this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2026
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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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[–] HeyJoe@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I see some people stating to use bleach or vinegar. Personally I have been using Borax for about a decade and it works incredibly well. I purchased it to make ant traps which also worked well, but decided to use it as a washing machine cleaner as well. 1 box has lasted me like 5 years and is pretty cheap as it is. Whenever i start smelling something ill do a clean cycle or if you dont have that option quick wash works as well and just pour like a cup of it in. It always smells like nothing after so it definitely works well.

[–] UnequalExchange@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Can I clean the laundry with Borax itself as well? Borax is a cleaning agent , no? So it can bd used as a detergent too , no?

[–] HeyJoe@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Yes, it can also be used that way as well. I was just never a fan of it for that usage and preferred traditional detergent. Ill try to find a video i watched regarding different detergents used in different scenerios and i wanna say borax did ok but its unlike others in some ways which I didnt like about it, im just not remembering why!