Some call it the “thrift store smell”. It is frequently discussed on the Internets but they all say it is old sweat, dirt, etc. But it is not just vintage clothing that develops it. Any cotton cloth that has been stored for a month or two seems to get it. I have several sets of cotton flannel sheets and change and wash them often. The other day I pulled a pillowcase from the bottom of the stack and it overwhelmed me with the old cotton smell. No way I could sleep with that next to my nose. I gave it a light fogging with Lysol and waved it around for awhile and that helped.
I think it’s clothing that’s been close to other smelly things in store rooms and closets.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some fungus or bacteria was involved.
I’ve noticed clothing that been in boxes or bags smells worse.
Cotton being a natural fiber is gonna absorb more odors. Its easier to wash out than, say, manufactured fabrics. They hold on to odors like nothing else.
I don’t buy much clothing thrifted, if I’m looking at something I make darn sure it’s cotton. I know I can clean it. Polyester is a crap shoot.
Denim cleans up really nice.
This is why Pooph and Febreze are products.
An article on it:
I don’t have a sub, so this was a free to read article and may or may not be to you. But two key paragraphs that should be enough under fair use.
Here’s what they found: 12 of 18 of the key malodor molecules that contributed to the bouquet of that vintage smell were derived from body soils, which is a gentle way of saying your skin, your sweat, your oils. Distressing! But, perhaps, not nearly as distressing as the list of odor descriptors that accompanied the compounds. Sweet, sour, oily, herbal. Fatty. Whiskey, nutty, cheesy, sweaty. Stinky feet. Fermented. Bready.
The source of the remaining compounds that made up that vintage smell were environmental contaminants like car exhaust, gasoline, dry cleaning solvents, food and perfume or, as the team at P & G put it, “the odor molecule peaks form a record of the odors” that the garments were exposed to over its life.
In my home, the old clothing smell comes from clothes I’ve worn but haven’t washed.
I still do not believe what they are claiming. I’m talking about freshly washed cotton flannel sheets that get stored for a month or more. That’s when they develop the ol’ cotton odor.
And here is a similar example, the odor that clothes get hanging in the fresh air and sunshine. I guess some people like it, but I don’t. Once when I was remodeling and did not have curtains yet I tacked up some towels in the window. When I took them down a few weeks later the towels had that sunshine odor on one side only. So it is the sunshine only that creates that smell. They don’t need to be outside.
Might want to get an ozone generator. Those work wonders on funky smells.
Just make sure no pets or plants or people are in the room that you are blasting. The textiles in the room will be defunkified.
Well, I’m trying to stay FQ as much as possible. But anecdotally and IMHO, a lot of the “musty” smells for long stored clothes and bedwear have a simpler explanation - mold and mildew. NOT a lot, but I’ve never seen a water-based clothes cleaner, especially home models that’s going to be perfectly, surgically clean, so there’s always likely to be some contamination from, well, life. And no home-dryer I’ve seen would ever leave anything anhydrous either, nor would doing so be good for your clothes!
So I strongly suspect that some of the musty smell comes from very minor, likely unthreatening mold / mildew that was already on the items in questions or was introduced by the washing machine, and did it’s thing as much as the conditions and water supply allowed. And since the conditions were likely sub-optimal for extensive growth, you just get a subtle “musty” smell as a lingering effect above and beyond any other contaminants.
Maybe you gots some lil’ol’ bugs in your ol’cotton flannels.
Get some moth balls or cedar balls for your linen closet.
I like Damp-rid in my closets.
There’s a “Goodwill” smell that is peculiar to Goodwills, though, and not other second-hand places, nor even garage sales. There’s got to be some kind of “air freshener”/masking odor, that Goodwill uses everywhere, but other thrift stores don’t use.
I’ve never had any problem washing odors out of Goodwill clothes. We have a teenage boy, so all our detergents and things smell, and we also put things in with the wash that are meant to remove noxious odors.
Also run a deodorizer/bactericide/fungicide through the washer every week, and a couple of sheets (they look like fabric softener sheets) through the dryer that are supposed to clean it. Afterwards, you are supposed to run a clean, damp towel until it is dry.
I bleach the whites, and with all my sons stuff but the really dark stuff, I put a single tsp of bleach-- with the dark stuff, I use those laundry sanitizers.
And speaking of teenage boys, we HAD to shop at Goodwill, since he outgrew stuff every four of five months.
Never had a problem with stuff being in the closet for a while smelling anything other than clean. But I also wipe out the closets every month or so, and change the shelf paper every six months.
My mother was stupifyingly OCD, and always thought my house was filthy. What I do is nothing compared to what I grew up with.
Yep. Keep a clean machine(s). Your odor problems will be much simpler to deal with.
I like to put stuff in the laundry that sanitizes. I love bleach. One of my favorite household poisons.
My biggest problem is the cats.
They have aversions to loud odors.
And, the top of the dryer is one of their favorite napping spots.
So I always lean toward the unscented versions.
I read somewhere Pooph is making laundry sprinkles.
My life will be complete when that happens.
I’ll die happy, knowing that’s in the world.
It would be interesting to get to the bottom of this.
I have noted that it only seems to be worn clothing or used bedding that attracts such odours, even if they have been stored freshly laundered. With a very small sample set, I don’t think I have observed it on old but unused fabrics.
So my suspicion is that the odour is oxidised or rancid lipids that laundering failed to fully remove.
Our ordinary laundering processes don’t really seem to be directed at lipids. Grease spots on clothing usually require specific attention to liberate them from the surface. The relatively small amount of surfactant used in normal laundry is likely not removing all the body oils from the fabric fibres. Natural fibres are likely going to hold onto oils much more than the smooth surfaces of artificial fibres. So this might account for cotton behaving like it does.
Geez, you and my wife. She loves those expensive sprinkles that don’t do a damn thing except make things smell better. However, I had to dismantle the washing machine last summer. The holes that squirt water to mix the soap and softener into the wash were clogging up and the softener never dispensed. What a job! I had to take the entire water system/manifold apart and flush everything with bleach and use pipe cleaners in the tiny passages. One good thing though, the wife figured it must be those odor crystals that clogged the passages so she stopped using them.
Yep. The disk shaped ones don’t dissolve right. A work man who looked at my washer said they were invented by washing machine companies to sell new washers.
If you’re gonna use them, use warm or hot water.
I like the granule type ones.
He also told me Downey and other fabric softeners are hard on washers. If overused.
Dryer sheets will cause clothing to hold onto odors. Especially not natural fabrics.
That’s my thought, too. And in my experience, the odor is similar to some stale foods like corn chips, which is also from oxidized oils.
… such as old people.
I had a friend who had a tweed jacket that he sweated in and forgot to get cleaned in a timely manner. It still stunk of BO. I felt the cleaners probably did a half-assed job and that’s why it still stunk. He said “you have it cleaned, and you can keep it”. I brought to a different cleaner (one my mom swore by). We met the enemy and he beat us. That stink could not be removed. I still wonder what went on chemically speaking that made the smell permanent. Shame, it was a nice jacket.
I worked for an organization one day a week whose mission was to help women who had been out of the work force (or never in it) find jobs. They learned interviewing, resume writing, etc., but also how to dress. (Back before everyone could just wear their jeans and t-shirts anywhere.) The organization was housed in a big hangar-like place with racks and racks holding hundreds of donated items-- very nice stuff, suits, skirts, dresses, blouses. They were in good condition but used. I don’t know what the donation policy was re cleaning the stuff first, or maybe they just relied on the good will and common sense of the donor. <shrug> The collective/cumulative smell in that place was subtle but pervasive. You might not notice it all that much when you were there, and if your sense of smell wasn’t too acute, you might not notice it at all, but I’m an excellent smeller (and an excellent driver) and when I left the place the smell would be all over me. Ewww. I’d have to shower and put the clothes I had been wearing in the wash as soon as I got home.
I bought a used cloth coat from Poshmark (consignment clothing-- fabulous site!) and it had that smell. I hung it outside for days to try to get rid of the smell. I don’t think I had it dry-cleaned, although that might have either fixed the problem or baked the smell in forever. I do wear the coat, so I guess the smell went away.
Aside: cars develop an “old car” smell, too, after a while. At least OLD cars do. Get into a vintage car with cloth seats and a cloth headliner and there is a very distinctive smell. It’s not unpleasant, but maybe I’m not bothered because I used to hang around with a guy who collected Cadillacs from the 40s & 50s. (He had 25 of them.) The smell is kind of nostalgic to me. I remember when my beloved 1978 AMC Pacer developed that smell. Like when you notice one day that your dog’s muzzle is whitish and he’s not moving too fast any more. 
Sounds like the making of a sitcom. Oh yeah, it’s been done, on Seinfeld (episode 4.21):
For washing, I saw a tip awhile ago to put vinegar instead of liquid fabric softener in the respective compartment of the machine for every wash. It worked and seemed to clear up any musty/moldy smell from our municipal water.