The mystery of the funky smelling clothes

In My Humble Opinion
1

Short story: One detergent makes my clothes stink, but only when I am wearing them. No one else can smell it. I swear I’m not completely crazy! Any ideas of what might be going on?

Long story: A couple of years ago, I was walking around the apartment and I noticed that I was smelling that “dammit, I left my clothes in the laundry too long” smell. It was following me around, it seemed, but when I smelled my clothes, I could only smell the detergent and fabric softener. Still, it was wretched. I knew my husband had done the laundry, so I asked him if he had left the clothes in the washer. Nope. And the clothes didn’t smell bad if I smelled them directly. Aghast, I thought I was the culprit. I SMELLED LIKE STANKY WASHER CLOTHES!

Much experimentation followed. We finally figured out that it wasn’t me, and it wasn’t the clothes, it was me in the clothes, and only if the clothes were washed using Tide Pods, not regular detergent.

We stopped using Tide Pods except on loads that only contained my husband’s clothes.

We moved to a place with a front loading washer and this problem went away. So we used Tide Pods on occasion to use up our remaining pods.

Now, we have a top loader again. I noticed last week that one of my shirts didn’t smell great, but I knew I had been a little lazy about putting some clothes in the dryer, so I thought that was it. But it happened again, and again. And then I realized it was TIDEPODOCALYPSE again, and that we had bought some Tide Pods without thinking anything of it.

I recognize that we can just STOP USING DAMNED TIDE PODS! But why why WHY do I have to go re-wash all of my clothes so that I don’t smell like a mildewy sponge? How is it possible that one person can wear the clothes and the other can’t without smelling awful?

Note: The rub is that I’m the only one who can smell it, so this might be less “Tide Pods make me stinky” and more “Tide Pods smell bad to me” or perhaps “Tide Pods ate my brain.” But I like the smell so long as it’s on my husband, or on a blanket or outer layer that doesn’t touch my skin.

2

Here, buy this. It’s super useful.

I can’t use Tide, but for another reason… it, um, irritates my nether regions.

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True, but you wear that stanky washer clothes smell so well.

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I know the solution for not having the smell; stop using Tide Pods.

I’d like to know where the smell is coming from.

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My guess is going to be that something about the chemical makeup of Tide Pods doesn’t get out the natural buildup of dead skin cells, etc. that gets on your clothes with normal wearing, so it would almost be like wearing something, tossing it in the hamper for a week (or however long you go between washings) and then putting it back on again without ever washing it, with the perfume-y part of that detergent covering up the funk until you actually wear the item again.

Or maybe it’s just the perfume-y part - something about your chemistry reacts with it in a way that’s unpleasant, which is why you only smell it when you are wearing the clothes. I know some perfumes that smell great on other people really don’t on me.

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Kind of related: I just read an article in Consumer Reports about pods. Apparently if a kid ingests non-pod laundry or dish detergent, they just get a tummy ache. If they bite in to and ingest the contents in a pod, symptoms become more critical and can lead to death if not treated quickly. For some reason, neither the makers or independent labs can figure out why there is such a profound difference.

Anyway… Maybe that is related to your clothes and pods problem!

7

Are you sure it’s the Pod? Funky smelling clothes is a common problem with front loading washing machines because they are air tight. Leave the door open in between cycles and run a vinegar cycle every now and then.

Personally, I got a lot of funky smelling clothes after I switched to a front-loader. With my top loader, I could start a load before I went to bed and then switch it to the dryer when I woke up the next morning. Can’t do that with the front loader. If I leave them in the washer longer than an hour or two, I end up with funky odor, especially with heavy clothes and towels. Don’t ask me why. Luckily, my washer has a time delay on it so now I set it to start three hours before I wake up or come home from work. (I always use the allergen setting, which takes 2:42 to complete!) The time delay setting has saved me because I was seriously considering ditching the front loader altogether.

I loved the convenience of Tide Pods, but I found that my low-water HE washer doesn’t fill with enough water to completely dissolve them. A few times I ended up with blue dye on my clothes or even melted plastic. So I switched to Tide liquid instead. The sports type is really good.

There really is nothing worse than having funky clothes smell, especially when you don’t realize it til you’re away from home and stuck smelling like a wet towel all day.

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Her funky smell went away when using the front loader and it only affects her clothes.

Do you wear any perfume or use a different soap than your husband? Coukd be a combination of the two.

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If I had to guess I would say what you are smelling probably smells like mildewy scented tampons, yes? It is something to do with the damn Tide. I almost lost a job because of the Tide smell and what it did to my clothes. Not everyone could smell it but the people who could found it horrifying and once I developed laundry related PTSD I would have a panicky moment when I was near anyone who washed their clothes in Tide. I could smell it and I would freak out thinking it was me.

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I know, it’s the complete opposite of what happened to me. With the top loader, I was fine. Once I got the top loader, funky smell.

BTW, are your husband’s clothes significantly heavier than yours? For some reason, my bulky clothes get the funky smell more often than thin clothes.

11

I vote for body chemistry. I can’t use the “sport” version of Tide, because I think I smell B.O. when I wear anything that been washed in it. Same scenario as yours, and it made me crazy until I figured it out.

12

YES. That’s the smell.

I mean, I don’t know what mildewy scented tampons would smell like precisely, but that captures the smell very well. Horrifying.

So, you’ve never run across it with any other brand? I haven’t even run across it with regular Tide, just the pods.

13

We use different shower gel and deodorants. Neither of us wears scents otherwise. And we haven’t switched recently.

We are living in a different place each time, so I guess it could be the water plus the Tide Pods.

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Sorry for the multiple posts. My brain is non-functional from all the STANKY WASHER SMELL! Okay, that’s a lie. I’m wearing all non-Tide Pod clothes today. :smiley:

That’s really interesting. I knew there were problems with them. They really are very bright and pretty, so I understand why kids might want to play with them or eat them.

Exactly. And when someone else can’t smell it, you wonder if it’s just you or it has to be really close range or are you losing your mind or is it a tumah?

The one thing I can’t know is what scent the previous Pods were. I didn’t make a note. No idea if it’s a particular scent or all of them.

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I’ve had that happen with certain towels, which I KNOW were thoroughly dried (gas drier = great job drying heavy things!). I think it has to be some weird combo of my body chemistry, the soap I use to wash myself, the stuff I use to wash my towels, and so on.

Now I use All Free and Clear plus baking soda on my towels. Wash in really hot water, extra rinse. Then I dry them on high, no fabric softener, just laundry balls (which the cats keep stealing).

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I used the liquid Tide and still had the same problem. Once I was able to pin down where the smell was coming from I switched to All Free and Clear unscented laundry detergent (I’ve since moved on to 7th Generation Free and Clear) and that made a big difference. However, because this was over a period of several months that I was trying to determine what was causing the smell, all of the subsequent washing sort of “burned” the smell into my clothes, for lack of a better word. I literally threw out every item of clothing I owned and bought all new stuff. From that moment forward I’ve never had another issue with clothes smelling.

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Those are neat! I’ve only ever had the blue plastic kind.

I feel like I have the smell burned into my nose right now. PTSD is right.