37
Can a person use a fuck ton of citric acid to prevent mildew and bacteria growth hang drying clothing please? Or will the citirc acid just eat through the clothing? Will it lighten the clothing? (lemmy.world)
submitted 7 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
50 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 2 points 5 hours ago

I went through all this with my home washing machine a while back. The culprit in my case was trying to DIY laundry detergent and not knowing what the fuck I was doing.

I would skip the citric acid. I don’t see that moving the needle.

If your clothes stink, it’s probably biofilm left on them because the washer didn’t properly rinse off all the detergent. That comes from 2 places: too much detergent you added to your wash, and excess detergent stuck all over the washer internals from other people.

You’ll know that’s the problem if your clothes smell “ok” but if they get slightly damp it suddenly smells like wet dog.

One-time symptom treatment: make a strong mix of oxyclean and hot water in a bucket. Soak all your smelly clothes in it for at least 4 hours. Then drain and wash them normally.

If it’s in the machine, you’re in kind of a shitty position because the machine ultimately needs to be cleaned. If you have the time and are willing, run the washer empty with a cup of bleach. You might need to pause the washer and add it after the cycle starts - my machine drains when it turns on and pumps out the bleach, but if I add it a minute later it stays inside. Run the load with hot water.

Another thing you can do is run the machine with a cup of washing soda. That’s apparently better at removing biofilm, but imo bleach does a pretty great job on its own.

Moving forward, make sure you use the recommended amount of detergent. Too much and you’re back in the same place. Too little and there’s not enough detergent to actually clean your clothes (but the biofilm will still cover everything).

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
    •