I am looking for a laundry hamper for our room - what do you use? Do you use a sorter or just dump everything in one basket/hamper? There isn’t room for this inside the closet or in the bathroom - so I am looking for a rather “nice” hamper with a lid that I can leave out in the bedroom.
A second question - H is a runner, runs several miles a day. Wet, stinking clothes after. He tends to put these clothes in the small laundry basket we have in the laundry room downstairs - not good, because the whole place stinks then! This laundry room is also next to our half bath which most guests use. What’s the best solution for these clothes (other than doing laundry every day!) ? Is there any hamper/basket that can contain the smell?
I’m a runner. The stinky clothes of the summer are pretty bad. I do a hand wash of them in the shower after my runs, keep a small bottle of laundry detergent in the shower for this purpose. It’s sort of an interim wash; you can’t get them fully clean this way and don’t intend to. The point is to get rid of the smell until laundry can be done in a machine. My husband does this too. I do mine quickly with my hands. My husband puts his on the shower floor and stomps on them as he showers. Then they get hung to dry over a place that can tolerate the drips.
To rid them of smells, use white vinegar in the washer. Febreze just layers sweet smell over the other smells. White vinegar does wonders.
Have you considered putting a nice basket on top of a tall piece of furniture for laundry? That’s one way to free up floor space.
Our master bath has a built-in laundry hamper. There’s a handle on a pull-out cabinet under the sink so we can just toss the dirty clothes in there and it contains any stinky clothes smell. We don’t run so don’t have the athletic clothing problem but if we did, we could attach something like a “Stick Up” to the inside of it.
I’ll be following this thread, though, because we will be moving to a new house soon and it doesn’t have a built-in hamper so I’m open to new ideas!
Our stinky stuff goes right in the washer ASAP. It may not get washed right away, but the fewer surfaces it touches, the fewer places for bacteria to grow. The best soap for technical fabrics is SportSuds, made in Canada. It penetrates the fabric to actually kill the bacteria in it. The downside of technical fabrics is that while they wick away the sweat, they hold onto the bacteria. This causes major STANK.
When I can’t get SportSuds, I use white vinegar both in the soap dispenser and the softener dispenser. Zero Odor also works okay, but not as well as SportSuds. And at a certain point, the trash can is the best place for rotten running wear.
We have two laundry chutes so it all goes straight to the basement and the chute has a lot of air flow through it. I tend to when passing by, sort the chute contents into a “lights” and “darks” laundry basket.
I have sweaty exercise clothing several times a week. We just manage a load every couple of days so smells don’t get out of hand.
I wonder if your H hung his sweaty clothes up for a couple of hours before putting in the hamper (like on a hook behind a door) if that would help with the smell. At least would dry out a bit.
For better or worse, my husband’s solution to this problem is he washes his running clothes every day. It drives me crazy that he does such a tiny load, but I keep my mouth shut most of the time (and I guess I can add the benefit of not having the associated stinky house).
We have a laundry chute. Whenever I’m in the basement I sort the items into a 3-section laundry sorter. When there are enough items in any one section, they get washed.
However stinky-sweaty clothes from athletic activities or yard work are not allowed down the chute or in the sorter! They go straight into the washer.
We are lucky we have a laundry room on the first floor. Yard work clothes always stay in there. Ever since we replaced our exercise wardrobe with Silverescent, exercise clothes are not a problem.
Direct into the washer, you can do a rinse and no spin assuming you have front loader. Then they just wait until you have a real load. Are there only two of you? We have sweaty exercise clothes every day so the rinsed load usually only waits one day for some friends for a full wash. Otherwise shower wash is the best option, hamper is a non option IMO. Clean exercise clothes won’t smell if they are washed as soon as they are used.
My husband also hangs sweaty clothes before putting in hamper. Husband has a daily laundry schedule, so throwing in washer won’t work. If H didn’t dry out I might be tempted to put a plastic trash bag in the hamper, sprinkled with vinegar & close.
Since sports clothes are supposed to be quick dry, why not keep wearing them for a short time after, so that they are dried quickly from body heat before you take them off?
Oh god. What a great suggestion. Clothes dry faster when aired, not plastered onto a wet object. Besides, when water evaporates, it creates a cooling effect. Who wants to walk around wet and cold after exercise?!
I wonder if this is a case of having dirty clothes/hamper in a main living area - like a bedroom hamper or a main floor laundry. Our chute/laundry is in the basement and it’s been a rare occasion that I have smelled stinky laundry smell - even through our kids sports days. But then again, usually doing laundry every other day or so.
I have an athlete D whose car not only smelled like a boys locker room when she left dirty clothes in there (often) but the bathroom she shared with her older brother did too. My S complained all the time about the smell. I found the clothes had to be washed (with special detergent) before the smell went away. No way around it. Now she is off at school and they launder her sports clothes for her, but I am sure if she is home during the summer I will be doing her laundry several times a week. (yes, I know she should be doing it, and can do it, but doesn’t. For household sanity, I do it.)
Problem solved for us!