How to: Remove sweat odor from clothing

I know, sweat is not the most appealing thing to talk about, but since we all do it I guess it's ok. Hopefully I'm not the only one with this problem, but I have noticed that I have several shirts (often synthetic fibers) that seem to retain a sweat odor, even after multiple washings. I don't know about you, but I am not really going for the "I just put on this shirt and already smell sweaty" look, so I wanted to figure out a way to get rid of this problem once and for all.

After thinking and doing some reading I determined that the real culprit here is not sweat, but antiperspirant or deodorant. Antiperspirants have a tendency to leave residue on your clothes, but since it is usually on the inside, you might not notice or care. The problem is, antiperspirants are made up of several ingredients, including wax, and if you have ever spilled wax on your clothes, or carpet, or any fiber, you know how hard it is to get off. So, even though you may wash your clothes regularly, a normal wash cycle is not likely to remove all of the waxy residue left by the antiperspirant. And since you have been sweating into that waxy residue each time you wear the shirt, the odor is likely to stay too.

So, what should you do? Are we all destined to slightly odorous shirts? Thankfully, no.

Not long ago, I altered a dress for a friend. When I went to iron out the crease in the hem, the iron scalded the fabric. In a panic, I quickly grabbed some soap and started scrubbing, hoping to remove the marks. Luckily the marks came off, but to my dismay, the soap wouldn't rinse out of the fabric! Trying to help, my husband started looking for solutions online to removed soap residue from fabric. The solution? White distilled vinegar. I tried it and the soap came right out of her dress, no problem at all.

So if vinegar worked to remove soap residue I had a pretty good feeling that it would remove antiperspirant residue too, and sure enough, it did!

First, turn your shirt inside out. You can't always see the residue on the fabric, but you can usually feel it.

Then, soak a cotton ball with some vinegar and dab or rub gently into the fabric until soaked through.

Rinse the fabric with warm water.

Wash your shirt as usual, and you're all done!

Extra tip: I also read a good idea to keep a spray bottle of vinegar in your laundry room and spray it directly onto the underarms of all your shirts before throwing them in the washer.  This keeps the residue from ever building up in the first place and gets rid of all those pesky odors and stains.