In Russia, "second-hand" is in demand among people of different ages and belonging to different social strata. It is in such places that you can find quality branded items at a "bargain" price, and, mind you, not all of them will be worn. The only thing that upsets the fans of "second hand" is the specific aroma emanating from clothes, shoes, accessories. Let's figure out where it comes from and how to get rid of the second-hand smell at home.
Cause. The pungent, chemical stench of "secondhand" is not only unpleasant for the human sense of smell, but also well recognizable (you must agree that no one wants to smell like used things). Sources of amber are chemicals that are used to sanitize used items and shoes that come to warehouses. Thorough disinfection removes insects, including dust mites, and microorganisms that cause skin diseases and fungus.
Do not put on clothes immediately after purchase - washing is mandatory. Firstly, if not completely, then partially remove the unpleasant odor, and secondly, remove the remaining chemicals. At high concentrations, disinfectants are harmful to health and cause a variety of reactions, from banal itching to severe allergies and poisoning. Store unwashed second-hand items separately from others.
A specific smell appears due to the sanitization of things Ways to get rid of the second-hand smell
1. The most elementary method is airing. Leave your clothes for a couple of days on the balcony or open loggia: fresh air, coupled with hot sun rays or frost, will destroy the faint smell.
2. Coffee beans, sea salt with aromatic additives, natural soap with essential oils, a piece of cloth soaked in toilet water, perfume or table vinegar 9%. Dry medicinal herbs are also useful: collect peppermint, sage, chamomile, linden flowers in a cotton bag - natural and safe remedy done! Place one of the described fragrances with your clothes in an airtight bag and leave for a couple of days.
It is airing and the use of natural absorbents that are considered the most gentle ways in order to remove the smell of "second-hand" from outerwear from fur, suede or leather, as well as their artificial substitutes.
3. Soak clothes before washing. For odor control, use sea salt for baths with bright aromas: lemon, pine. First, rub the thing with salt diluted with warm water to a pasty state, and after 20-30 minutes, fill it with saline (for a pound of salt - 10 liters warm water) for an hour and a half.
Sea salt- one of the best absorbents of unpleasant odors Products from natural fur or leather should not be soaked so as not to spoil the structure of the material. Clean the item with any of the suggested compounds using a soft sponge or brush (this recommendation also applies to leather shoes and bags). The best option is to dry-clean your fur coat or leather jacket.
4. For processing, ammonia is suitable, which is found in the home first-aid kit. For soaking skirts, T-shirts, blouses, summer dresses and trousers are enough 20 ml of alcohol (for 5 liters of warm water). Jeans, sweaters, windbreakers, raincoats will need 50 ml of alcohol for the same amount of water. Soaking time: cotton, linen - from 30 minutes to one and a half hours, synthetic fabrics- 4-6 hours, faux fur or leatherette - 6-7 hours.
5. A combination of 9% table vinegar and table salt (1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons per 5 liters of warm water, respectively) works in a similar way. Light things should be soaked for at least an hour, and clothes made of dense materials should be soaked for at least 3 hours.
After soaking, gently wring out the clothes and hang them up to dry (best in the fresh air) for a couple of days. Then wash as usual, adding fabric softener.
6. If you have a steam iron or steam generator, use these devices. Iron the clothes at the maximum temperature (set the mode depending on the type of material). Add a few drops of any essential oil... But be careful: corrosive fumes can cause poisoning, and therefore wear a respirator or gauze bandage during the procedure.
You never know what kind of surprise clothes from someone else's shoulder can bring. Therefore, the products of second-hand stores always undergo intensive chemical processing. This allows you to clean fabrics from any sources of biological hazard, and leaves a specific aroma that does not disappear from clothes for a long time. But there are several ways to remove the second-hand smell from things.
Reasons for the smell
To reduce the danger to a minimum, second-hand goods are treated with a poisonous gas - usually formaldehyde. It is colorless, volatile, toxic, extremely irritating to the mucous membranes of the eyes, respiratory tract, and skin. Smells very specific even at low concentrations. After processing, the poison is neutralized with 25% ammonia. But the presence of odor indicates that the deactivation was not completely performed.
Formaldehyde remains a poison even after deactivation. If second-hand clothing has a specific unpleasant odor, it should not be worn as long as it is felt. Before you put such a new thing in the closet, you need to get rid of the formaldehyde residues.
Reanimating the fabric
Fabric, unlike fur and leather, can survive multiple washes, freezing and other extreme stress. Therefore, it is much easier to remove the second-hand smell from clothes than from fur or leather.
The second-hand smell can be removed from clothes by repeated washing or freezing.
Multiple wash... Formaldehyde disappears after 3-4 washes carried out in an intensive mode. Simply run the machine on a program with a wash and long rinse, then dry the garment outdoors for 24 hours. If the smell persists, repeat it all over again. Wash second-hand items separately from clothes you are already wearing.
Ammonia... It neutralizes formaldehyde, does not destroy fabric fibers, does not interact with dyes and is generally suitable for any clothing. For processing small things, a solution of 20 ml of alcohol and 5 liters of water is suitable. For large ones, you will need 100 ml of ammonia and 10 liters of water. Soak clothes for an hour, for natural fabrics, for synthetics for six hours. Then squeeze and hang to dry on the balcony. After drying, things must be washed as usual and only then can they be worn.
We remove the smell from fur and leather
If a T-shirt or trousers can be sent with peace of mind to washing machine, then what about boots and sheepskin coats? For an expensive item, you can make another small investment - take it to the dry cleaner. But if you can't afford cleaning specialists, turn to folk methods.
- Freezing... Cold will help remove the second-hand smell from things. Place clothes or shoes in plastic bag and put it outside if it's winter outside, or put it in the freezer. Usually 3-5 days are enough for complete weathering.
- Salt and coffee... These components will absorb the smell, and the coffee will also envelop it with its mild aroma. You will also need a tight bag, where you put a few tablespoons of any of the selected products and clothes of "second freshness".
- Vinegar essence... Saturate a piece of cloth with vinegar and pack together with the item in a bag for 12 hours. Then ventilate your clothes or shoes. To remove the second-hand smell from fur products, prepare a solution of warm water, ethyl alcohol and vinegar essence. Soak a sponge in it and rub the fur in the direction of growth with it. Then the product must dry in the fresh air.
In modern second-hand shops, you can buy not only clothes, but also deodorants that help get rid of odors without harming the fabric. If you are planning other purchases of such clothes in the future, purchase a perfume for it.
It is possible to remove the second-hand smell from clothes without washing only if it is not too pronounced. Simple life hacks will help you with this:
- Iron the item with a maximum steam iron or a steam cleaner.
- Add essential oil to a spray bottle and spray it onto the fabric before ironing.
- Keep your second-hand clothes in a separate container or compartment with a scent (coffee, soap, herbal sachet, or perfume bottle) at the bottom.
In the case of children's clothes, as well as linen and wardrobe items that come in direct contact with your skin, intensive washing is indispensable.
Second-hand shops have appeared not so long ago, but are gradually gaining market share from clothing stores. This is due to many reasons, ranging from the general low level of income of the population, but mostly people go for inexpensive, but high-quality, branded or exclusive things. It is very easy to update your wardrobe through a second-use clothing store, but it is worth washing these items before wearing them, not only to remove the characteristic odor, but also for disinfection purposes. In this article, we will look at how to wash clothes bought in second-hand, as well as learn how to remove the smell of second-hand without washing.
The assortment of second-use clothing stores is often unique
Where does the smell come from
Visitors to second-hand shops know that clothes are treated with special sanitary products based on formaldehyde and methyl bromide to maintain them in good condition and remove any microorganisms, fungi, insects from the fabric. That is why the things sold here have a characteristic not very pleasant smell.
If we consider the entire processing technology, then there are means that can remove this aroma, but they are quite expensive, so domestic sellers ignore them. At the same time, according to experts, such processing does not harm a person, ideally, you can immediately put on things from second-hand clothes and wear, but this is unlikely to be comfortable for you.
Thus, after visiting the second-hand, we often have in our hands excellent things, bought for little money, but having an unpleasant, corrosive smell of formaldehyde.
It is worth noting that it is not worth putting on clothes that smell of formaldehyde with normal things, as they will quickly absorb the unpleasant scent. To get rid of it, it is enough to soak the clothes in ammonia, and then just wash them with a good powder in hot water and dry them in the fresh air.
The subtleties of odor removal
To remove unpleasant odors, you can always use ammonia based ammonia. 10% ammonia solution is sold in many hardware stores and pharmacies. This composition is actively used by many dry cleaners to make things fresh and clean, but its main task is to remove odors. At home, ammonia is no less effective.
Placement of clothes on second-hand showcases
To remove the characteristic second-hand smell from clothes, dissolve ammonia in water, approximately 2-5 ml of the composition for each liter of liquid. We load things into the resulting solution and soak them for a while. The time range depends on the quality of the fabric, for example, for thin delicate materials, 10-15 minutes will be enough, and for jackets, jackets, jeans, things made of dense materials, soaking for several hours will be required, up to 5-6. If the solution does not completely remove the odor, the concentration of the composition should be increased, and 8-10 ml of ammonia solution should be added to each liter of water.
After prolonged soaking, the clothes should be wrung out thoroughly and hung up to dry in the fresh air for a day. The subsequent washing with conditioner, drying and ironing will completely remove odors, neutralize harmful substances and make things wearable.
Note that ammonia does not affect the color of the fabric, it does not contribute to its deformation, does not stretch or narrow it, therefore it is applicable to all materials, even very delicate ones that are afraid of water.
If we are dealing with leather or suede things that cannot be washed a priori, then you should just carefully treat their surface with a rag dipped in ammonia. To enhance the effect of ammonia, some housewives use activated charcoal or mustard. They wrap up leather thing into a gauze bag with these substances and additionally spray it with an ammonia solution.
For expensive things, which you are afraid to ruin by washing or self-treatment with ammonia, dry cleaning is always relevant. Trust the professionals to wash, clean and, of course, remove odors from your clothes.
Washing after soaking
After processing things in ammonia and removing the characteristic second-hand smell, you should wash your clothes in hot water.
The washing temperature, of course, depends on the type of fabric, but it is desirable that it should not be less than 60 ° C degrees. At the same time, it is advisable to wash children's clothes 2-3 times in order to completely clean the fabric of chemistry and other biological traces.
After washing, the clothes should be thoroughly rinsed, dried and ironed with a hot iron, preferably on both sides. After that, you can put it in a closet, in which you can also put a sachet, let the clothes smell nice now.
The sizes of these stores can be very different.
To ensure the quality of the wash is at the proper level, many housewives use the following methods:
- before washing, clothes are soaked in a saline solution or in water with vinegar for a while;
- when washing second-hand clothes in the washing machine, housewives add a little essential oil;
- classic odor neutralizers are also effective in this case, for example, scented soap or washing powder, coffee, fabric deodorant;
- after washing, steam treatment is relevant, which finally removes odors;
- washing without spinning and drying in the fresh air allows you to freshen the fabric as much as possible.
As we said, there is an interesting alternative way without washing.
To remove any unpleasant odors from clothes, including from formaldehyde solution, you should hang things outside during foggy weather. It is believed that the fog will take away all unpleasant odors and ventilate your clothes.
However, most people do not have the opportunity to hang things on a string, and even in the fog, so it is worth using traditional methods of removing odors from things.
In conclusion, I would like to note that lately things in second-hand shops do not have a very rich, extremely strong smell. This indicates that sellers are choosing better quality sanitary compounds that can be easily removed from the fabric during washing, even without using soaking in ammonia. If your things smell very strong after the purchase, then now you know what to do.
Second hand shops are overflowing with clothes of different quality, styles, brands. Here you can buy everything from ordinary household items to chic evening wear.
Those who prefer this way of updating their wardrobe, as a rule, are happy with their choice: for a relatively low price, you can buy quality items. The only drawback of this kind of shopping is the unpleasant smell from the clothes. For its origin, the fragrance received such a name: the smell of secondhand. And our goal is to remove this spirit and not let it into our home.
In order to avoid trouble and protect the buyer from all kinds of fungi, microbes and insects, sellers use formaldehyde treatment. According to technology, the clothes had to be additionally treated with a means to remove the smell, but something went wrong. A rather corrosive aroma remains, which infects all things, getting into apartments.
Prophylaxis
It's funny, but in this case it is needed. After bringing a beautiful little thing home, do not store it next to the rest of your clothes. Isolate, wash, only then, when you finally make sure that there is still no smell - let things on the shelves with clothes.
The old way
Of course, our grandmothers did not know the smell of secondhand. On the other hand, there were often no less unpleasant aromas left on things, which had to be removed. In this case, they acted simply and did not even use any chemical means. It was believed that it was enough for unpleasant-smelling clothes to hang several times on a string during fog. He will take all the smells with him.
Traditional way
Of the usual traditional methods, one can be recommended - 10% ammonia solution. You can buy it at a pharmacy or household chemicals stores. By the way, it is widely used for cleaning things in dry cleaners. So there is no need to worry that this substance will ruin your clothes. Nothing like this. Cleaning and removing odors is his job.
In order to remove the smell, we dilute ammonia in a proportion of 20 ml per 10 liters of water. If there are few things, we prepare a smaller volume of solution in the same proportion. The exposure time can be different, it depends on the things. For light fabrics, it is enough from 10 minutes. up to half an hour. For jackets and large items, soak for several hours, even up to 6 hours. If the solution does not help, the concentration is increased to 100 ml per 10 liters.
Folk wisdom
Leather and suede clothes cannot be washed. After that, folds appear on their surface, which will be difficult to remove later. It is recommended to simply soak or wipe with a cloth soaked in ammonia to remove the smell of things.
You can try wrapping the jacket in cheesecloth, which was previously sprinkled with ammonia, add activated charcoal or mustard to a gauze storage bag.
For small items that will painlessly tolerate washing, it is recommended to use one of the following methods:
- when washing in washing machine add a few drops of essential oil;
- pre-soak things in a solution of salt or vinegar, you can simply add these ingredients when washing;
- you can try using ordinary odor neutralizers that save in other situations: coffee, eau de toilette, scented soap, regular deodorant;
- regular steam treatment during ironing can improve the situation;
- when washing without spinning and drying in the fresh air with a slight wind, the smell of formaldehyde can disappear several times;
If none of the above methods inspires confidence in you, turn to those that give a 100% guarantee.
Many people to this day have a rather ambiguous attitude towards second-hand clothing. Some categorically do not perceive such wardrobe elements, while others can no longer do without them. The reasons for love and hate for second-hand things are different for everyone, but at the same time, no one likes the unpleasant smell that exudes almost all clothes bought in second-hand stores.
Our article will be useful not only for people who regularly buy used clothes, but also for everyone around them.
Where does the unpleasant smell come from and what the second-hand stinks
To deal effectively with unpleasant odor, you first need to know its nature, because it will be much easier to choose the necessary preparations for the processing of used clothes. However, if you do not want to read the next few paragraphs, then you can simply use the ready-made recommendations and conclusions below.The acrid smell of second-hand clothes is the result of sanitizing all things with special chemicals (often formaldehyde and methyl bromide are strong poisons). The purpose of such treatment is to destroy insects, fungi and bacteria living on clothes (including).
Experts believe that the chemicals used to process second-hand clothing are completely harmless to people. In any case, they are no more harmful than deodorants or air fresheners. However, some people are skeptical about the confidence of specialists. This is because on the territory of our country, the neutralization of poisons is often carried out with insufficient quality and in violation of sanitary standards.
This means that our "specialists" can "cheat", but, alas, they do not always succeed in qualitatively neutralizing poisons. Although here already how lucky.
It is important to know that a strong, unpleasant second-hand odor is a sign that the clothes are practically free of fungi, microbes and insects, but contain a large amount of poisonous formaldehyde. It is better not to buy such clothes at all, but if you have already bought them, you should work hard on them.
How to remove second-hand smell from clothes
There are a lot of recommendations on the Internet on how to get rid of second-hand odors. However, many of these recommendations are worth skipping because they are useless.So, we advise you not to search for a method to get rid of the poisonous smell among homemade recipes. It is better to turn to official sources (sanitary rules), where it is described in some detail how to remove the smell of second-hand clothes from clothes.
Naturally, it talks about the industrial scale of cleaning clothes from toxic substances, but the essence of getting rid of clothes from a strong odor can be understood.
The method consists in removing the second-hand odor using ammonia and fresh air.
The sanitary standards also indicate the amount of ammonia, which is necessary to get rid of the smell of formaldehyde. However, they are useless for us, because at home we will not go further than a basin of water and ammonia.
So, we offer you the simplest recipe for how to get rid of the second-hand smell at home. You will need water, ten percent ammonia (another concentration is also suitable, but you need to monitor the proportions).
The proportions are as follows:
- For a small item (a light blouse, skirt, etc.), you can try starting with 20 milliliters of ammonia in five liters of water.
- For a larger item, you can take a full bottle of 100 milliliters, but you need not 5 liters of water, but 10.
After the procedure, the clothes must be slightly wrung out and taken out into fresh air, where the thing will be for a day or two. Then the clothes must be washed with conditioner and dried.
It should be noted that ammonia does not lead to loss of color in clothes, it will not stretch or shrink. So you can safely remove the smell of second-hand with our method.
Folk ways to get rid of the smell of second-hand
Despite the rather high efficiency of the method with the use of ammonia, you can remove the second-hand smell in another way, especially if the smell is not too strong. Below we provide a list of the most effective folk methods for combating the smell of second-hand clothing:- washing with a few drops of essential oil or scented salt;
- soaking things in an aqueous solution of vinegar, salt, or both at the same time (sometimes soda is also added);
- special deodorant for fabrics (can be bought in household chemicals stores);
- put deodorant, coffee, eau de toilette, perfume or simple soap with clothes, close and leave for a couple of days;
- use of steam ironing with a modern iron;
- take clothes to dry cleaning;
- simple wash without spinning, followed by drying in the fresh air (best in the wind), small doses of formaldehyde are easily eroded with plain water after a couple of washings.
