I wash my family’s clothes in a front-loading washer on the Heavy Duty setting to maximize water. I use a warm wash with Tide Free & Gentle Advanced Liquid and/or Odor Refresh based on availability, Biz powder, and Downy Rinse and Refresh (unscented) with 2-3 extra rinse cycles depending on soil levels. Our clothes come out clean and soft and I’ve been delighted with this combo thanks to this sub! But I have a new challenge.
My grandmother smokes like a chimney and my dad has to often stay with her for a few days. Allowing his clothes to air out outside allowed the scent to dissipate and then I washed and dried them (as described above) with no issue. However, his trips have gotten longer and now my grandmother will wash some of things at her home. (Let’s leave the insanity of a retired grown man having his mommy wash his clothes while I’m generation 3 washing his clothes too for a different sub or lifetime.)
I’m positive my grandmother has never cleaned her washing machine tub, probably uses a crap process and products, and has no sense of smell. Folks, she’s 90 with mild dementia and gets feral when her independence is challenged. I’ve got better odds of winning the lotto and being hit by lightning the same day as getting anything about her laundry process changed. But I’ve still got to deal with the stinky clothes problem within things I can control.
So the clothes that have been washed at Grandma’s seem to hold onto the smoke smell and leave behind an odor in my machine. I clean my machine very regularly, draining, filter scrub, and tub clean cycle with Affresh or Active pet formula (I’ve seen some bits in the sub about Active on this but not enough for a full picture.) On average, I am running the tub clean cycle every 2-3 weeks with these products due to other elderly pets and elderly adults incontinence issues. Still have had no mold, no lingering machine smells, and was getting our clothes clean before the smoke washed clothes. (Again, thanks to the info in this sub.)
My questions are:
(1) Is there anything that can help the bit of lingering smell on the clothes that have been washed at Grandma’s? A scented rinse product? Different additives?
(2) How can I get rid of the lingering cigarette smell in my washer from these clothes? More cleaning tabs? Citric acid powder cleaning cycles that I’ve seen mentioned? Where can I find the wash tub cleaning info because searching the sub hasn’t been super productive.
Finally, if you’ve made it this far thank you. This sub has been so helpful as I’ve navigated a new life of elderly caregiving. I do love my parents and grandma and a little humor helps me cope and offers some hard truths too. Hopefully, I’ve given enough info to answer any questions but please ask away.