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Home → Blog → Resources → How to Keep Clothes Smelling Fresh – Clothing Odor Control
Keeping your clothes feeling and smelling fresh can be a struggle. As well as natural body odors, you have to compete with environmental odors, like smoke and cooking smells, and musty, damp odors from poor storage or a lack of drying. However, beneath all these challenges lurks the ultimate odor-causing menace - bacteria.
This article examines what causes bad smells in clothing, why bacteria are responsible for many of your woes, and how best to keep your apparel smelling its best when storing or wearing it. At the same time, we will provide a host of top tips and explain the science behind some of the most innovative odor-beating solutions out there.
Bacteria play a significant role in causing unpleasant odors in clothes. When we sweat, the bacteria present on our skin break down the sweat molecules, producing by-products that emit a foul odor. These bacteria thrive in warm and moist environments, such as the armpits and necklines of clothing. If not properly dealt with, these bacteria can multiply and linger on the fabric, leading to persistent odors.
Various factors contribute to the spread of bacteria and unpleasant odors. Understanding these factors can help you tackle the problem and keep your garments fresh and clean.
Perspiration is one of the primary culprits behind smelly clothes. When we perspire, bacteria on our skin break down the sweat, resulting in body odor. This odor can transfer onto clothes, especially in areas close to the skin and prone to heavy sweating, such as the armpits and collars.
Not washing your clothes enough can lead to the build-up of dirt, oils, and bacteria. This accumulation can cause clothes to develop a musty or stale smell. However, you can tackle these odors while still reducing the amount of laundry you do by using Polygiene StayFresh™ or Polygiene OdorCrunch™ solutions.
If you store clothes in damp environments or leave them wet for prolonged periods, they will develop a moldy odor. Mold thrives in damp conditions and can grow on fabrics, resulting in a nasty smell.
Clothes absorb plenty of environmental odors. But two of the biggest culprits are smoke and cooking odors. Smoking or proximity to smoke (e.g., being beside a campfire or barbecue) will cause clothes to smell. Tobacco smoke, in particular, has a strong and persistent smell that can be challenging to eliminate. Certain foods, such as spices, onions, and garlic, can leave lingering smells on clothes. Likewise, cooking can also transfer odors from the kitchen to garments.
If you want to keep clothes fresh while in storage, follow these handy tips:
If you are looking to keep your everyday clothes fresh and odor-free, consider these top tips:
If you want to freshen up your clothes without washing them, consider the following methods:
While these methods are effective, they are temporary solutions and not a substitute for regular washing.
While all fabrics have the potential to develop odors if not properly cared for, some materials are more prone to retaining and harboring smells than others. To avoid clothes that tend to hold onto odors, you may want to skip the following materials.
It’s important to note that with the proper care, maintenance, and hygiene technology, even fabrics prone to odor retention can be kept fresh.
Polygiene StayFresh utilizes silver chloride, a salt naturally occurring in water and soil, to eliminate the bacteria responsible for bad odors. The silver ions present in the solution inhibit bacterial growth and provide protection for the entire lifespan of the garment.
That means your clothes stay fresher for longer, and you can wash them less frequently, reducing your energy and resource consumption for a more environmentally friendly approach to clothing. Washing clothes less also means they last longer, so you don’t need to replace them as often, and you save money.
Polygiene OdorCrunch also tackles odors at the source. But instead of silver ion technology, it uses an innovative combination of natural river water and modified silica particles. The silica – the main ingredient in common sand – attracts the oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur molecules responsible for bad odors and breaks them down, eradicating the smells.
Like Polygiene StayFresh, it enables you to wash your clothes less frequently and has a positive environmental impact. And it offers protection for a product’s entire lifespan, too.
You can find Polygiene technology in many well-known brands. Polygiene StayFresh is integrated into clothing products from Montane, M.M. LaFleur, GripGrab, and Maloja. While Polygiene OdorCrunch is used by brands like The North Face, Mosh Mos, Intersport, Forloh, and Intersport in their apparel.
If you want to learn more about Polygiene odor-control solutions and their impact on product performance, the environment, and sustainable manufacturing, take a look at our Freshness Solutions page. If you have any questions regarding Polygiene technologies, contact our experienced team.