Greetings from Putrid Pudding!

So, I just signed on for NaBloPoMo again, and I’m trying to figure out if or how to shake it up a bit this year. I do know that I’m going to be crying on November 4th. And if those tears aren’t of the happy flavor, well, I just might throw in my stinkin’ towel and post stink-eye photos for the remainder of the month.

Speaking of stinkin’ towels (sadly, my transitions lack imagination), I’m currently suffering from a case of the stinking towels. I’m not sure if this stems back to our Feces in the Basement (!) problem or the fact that I sometimes let things sit in the washer too long, but our towels smell like mildew. I dry my face with one, and then I spend the night smelling my soured fetid face. And I dry the kids’ hair with one, and then I send them to the car for the night so I don’t have to breathe in their rancid tresses. And when your friend sends you some incredible soap and then the smell of your supposedly clean towel completely chews up the good scent and spits foul yuck all over you, well, something has to give because it’s starting to affect my mood.

As I type this letter to you, I am using (for the first time ever!) fabric softener laced with Febreze to try to kill the stink on the towels. Think happy thoughts. Also, Dear Jeff: Your underpants (for the first time ever!) are going to be surprisingly soft (and lavender scented!) tomorrow. Let me know if you need me to knit suspenders to hold them up.

So, anyway, yeah. NaBloPoMo. Join me. (I don’t say it enough, but I love reading your words.) Let me know if you’re signing up, and I’ll be your stinky St. Louis friend. (As Wurocher once said, “Everybody needs a stinky St. Louis friend.”) ‘ ‘ ‘text/javascript’>

44 thoughts on “Greetings from Putrid Pudding!”

  1. Wash your towels with white vinegar in the water. And then wash them again normally. Should take care of the stink.

  2. I agreed with Charmed. Only I add vinegar to the wash and just run normally, not washing twice. It helps so much, I can’t even tell you. I also can’t believe I’m delurking to talk about laundry. I need a life.

  3. Tempe has recommended baking soda–a scoop per stinky load. (I haven’t yet tried it, but I’ll add it here in case others are having issues.)

    Thanks for the vinegar advice, too!

  4. I agree on the vinegar thing and if that doesn’t work, burn them and send them back to hell where they belong. Or, um, just get new ones. But the vinegar should work.

    Feces in the Basement made me think of Flowers in the Attic.

  5. I use a little borax and wash in hot water. A little bleach works too, but is probably harder on the towels. Not harder than throwing them out, though, so if it comes to that – try the bleach. You only need a little.

  6. If you put the baking soda and the vinegar into the load you can have a HUGE laundry volcano. FUN! In the short term, anyway.

    I signed on for the NaBloPoMo. No idea what I’m going to write about and am oddly nervous about it even though I post nearly every day anyway. Glad you’re in too!

  7. The problem is your washer. Your washer has fungus in it! Try this product–www.smellywasher.com. I tried the vinegar, and bleach on white towels, and Borax, and all kinds of things, and nothing worked until i got the washer smelling better.

    (For whatever reason, you can wash other clothes in a smelly washer and they don’t hold the smell in, but towels do. They smell fine util you get them wet by drying your body off, and then all that ick smell comes back.) Truly, if the “home remedies” don’t work for you, the smelly washer product does.

    I promise I don’t work for them or anything!!

  8. I was going to chime in about NaBloPoMo (I challenged myself to write 100 entries last year – I will not be such a moron this year) but then I read from the commenter above me that washers can have fungus in them! Ew! I have now forgotten what I was going to say!

  10. I have had this exact same problem for YEARS, because I forget about things in the washing machine on the constant. I’ve tried literally every single product on the market at one time or another, and most do not work. The fabric softener with Febreeze is nice, but you need the straight febreeze laundry additive. that stuff gets ALL funky smells out of fabrics, including the moly/mildewy ones. it IS pricey, though… in Wisconsin it retails for $8-10 a bottle. But that is still cheaper than having to replace all your towels, and the P&G website offers a coupon for $2 off, which they send to your email, and you can print however many copies you want.

    In a pinch, the liquid version of oxyclean and your favorite liquid fabric softener will work,too, but the febreeze for laundry is best. just add it in with whatever else you normally use, wash as normal, and viola! all your laundry will smell wonderful. The good thing about the straight febreeze is that if you forget the stuff in your washer for a bit, it’ll stay clean-smelling longer than normal. (I have discovered a max time-limit of 24 hours before the funk creeps back in, but it’ll depend on your water, too) Hope this helps.

  11. Count me in on the white vinegar bandwagon. I can only use scent free detergent, so sometimes Dr. Pig’s gym stuff gets out of control and I wash it with white vinegar. Works a treat and it removes the smell but you don’t have any of that floral stuff either.

  12. Wow – must be the season for it or something. We too had the stinky towel situation. I bought the smelly washer stuff after much Googling, but it has since resolved itself since I switched from Tide Scented to Ecos (environmentally safe) unscented laundry detergent. I think I do remember reading somewhere that scented detergent can contribute to the odor. I do have the Smelly Washer stuff on standby in case it happens again, but that’s $20 a bottle, so if you’re using a scented laundry detergent it may be worth switching that first. Vinegar/ baking soda did nothing for me.

  13. Oh yes, do the vinegar thing. Its cheap and it works every time (for me, anyway). I’ve had the stinky towel problem before, after forgetting towels in the washer. And I do use unscented detergent because of skin allergies. I didn’t know that would help get rid of the stink, bonus!

  14. I’ve gotten cat pee smell out with baking soda.
    And on the fabric softner note, my Mom always told me not to use fabric softner on towels because it causes a build up and decreases how well it absorbs. I don’t know the validity of this statement, but there you go.

  16. Okay, yeah, if you’re going to do it, I will.

    But holy crap I’m really disgusted. My washer smells ’cause I think it’s on its last legs but the clothes come out fine and dandy. Now I’m afraid I’m wearing fungi in my undies. Now where’s my vinegar?

  17. Excellent that you’ve signed up for NaBloPoMo again! Me too. I found your blog through NBPM last year.

    Sorry to hear about your towels, that smell is awful! Sounds like you’ve gotten a lot of good advice about it. Personally, i had the issue of leaving clothes/towels in the washer too long and it making them stink. Alas, now i have no washer and have to share the apartment’s laundry mat. However, I don’t forget about my wash now.

  18. Can’t believe I delurked for LAUNDRY when every thing you write entertains me so much. So sad.

  20. At least I’ve commented before, so it’s not delurking for laundry.

    Yes to the vinegar, except do an empty XL load with 1/2 gallon of white vinegar and hot water. Let it agitate and then turn machine off for a few hours to soak. This will require you to be RIGHT THERE so it does not pump out the vinegar water. Let that cycle finish. Agitate towels in remaining 1/2 gallon of vinegar and the hottest water the towels will take. Stop before pump out and let soak for a few hours. Let cycle finish. You should not have to re-rinse, any remaining vinegary smell will be dried out in the dryer (or ever so slight, that you’ll be hungry for pickles for a day or so–of course, it that a bad thing?)

    p.s. thanks for the shoe info–unfortunately, I have Flintstone feet and nothing from DSW will fit them. Nothing.

  21. I have no stinky laundry advice (but if anyone has a way to make quarters magically appear so I can do my laundry in my apartment laundry room, I’m listening)…

    but I have been thinking of NaBloPoMo… Maybe it will force me to actually post more regularly.

  23. Yeah, I signed up for NaBloPoMo! Ever year, I do it, and then every year by the end of it I’ve convinced myself that I have no funny things left to say EVER AGAIN.

    Like, I’ll be at a dinner party in ten years, and someone will turn to me and expect an anecdote, but I’ll be all, “Sorry. Used it up on my blog when I was twenty-three. Too late, sucker.”

  24. No advice on the stinky towel issue, but I am planning on signing up for NaBloPoMo again, too. I’m hoping that it will get me back in the swing of blogging.

    Although I do enjoy the Downy with Febreze – makes my towels smell good and soft. :)

  26. Hahaha, so funny. I have been thinking, “Wow, these towels smell sort of funky, I swear I just washed it. What is the deal?!”

    Now I am wondering, does my washer have fungus in it? How do I find out?

    Will white vinegar work? Are there other reasons besides fungus for the washer making my towels funky smelling? If it is fungus, I would prefer killing it at the source. Not just bandaging it with the use of lots of white vinegar. If it isn’t fungus and something else, is white vinegar the solution? Oh my.

  27. I was going to say, “Use vinegar!” But someone already did. I can vouch for its effectiveness, though. I use it on cloth diapers and they never stink after they have been washed in it.

    Also, I am signing up for NaBloPoMo. Again. For the third year in a row. I DO like to punish myself, why do you ask?

  28. Ok, so…this post is already so “yesterday”. I know it’s not November yet, but shouldn’t you be doing some sort of verbal stretching exercises to get ready for the upcoming marathon?

    I do so love your commenters!

    Jane, I’ve never though of my hooves as being “Flintstone feet” before, but they are, they *are*!

    And, Sir…”rancid tresses”…bwahahahahaaa!!]

    i.e., if you check back about the vinegar…yes, white vinegar works fine, and in fact it does nuke the cause as well as the odor. It’s not just the vinegar fragrance masking the odor, but something about the acid in the vinegar that makes the surface inhospitable for all the smelly growing fungi.

    Key word in that sentence is “something”. See, Mrs. Carlson? I did learn “something” in your terrifying Chemistry class after all!!

  29. ahhh…stinky towels. Truly a menace to the laundered world. Or at least to those that hate stinky towels. Whatever.

    You’ve talked me into NaBloPoMo again. I think. (I’m really not all that interesting…perhaps it should be 30-days of lying to make me sound cool!)

  31. I just thought it was my stinky husband. I have switched (over time) to all white towels – easier to wash and use as much bleach as needed.

  34. Blarhgfhj mildewy towels! A few weeks ago I was in the middle of doing about 4 loads of laundry (I hadn’t done wash in a while, gowmaface), to get ready for my future mother- and sister-in-law who would be visiting for the weekend. And what do you know, the dryer stops working. Not the worst of things, as there is a laundry mat right down the street. So frantic to get all the towels, sheets, blankets, and oh yea underwear washed before their arrival the next day, I decided to wash everything at my house, then trudge all those baskets of sopping wet laundry to the laundry mat to dry them. Only when I get there at 11 p.m., it’s closed. CLOSED. So there I was, four loads of soaking laundry (because did I mention our washer doesn’t drain correctly?) and houseguests coming in 12 hours. This is a really long way of telling you, I had baskets upon baskets of mildewed towels the next morning, so sister, I FEEL YOUR PAIN. UGH.

  35. You know, everyone keeps mentioning vinegar, but no one has said how much. For a full load, I let the washer fill up a little with water, add detergent, then a little less than a cup of white vinegar, let it keep filling a little to mix it all up then add your towels and let it be. If you over do it, your towels will smell like smelly vinegar. Just around a cup will neutralize it. Works magically.

  36. Props to you for participatig in NaBloPoMo. I considered it, but it cuts into my alcohol consumption time. I’d seek therapy, but red wine is cheaper.

    Here’s to adoration and many greats laughs.

    Karla

  37. I am NaBloPoMo-ing again. I am thinking about trying a little all-organic experiment some time and next month seems like a good idea so I have some content. I am thinking I might try to do everything (eat, bathe, clean, etc) with organic products. Only non-org things allowed will be clothes, since I am not buying a new wardrobe. Not sure if I will do it yet, but it’s an idea.

  41. hello whata wonderful blog i found you looking for stuff on our sons birth defect esophageal atresia and down syndrome and so on. I wish you the best and such a great site you have.

  43. WooHoo! I washed with vinegar and my towels smell clean again…such a nice thing, clean smelling towels!
    Thank you for airing your dirty laundry in order to be a public service announcement for me!

  44. I am also naBloPoMo-ing against my better judgement.

    Also, regarding the towels, my mother has a great remedy for that…only I can’t remember what it is, so I guess I would’ve done better not to mention it in the first place! Oops…sorry

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