How to get the smell of urine out of sheets and clothing?

Lighter concerns are trousers , that get pee drop urine odor.
Keep vinegar under the sink and had wash area on trousers and hang to dry if you want to get a cup;e of more days out of some nice slacks.
In the machine, 1/2 cup borax and 1/2 cup BAc out.Cold water and full wash with rinse.

The only approach I would have is to just pitch the sheets and get the smell out of your home. I don't know if you have a mattress protector on the mattress she sleeps on, but if so, I would be checking to see if it ripped. Those plastic mattress protectors don't usually last long and they need replaced pretty frequently. If the urine got down into the mattress, it's probably going to be hard to get it out so I would also replace the mattress and anything else that has urine smell in it. Just replace everything is my approach. You can usually find mattresses at secondhand shops and private sales but the best one for her maybe a hospital bed mattress. They usually stand up to moisture very well, it would be a good idea to just invest in something waterproof and maybe even explore your options with disposable sheets because sheets can usually be found for fairly cheap if you know where to look for them

I use odor bully it works great. Got mine at Menard's.

Borax, Borateem, orderless clorax,Biokleen products,there is one in particular that I love, can't think of specific name..bought at Whole Foords

Sunlight,

Hope you find products that can be cleaned and are sympathetic to your needs! You are such a blessing and we all love sweet clean smells...Bless your Mom, and all who care!

I have had the same issue, especially with UTI urine - it was a beast to get the odor out. I tried vinegar, baking soda, natures miracle, and could still smell it.
It was really trial and error, but...
This is what worked for me... spray the clothes/sheets/whatever with the puppy pee spray in the turquoise bottle. That will neutralize it til you can get it in the wash. Then I do a combo of oxy clean odor care, plus a little zote (bar laundry soap), and then my regular laundry detergent in the machine. It's done great and she often gets comments about how fresh and clean her clothes smell.
Good luck!!

Thanks BatmannRobin! I can't seem to find Zote soap around here but I'll keep looking. I never considered the fact that it could be a UTI smell, but the odor is miserable, not just a urine smell. She is checked at least once a week by the visiting nurse and they never mention anything about a UTI and I never gave it any thought because the smell is always the same. But I'm going to bring it up to the nurse when she comes next time. Mum is 96 now and has dementia, so I never know if the behavior is because of that or a UTI. Thanks for your imput........I'll try anything!

BIOKLEEN BAC-OUT, STAIN AND ORDOR REMOVER. MAYBE BETTER FOR SMALL ITEMS...
CLOTHING.DOES NOT NEED TO BE RINSED ON LABEL.BOUGHT AT WHOLE FOODS.

How about trying 20 Mule Team Borax. Has worked for me.

I would loveto thank all of those caregivers who care for their ol' parents. Such a pleasure to read your thoughts and experience in these posts how much you care.

Yes. I use 2 washable chucks "under her sheets " in addition to plastic cover on mattress. I use 2 washable chucks on top of sheets and 3 disposable chucks. I also use extra heavy Kotex in her pull up at night for extra absorbancy. Wet linens go in wash as soon as I remove from bed. Some chores can't wait. I also use baby wipes versus toilet paper. It helps clean at same time and keeps smell away.

20 mule team borax in hot water and laundry detergent (the most fragrant one, I use Arm and Hammer) - when drying, best outdoor then to soften the sheets, place in dryer with bounce.

Check out a product called odoban. Sam's club carries it in gallon size. As does home depot. It is a hospital grade disinfectant. And can be used in cleaning or laundry.
Hope it helps-
Sparkles

I usually handwash the stuff first and then wash it again in the machine. Washing them in the washing machine alone won't do it.

Never mind the urine in bedclothes how to get the small of cat's urine out of a house. i have a rental where i allowed the tenant to keep hers and her dead mothers cats. The small was overwhelming and everyone who looked at he house ran out gagging so i knew something drastic had to happen. My cleaner spent six hours in the house going over and over the carpets with her steam cleaner. The house e was sparkling and smelt really fresh _ for 24 hours then the smell was back as bad as ever.
I called in the local carpet guy and he said that even if you get the carpet clean the underlayment soaks up the urine and there is no way cleaning will help. The downstairs carpet was fairly new and of good quality and B said he would pull up the carpet put down and enzyme that would eat the urine crystals and then put down a new underlayment and original carpet. He is to simply replace the upstairs carpets and put down new as they were at least 50 years old. I was afraid of hearing the quote but it was not unreasonable so i will be going ahead. So I hope it will work otherwise i shall have to employ the local arsonist!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway I wanted to share that hopefully the smells both human and animal may be removed if you are prepared to pull up carpets and at least replace the underlayment if the carpet itself is new and of good quality. I know many people put down new carpet when a loved one is going to move in and soon regret their generosity.

While the initial post is old, I do see others have come here from time to time, so I decided to add my comment.
At the time my kids were growing up, there were no "special" treatments that I was aware of. For the training pants, I used regular old vinegar (white is best). It is not expensive and is not laden with chemicals (I detest the chemical smell - hated walking down the laundry aisle in the store!) It worked well for killing the odor (urine is acidic, vinegar is base, so the combination of the two should neutralize the odors, provided you get to it soon enough, and use enough).
CAVEAT!!! Once while soaking the pants, I decided to add a little bleach to help whiten them, as I had hard well water. The stench was unreal! It took years before I found out what the problem was, and of all places, an insert with a corelle teapot: It warned not to mix household chemicals, which I was well aware of, however it specifically said not to mix bleach and vinegar... I certainly do not consider vinegar a "chemical". The bottom line, it creates chlorine gas! For those who bleach in the laundry and add the vinegar in a rinse cycle, probably not an issue, but do NOT mix these two in a sink, tub or bucket to presoak!!!
Since then, I have been using Nature's Miracle for cat urine. Cat urine is much more concentrated and therefore smells much worse. The dregs in the litter box is unreal, but I have found world's best (corn based) soaks it up, doesn't leave "dregs" and results in limited if any smell and reduces the number of litter pan cleanings!

What I found with using the Nature's Miracle (would likely be the same with any pet enzyme killer): hard surfaces it takes away the smell. Soft items? Not so much. Initially the item smells okay, but in short order the smell in back. :-( So the only thing I use it for is hard surfaces.

For people with cat urine issues - the person who posted about the apartment smell, your carpet guy is correct. Carpet cleaning *may* eliminate the carpet odor, for a while. However if it has permeated the underlayment, the only solution is to get under the carpet and clean that, if possible, or replace it. The place I am in had a doggie problem. The RE told me they cleaned the carpets, but there was still a "doggie smell". I planned to get rid of the carpet anyway (4 br and long hallway) because of one cat problem, didn't want carpet and it was old and stained anyway.
I do not know much about the products others have suggested, but paying big money for products that claim to treat and don't... I'd go back to the basics!

DB - your solution is to replace the sheets? What, every two weeks? That will get rather expensive quickly!!!

We've not dealt with the urine smell on clothing and bedding yet, but we have dealt with old man body odor. Even with bathing 3x/week and clean clothes daily, my father-in-law's clothing and bedding just had this weird strong funk. Even worse, I could smell it when I walked into the house. I was washing his clothes and bedding like I had done my children's diapers with a borateem soak followed by two times through hot wash in detergent plus borateem and two rinses and even that didn't cut through that odor. Finally we tried Febreeze in wash Odor Eliminator in the wash with the detergent. It works. I'm able to wash one time in warm water and one rinse and the odor is gone. It lessens my workload and is less hard on his clothes.

Edit - my son has been using the Febreeze in wash Odor Eliminator on the old towels that he uses to clean up his puppy's accidents and it works for them too. 

white vinegar works great. I've used it for a while now years . m
My mother lives with me and her incontinent has just getting worse.

I buy the Kirkland brand laundry detergent at Costco. It has an odor eliminator in it. Elderly persons tend to not drink a lot of fluids, which concentrates the urine and makes the smell worse. Also, certain medications or infections can add to the problem. It's important to rinse the urine out ASAP. It is sterile when it leaves the body, so the longer it's out, the more bacteria grow-causing the bad odors

White sheets Bleach and Borax: It will work

I use iodine....the small, little cap that comes on the bottle is all I add to one load of bedding which I wash in cold water with laundry soap and liquid fabric softner..There is no smell, whatsoever in just one wash....NOTE: IODINE (BETADINE) WILL STAIN YOUR CLOTHES OR ANYTHING ELSE IT TOUCHES AT FULL STRENGTH, INCLUDING YOUR MACHINE, SKIN ETC... FILL TUB WITH WATER, ADD SOAP AND IODINE TO WATER, THEN ADD CLOTHES....

I found washable waterproof bed pads on amazon. They cover a large area and don’t slide around with movement. I bought four. I put one under the fitted sheet and one on top. Saves on laundry. I also put vinegar in with her laundry. Seems to work great. I use it for every wash.

I use vinegar in every wash for my mom. Works great. I bought large reusable waterproof pads from amazon. They cover a large area and are easier to wash than all the sheets everyday. I lay one under the fitted sheet and one on top where she sleeps. To wash her soiled clothes, I find Collecting her clothes at night or before she wakes up works well.

Rosemary, I've found them at most pharmacies, usually with the displays of devices like canes, walkers, bedpans etc, or near the incontinence supplies. Just ask!

I personally would bleach items that are bleachable and ditch and replace ones that aren't. You can usually find linens pretty cheap at secondhand shops such as goodwill and other thrift shops. You can also go to private sales during summer and pick up loads of linens. Another place to look is patients who frequent the hospitals and constantly bring home the linens. Then of course there are people who just want to get rid of them and may actually just give them to you when they do spring cleaning. Sometimes people will hold certain types of swap meets where everyone brings something to the group. You bring a bag of stuff you're getting rid of to the swap meet and put it out for others to go through. You take what you need. You may also want to check your area for these things called free sales where everything is free. You may find these during summer in your area. Definitely look for things you need and can actually use instead of wasting money trying to clean something that may never come clean and odorless. This is the best way to handle urine contaminated items, just burn them as biohazard if you have a place you're allowed to burn trash

Rosemary44, I have purchased them in different sizes on Amazon. They work wonderfully to prevent leaks. Only problem I have is that Mum wakes up and feels that they are wet, pulls them off the bed and goes back to sleep and then wets the sheets! She outsmarts me at every turn!!

My housekeeper brought this product to our house for the washing machine odors and smells from teen athletes. OdoBan Disinfectant eliminates odors in the washing machine. I have to say that she is right, it does eliminate odors. I use about an eighth of a cup in my super stinky wash loads. This works on sweat and animal pee. Wish that I had know about it when I was taking care of my mom.

If money is an issue certainly vinegar will help as will nature's miracle. There are a couple of other things that I found that help and one is to make sure the underwear fits well. Then I add a Tranquility booster pad at night. And since I have apartment sized washer and dryer I wash every day and found that Method 4X beach sage keeps the urine smell under control. And to make sure the urine smell is gone I use Fresh Wave bulk to make my own little air fresheners which i stick everywhere in our condo. It removes odors without leaving a smell. At this time I still shower five to seven days a week with some of the showers just focused on the lower half of his body. I hope this helps you.

Lysol laundry sanitizer works very well for getting urine stains and smell out of laundry. It’s a relatively new product but can be found in some stores and online on Amazon. We now use it for our kid’s sports clothes as well as my folks’ laundry. We’ve also used various fabric softeners (especially Snuggle Plus super fresh) but they don’t work as well without the laundry sanitizer. Urine is a stubborn smell!

Stock up on white vinegar. It works wonders.