Your How-to Guide to Odor Removal with Tide Detergent

Removing odors from clothes can be a challenge when their smell becomes something that’s almost physical. Odors can come between you and the rest of the world – and make your garments feel unclean.

Smells come in all varieties, ranging from stinky or funky to sour mildew odors, and they're all due to different causes. These odors can be triggered by sweat, heat, or closed spaces. In the battle with clothing odor removal, only a full regimen can help you beat the stench.

What Causes Odors & Why Is It So Difficult to Remove Odors from Clothes?

Odors arise for different reasons. When your garments suffer from those stinky, sour, funky, or mildew smells, these are often triggered by water, specifically sweat. Closed spaces also contribute to that musty smell.

Fabric type also plays a central role in the battle to remove odors from clothes. It's perhaps most difficult to remove odors from synthetic materials, and the bad news is that now 60% of clothing is made up of synthetic fibers or blends containing them.

What Causes Odors & Why Is It So Difficult to Remove Odors from Clothes?

Cooler Cycles

Although washing on cooler cycles is environmentally savvy, it doesn't make odor removal from clothing any easier. This is because soiling and residues tend to harden in the cold water.

A pictogram of a washing machine dial and a cold temperature setting below

Infrequent Laundry Loads

Larger machines also contribute to unwanted odors. Modern machines have a load capacity that is 40% larger than older machines, which means larger and more infrequent laundry loads. So, more dirty clothes sit around in your laundry basket for a longer time waiting to be washed, allowing odors to set into the fabrics more easily. Not to mention, using cheap detergent can also make odor problems worse.

Step-by-Step Odor Removal from Clothing

When it comes to odor issues, musty towels, dog bedding, socks, and kids' sports gear are usually where odor problems start. But don’t worry about how to remove odors from clothing! We'll show you how to do it with just a few simple steps!

Odors can leave an unpleasant feel on your clothes, even after you wash them. The good news is with a few simple steps, odor removal from clothing has never been easier!

Step1: Place a 4-in-1 pac of Tide PODS® Plus Febreze Sport Odor Defense™, designed specifically to fight those set-in stains and unwanted odors, into your washer. Use two pacs if you have a large load and three if you’re dealing with an extra-large load.
Step 2: Achieve the best results with Tide Odor Rescue with Febreze Odor Defense™ as an in-wash booster. Simply add it to your wash along with Tide PODS® laundry detergent in either standard or high-efficiency washers.
Step 3: Use Downy Sport Febreze Odor Defense™ for freshness. Simply fill to the middle line of the cap for everyday odor protection, or to the top for maximum odor protection. Add Downy into the drum at the beginning of the wash, but do not put in the liquid dispenser or dryer.

Bonus tip: For some extra help when it comes defending against odors and static, add a Bounce® Sport Odor Defense™ Dryer Sheets into your dryer.

Sweat and Other Musty Smells

Because odors can arise from different sources, from sweaty gym clothes to musty towels, find out how to remove sweat smells and musty smells from clothes with some help from Tide. And, if you're looking to banish unsightly sweat stains and patches, then Tide can also assist you with some post-workout stain removal!

Products to remove odor