How do you get the old people smell out of your laundry and home?

Try white vinegar in the wash about a cup per full load. In the house set a small open bowl of white. Keep away from pets and children.

There is a scent booster by Gain you can put into your washer when washing your laundry. It smells lovely.

For her bedroom, I would open her windows as much as weather permits to air it out. To me, there is no other better sanitizer and clean scent smell than wiping and cleaning everything down with pine sole.

Then you can use candle melts or whatever, if you prefer.

The key to her bedroom is you got to "clean" the scent out.

I have this same issue with my mothers clothes. I use a laundry detergent that has an odor and stain remover and that works well.

"Nonenal, a chemical compound that people develop as they age, is the culprit behind the smell, which has been described by the National Institutes of Health as an “unpleasant greasy and grassy odor.” It is often hard to self-detect, but will linger on fabric such as shirt collars and pillow cases. Nonenal odors thrive in confined spaces"

I used a mild deodorant soap on Mom. Vinegar may help but you may want to try drying outside. Urine smells tend to come back when dried in a dryer. Vinegar smell will dissipate. I have done the vinegar in a bowl and it works. I saw a difference in just a couple of hours. I was using Arm and Hammer detergent thinking the baking soda in it would help but it didn't. Went back to Tide. I used the scent boosters but found it was too much "scent".

Hospice told us to put a tray, like a soda case box, under the bed with kitty litter in it to help obsorb the odor.

I would use borax in the washer and vinegar in the rinse cycle.

I am sensitive to fragrance, but I can use essential oil diffusers as air fresheners without any adverse reactions. Love lavender, orange, grapefruit and bergamot, clean, relaxing and long lasting. Lemon and may chang is a really vibrant one, energizing and clean.

I have read there is a particular soap that will help it contains Persimmon oils.
Pretty sure you can order it or you could try a health food store or if you have an Asian market near you it might be found there. (It is a Japanese soap)

OMG that phrase!! I had to laugh, because I know it is a real thing,, but that phrase has caused one of the biggest rift in my hubs and his brothers lives! When my BIL and his family moved in with my hubs parents, my niece stated she now hated to visit her parents because of the "old people smell".. and she was in her mid 20s... no filter! And of course my lovely tactful SIL told my in laws... who repeated it to my hubs,,, And hubs still about spits on her when he sees her... (but he is polite) Luckily we don't have this problem yet with my mom.. She is about to be 90, showers every other day, wears depends.. so I guess I am just lucky

I swear by using white vinegar and baking soda along with laundry soap to get rid of body odors. I clean with a recipe of half white vinegar, half water and the juice of a fresh lemon. Keep a spray bottle of this for quick clean ups. If soiled clothes got to the dryer with a bad odor unfortunately it gets baked in. Some clothes may have to be thrown out.

Try Bamboo Charcoal. It comes in odor absorbing bags and also can be found in soaps. It's especially good for "old lady smell", which as Joann said, has something to do with chemicals on the skin of some elderly women and isn't a result of bad hygiene. (Although opening the windows is always a good idea!)

I'm sorry...I just saw this and wickedly thought...get rid of the old people...sorry...LOL. Seriously would say I'd open windows while the weather is holding, lay out some bowls of baking soda (seriously, it works for other things). I'd also get some of those packets for cleaning the interior of the washing machine...I think the one called Affresh has the good housekeeping seal...Don't know what to do for the dryer, but I'd google the question for ideas.

I have tried vinegar with doing laundry and cleaning. Didn't work for me.

I must didn't use the right mixture.

I don't have that problem but I did have a problem with kitchen towels retaining a strong oily smell. I tried everything to no avail. My son who works in the food industry gave me a tip that worked for that. You could try it and see if it works. Very simple: when washing use a slightly less amount of detergent but throw in a dishwasher pod. Yep, 1 dishwasher pod. It worked and my towels are now fresh and no longer retains that oily smell. Give it a try and see if that works. For the house smell I have no idea, sorry.

Try lemon verbena soap (on her) and lemon verbena laundry detergent on her stuff. It smells wonderful and I've found it to be a great deodorizer for tough smells. I don't have old people smell to contend with, but my husband's hobbies result in seriously stinky laundry.

My H developed this and I shaved his chest and underarms then bought those scrubby gloves and scrubbed him with dial soap, rinsed, then scrubbed him with nice foamy soap. The shaving and scrubby gloves worked wonders. You would not believe the dead skin particles that came off of the gloves when I rinsed them!!!

Mom's house reeks. She'd had so many overflows with her cath bag on her recliner, and she'd just put a dry towel and another blanket on it. Her carpet was 22 years old and it took all 4 of us kids to tell YB he HAD to replace it--when he ripped out the carpet, the padding was ruined with urine and other spills. At some point, you cannot clean carpet well enough.

When she used to let me clean the first thing I did was open all the windows (which had not been open since the LAST time I'd cleaned). Sadly, the smells (primarily of cooking fat and urine) has simply saturated the walls and floors and clothes. Replacing the floor with wood laminate helped a lot. But the 'TV room' still had carpet. Last time I cleaned it, the water I pulled out of it was thick and black--I do not know how she got it so dirty.

She shares w/d with SIL. SIL runs vinegar and pet urine remover through the machine, but the dryer still has a smell of urine. Mom can't smell it.

Cleaning, deep cleaning is your best bet. I love bleach and use it a lot. Also vacuuming fabric surfaces on the reg. Smells can get into everything. She has waaaay too much 'stuff' in her place and it all smells. She's 'left me' a bedroom set, which, frankly, I won't take b/c although it's lovely, it smells so awful.

One weird thing I discovered that I use at home is a few crumpled up sheets of newspaper in the bottom of the trash. Kills the smell of the trash and buys you and extra day. I'd do this in mom's 'diaper pail' but she'd get mad, so I leave well enough alone.

On the flip side, my MIL's house smells fantastic. She has it cleaned every week, but there is literally NO bad smell there. She opens windows every day and bleaches her bathrooms and gets her trash out pronto. She is immaculate in her personal hygiene and I think that is a big factor.

Both my Grandmothers lived alone into their 90's. Their places smelled not just clean, but 'sweetly clean'. One gma made her own soap! and her place was so sweet. The other employed a maid. I do not know why mom's place smells so awful and their places were sweet and clean.

I have used a Lysol wash product-a blue liquid comes in a white plastic bottle with a blue lid. Has a nice fresh smell to revive anything that is washable. Find it in the laundry isle. Depending on where you live and what big box is near by you might have to search on line first. It says to put in the rinse cycle but i found it was a bit too strong for me. so i but in during the wash cycle. It is not bleach so it will not hurt the fabrics.

I echo the lemon verbena soap idea. And big bags of lemon verbena itself (you can use as cushions in places where the elderly sit) can really help. Hung up herbs drying round the house are helpful and don't add to indoor pollution. Worth trying in lots of "smelly" conditions.

I use the snuggle fabric softener for super odors and arm and hammer laundry detergent with fabric softener for clothes. Use an odor eliminator that is oranges from home depot. Eliminates odors, not just covers them up.

I totally know what u mean!! It takes a while to get ride of it somehow... I didn’t notice these while I had mom, but since then I’ve discovered the freshener beads that help with odors. Maybe those would help.

You may be dealing with "oil odors" as well as "nitrogenous waste odors". Try small amount of dish soap that is a "grease buster" to deal with oil-based scents. Try products in pet aisle for urine and fecal accidents for waste-based scents. If she has carpeting, you may need to pull it up since the pads are probably soaking up the scent. Try covering her mattress with a plastic bag-type mattress cover too. If she has kidney problems, the breakdown of urine products are deposited in the skin. Use gentle soaps that have lemon oil to combat personal odors that linger on her.

Try a cup of white vinegar in the wash cycle. It’s one of the cheapest solutions. Great on removing urine smells too.

Someone else suggested Mary Hunt's everydaycheapskate.com website. One product I learned about from her is Nok-Out, or its hospital-grade version, snIper. We had a cat spray in our house -- you know how awful that is! I followed the directions and just as promised the smell got worse because the enzymes were interacting. Sprayed again a day later and boom, no more odor. I keep a gallon jug on hand all the time and use it for my husband's pillow and recliner. And thanks to Mary, I also keep a bottle of vinegar next to the wash machine for those stinky loads of laundry, especially the towels. I don't like fake scents -- candles, sprays, etc because they are just chemicals you are adding to your environment that only change the smell, rather than removing it.

My daughter bought a home previously owned by smokers. They had to rent and run an oxygen machine for 3 straight days and could not be in the house. It worked, I wonder if something like that would help in the future?

If one of the sources of the smell is from incontinence, then use a product that is meant to get rid of pet urine. I have the caregivers splash a bit in with the laundry soap. It makes all the difference. We are using Nature's Miracle, but other brands may work too.

Add Borax when doing a wash load. Instructions are on the box.

Concentrated room sprays from Bath and Body Works and they last a looong time.

My Mom too & that bizzare funk smell is gross TRUST ME ON THIS I’m living your life. My friend suggested & I bought A GREEN AIR PRO MACHINE. Cleans the air even gets smoke out of paint in walls carpets every thing. Look online the one I have did the job has a timer fan covers 3500 sq ft.I had a carpet guy steam & deodorize the carpets he walked in and said do you have someone sick or did someone die Here. Find a clean air machine all the spray does is mask the odors. YOUR NOT ALONE IN ALL THIS HANG TIGHT.

Odo-Ban is an excellent product and readily available. Disinfects too.

My Mom has incontinence issues and I had the same problem until I started adding a cup or so of pinesol lemon scent to the wash water along with the regular laundry soap. Works like a charm and was much friendlier on the budget than the lysol laundry sanitizer, which is hard to find in my area anyway. I would also wipe down the inside of your dryer with a damp rag with a little pinesol on it as well.

Just my opinion, but that sounds very rude. Some day you will be old and someone will be trying to get YOUR smell off of stuff. Once a month you should be cleaning your washer, especially if it's a front loader. You put 1 cup of bleach in the tub and set to "clean". Also, wash her clothes MORE OFTEN and don't let her wear them day after day after day. Most likely, the foul smell is a build-up of perfume and deodorant. A lot of older people don't wash their clothes as often as they should. I cherish my mom. She is precious no matter how she smells.