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https://www.nytimes.com/search?query=thrift+store+smell
“Here’s what they found: 12 of 18 of the key malodor molecules that contributed to the bouquet of that vintage smell were derived from body soils, which is a gentle way of saying your skin, your sweat, your oils. ”
“Dry cleaning is simply not as good at odor elimination as wet cleaning, and that’s especially true when it comes to odors caused by perspiration and other body soils.”
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here’s a direct link to the article
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We used to call that thrift-store smell “amvetsia”, back when the Amvets ran the big stores in town. I find thrift store clothes smell of a combination of mold and the horrible industrial fragrances used in laundry products nowadays.
Mold is the major demon around here. The Southeast is hot and humid of course, so people’s household microbiomes tend to be moldy to start with, and the use of front-load washers with concentrated detergents exacerbates the problem for clothes (I could go on at length about the evils of front loaders).
Then some of the larger thrift stores use donation boxes where clothes sit for days. And with the volume the stores process, the clothes sit in giant mounds moldering for days or weeks even after they’ve been collected. Plus the stores themselves are often in poorly maintained down-market shopping centers, so the roofs often leak, so more mold.
I usually have to wash garments 4 or 5 times in hot water and vinegar to get rid of the smell, or hang them outside for a week or so if the weather permits, so clothing has to be pretty special for me to think about resale.
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Stains and smells don’t come out well. It was noticeable to me coming from top loaders all my life and having a sports-playing teenage boy to test the limits. Pressing the extra water and extra rinse buttons helps but makes for a really long cycle and it’s still not as good as our previous top loaders. The slimy dirt that is often left on the inside of the door is nasty. And the clothes start to go rancid really fast if you delay at all in pulling them out. The top loaders have scrubbing action with the agitators and it’s now apparent to me that it makes quite a difference.
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Huh. Interesting. I miss my front loader! When I moved, the new house came with a top loader that is frequently unbalanced during the spin cycle, so I’m constantly having to run down to the basement to re-arrange the wet clothes/towels. Such a pain. But I don’t have sports-playing boys, so not too many stains and smells in my hamper.
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LOL, I hate that smell, but it is the smell of money too, since we turn those items into cash. I generally wash the clothes, and definitely the bedding items. We’re lucky to have a covered porch, too, where things can air out. It took weeks to eliminate the smell of cigarettes from a leather jacket but it did work.
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Front loaders are mold factories owing to a combination of factors:
-To achieve US government efficiency standards, manufacturers limit the wash and rinse water quantities to ineffective levels.
-The outer drum that encloses the inner basket (think of a salad spinner on it’s side) gets coated with wet, soapy, dirty water at every wash, but doesn’t get rinsed off. This causes a build-up of tasty residue and thriving mold populations above the water line.
-High-efficiency detergents are like chocolate cake for molds, and most people use too much on every cycle, encouraged by the soap makers (Arm and Hammer just doubled the depth of their already-too-big caps), which causes more build-up in the machine and on clothes.
You’re bound to have noticed the proliferation of laundry deodorant products advertised lately, and people seem to use that stuff in increasing quantities to mask the smell of their laundry, because you smell them everywhere you go, but it just creates an overwhelming moldy-industrial-floral odor I call “laundry funk”. I’ve had good restaurant meals ruined by sitting next to people like that. I smell it wafting on the breeze from my neighbors’ dryer vents, I smell it rising up from the sewers (I’m convinced it’s altering the sewer system microbiome).
The only good thing I can say about front loaders is that I’ve never bought one new. My mother moved into a new apartment with a new front loader a couple of years ago, and I’ve observed first-hand as it’s developed the funk. Now when I visit her for a few days, I have to rewash my clothes when I get home to remove the smell.
We’re strictly top-loader, unscented, no fabric softeners, no dryer sheets, and our clothes come out smelling like…nothing.
Told you I could go on at length.
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i love my front loader(s)! yes we have 2. i keep the doors open after every load so the inside fully dries and doesn’t get moldy. it helps a lot!
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Yeah, I kind of cringed when you guys talked about getting them on the podcast, but if they work for you–great; I’ve just never met one that doesn’t get funky after a while, except maybe the old-school commercial washers.
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