What Do Your Clothes Smell Like?
Monday, July 26, 2010 at 10:26AM I did some laundry over the weekend. Perhaps you too engaged in this major weekend chore? It's not my favorite thing to do, but it rates higher than going to the grocery store or cleaning bathrooms. Plus, I only have four pair of underwear that I actually like to wear so laundry gets done pretty regularly at our house. Actually, right now it's being done daily because I throw in the kids' clothes from detasseling every day.
One of the fulfilling parts of doing laundry is pulling the warm clothes out of the dryer and inhaling that fresh, clean scent.
Is yours Mountain Fresh?
Or Clean Breeze?
Perhaps you are a traditionalist and prefer April Fresh?
Or there are no males in your house and you can enjoy Lavender or Jasmine laundry?
Whatever your scent, I envy you. Because my warm laundry?
It smells like hot cloth.
Last fall, Ju Ju Bee started sporting a balding look across her back haunches. At first I was unconcerned because I figured Faith had been playing beauty parlor with her. However, much questioning convinced me that the cat had been spared the scissors, so I just settled in and waited for the problem to go away on it's own.
Hey! Don't judge! Sometimes that happens. Not very often, but often enough to give me hope.
But alas, Ju Ju Bee only grew more bald and observation told me why: the cat was licking herself constantly. So I took her to the vet where I spent $280 to learn that my cat had an allergy to . . . something.
Duh.
I knew it wasn't the food because we the cat were eating what they always had, so I went with the next most obvious thing: bedding. I switched to Tide Free and waited for a while, but the cat was still licking and bald. The next step was a big one for me because I'm a fan of fabric softener.
I know, the artificial scents and what have you are probably going to kill me but it will be a soft, perfumed death.
Since we have a front load washing machine, I only have to use a tiny amount anyway, so what's the harm?
Oh.
It's making my cat bald.
Shoot.
So I took a deep breath and switched to Downy Free and within weeks, Ju Ju Bee was sporting hair on her haunches again. Which was good news for the cat, but bad for me, because it means my laundry will never again smell like a spring meadow or fresh rain or any of the other scents I like to try out. Instead, it just smells like . . . nothing.
Nothing is very boring indeed.
But then, this weekend as I did the laundry I reached into the dryer and pulled out an armload of clothes and I did catch a whiff of something.
Something outdoorsy.
Something plant like.
All of my clothes now smell like hot corn.
While it could be worse, you may rest assured that Downy is never, every going to adopt that scent.
Reader Comments (21)
I tried the all natural, earth friendly laundry detergents, but my clothes smelled moldy. I'm not really sure why. I had a tough choice between saving the environment and our drinking water or fragrant laundry. I chose fragrant laundry. Am I a bad person?
My youngest daughter has skin allergies, so we have to use the free and clear detergents as well. I hate not having awesome smelling laundry. :(
Yeah, my husband is the culprit here. Is it too late for a divorce? I want yummy laundry.
When #2 was little, he had very sensitive skin and so we used the "no smell" stuff. After awhile he became more tolerant and so we have smelly detergent, but no softner....better than nothing I say!
Like popcorn...because I could live with that. My dog had the same problem on her butt (losing hair). Realized fleas were biting her butt so we had to wash her three times a week in treatment. Took a couple weeks but it began to grow back.
I don't know what I'd do!! I'm so sorry, Mindee! :( I will do laundry and smell it twice as long tonight, just for you!!! ;)
I bet that essential oils would not bother her as opposed to the artificial fragrance and agents in your fabric softener. My friend makes it and it goes with these reusable cotton dryer 'sheets' that you spray with the oil and it lightly fragrances with all natural stuff. Send me a message if you want me to pass on her info to you..she's on etsy but I'm not sure if that product is up yet.
Have you ever tried soap nuts? (http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/natural-soap-nuts) It might be a fun soap alternative to try -- should be great for the cats, humans and anything stuck in between.
Well with the balding cat story I really tried to come up with somehting clever to say about my balding head story, but I got nothing.
Love the photo of your cat!
" i know, the artificial scents and what have you are probably going to kill me but it will be a soft, perfumed death. " i need to start making a collection of my favorite mindee quotes.
Oh, the bestest part of laundry is the delightful clean smell!
Boo, corn-fresh scent.
Boo.
The smell of hot corn reminds me of those microwavable heat pads my grandma used to make for us. I have a sister that feels sad that she can't use pretty scented stuff either. Her husband can't stand it - even if it's the "clean" scent!
Somethings wrong with our water, or our front-loader because our laundry ends up smelling....dirty!
Like I never washed it! Before this problem though, I remember accidentally putting a drop of essential oils into the soap dispenser and it made the whole load smell great, even through to the drying. One drop of that is powerful stuff, I think I used patchouli.
This post was so entertaining, you should write for a sit-com.
We use free for both and always have. Just have gotten use to it but I do notice when someone else has mountain fresh smelling clothing!
Mmmm. Nothing like the smell of hot corn in the morning.
I suppose it could smell like fertilized mud or stagnant water. And I will now count myself blessed that my cat has seizures that I can control with pills instead of softener scent induced baldness.
So for now I get to keep my clothes, my husbands clothes and our kids clothes smelling like jasmine. Because until my husband starts to do the shopping, I get to pick what he smells like . : )
That's a bummer! Those darn pets really know how to make life difficult! I'm hearing you after the week I had.
oh my gosh...i laughed out loud when you said that you only had 4 pair of underwear that you liked to wear. i have a whole drawer stuffed with underwear but only wear a handful as well...not all at the same time mind you! and why do they call it a pair of underwear (or pantie(s) when there is only one garment? makes you go hmmm?
I washed Joey's detasseling clothes separately because I hated the smell they had. And even after washing them they still smell like corn. I am going to throw the detasseling clothes away. :)
Poor cat!
I can't come up with anything better to say... Sorry!
See, what you really need is to add a hot butter smell.
Then you'll be in business.