Scented oil mishap - how to de-scent my clothes?

November 26, 2013 6:40 AM

A bottle of nasty, concentrated potpourri oil spilled in my closet - now all of my clothes reek like rotten fruit mixed with lighter fluid. Repeated washings with Tide aren't helping at all! What should I use?

A few days ago, the bedroom closet was smelling musty.

Without much thought, I set out a bottle of cheap drug store scented oil ("Elegant Expressions Warming Oil - Apple") meant for potpourri warmers and such. Just took the cap off the bottle and set it on a shelf. I meant to try it for an hour, to see if it would freshen things up in there.

Then I forgot about it.

Yesterday I came home from work and was assaulted by the smell. The entire house reeked. I discovered that the bottle had tipped over inside the closet, spilling everywhere.

Every single item of clothing that I own is now saturated with this overpowering perfume-y solvent chemical smell (plus linens and closet odds and ends). It's unbelievably strong (the label says the stuff is concentrated - but damn).

I emptied the entire closet and dragged everything to the laundry room and started washing. And re-washing. And re-re-washing.

The smell won't go away.

I've tried hot water and cold water using Tide, Tide Stain Boost pods, liberal doses of Downy, and even threw in some Febreeze - but it almost seems like washing diffuses and spreads the scent. It now staggers you from 2 feet away from the washing machine.

Can anyone PLEASE recommend a laundry soap or treatment to remove powerful, soaked in smells? Something readily available in the mid-western US. I can't throw out my entire wardrobe and start over!

(Also, hanging them outside to air is not an option - I don't have a yard.)

THANKS!!!!

posted by falldownpaul to Home & Garden (24 answers total)

I would try washing in something like Lestoil that has a grease-cutting element. It's not just the scent that is in your clothes, it's the oil itself. It might take a couple of washings.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 6:46 AM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Oh, this sounds like a nightmare. I've had great success in getting stubborn scented products (fabric softener, perfumey smells picked up on planes, etc.) out with ammonia. But I hate to say it, I think you're not going to have complete success until you can hang your things outside. Do you have a friend with a yard?
posted by HotToddy at 6:49 AM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Okay, step one would be to STOP ADDING MORE SCENTS! Downy and Febreeze are just mega scented and making things worse (in my opinion). So stop with that. Go unscented for everything. Detergent included.

have you tried washing with an OxyClean type product? Baking soda? Vinegar?


Also, have you addressed the closet stink area? Is that fully cleaned up?
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 6:49 AM on November 26, 2013 [5 favorites]

You want to focus on getting the oil out. Dawn dish soap is great for oily/greasy stains on clothes. Pretreat first by rubbing some into the oily spots and letting it sit for a while. (Get a dye-free version just in case; I've never had a problem with Dawn staining fabrics, but you want to be safe.)
posted by Metroid Baby at 6:53 AM on November 26, 2013 [2 favorites]

I completely missed that you are using Downy, Febreze, etc. You're just making your problem a million times worse. Get UNSCENTED detergent and UNSCENTED ammonia and wash everything in the hottest water it can take. The ammonia will cut the grease from your Downy which is now trapping all your nasty odors in as well as contributing a nasty odor of its own. And Febreze . . . It takes a lot to get rid of that odor alone. Oy.
posted by HotToddy at 6:55 AM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I've never used ammonia or baking soda and vinegar in the laundry. Can you please give me some tips on how I'd use those correctly? Thanks.

For what it's worth, I dumped baking soda deodorizer all over the inside of the empty closet and let it sit overnight, It really helped get rid of the lingering smell in there, thank goodness.

I do have a bottle of Lestoil which is great with grease stains - but I rarely use it because (to my nose) Lestoil has a terrible smell of its own. In this case, though, I'll try anything - and you may be right, the oil needs to come out of the clothes. Maybe I'll test it on a few shirts and see what happens...
posted by falldownpaul at 6:56 AM on November 26, 2013

Do you have windows? Can you hang them outside the windows? Obviously this would look ridiculous but seriously I think hanging them outside whenever they're not actively being washed could help a lot. Failing that, do you have an exhaust fan in your bathroom? You could try hanging them in there and running the exhaust fan 24/7.

Also, yeah, you have to wash off that Downy. It is basically grease and it is trapping the scent.
posted by mskyle at 6:56 AM on November 26, 2013

Yes, Lestoil does smell kind of bad. I'd probably follow up the Lestoil wash with another wash with Tide.

I mean, I don't think the Lestoil smell is going to stick around strongly in your clothes or anything. I used to wash a former husband's work clothes in it all the time, and once they were dry they barely smelled of it at all. So I think an additional wash with regular laundry soap would probably take care of it.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 7:00 AM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Straight ammonia has no odor once it's rinsed out. Use the normal amount of detergent and add a cup of ammonia. It is very gentle on fabrics but cuts through oils like a champ. I'm horribly sensitive to fragrances and have tried everything over the years; ammonia is the best.
posted by HotToddy at 7:02 AM on November 26, 2013 [3 favorites]

I'd put newspaper and a weight on top of the spill to absorb oil, as well as block the release of more scent. Remove all the clothes from the closet, get them into someplace where they can air out. Keep windows open, and run fans to simulate wind, helping move the scent out.
posted by theora55 at 7:15 AM on November 26, 2013

When I'm trying to de-scent things, I run a cup of white vinegar through the washer with the clothes. Sometimes, if the scent is persistent, I will let the washer fill up, add the cup of white vinegar, and then let it soak before continuing the wash.

If that doesn't work, I try it again. It does seem to help. The clothes do not smell of white vinegar afterwards at all.
posted by needlegrrl at 7:27 AM on November 26, 2013

Ammonia, Tide, baking soda, vinegar - all useless for air.

You need an air purifying ionizer. This is exactly what they're made for.
posted by Kruger5 at 7:28 AM on November 26, 2013

Like many have said, baking soda, I usually put in a half cup with a full large load with my wash. You can mix a paste of baking soda and water and rub it on the parts where the spill happened. Have you tried non-clorine bleach? That may help too.
posted by Yellow at 7:39 AM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Would dry cleaning remove all trace of the scented oil? It is supposed to be better for oil-based stains.

Hanging them outside to air would be good though. Do you know someone whose yard you could utilise?
posted by epo at 7:46 AM on November 26, 2013

Don't ever mix baking soda and vinegar it literally, aside from the nice volcano bubbling, turns into nothing (it's just water).

Instead, try washing it with just vinegar (normal white stuff) and also put some in the conditioner compartment. I guess some normal detergent wouldn't hurt either. When done, mix some vinegar and water (you could add some essential oil, but I'd recommend trying to get all the smell out first before adding new ones) in a spray bottle and spray all the clothes while hanging.

The stuff will smell like vinegar A LOT, but the smell will go away in no time, no worries.

Use plenty.
posted by ahtlast93 at 7:56 AM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Wait, is there oil ON the clothes or has the smell just gotten into them by proximity? You want ammonia or oxygen bleach in the strongest concentration possible as a spot pre-treatment on actual oil stains, but you can just add them to the wash water if it's just residual smell. I would probably do an overnight soak in oxygen bleach and the hottest water possible (separate dark and light for this, obviously) before you launder again, too. I've gotten overpowering cigarette/chemical smell out of a jacket that way. Vinegar and baking soda are not going to do the job for this, not strong enough.
posted by slow graffiti at 8:00 AM on November 26, 2013

Can you see where the oil is on the clothing, or is it just pervasive by now? I've had good luck with using WD-40 right on the clothes to dissolve oil stains, then wash a few times to disperse the WD-40 before going to the dryer. That's been the only thing that's worked on olive oil stains & such.
posted by jeffjon at 8:13 AM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Another vote for ammonia in the washer and don't use it with anything containing bleach.
posted by quince at 8:22 AM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

1 cup white vinegar and 1/4 cup of baking soda.

Arm and Hammer makes something called Washing Soda.

I agree, scented stuff just masks smells. You need to cut through them. So:

1. Degrease anything that the oils actually touched.

2. Wipe with white vinegar.

3. Let air

4. Follow up with Oxy or Baking Soda and Water.

5. Let air some more.

But the vinegar and washing soda should do the trick on your clothes.

You poor thing. Bake yourself some nice gingerbread. That will smell nice.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 8:47 AM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

An FYI: The cyclodextrin in Febreze does eliminate odor by trapping the compounds as the product dries. It's not perfect, but it does eliminate smell. Many of the Febreze products also have scents which is annoying but the cyclodextrin is really what differentiates Febreze from air fresheners.

In your case you have a different problem then smell. You have oil on your stuff. You need to eliminate the oil. I'd put Lestoil directly on the stains.Wash it with washing soda and a cup of white vinegar. Repeat.

Don't put anything into the dryer until you're SURE the oil is gone.
posted by 26.2 at 9:44 AM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

This may sound crazy, but I recently got an ozone generator and it's amazing. Basically, ozone degrades anything that smells, from pet waste to the air fresheners previously used to counter the pet waste. I have no idea if it works on patchouli but I'd love to put one in your closet along with an affected item or two.
posted by whuppy at 9:56 AM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Clarification edit about the scented oil being on or just around the clothing:

When it spilled and pooled, the vile liquid did not come into direct physical contact with all of the clothes - just some of them. But ALL of them smell, as does the rest of the house. This stuff is STRONG.

The bottle, when it spilled, was on a shelf near the bottom of the closet. The oil pooled on the shelf (and also ran onto items stored below it, and the floor) where several shirttails and sleeve cuffs did come into direct contact and soaked in it for at least a day.

I should have separated the wet clothes from the dry, but at first I didn't realize that any of the clothes had been in the oil. I thought they were all just smelly from being shut up in the hot closet with it. As I said, everything smelled, even the stuff that was nowhere near the puddle.

Thanks, all!
posted by falldownpaul at 11:15 AM on November 26, 2013

I would sprinkle generous layers of baking soda directly on the clothes, leave them for about half an hour, shake them out, and run them through a wash cycle without soap. I would do the baking soda treatment a second time with a cup of vinegar added to the rinse water but still no soap. Then a third time with soap, baking soda, AND vinegar in the final rinse. Then dry and see how they smell.

As for the air, perhaps those charcol smoke-absorbing things would help.
posted by windykites at 12:07 PM on November 26, 2013

Posted to Reddit earlier, you may find some tips and tricks here:

Try using a scent eliminator
posted by liquado at 3:09 PM on November 26, 2013