Christmas clothing presents an odorous question

Gross!

How many days do you wear something before you wash it?

Its the fabric's finish. If you starch and iron shirts they will stay fresher longer. Unfortunately that will not work for knits.

My guess would be that the weave is loosened and the fiber softened after they are washed, so they absorb moisture and odor more quickly.

Really,

Just heard that, using nano technology, some eastern university is developing clothes that clean themselves.

So, if you don't take em off, do they make you dirty? Or do they clean you too?

Irish man (or whatever nationality your care to substitute) goes to the doctor with bad foot odour and athletes foot.
Doctor tells him to put on a clean pair of socks every day....
By the end of the week he couldn't get his shoes on

But seriously, poor drying of clothes can cause a problem. We have a 'wter efficient' washin machine it's crap...it appears to save water by not washing the clothes. If Mrs Cat forgets 'em and doesn't take them out the machine and hang 'em up to dry (we don't have a tumble drier, although the machine does have a tumble dry function for occaisional usage...are you all bored rigid yet?) they go smelly fairly quickly.
Maybe I should stop peeing in the washin machine?

Del

Not to appear too much a smart-alec, but you do know this

is not just for washing socks, don't you?

Well, to avoid such happenings, one has to use the "test for ascertaining if the socks must be changed" : throw the socks upwards, to the ceiling. If they stay "glued" on the ceiling you must wear a new one (test could be done individually, for each sock, in order to increase the efficiency).

I have the same problem as Mrs Cat

Del ! keep out of my kitchen !

It's you.

They lurk with intent...

I recently watched a TV production on the training of bloodhounds. A point made therein was that the average human sheds the residue of some 40,000 skin cells every minute. This explains how the bloodhound with several orders of magnitude better sence of smell than you and me can follow a track long after the human subject has passed. These skin cells, being microscopic solids, can easily transport in suspension in the air to land on surfaces a short distance away and adhere thereto.

I think this explains the mechanism by which our clothes get smelly even tough we don't sweat a lot and they are separated by a layer of underwear.

Then there is the differences in people's sense of smell. Some like my wife used to have when she was younger and our oldest son now has are much better than others like me. Son has a keen taste for good wines. Me? Well I'll just say that anything costing more than $5.00 a bottle is wasted on me. This suggests one of the unsung benefits of marriage. There is always someone around to tell you it's time to change your t-shirt.

Ed Weldon

If you can afford to be on the internet Then u need bathe everyday and put clean clothes on everyday!!!!

Wow, there are days out here that I travel through area where finding 6 glasses of clean water to drink in a day is a mission, never mind six rinses. Years ago I found out that many washing powders & liquids have huge amounts of maize meal filler and gelatines in them, particularly hand wash powders, to give them that "soapy feel" and bulk them up for better profits. By switching to the biodegradable hyper-concentrated types that do not have fillers and pre-diluting them my wife solved the problem of not only the clothes becoming smelly early in the day but also reduced the incidence of tropical heat irritations that I guess were simply bacteria being fed on washing powder residue, all the starch and gelatine.

Where's Jaxy? How about some real research on this one? My bush research system is similar to the sock on ceiling technique....if the socks don't run away from me in the morning the are ok to wear again!

O oopS... douwn 2 ti..ping wiff one hand, wife saw my sOck post and beat me.... aGain

I think the CR4 community is coming up with a much more well-rounded answer than if I alone had researched this topic!

Washing machines don't kill bacteria. Unless you add chlorine bleach (And I have no idea how effective that is) all the washer does is remove some of the material that harbors and holds the bacteria through the action of detergents.

But if you expect the washing machine to get rid of all the bacteria you might as well expect brushing your teeth or gargling with mouthwash to kill all the bacteria in your mouth.

Take note her that there is a huge amount of bacteria on your skin that doesn't get washed away when you bathe. What you primarily get rid of when you bathe is the smelly byproducts of the bacterial action and the material they are mixed in with.

But what are you worried about. Your very life and existence depends on the vast majority of this population of hitchhiking organisms. They are there in such quantity that if a Star Trek transporter could snatch away just the part of you that originated from your own DNA you would still look the same. (according to one researcher whose work Dr. Dean Edell frequently describes).

And before getting too hysterical about killing bacteria everywhere it would be worth checking out the current medical thinking on something called the "Hygiene Hypothesis".

Better to cultivate relationships with people who don't have such an extreme sense of smell. Likely they will be fussy eaters and have a taste for expensive wines.

Ed Weldon

Yeah, GA, and would you rather a woman smelled like a plastic barbie doll or like she'd just come from a day working in the field? (or woods....mmmm wood smokey lady)
Del

Washing machines don't kill bacteria - correct, not unless you drop the washing machine on the bacteria . It is the temperature of the water that will kill most common bacteria. Elevated temperatures will have a higher killing effect for the bacteria.

Hi Pj

Read your post out loud to the "other half", she suggests you let someone else do your washing.

Her logic is, we may all be engineers of one kind or another, but when it comes to the simple domestic "Goddess" bit, we simply haven't got a clue.

Having had an odorous problem with my washing machine too, I would like to point out this: Our washing machine started to leave a awful smell in the just washed clothes and we found some new grown mould in the water inlet channel through which the detergent is flushed into the drum as well as in the water outlet filter. We decided to do a washing operation at 90 deg C w/o clothes. To our surprise we found that the water was never ever heated throughout the whole washing operation of 1.5 hours duration. On a second try we disabled the pre-washing and suddenly and well surprisingly the heating worked as expected and worked for all other washing programs too. A colleague told me that the mechanical program switches are quite often the culprit. On my question why they still do pure mechanical switches and no electronics he responded, that mechanics is way cheaper. So maybe washing with 90 deg C from time to time and making sure that the heating works is helping to clean the machine and get rid of odour. Hand washing is no alternative for me at all. We are four and have pile for some days full of hand-washing each week.

Some really interesting answers and it would seem I am not alone on this despite some comments about poor hygene and a crap washer etc. In fact I have a top of the range model and I think I would agree that its something in the newly made clothing thats absent once washed alongside the inability of washing machines to remove perhaps not the bacteria but the by product of their feasting. Do you remember the days before washing machines? Did we all smell more then or did the boil wash in the dolly tub get rid of it? Also there were less man made fibres around then. Maybe thats a clue?

Yeah! I like all those answers on CR4 and the different sights of the people. I don't believe that there is crap washers and would state that all of them are sort of equally good and bad. There is certainly some possiblity to mis-treat a washer by overloading or not enough inside cleaning and so on but in general I don't believe that our 21st century hygiene is worse than e.g. 100 or more years ago. Also the state-of-the-art detergents which we all use are certainly better than what was available some dozen years before. Maybe we are all having the syndrom of "The princess and the pea" and suffer haevy from not having something to complain about.

Cold insulative wear garments or fabrics use FURS, VELVETTES, RAISING EFFECTS, QUILTINGS, FELTINGS to have more air pocket space to give warmth and insulation.This applies to beddings, blankets, rugs also. Basically these fabrics absorb excess water during washing and care is to be taken for good water extraction by squeeging or hydro extraction. Care should also be taken to see that these fabrics are dried well right into the core. That means prolonged dryer timings or solar dryings including reversal of faces and ensuring core drying on grounds of possible moisture retention. The undried residual moisture or dampness will lead to fungus formation and bad odours of the fabric. Sweat may add more flavours. Dry well upto the core to avoid fungus. Even in storage use Napthalene balls to prevent fungus development.

You ever think that it may be the other odors of the holiday season that over whelm your sense of smell. The fresh cut pine, the good food cooking, the scented candles or maybe just maybe you have drank to much alcohol through it all.

Hi Ozzb

I don`t think its the alcohol ozz and the question is serious I do believe that new clothes stay fresh longer. Maybe there is a mad scientist out there willing to put it to the test with a smellometer. Perhaps one washed sock and one new sock in a series of tests.

New fabrics is very likely always treated with starch. I would even assume that sewing is much easier, faster and better quality if the fabrics is a bit more stiff, especially for something like jersey or stretchable fabrics. The starch is certainly delaying the penetration of dirt and odours. This new fabric is also not as cushy as the washed one and I prefer to wash clothes before wearing. You may apply starch by yourself after your (hand-)washing and (hand-)rinsing has been finished. I think the starch could be applied into most washing machines instead of the final softener or maybe even mixed with the softener (good luck...).

Sweat is produced in apocrine sweat glands, however, the sweat from apocrine glands also contains proteins and fatty acids, which make it thicker and give it a milkier or yellowish colour. This is why underarm stains in clothing appear yellowish.

Sweat itself has no odor, but when bacteria on the skin and hair metabolize the proteins and fatty acids, they produce an unpleasant odor. This is why deodorants and anti-perspirants are applied to the underarms instead of the whole body.

So its safe to say, its not the clothes but the person who is wearing the clothes.

Food, coffee and spices do have an effect, not in the smell, but on the nervous system making the body produce more un-smelly sweat.

All quite fascinating.

The fabric pretreatment has some bearing (as covered above)

Use of fabric softeners and always cold water is a biggy in machine hygiene.

Too much detergent is a common error - rashes etc.

Too much water for the clothes volume is common 'mistaken perception' on how machines actually cause cleaning.

Use of "suds-miser" is crazy - If you want to save water, dump the wash water and re-use the rinse, or final rinse, water for the new load.

Drying in sunlight is a great sterilizer (and if windy - a fabric softener)

Nappy San or bleach is a worthwhile but 'with caution' additive.

I can't find a direct link to 'reference material' on the above, but here is a link that will take you to a 'user manual' (pdf) that covers most of my 'assertions'

It gets "on topic" about page 21. enjoy.

http://www.fp.co.nz/admin/pdfs/pdf_usecares/420983_Smartdrive_UC_UD1.pdf

This is one of the funniest questions I've read in a while, but it's true about clothing, ostensibly clean, still holding traces of perfume and body scent even though the recommended amount of detergent has been used. I think modern detergents just don't break down oils very well. Someone locally makes and sells old fashioned lye soap and a neighbor of mine who has iron water in her well says that the lye soap will even eradicate the dinginess associated with that kind of water.

Yes - from the day I was told detergents are acid based I thought it anti-intuitive as alkaline is the logical chemistry for 'degreasing'.

There are still folk who use soap scraps in a mesh bag for laundry, which is both an effective washing solution and good use of resources normally thrown out. And some who use a grater and laundry soap bars (to avoid forgetting to take the scraps bag out)

For what it's worth, a scourer and soap will clean pots and pans where scourer and dish washing detergent is never ending toil.

In both cases you use far less.

To remove rust stains from concrete, use citric or oxalic acid.

I have no idea if it will also get rust stains out clothing, but it probably would.

While grease is saponified by alkali, many other stains and components of dirt in clothing respond well to acids.

Detergents operate by having a molecule with one end hydrophilic and the other oleophilic (ie water "loving" and oil "loving"). This is why they will often work in cold water.

As virtually all reactions speed up with increased temperature, hot water wash will almost always beat a cold water one. Just costs more for the hot water.

I have missed out one important factor in my last posting which has profound influence on the smell retention of the cloth. The nature of the fibre the cloth is made of plays an important role. Like activated carbon, wool can adsorb smell and therefore will not smell as much as cotton or synthetic fibres for the same period of wear. Similarly during washing process, smelly substances get removed from synthetic fabrics made out of continuous filament yarn more easily than from the one made out of spun fabrics.