TLDR - You can reply to any of the questions below that you have a citation or knowledge about please and thanks. But basically I hang dry my clothjng and have had a problem with them getting that mildewy smell . Please help

  1. Im talking about a whole 2 cups of citirc acid per a load of clothing. What notablw effects on the clothing wll this amount have? Also I plan on leaving the citric acid solution on the clothing after rinsing away as much detergent as possible. Bad idea? Should I do a 24 or 8 hour citric acid soak? Nope ?yes?

  2. Also it should be noted that most of the clothing is heavy cotton as in 325 GSM or more cotton. Only like 1 or 2 of those peices of clothing are made of wool or polyester or spandex.

  3. Also citirc acid may lighten the clothing no? Or will the citric acid only lighten the clothing if it clothing is out in the Sun for too long, right?

  4. Will the citric acid impart its own smell to the clothing? Will it destroy it?

  5. Can I combine this solution with placing the citirc acid solution on the clothing and l then once its hang dried a bit I can then use a drying machine to dry it even more thoroughly to ensure that rhe mildew is like double dead? Also I cant dry my clothing when its wet as Im super skinny and that would make my clothing stretch far too much.

  6. Could the problem be that Im using too much detergent?

  7. Ive tried to look for other solutions to this and apparently drying the clothing after the mildew is already there will not have a drastic enough effect to get rid of it. Is this true please.?

  8. Should I just dump boiling water onto the clothing after it has washed or will this make it stretch?

Ive found I have this problem when I hand wash the clothing or machie wash it but surprisingly hand washing and then hand wringing it makes the smell of mildew less prominent.

Thanks to all who answer.

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[–] 1 point 5 hours ago (3 children)

An appliance tech made a video about cleaning top-load washers and he used citric acid because it breaks up the clumps of minerals and stuff that the bleach won't be able to attack.

Same idea as the above commenter but dissolve citric acid in the tub instead of bleach.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 3 hours ago (2 children)

    cant I just use the citric acid on the clothing itself to kill the mildew itself instead of only on the washing machines?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 hours ago*

    You'd want to use less citric acid on the clothes but you can use a lot in the machine alone. I would mix up a little cup of acid and dab a drop with a Qtip on like the inside of the hem in the back, and let it dry, to see if each item is going to be okay because different fabrics and dyes react differently.

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