It is one of those unhappy facts of life that your clothes begin to smell stale and feel rough to the touch over time. While this fate will ultimately befall all fabrics at some point in their life cycle there are some little things that you can do to delay the inevitable.
A Bad Whiff
You wash your clothes with the expectation that they are going to come out of the washer smelling lovely and feeling soft. While this may hold true for the first months of a new fabric, it is often not too long before fabrics start to feel rough and an unpleasant smell just won't seem to go away no matter how many times you put them through the wash.
Here then are some simple to follow tips for those who would like to regain that freshness of smell and softness of touch in their laundry:
Essential Oils
For those who are a little suspicious of all of the chemicals that go into supermarket softeners, a good way to get clothes smelling fresh again is for you to add some essential oils in with the wash. A few splashes of oil over a handkerchief that is then thrown in with the rest of the clothes is a really good way to give your fabrics a little bit of a boost, and you don't have to worry about any unwanted chemicals as you know the oils you are adding are completely natural. Tea tree oil is a lot of people's favourite choice of oil, as is Lavender. Oils are good to add straight to the wash but you can also think about adding some dried herbs to your dryer. Wrap them up securely in a little box and just throw in with the clothes and your clothes will come out feeling all natural and fresh.
Check Your Washing Method
One of the biggest problems that causes fabrics to get smelly and old early is that people just don't do their washing in the correct manner. This could entail many little mistakes but it typically means using too much or too little detergent and softener, or the habit of leaving clothes and fabrics in the washer for hours once the cycle has finished. Make sure that you do washing in a window of time that will mean you have ample opportunity to deal with things as soon as they been washed, and don't let things be overly dried either as this can also cause fabrics to lose their natural softness.
The Dreaded Towels
A lot of people get upset with the smell that soon comes to rest on their towels after a few months of use. This is an extremely common problem that many people fret over and it can actually be helped by very simply adding some white vinegar to your wash. Make sure that only one cup is added or it will be too vinegary and your towels should soon be free of that awful mildewy smell that they can so easily pick up. Another tip to add here is that towels should always be allowed to dry naturally whenever possible, particularly under the sun.
Follow these simple tips and your clothes and fabrics should soon start to feel a little bit softer and fresher. They will probably never feel or smell as good as they did when you first bought them, but these little tricks will make a difference. Good luck!
-Alisha is a British writer and content developer for VolgaLinen that specialises in natural pure linen.
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