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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 12 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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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 2 hours ago

Speaking for myself, you can dump in as much vinegar as you like because you're not doing it with the clothes but before. When we wash clothing with vinegar because something in the load needs that kind of cleaning, we use two to three cups and then run it again a second time with only detergent. There really is no limit as long as you rinse really well or run the load again with just soap: vinegar dries without smell. (If you can smell it, it's not dry.)

Also, there's no need to do an extra cycle between the vinegar cycle and your clothing cycle: vinegar is itself a laundry agent. If your machine is draining properly there won't be enough left to detect once you get the detergent and the clothes in for the next round.

If you were to run your vinegar-only cycle with a few old towels and vinegar, that would ensure that you got the walls rubbed down as well as having the effect of the vinegar itself. Because you're dealing with mildew, I'd also take an old towel, wet it thoroughly with vinegar, and run it all around the rim and especially the inside seal on a front load, all the creases/crevices and wherever you can reach, because that's usually where mildew likes to hide. Then throw that towel in for the hot vinegar cycle too.

All this goes for both front and top load machines, though honestly if it's truly bad I already know it's a front load because those inside seals are hell for collecting mold and people don't like to leave the doors open. But that constant airing is really the only long-term cure unless people using them are really careful to clean the seals constantly. A top load you just leave the lid kicked up permanently whenever you're not using it and that alone resolves any mold and mildew problem.

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