If you use reusable pads – also known as cloth pads, period panties, or cloth menstrual pads (everyone uses a different term) – then you might not be a stranger to the smells they can hang on to.
And worse yet, if you leave them soaking too long: you DEFINITELY know that that’s a problem. It smells. And it smells BAD.
This last one recently happened to me. Long story short: I usually air dry them but that wasn’t an option this time, so I had to leave them soaking. And I didn’t know a few things about soaking them. So they developed a stank that was so rank…I don’t think I’ve ever smelled something so bad before. AND because of that, I thought I had ruined these pads forever. I’ve had them about 4 years, now, so this was a huge blow.
So this article is all about how to save your pads from smells. Maybe it’s just ordinary smells from hand washing, or you accidentally left them soaking too long like I did. But I got the smells out and no one else is talking about the same methods all in one place, so I thought I’d put it all in one place.
pssst – because this post talks a bit about health topics, make sure to check out my disclosure here first!
Step One: Baking Soda. LOTS OF IT.
One blog post I found said that baking soda will take smells out no problem. So when my freshly washed pads were *still* stinking up the room worse than they ever had, I immediately tracked down a box of baking soda and went a little overboard. I sprinkled it ALL OVER the front and back of every pad.
Every. Pad. All. Over.
Baking soda was all over everything after that. And to be fair, it DID stop the smell from permeating the air, but…it was still there when I sniffed the pad. It was like the baking soda created a little force field to stop the stink from going everywhere else.
So I had to keep trying, because I wasn’t sure if it was safe to wear them when they smelled THAT BAD. It had to be a sign of bacteria or something. Our lady bits are super absorbent, too, so that sounded like a problem waiting to happen.
Step Two: Rinse them in water with Baking soda + air dry
I wondered if maybe the baking soda wasn’t permeating into the inner layers. And if that’s why the smell wouldn’t go away. So I decided to rinse them again, with a bunch of baking soda in the water. The water came out SUPER dark, as if they were heavily soiled instead of freshly washed! I didn’t understand why until I did some more reading.
Basically, baking soda will help you get rid of stains!
So the dirty water was probably because it was pulled from the stains that I had thought were just stuck there…forever. Anyways. I didn’t know this in that moment, so I only rinsed them the once and then found a way for them to air dry. I put a bunch more baking soda on each of them, too.
Step Three: Rinse the Reusable Pads *again*…and again…and again
The smell was still there when I got close to sniff them. Discouraged, there was only one other thing I could think to try. So I went to rinse them again to prepare for that, but I noticed that the water got SUPER dirty this time. Like, as if they had never been washed!
So I spent about 30 minutes continually squeezing and rinsing them out until the water was finally running clear. Only after that did I try my next idea. And keep in mind that I can’t use heavy chemicals (extreme allergies), so my laundry soaps are all alternative.
The secret sauce laundry detergent that got the smell out: Cloves + Soapnuts
I usually just use soapnuts for my laundry, putting them in a little cotton bag. It goes in last so that the water reaches it first. I also use vinegar for softener, which is recommended with soapnuts anyways. And normally, soapnuts can last 3 or 4 cycles before they need to be replaced so that’s what I had done for the first wash. My normal process.
When it didn’t help, though, I remembered that those soapnuts had been on use three. So I wondered if maybe it would help to use fresh soapnuts, and switched them out.
AND THEN I remembered that cloves are really good at being anti-bacterial, anti-fungal – all that good stuff. So I decided to put some whole cloves in with the soapnuts too, just in case it would help. I set the laundry machine to one of its longer processes (2.25hours, not sterilization but something similar). Herbs and spices are really good, but they sometimes take a lot of time to work. So I figured that the longer time would mean more chance for the cloves to help out.
I also put it on warm water, which should have helped even faster. Cold diffusion is awesome…but slow. I didn’t want to risk it.
And the result: the smell is gone, and so are the majority of the stains! I was shocked. Stains that I thought would never go away, and a smell so rank that I worried I would have to replace all my reusable pads…all of it was gone. My pads were saved.
Moral of the Story:
Don’t leave your reusable pads soaking in water for a long time if you can help it.
BUT if you have to, or if you did by accident and they now smell like something that crawled out of a toxic waste site, you might still be able to save them. Most blogs recommend to only soak them for 30 minutes or a few hours, or to change the water daily if you have to soak them longer. But my advice would be to also add some cloves and baking soda to the water because that’s going to help neutralize the smell and any bad stuff…and maybe help with some stain removal, too.
I also have hard well water, which is quite smelly on its own. So that’s also a consideration. If you’re on city water, maybe that’ll make this all easier? But just in case, it can’t hurt to have some baking soda, cloves, and soapnuts on hand.