No matter how often you shower every day or how much deodorant you use, you'll be sweating like crazy after just 15 minutes outside. Removing the smell of sweat from clothes is a difficult task. Luckily, there is an ingenious trick that allows you to freshen up your clothes without washing them.
What is the most effective way to remove sweat smell from clothes?
A short walk in the sun or a 15-minute workout and your clothes smell like sweat. Sometimes even a wash cycle at low temperatures cannot remove the smell and running the washing machine every day is neither sustainable nor cheap. Even on vacation you want to save yourself the hassle of washing. Luckily, there are ways to get rid of the smell of sweat.
This way you can effectively kill the sweat bacteria
But for now: The sweat has no smell. The smell occurs when the bacteria living on the skin break down sweat and release certain waste gases. Antiperspirants therefore always contain an antibacterial component that is intended to prevent bacteria from breaking down sweat.
Similarly, if you want to remove the smell of sweat from clothes, you should kill the bacteria. However, washing at 30° Celsius does not kill the bacteria, which is why the smell of sweat often remainsafter washing. Only a temperature of 60° Celsius or more proves to be effective against bacteria. However, the washing machine uses a lot of electricity to do this - so this variant is not exactly effective in everyday life.
Another method would be to add disinfectant to the dishwashing liquid - but this option can trigger allergies. You can also prepare a vodka solution and spray it on clothing - but this only helps against small stains and odors in certain areas
Luckily, there is a third option – the right temperature can kill the sweat bacteria. You have two alternatives: the temperature should either be higher than 60° Celsius or below 0° Celsius.
Place 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 sweat bacteria can tolerate sub-zero temperatures for a short time, so you have to leave the clothing in the freezer for a longer period of time, ideally overnight. Normally 1 to 2 hours is enough. Then air the clothes for an hour.
- The trick works best if you freeze the clothes as soon as possible after taking them off. Don't give the bacteria a chance to multiply. A mistake would be to throw the clothes in the laundry basket - after just a few hours a musty smell will develop.
Steam against musty smells
Another variant is to kill the bacteria using high temperatures. The advantage of this method is that it works super quickly. You can do this as follows:
- Steam the clothing with a steam cleaner. A nice side effect: the steamers also remove wrinkles.
- You can also steam iron the clothes. This method is also very effective as long as clothing allows.
- If you have delicate textiles that can still be dried, you can put them in the dryer and start a 30-minute drying program.
- If you are on vacation and have a refrigerator with a freezer compartment in your hotel room, neither a steamer nor a clothes hanger, then the option is to hang your clothes in the sun. Best done right at lunchtime and in the afternoon. When doing this, turn delicate textiles inside out to prevent them from fading.
