Besides removing stains, the purpose of washing clothes is to make them smell fresh and clean. Even when you’re using a high-quality detergent with lots of fabric conditioner, your laundry might not end up smelling so good.

If that’s the case, then you might be making these common mistakes that prevent your clothes from getting as clean and fresh as they should.

A Dirty Washer

One of the most common reasons that cause clothes to stink is an unclean washer. If you haven’t cleaned your washing machine in a long time, then now’s the time to do it.

It might seem silly to wash something that has soap and water swirled in it almost every day. However, the washer is not as clean is it might appear. As it stays moist and warm from the inside, mildew can grow.

To clean your washer properly and prevent clothes from smelling musty, wipe the drum with a household cleaner after every wash.

Sprinkling baking soda inside the washer and running an empty cycle with hot water also helps in killing the accumulated bacteria. After every use, keep the lid of the washer open, so it dries properly. This help if mildew growth keeps recurring.

You’re Putting in Too Many Clothes

Putting in all your clothes at once in the washer might save you some time and effort, but your clothes will keep on smelling bad. Adding too many clothes at the same time prevents them from getting cleaned properly.

When clothes spin and move around in the washer, the friction created between the clothes and detergent washes them properly.

However, if you load your washer to its maximum capacity, the clothes will just stick to one another in one big pile and won’t be able to move around freely in the machine.

Leaving Clothes in the Machine Too Long

It’s easy to forget clothes in the washing machine. Sometimes you turn on the machine and start doing something else, leaving clothes in the washer for hours. If clothes are not moved into the dryer right when they’re done being washed, they’ll end up stinking.

When your clothes are sitting inside the drum in a dark, damp and humid environment, it provides the ideal conditions for mold and bacteria to develop.

If you don’t want your clothes to have a musty smell, then dry immediately once they’ve been washed. Set an alarm to remind yourself, if you have a tendency to forget. If you still forget to take the clothes out on time, then send them through a hot rinse cycle to kill bacteria and remove the stale smell.

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