This is consistent with my experience. I stopped buying expensive exercise clothing many years ago because they only last a season before they smell too bad. Instead, I buy them at the end-of-season sales or at discount retailers like Winners [0].
Unfortunately, in Canada it isn't feasible to hang them out in the sun to dry - for much of the year they'd just freeze.
Collapsible drying racks are a thing. IKEA sells them for cheap. Just leave them by your window, vent or fan.
> I stopped buying expensive exercise clothing many years ago because they only last a season before they smell too bad
I'm very confused.
It still smells despite washing with laundry detergent after each use? My gym clothing has zero smell & I've had them for >5 years, with weekly use for each piece.
The catch: I'm in Norway, and can promise you these clothes aren't seeing sun for most of the year. People don't stink - and it isn't due to being used to the smell. Folks didn't stink when I moved here a decade ago either. Clothes don't stink more in the winter, even though they take more time to dry due to colder house temperatures. You can't leave them for hours in the washer, but that's true even if you are using a dryer.
Of course, there are exceptions. You really should hang them up soon after you take them out of the washer.
However when it is very cold the air is much drier. Contrast that to a temperate but humid climate where everything sits at 20C - 25C w/80% - 100% humidity. Practically a microbial incubator.
- ideally machine washed with a significant spin to remove water. Air drying hand washed items that are sopping wet is a lot harder - might take 4x longer
- hang in a room with decent ventilation and some active air flow. Trying to air dry in the equivalent of a cupboard would be doomed
- hang fully spread out with decent space between the clothes. Drying time will be significantly extended if densely scrunched together with pieces touching. Buy multiple racks to get enough hanging space.
- don't put used wet gym clothes in a laundry bin to fester. If you aren't washing them immediately, hang them up to dry first and put them in the bin later
No issues, summer or winter.
Drying time here (Norway) in winter is about the same as high humidity was in the US. Summer is the dry season here - there is often a forest fire watch and a ban on open flames/fires.
In general, as long as there is air flow, you are fine. It'll take longer/shorter depending on humidity and air temperature.
I live in a cold climate - Norway - and this is the common drying method. Dryers aren't common in homes. Folks will put the rack on a balcony on nice days, and wherever they will fit in when it isn't.
I don't understand this either. I've been seeing loads of articles and posts about smelly gym clothes but I have both gym and outdoors clothes that have been going strong for much longer than 5 years and none of them smell after a wash. In fact, most can be worn for multiple sweaty sessions before they even start to smell.
In the wintertime just hang your washed clothes on a drying rack, either wall-mount or free-standing or what have you. "Free" humidification. Also air-drying works a lot better with front-loaders, which you should be using anyway because they use vastly less water and detergent and are much gentler on clothing.
My expensive-ish cycling clothing, after a ride, goes straight into a bucket of lukewarm water (spandex/lycra deteriorates in strength and stretch very rapidly at surprisingly low temperatures) with about a third of the bottlecap of sport wash. I give it a good swish and go shower. I give it some agitation after I'm done showering and changed. At some point I'll rinse it thoroughly. The cycling shorts get rolled up in a cotton towel and stepped on to wring them of excess water. Everything goes on a clothes hangar out in open air. If I'm riding again in the morning, or if it's humid, I point a small fan at everything so that the pad dries out quickly.
Then I remove them to hang dry them immediately. If I suspect one may smell bad, I hang dry it in the sun or next to a heating vent.
No problems for years.
In the wintertime just hang your washed clothes
on a drying rack, either wall-mount or free-standing
or what have you. "Free" humidification
I have tried a number of humidifiers (evaporative and ultrasonic) and they are all freaking maintenance nightmares in one way or another.
Nothing comes even remotely close to wet towels or wet clothes on a drying rack with a little fan pointed at them. I sleep with a fan on for background noise anyway.
Thick bath towels will soak up enough water to last a whole night or more.
A cubic liter can hold 0.017 mL of liquid water at an average room temperature. If I'm borrowing this math correctly that comes to less than a liter of water in an average room at 100% humidity.
https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=%280.023+atm%29*%281+L%...
Certainly, when we look at the tanks of popular humidifiers on Amazon, the tanks hold less moisture than a rack full of wet laundry particularly if there are wet towels.
I haven't measured this objectively but commercial humidifiers and the "wet clothes on a rack plus fan" method both palpably raise the humidity in a room.
That’s great if it’s a sealed box, but it’s not. Homes are leaky, and typical HVAC systems will replace all that air at least 5 times an hour.
So that’s 2.5 liters, or about 2/3rds of a gallon… per hour.
Now of course this is assuming worst case of going from bone dry to fully saturated, but even if you want to raise it 20 or 30% the numbers would be a third of that, but still.
Humans are very sensitive to humidity. I don’t doubt your towel setup makes things feel more humid, but if you were to actually measure it with a hygrometer I bet the actual number is changing way less than you think.
I grew up in northern Alberta. Yes there are less daylight hours, but the sun was often very intense during those hours. Winter tends to be dry so you have bright winters with little cloud cover, for the hours of sun you do get. It just happens to set at 4pm.
Of course eventually that changes if you go far north enough, but very few people actually live past the artic circle. People living on the coast will probably also have very different weather.
Of course i dont think i ever saw anyone hang clothes outside in -40 weather. I feel like drying is not what would happen but i dont know
Personally I prefer cotton since we have dry heat and cotton keeps me cooler than synthetics or wool.
My experience is that it lasts literally forever (assuming I don't tear it) and does not develop an odor problem over time. It actually feels fairly miraculous to me: space-age style comfortable breathable indestructable clothing.
We have active lives here in the NE USA where summers are hot, humid, and tropical. We sweat a looooooot in these clothes: dog walks, tennis, gym wear, yard work, etc. A loooot.
I get the majority of this clothing from Old Navy because they're cheap and sell most items in tall sizes. I've used other cheap brands that are also just as good; I don't think Old Navy is doing anything special in terms of materials but I think they deserve a shout-out for consistency and dedication to extended sizes both large and small.
I stopped buying expensive exercise clothing
many years ago because they only last a season
before they smell too bad
Something in your clothes washing routine needs an upgrade.
It may be as simple as cramming less laundry into the washer for each load so that the water:clothing ratio is higher. Another common mistake is using too much laundry detergent. Or maybe the washer is musty.
Assuming it's not either of those things a method that works for me is occasionally doing the "laundry stripping" hot water presoaking method.[1] "Recipes" for this vary and I'm not sure that the commonly recommended triple-ingredient mix is necessary; I suspect a few drops of laundry detergent alone would work just as well. However all of the ingredients are cheap as dirt and this method works so I haven't felt the need to experiment. Note that this isn't specific to synthetic fibers; cotton clothes can have their life multiplied this way as well.
Seems like a lot of work but it really isn't. I have a plastic bin in my basement next to the washer and dryer. I have Load B pre-soaking in the hot water mix while Load A is in the washer. You don't need to do this every time you wash your clothes. Just once every $SOME_OTHER_NUMBER loads.
Vinegar is also really effective in destroying odors. I have saved extremely moldy clothes with vinegar. Vinegar stinks but evaporates fast. If you truly can't stomach the smell (some can't) then tumble dry in the dryer until the vinegar smell is gone.
Also, for goodness' sake, don't toss wet sweaty clothes into the hamper. Let them air dry somehow first.
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Or washing them with some vinegar.