How to Get the Smell of Urine Out of Clothes

Dealing with the lingering scent of urine on clothes can be challenging and is a sensitive issue that’s faced by many people every day.

Whether it’s an accident from a young child, a pet mishap, or a care concern, knowing how to deal with the stain and odour is crucial.

See the guide below on how to remove the smell of wee from clothes.

 

Tips to Think About

• Act fast! Don’t leave the urine on the surface too long, as it could permanently stain the fabric, and the smell will weave itself deep into the material’s fibres. Also, aged stains are more difficult to remove.
• Dab, dab, dab! Don’t scrub because you’ll drive the urine deeper into the material’s fibres.
• Test your chosen cleaning method out. A quick patch test will tell you if the solution you plan on using will damage or discolour your item of clothing.
• Pick a strong detergent. When removing urine stains and ammonia smells from clothes, you’ve got to choose a strong detergent packed with enzymes that can tackle and break down the proteins in the pee. It just so happens that biological detergents contain enzymes!

If you choose a weak or non-biological detergent, it may not have the right ingredients in it. Naturally, the solution can’t break down the wee or its odour, so it lingers.

• Make sure you use the best washing cycle. To get to the core of the problem, you need to marry a strong detergent with the right type of washing cycle. That happens to be a long, warm wash. If you try to clean your pee-stained garments on a short cycle, you’ll be lucky if the yellow mess is gone by the end, let alone the stench.

Similarly, the hotter the water, the better it will be at removing the bacteria too. Of course, you must read the care label on your clothes and adhere to the hottest temperature stipulated. Not doing so could lead to your garments shrinking in the wash.

• Ensure clothes are dried effectively. In addition to proper cleaning, you must ensure that your urine-marked clothes are dry before storing them. If the clothes are slightly damp, they will start to smell stale, and mould might set up camp!

 

How to Remove Fresh Urine Smells from Clothes

Follow the steps below:

1. Put gloves on.
2. Blot as much liquid from the surface as you can using paper towels.
3. Turn the garment inside out.
4. Flush cold water through the back of the urine patch.
5. Coat the urine stain in biological detergent.
6. Wait 10 minutes.
7. Launder the garment – add more detergent to the washing machine.
8. Assess the urine blemish and its smell after the washing cycle and repeat the steps above if need be.
9. Dry the garment outside on a washing line when it is free from urine and ammonia.

 

How to Remove Old Urine Smells from Clothes

It’s not always possible to react quickly to a wee-related mishap. You might be out, or perhaps you’re caring for a loved one, and their soiled laundry is handed to you in a bag, so goodness knows when the accident happened.

If you find yourself in one of these or a similar situation, consider the options below. It’s likely that the wee smell will have intensified because it hasn’t been dealt with. So be prepared to treat the aromatic clothes more than once.

Option 1: Try the method above first

Carry out the steps outlined above under ‘How to remove fresh urine smells from clothes’ multiple times. With a little patience and energy, you might be able to work the urine blemish off your item and remove the stench, too.

 

Option 2: Pick a specialised product

Try to clean the urine and its odour off your outfits using an off-the-shelf product like Napisan. However, keep in mind that specialised products often get mixed results, and you may need to apply the product more than once to see the desired end result.

 

Option 3: Soak in bicarbonate of soda

If you’re after a neutral approach, soak your garments in a bicarbonate of soda and water mixture for 15 minutes (longer if necessary).

The bicarb will break down the uric acid in the wee-wees during this time. Then launder your clothes as usual.

Bicarbonate of soda is great at neutralising pesky odours, one of those being pee! 

 

Option 4: White vinegar

Put your stained laundry into the washing machine’s drum and pour a cup of white vinegar into the detergent compartment (don’t add detergent). Start a warm washing cycle (the hottest temperature permitted for the material).

When the cycle is done, check your garments and clean them again using detergent this time.

Alternatively, soak your smelly outfits in a bucket of white vinegar (one cup) and water overnight. The following day, remove the clothes, rinse them and hang them up to air dry. When the clothes are dry, assess the smell and repeat the steps if necessary.

 

Option 5: Add a scent booster to your cleaning routine

A scent booster can improve the smell of your laundry during the washing cycle. Boosters go into your washing machine’s drum before you add the laundry. You then put the dirty washing in the appliance and start the wash. The boosters dissolve in the wash and infuse your clothes.

Boosters can be bought from most supermarkets, are relatively priced and come in various smells. As long as you aren’t treating kids’ clothes, this is an option you could consider.

However, just because you use a scent booster to enhance the smell of your urine-stained laundry, it doesn’t mean you can skip the deep cleaning phase. You still have to treat and clean your pee-blemished clothes properly.

 

Option 6: Use scented dryer sheets

Dryer sheets go into the tumble dryer alongside your wet laundry. Their aim is to coat your clean washing in an aromatically pleasing fragrance as they go through the drying cycle.

Dryer sheets come in many scents and can make laundry smell great for a short period of time. However, they’re not to everybody’s taste, and they don’t always make laundry smell strong enough. But that’s just personal preference! 

Once again, you must treat your garments and launder them correctly before trying this trick. If you don’t clean the pee-stained laundry effectively, the dryer sheets will just temporarily mask the foul odour, and you won’t have dealt with the issue properly.

 

Option 7: Ask a professional

Sometimes, the smell of urine is so bad that nothing you do at home removes it. In this case, asking a dry cleaner for help may be better.

Dry cleaners have access to different tools and solutions that they can use to treat the blemishes and take out the aroma.

A quick online search will bring up specialists near you. Before you take your stained garments down to the shop, give them a ring to ensure they can handle such a load.

 

Is your nose lying to you?

After spending a long time around urine-smelling clothes, you often can’t distinguish whether or not an item of clothing smells clean or stinks of ammonia. This is common, especially if you’re caring for a loved one.

In many cases, if you’ve cleaned and treated the items of clothing as best as you can, the garments probably are okay. You’re just so used to the odour you can’t tell the difference.

In this type of situation, reaching out to others via forums to share your experiences with them and to get their take on managing the situation might be helpful. You can pass ideas around and take comfort in knowing you’re not alone.

 

When to call it a day

Eventually, you’ll spend too much time treating the clothes, find the task exhausting, and the work will be quite costly. In addition, the clothes will also deteriorate the more they’re treated and will eventually become unwearable.

In this case, it may be time to cut your losses and replace the clothes in question.

 

What Happens If You Don’t Remove Urine Smells from Clothes?

Unfortunately, if urine is not treated effectively, the smell of wee will linger. Here’s what’s likely to happen:

• The urine smell will intensify as time goes by.
• Bacteria will start to breed in the area. This could pose a potential health risk to those wearing the clothes at the time.
• The odour is likely to attract pests. For example, if you’ve not cleaned dog urine off your clothes, your dog might wee on them again – it’s a ‘marking behaviour’.
• The smell of strong urine could trigger allergies.
• In the worst case, the urine will spread from your clothes onto other surfaces in your home. The odour will follow suit. In the end, lots of soft furnishings in your home will smell of pee – the sofa, chairs, mattress, and cushions. If you live in the property, you may not notice the foul stench, but those visiting you will. This will inevitably lead to the air quality in your house being compromised.

 

How to Prevent Urine from Staining Clothes and Making Them Smell

Here are some ways you can protect items of clothing for longer:

Act quickly

You must remove the urine from the clothes quickly. A fast response from you will ensure the stain doesn’t have time to set in and leave a yellow blemish behind. It also means that you tackle the odour, too.

 

Pre-treat items

Pre-treat the items before you launder them so you can get to the root of the odour and blemish and remove them properly.

 

Take preventative measures

Think about ways you can stop the wee from getting onto the clothes.

Accidents happen for many reasons, including potty training, medical conditions and age. By knowing the cause of the problem, you can put measures in place to limit the adverse effects. These include:

• Use waterproof barriers wherever possible – nappies, panty liners and adult nappies. These discreet products can prevent urine from reaching outer garments, thus protecting them for longer.
• Educate kids on how to use the toilet. For example, take the child with you when you’re potty training them so they learn how and when to use the facilities.
• Ensure you take regular toilet breaks.
• Change out of the wee-stained clothes.
• Wear suitable clothing so you can clean them regularly without worrying about ruining them. For example, if accidents are a regular occurrence, wear hard-wearing materials so that you can clean them at a higher temperature and with stronger detergents.
• Similarly, wearing suitable clothing can make going to the toilet easier. The last thing you need is a load of fiddly buttons when you’re desperate for the loo.

 

Use enzymatic cleaners

If a pet has had a mishap, treat the area with an enzymatic cleaner so they don’t go back and pee at the site.

 

Does Pee Permanently Stain Clothes?

If left untreated, urine will eventually stain clothes. The pigment in the pee will likely change the colour of your garment. The smell of wee will also stick around and grow stronger with time.

To stop urine staining your outfits, treat them quickly, then launder them. See the steps above.