this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2026
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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 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by UnequalExchange@lemmy.world 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.

Also I live in an apartment that has a public laundromat and the cleaning of the machines' filters is a sporadic frequency as of now so....

And yes I do now know about mangles to wring dry clothing. I live in canada so if anyine knows any brands that arent absolute garbo please do link

Ive deided to not use the washing machines until. the maytag mechanics fix the problem of to dirty filter and the mildew. I live in an apartment with a public laundromat and the maytag mechanics for the machine come in sporadically

Thanks to all who answer.

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[–] doc@fedia.io 3 points 2 days ago

Step one: clean the machine. Just like you wouldn't expect to be clean using a dirty bath or dishes in a dirty sink you won't get clean clothes in a filthy washer. Options are 2+ cups citric acid crystals or a commercial product based on oxy (sodium percarbonate) run using a self-cleaning mode or full wash at max temperate for max duration. It may take several cycles depending how bad it is. Note: citric acid does not create suds. If you get a lot of suds in an otherwise empty load then that's the citric acid removing residual detergent. Repeat till you don't get suds.

Step two: clean your clothes. If they smell musty straight out of the wash then they're not getting cleaned in the wash. Use the hottest setting the clothing care tag allows, wash for the longest time the machine is capable of, and add extra rinses. For chemistry, use high quality detergents (Tide, Persil, others depending where you live), add a booster product with enzymes (varies on country: Biz if US, Resolve Gold if Canada, Vanish down under), and add a tbsp of citric acid in the final rinse (not in the wash!) Avoid fabric softeners as the can contribute to the stinky buildup in the textiles you're trying to remove.