My sweaty jersey and bike shorts after spin class

[OakLeaf]

But I've found that it makes an ENORMOUS difference with retained odor if I let the sweaty clothes dry before tossing them into the pile, vs letting the bacteria breed in a lovely damp skin-flake-nutrient-base-saturated dark environment. I think that's what the OP was getting at.


(And, MY husband yells at me if I don't regularly change the towel I sit on to absorb sweat in the car. )

[indysteel]

But I've found that it makes an ENORMOUS difference with retained odor if I let the sweaty clothes dry before tossing them into the pile, vs letting the bacteria breed in a lovely damp skin-flake-nutrient-base-saturated dark environment. I think that's what the OP was getting at.


(And, MY husband yells at me if I don't regularly change the towel I sit on to absorb sweat in the car. )

That makes me sense, and I'm sort of embarrassed now that I just throw everything into the dirty clothes pile. Frankly, the things of mine that smell the worst are the things that I wear to yoga that I drive home in while still sweaty and wet. It's gross, but it's nearly impossible to snag a bathroom at either of my studios after class, so I just drive home in my own filth. I don't know that it would help to let those things then air dry when I get home but it couldn't hurt.

[lph]

I think the faster you get them dry the less they will smell. But less sweat and skin in them will help too, of course. Unless they are truly soaked I think your best option is to just let them air dry them inside out lying on a towel. If they're sopping wet and you have time you might as well rinse them first.

I hang just about all workout clothes to dry after using them, and reuse the ones that djust smell used, not stinky, the day after. I work out outdoors and usually alone, mind you ;-) This is just to minimize laundry. Laundry is probably the biggest wear and tear on your clothes.

[Crankin]

Well, I am not embarrassed to throw my clothes into the hamper and let them sit. You shouldn't be, either, Indy. I don't notice any particular bad odor, just "sweaty," or used. Occasionally, I will throw my clothes into the wash on a weekend, but since most of our laundry is sports related clothes, I really don't want to be doing laundry more than 1X a week. Two loads, whites and darks (cycling shorts go in with the whites; hot water). All sports stuff gets hung up to dry.

[OakLeaf]

Got nothing to do with embarrassment. I don't do laundry until either I have a full load or I'm about to run out of clean something, either (although that's more likely to be three loads a week than one, but anyway). I'm not embarrassed to have my sweaty clothes hanging to dry all over my closet and bathroom, making them smell like a locker room. But did I mention I sweat? If I throw my sweaty things in the pile without letting them dry first, they will soak through everything else they're in contact with, and reek to high heaven when the whole damp mess gets washed days later. I'm not a particularly stinky sweater, either, when it's fresh. But all bets are off when it's been wet at the bottom of the pile for five days.

[Blueberry]

DH rises to a new level. His sweaty stuff actually grew mold in the 5 days until I got to that load of laundry. Ick. I don't have that many sets of workout clothes - so I do laundry a lot. But I wouldn't hesitate to leave them in a bag, in my gym bag, for the day. I have many times.