It doesn’t matter how often you shower or how much deodorant you use: after just 15 minutes outdoors, you’re sweating like crazy. Removing the smell of sweat from clothes is a tough task. Luckily, there’s an ingenious trick you can use to freshen up clothes without washing them.
What is the most effective way to remove sweat odor from clothing?
A quick walk in the sun or a 15-minute workout and your clothes smell like sweat. Sometimes even a low-temperature wash cannot remove the odor and running the washing machine every day is neither sustainable nor economical. Even on vacation you want to save yourself the washing. Luckily, there are ways to get rid of the smell of sweat.
So you can effectively kill the sweat bacteria
But first: the sweat has no smell. The smell is created when the bacteria living on the skin break down the sweat and give off certain waste gases. Antiperspirants therefore always contain an antibacterial component that is supposed to prevent the bacteria from breaking down the sweat.
Similarly, if you want to remove the smell of sweat from clothes, you should kill the bacteria. However, the bacteria are not killed off when washing at 30° Celsius, which is why the smell of sweat often remains even after washing. Only a temperature above 60° Celsius proves to be effective against bacteria. However, the washing machine uses a lot of electricity for this – so this variant is not exactly effective in everyday life.
Another method would be to add disinfectant to the detergent – this variant can, however, cause allergies. You can also prepare a vodka solution and spray it on clothes – but this only helps against small stains and odors in certain areas
Luckily, there’s a third option — the right temperature can kill sweat bacteria. You have two alternatives: the temperature should be either higher than 60° Celsius or below 0° Celsius.
Put clothes in the freezer
The easiest way to get rid of the smell of sweat is to put your clothes in the freezer. However, there are a few things to consider.
The bacteria in sweat can tolerate sub-zero temperatures for a short time, so you need to leave the clothes in the freezer for a longer period of time, preferably overnight. However, 1 to 2 hours is usually sufficient. Then air the clothes for an hour. The trick works best if they freeze the clothes as soon as possible after removing them. Don’t give the bacteria a chance to multiply. A mistake would be to throw the clothes in the laundry basket – after a few hours a musty smell develops.
Steam against musty smell
Another variant is to kill the bacteria with high temperatures. The advantage of this method is that it works super fast. You can do this as follows:
Steam the clothes with a steam cleaner. Nice side effect: The steamers also remove wrinkles. You can also steam iron the clothes. This method is also very effective as far as clothing allows. You can put delicate textiles that can still be dried in the dryer and start a 30-minute drying program. If you are on vacation and your hotel room has a refrigerator with a freezer compartment, neither a steamer nor a clothes hanger, then the option of hanging your clothes in the sun remains the same. The best time is midday and afternoon. Turn delicate fabrics inside out to prevent fading.