Winter is just around the corner and brings with it a few inconveniences, one of which is the fact that the laundry never dries, every year we promise ourselves we’ll buy a dryer but then for one reason or another we don’t. So, after trying in vain to dry the laundry and trying to wash it only on sunny days, we give up and resort to the old method of wearing clothes on the radiator! It won’t exactly be elegant to have underwear strewn all over the radiators in the house, but it is undoubtedly effective, the problem arises when the clothes dried in this way start to smell, let’s try to understand how to avoid it.
Clean washing machine for perfumed clothes
In reality, the problem of clothes that stink over the radiator is mainly solved in the washing phase, the first rule is to keep a washing machine clean, because this is the basis of really clean clothes and therefore less prone to odor. To do this, we do an empty wash at least once a month by adding either a quart of white vinegar or a mixture of 1/3 lb. of citric acid dissolved in a quart of water directly into the porthole.
Little detergent, little fabric softener, little laundry
A really clean garment must be rinsed perfectly, if we put too much detergent or fabric softener in the washing phase, they will not be rinsed well and consequently the laundry will not be clean, also here the probability is much greater that it will stink in the drying phase The same happens if we load the washing machine too much, the water and detergent cannot penetrate the fibers and leave the garments dirty and smelly.
Cloths on radiators: vinegar
Using a glass of vinegar with each wash will completely deodorize the clothes, even over the radiator they will not smell.
Beware of the centrifuge
Sometimes we are tempted to shorten the spin cycle to make ironing less difficult, but this inevitably leads to wetter garments that take longer to dry and consequently could smell of “dead water”, better to iron for a few minutes longer and run the spin cycle at maximum power than having to wash everything again.
Cleaning radiators
We have said that the main reason that causes the smell of clothes hanging on the radiator is the poor cleanliness of the same, but it is clear that if the clothes are clean but the thermos is not, the laundry will still end up smelling. Let’s face it, at least once a week we need to clean the radiators thoroughly.
Cloths on radiators: what to do so that they don’t stink
Finally, in order to have optimal and fragrant drying even with a thermos flask, we must learn not to hang the clothes directly on top, but on a clothes horse very close to them so that the clothes can still air out a little. Let’s not forget to change the air often in the room where we usually dry, otherwise the humidity generated by the laundry will remain inside and soak the air, causing all the laundry to smell bad, in addition to the fact that mold could appear, which is harmful to health. We can also place salt or rice containers in the room to help absorb humid air.
Here we can also postpone the purchase of the dryer this year!
