in getting the perfumes out of the donated clothes, so I’m SO GRATEFUL for this information!
My complex doesn’t allow personal appliances like washers and dryers normally, but I have a reasonable accommodation exemption because of my extreme allergies and asthma, so I have a 2 CF capacity washer and a 1.5 CF electric dryer with the indoor vent kit, and use wool dryer balls in lieu of dryer sheets.
I initially tried using a drop or two of essential oils that I like and don’t have a reaction to on the wool balls, but this turned out to be a sensory and sensitivity nightmare, just like it has when trying to use a cool-mist diffuser for therapeutic essential oils that same timeframe
So thank you again! It’s such a relief to know that I’m not alone in this and that I was able to find your information
Rochelle Esser
Typo corrections:
*rest stop restrooms
*during that same timeframe
Peggy
Thank you. You seem to be the only one who admits to and understands these awful smells.
Benjie
I found out about RLR laundry powder supplements, (it’s not detergent, it’s like an add-in for extra cleaning purposes), when I was using cloth diapers, (someone recommended it as a diaper stripper), and reading about second hand clothes that were yucky smelling, (chemically).
I have no idea what’s in it; it’s advertised as non-toxic I believe but it does have its own smell, not a fragrance, just a smell of the ingredients if you don’t rinse sufficiently.
If well-rinsed, no noticeable residue.
As I said, I don’t know what’s in it, but it seems to work really well on like 95% of chemical scents.
A couple of times there are these really sweet perfumey, chemical odors that it has not been able to get remove. I don’t know what their base is. I found in those cases that the only thing that eventually breaks those chemicals down is just leaving them outside in the elements for an extended period of time…
When using the RLR powder the trick is to really make sure that the affected item is soaked throughly before washing so it has time to really penetrate the fabric and remove the offensive chemicals. They sell them in little packets and each one is about a dollar on Amazon. I think they sell in Walmart too. Depending on the severity of the issue, I may use one to two packets and let it sit for a while after everything’s been throughly mixed in. Occasionally, I might have to do a second wash, but as I said, 95% success rate.
It’s better to use a little more if you think it needs it, you will use it with your regular detergent whatever that is. I had been using Molly’s Suds, but then wanted to switch to a liquid detergent so now using Zum.
The important thing is to plan on some extra rinsing. If you don’t get it all out, I wouldn’t say that the scent is overwhelming, but I don’t find it pleasant so I prefer to have my clothes well rinsed.
I am very sensitive to fragrances, smells of any type, especially chemicals at this point and this product works great for me.
I didn’t see it listed here, so I wanted to share it.
No affiliation but between traveling frequently and staying in other people’s homes on a regular basis, this stuff has saved my life.
Corinne Segura, Building Biologist
Looks like sodium carbonate/soda ash.
SS
I am very chemically sensitive and have had great success with using 1-2 cups of 3% hydrogen peroxide (1 gallon jugs found on Amazon) in the wash. Soak overnight for extra heavy scent removal.
Corinne Segura
thanks i added it to the post
Aaron Pine
Manufacturers are using silicone and an oil base for “air fresheners” (should be called air poisoners) which means they cannot be removed with water!
Elsewhere on this website, the author suggests using citrus oil, which is an excellent suggestion because citrus oil will dissolve other oils, such as used in “air fresheners” and citrus oil is an organic product. (Just watch out for other ingredients in the “citrus oil”.)
Corinne Segura
yes others can check out the post on removing plug in odor, in that experiment I was quite successful in removing it.
Winona
Hi, what ratio/amount of baking soda and vinegar are usually used for the soaks? I’ve heard of around 12c baking soda for 1 load of laundry but not sure about the vinegar?
Does the baking soda/vinegar need to be washed out first if doing 2 overnight soaks (one of each) or can it simple be drained and re-soaked immediately after – e.g. vinegar soak overnight, drain, then baking soda soak overnight; then wash in machine?
Thanks!
Winona
K
vinegar in any appliance will eat the hose!!!