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A few years ago I packed up some vintage jackets to sell later in the year. They were pretty smelly by the time I got around to them. I tried the washing, spraying, sunning and nothing worked. I heard about a freezing method for books that had been water damaged so I put the items on the patio during a cold spell (well below freezing) and left them out for a maybe a week.
When I thawed them out and put them in the dryer and it worked. One of the jackets is a wool CPO jacket (just like the one I looked so cool wearing in middle school in 1969 ) that I still wear.
I heard about a freezing method for books that had been water damaged so I put the items on the patio during a cold spell (well below freezing) and left them out for a maybe a week. When I thawed them out and put them in the dryer and it worked.
Hiya, TL. I heard about people who place their jeans into plastic zip lock bags & put them into the freezer to "clean"... supposed to make the color/fiber last longer. I don't wear jeans often enough that I care, but honestly, they are far more comfy when they're wearing out & naturally getting holes everywhere & I think worn out jeans look better.
I'm glad the deep freeze worked for you. I once tried your method with a leather jacket I'd gotten at a 2nd hand store. It had that thrift shop smell. In a Boston winter, I left that jacket on the clothesline for a month... it still smelled awful when I brought it in. Finally, I bought inexpensive car leather cleaner/conditioner at a drugstore & slathered the coat in it. It worked. Since then, I clean all my leather jackets/purses when needed with the cheapest car leather cleaner I can find. Bonus is it has that lovely leather smell left behind by the cleaner.
I had to toss most of the bags. Found another 8 in another box & will be checking them out today to see if I might be able to salvage a few. Since I'm in SoFla, the freeze method won't work for me... & I'm unsure how many Hello Kitty soft bags I can stuff into the freezer.
Thanks for the tip. I'll keep it in mind for the future. In the meantime, back to this...
Hiya, TL. I heard about people who place their jeans into plastic zip lock bags & put them into the freezer to "clean"... supposed to make the color/fiber last longer. I don't wear jeans often enough that I care, but honestly, they are far more comfy when they're wearing out & naturally getting holes everywhere & I think worn out jeans look better.
I'm glad the deep freeze worked for you. I once tried your method with a leather jacket I'd gotten at a 2nd hand store. It had that thrift shop smell. In a Boston winter, I left that jacket on the clothesline for a month... it still smelled awful when I brought it in. Finally, I bought inexpensive car leather cleaner/conditioner at a drugstore & slathered the coat in it. It worked. Since then, I clean all my leather jackets/purses when needed with the cheapest car leather cleaner I can find. Bonus is it has that lovely leather smell left behind by the cleaner.
I had to toss most of the bags. Found another 8 in another box & will be checking them out today to see if I might be able to salvage a few. Since I'm in SoFla, the freeze method won't work for me... & I'm unsure how many Hello Kitty soft bags I can stuff into the freezer.
Thanks for the tip. I'll keep it in mind for the future. In the meantime, back to this...
I'll have to try that on some leather coats I have. I am going experiment with a type of cleaner that is made up of Hydrogen Peroxide and D-lemonene. Its basically a concoction of citrus oil. Its is a relatively new approach to disinfection. All disinfectants are EPA registered as pesticides and this one works buy punching through the cell wall of an organism. Some molds have cell walls that make them hard to kill.
Location: Finally the house is done and we are in Port St. Lucie!
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Originally Posted by A.Typical.Girl
Hiya, TL. I heard about people who place their jeans into plastic zip lock bags & put them into the freezer to "clean"... supposed to make the color/fiber last longer. I don't wear jeans often enough that I care, but honestly, they are far more comfy when they're wearing out & naturally getting holes everywhere & I think worn out jeans look better.
I'm glad the deep freeze worked for you. I once tried your method with a leather jacket I'd gotten at a 2nd hand store. It had that thrift shop smell. In a Boston winter, I left that jacket on the clothesline for a month... it still smelled awful when I brought it in. Finally, I bought inexpensive car leather cleaner/conditioner at a drugstore & slathered the coat in it. It worked. Since then, I clean all my leather jackets/purses when needed with the cheapest car leather cleaner I can find. Bonus is it has that lovely leather smell left behind by the cleaner.
I had to toss most of the bags. Found another 8 in another box & will be checking them out today to see if I might be able to salvage a few. Since I'm in SoFla, the freeze method won't work for me... & I'm unsure how many Hello Kitty soft bags I can stuff into the freezer.
Thanks for the tip. I'll keep it in mind for the future. In the meantime, back to this...
Haha. That's an online pic, but my car looks the same when stuffed to the gills with bags... except, my feet aren't that big that those sneakers would be anywhere near my size & I wouldn't keep my bread on top of said shoes.
BTW, one trick I've learned... use lots of bungee cords to keep bags from shifting & falling on your head when you open the doors. Makes traveling so much easier, especially when you own as many cast iron pots & pans as I do.
Well, boo on a stick... I found another large plastic bin filled with backpacks & duffel bags. I swear I didn't buy that many... I'm fairly certain they procreated in the storage closet. They didn't smell as bad as the others & didn't have any white powdery mildew on them, but they smelled enough that I wouldn't want to use them.
I also still had about 8 that had been washed 3 times & were much better than the many I tossed, but still had an aroma that made me feel like I was locked in a closet stuffed with the Sixers' after game sneakers.
Not wanting to put any more effort into honing down cleaning methods, I thought I'd wash 2 at a time & if they came out clean, great, if not, I'd light them on fire & leave them near my least favorite neighbor's front door.
They all came out great!
The only thing I did differently was add all the previous ingredients (detergent, baking soda, alcohol/peroxide) with 1/3C hair conditioner (why I don't know... was just an idea I thought I'd try) & instead of a few drops of tea tree oil, I used 1T.
Now I wish I didn't get so impatient & toss away 152 bags (or maybe it was just 14-ish)... but, what can I say. Three times is not the charm... 4 times is. Who bloody well knew.
Further, here's something I just found out. I found an old fashioned cobbler, who also does sanitizing & deoderizing of shoes... turns out he could have worked on the suitcases & his prices are more reasonable than I'd have thought... he charges $10 for a pair of shoes, $15 if they're fabric/suede. Now I further wish I didn't toss my hard roller suitcases, as they were expensive & had zip out linings, so perhaps they could have been salvaged.
Also, my mum told me to take them to a laundromat & put them into the giant machine for $10 that has dry cleaning fluid, after washing them in a regular machine. Not sure it would have worked... I think she felt the chemicals would have killed whatever was on the fabric. But, being one of her most stubborn children, I didn't listen, as usual & will never know. But, next time... & hopefully there won't be a next time... I'd do just that.
So, moral of story is... hair conditioner is awesome in so many ways & don't punt a portmanteau 'til you call a shoemaker.
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Haha. That's an online pic, but my car looks the same when stuffed to the gills with bags... except, my feet aren't that big that those sneakers would be anywhere near my size & I wouldn't keep my bread on top of said shoes. 
Update: 4th time's the charm
