How to Get Poop Smell Out of Clothes – 5 Tested & Tried Methods [2023 Guide]

Published by Ahmad Jamal on March 27, 2023

Poop smell can really take a deep dive inside clothes, especially when the cleaning or maintenance has gone poorly.

You’re taking care of an elderly relative, or your baby has “done it” again, but this time it has surpassed his diappers, you should be wondering How to Get Poop Smell Out of Clothes, especially after it has been there for quite some time.

Fear not, this CleanersAdvisor guide will help you master How to Get Poop Smell Out of Clothes properly, by providing you with 5 different and distinguished methods of bad smell removal.

Moreover, you’ll have a set of additional tips that will help you perform natural smell-removing chores that require the bare minimum of effort, but at a large potential outcome.

We’ll even help you choose settings for your machine and handwashing of your clothes, so both the removal and the maintenance are done in parallel.


Why Shoud You Learn How to Get Poop Smell Out of Clothes?

Imagine having to deal with the same problem over and over again without a solution, wouldn’t that be requiring of so much effort but so little outcome and progress? We wouldn’t allow that here.

Additionally, you wouldn’t want a full load of laundry affected by the bad smell of poop, as a bad way of washing can spread out the bad smell among the whole load of clothes.

Having stinky smells can almost tell you to get rid of the source of the smell, which is the clothes themselves, thus, losing such a precious piece of cloth can’t be a good option.

Let’s learn more about How to Get Poop Smell Out of Clothes.

How to Get Poop Smell Out of Clothes
No one likes to lose their precious clothes over poop smell, right?

How to Get Poop Smell Out of Clothes

Before getting the poop smell out of clothes, the first thing you should be doing is get rid of the source of bad smell, which is the poop itself.

Rinse it off your clothes with cold water, then proceed to the one of those steps:

1. Liquid Detergent & Vinegar Mixture

Create a mixture of Liquid Detergent & Vinegar inside a cleaning bowl, and soak the affected piece of cloth inside it for 15 minutes, before blotting it with a clean white cloth. Repeat this process as long as the smell is stil there, then once you’re done, wash it properly as you’d wash other pieces of cloth.

How to create this mixture? Single tablespoon of liquid detergent & the same amount of white vinegar to be mixed with two cups of warm water.

2. Enzyme Stain Remover

Since we know that poop (or feces) is full of protein, enzzyme stain removers are a great option to dissolve the protein and get rid of both the smell and the stain spot.

Every enzyme stain remover can be different from other ones, therefore, make sure to follow the directions on the bottle for the best usage of enzyme stain removers.

Once you’ve got rid of the stain, rinse the cloth thoroughly, and add it to the washing machine.

3. Baking Soda & Hydrogen Peroxide

Baking soda is the mother of all bad odor removers. Add it to hydrogen peroxide, and you have a paste that’ll remove both the stain and the bad odor effectively.

This method works on all clothing types, except for delicate clothing, which isn’t probably going to be effected by poops.

Create the baking soda paste & hydrogen peroxide paste, and leave it on the stain spot for 30-45 minutes to work its magic.

Afterward, rinse the paste off, and put the clothes in the washing machine.

4. Fabric Softener

Fabric softeners are one of the most famous bad smell removers against most of bad odors.

That’s why you can add a single cup of your laundry fabric softener to the wash load after you’ve got rid of the poop initially, and it will help removing the bad smells accordingly.

Additionally, you’ll enjoy softer fabrics with this method, as it’s mainly used to soften fabrics in addition to the aforementioned bad odor removing.

5. Vinegar & Bicarb

Vinegar has worked well with liquid detergent in the first method on How to Get Poop Smell Out of Clothes, as it’s a natural remedy that’s as versatile as you’d like it to be.

However, using it with bicard can also lead to similar outcomes when it comes to removing bad poop smell.

Half a cup of apple cider vinegar can be added with bicarb to a bucket, then add a similar amount of warm water to it to form the cleaning solution.

Stir the clothes into the solution, and leave it to soak there for 2-4 hours depending on how bad the smell is.

Once you get it out, wash it as you’d regularly do to the clothes, and enjoy the poop smell-free clothes once again.

Here’s a video by OxiClean explaining how to clean cloth diapers differently:


Additional Tips

Here is a set of additional tips to help you master How to Get Poop Smell Out of Clothes more effeciently:

1. Sunshine is a great friend: Sunshine dries clothes much faster and the sunheat kills bacteria formed inside the clothes effectively, getting rid of any remaining odor sources on the clothes.

2. Attend to the poop stain as soon as possible: Removing the poop fast can actually cut have the effort required to remove the poop smell ouf of clothes. Doing otherwise will allow the poop to dive deeper into clothes fabrics and become harder to remove.

3. Use Essential oils: Your favorite essential oils can actually replace any bad odor remaining on the clothes after you’ve done cleaning with the best pleasant smell you like to have around your house and clothes.

4. Don’t hesitate to use a combination of the aforementioned methods on How to Get Poop Smell Out of Clothes if the bad smell is too powerful.


Tips for Machine Washing & Handwashing Poopy Clothes

  1. Avoid Using Cold Water.
  2. Use Hot Wash Above 60 Degrees.
  3. Choose Longer Wash Cycles For More Thorough Washing.
  4. For Handwashing: Use Boiling Hot Water & Plenty of Soap to Soak Clothes.

What Neutralizes Poop Smell?

  1. Baking Soda
  2. White Vinegar
  3. Powerful Liquid Detergent Mixed with White Vinegar
How to Get Poop Smell Out of Clothes

Why Does the Smell of Poop Linger After Washing?

This has nothing to do with how you cleaned or what you may have done wrong.

Potent odors produced by poop can be naturally absorbed into the oils on the skin, giving itself more lingering time after we’ve got rid of the source and the stain spot on the clothes.

If the smell lingers for longer than you’ve liked, use odor eliminator & essential oils to replace the bad odor with pleasant ones.


To Wrap Up

Having bad poop smell lingering inside your clothes and affecting the rest of your laundry isn’t the danger you should be dealing with.

However, with this CleanersAdvisor guide on How to Get Poop Smell Out of Clothes, you have mroe than enough methods to deal with such bad smell effectively.

If you have any questions regarding How to Get Poop Smell Out of Clothes, ask us in the comments section below, and our CleanersAdvisor experts will get back to you with answers as soon as possible.