Laundry Stink

I just got back from two weeks at the beach, and I have a whine for you. 

And then some amazing laundry insight. 

But first the whine...

You know how it is- you're getting ready to leave for vacation and you're marking things off the to-do list seconds before rolling away from  the curb...

Well, this year, my last to-do was a load of laundry (I hate to leave dirty laudry while I'm gone and give my basement an even-funkier-than-usual smell). 

So at 5:00 AM, I take the laundry from the washer and toss it in the dryer, then we take off. 

Our two weeks of fun in the sun goes by way too fast, and next thing you know- I'm back home. 

And the place stinks. 

First I blame my forgetting to put out an air freshener so my house doesn't pick up that closed-up, this-house-has-too-many-pets smell. But usually that goes away with a bit of airing. 

This smell lingered. 

I washed all the small rugs and hung them on the line. 

Not the answer. 

I then blamed the dining room rug. It's a few years old and has been the victim of a few spills, so I rolled it up and sent it to the curb. 

Still. The smell. It lingered, sometimes a bit stronger than others. 

Then I went to throw a load of clothes from the wash into the dryer...and in the dryer? A load of still slightly damp, horrid smelling laundry. 

Awful. 

The dryer thermostat was broken and it was only blowing cold air. 

I washed those clothes in Tide, No help. I added bleach. Still stinky. 

Then I remembered I had hunters in my house. Before deer season, they wash their hunting clothes in scent killer so the wily little critters can't smell them coming. 

I used that. 

Worked like a charm. 

This stuff isn't cheap- I think we paid $11.00 for this bottle- but it beats tossing a load of laundry in the trash. 

Scent Killer soap from Amazon
Or check your local outdoor/hunting department

While we're talking laundry...

  

Does this bug anyone else? 

Soap in the cup that makes its own goopy ring. 

Rinsing the cup in the sink is a pain. Wiping the goopy soap that collects under the cup is a pain. And having a goopy ring that eventually collects dust is also a pain. 

The solution? Throw the cup in the wash. Comes out perfectly clean for the next wash! 

And if you forget and dry it with the laundry- it doesn't hurt it. I've put it to that test a time or two already.