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Are you sure you're washing the clothing sufficiently, and that the detergent is working? I dry all my clothes on an indoor drying rack that gets zero direct sunlight, including 100% cotton items. I don't have any problems with washed items still smelling. Is the water chlorinated? Admittedly it's usually not tropical-level humidity here most of the time.

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In high humidity environments you need the sunlight to help dry the clothing quickly enough so that bacteria doesn't start to form in the cotton weave. Because even if it gets dry, the minute you begin to sweat wearing that item, it'll stink.

In low humidity your cotton clothing will dry quickly enough that this doesn't happen.

Some of my stuff can take quite a while to dry still though. Particularly if the drying rack is very full and it's cold in the apartment. For everything to fully dry sometimes takes 24 hours.

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