All The Funky Odors You Can Remove From Clothing With A Steam Cleaner

Does this sound familiar? You put on your favorite shirt, fresh out of the dryer. But in no time, there's a lingering odor you can't seem to shake. Unfortunately, certain fibers — polyester, for example — retain some unpleasant smells. But don't go and cut these clothes into rags just yet — you can easily remove stubborn odors with nothing more than a steam cleaner. And steam cleaners are great for so many reasons. They can banish odors but can also remove wrinkles from your clothes quicker than an iron can, and you don't need to set up a bulky ironing board. 

You'll also benefit from steam heating up faster than a traditional iron can, making these cleaning tools great for anyone with a busy schedule. But that's not all — you can use them with virtually any fabric in your home, from carpets to curtains and upholstered furniture. This means that you can instantly eliminate odors from any smelly items in your house, something that's great if you have kids and pets. Just keep in mind that you should always use distilled water with your steam cleaner, or else you run the risk of it clogging or having mineral build-up. This can affect how well it performs when steaming your laundry. 

There are tons of different handheld steam cleaners you can use, and you can find them for as little as $29.99 on Amazon. As you apply steam to your clothes, it works to expand your clothing's fabrics. As these fibers relax, any trapped bacteria is subject to the effects of high temperatures. For example, handheld steamers can reach between 200 and 400 degrees. But you only need a temperature of 165 degrees to 250 degrees to kill off harmful bacteria, making steam cleaners an ideal way of removing nasty odors from clothes. 

Additionally, some allergens stick to laundry and can be difficult to remove. One of these allergens is pet dander. Luckily, when you steam clean laundry (or other items around your home), you can remove it and other stubborn allergens, such as dust mites. Dust mites need a lower temperature to be removed — something as low as 60 degrees can rid your laundry of them. 

If you find that steam cleaning your clothes isn't enough to remove all stubborn odors, you might want to add vinegar to this laundry hack. Don't add it to your steam cleaner though — instead, pour some into a bottle and spritz it onto your clothing. Vinegar has the unique ability to latch onto nasty smells, removing them from different materials and fabrics. It's why people boil vinegar in a pot whenever they want to neutralize odors in their homes. 

After you spray your clothes with white vinegar, you can immediately steam clean them. Vinegar is one of the best odor eliminators and the process of steaming your garments will work to loosen any fibers, helping the vinegar to penetrate further into your clothing. Even better, vinegar may reduce any persistent bacteria in your clothes, cleaning and deodorizing them simultaneously, and removing any lingering viruses.