Should You Rewash The Forgotten Load Of Laundry, Or Is It Ok To Dry It?

It happens to the best of us: you get caught up going about your day and doing other chores, and all of a sudden, you realize you've left your load of laundry soaking in the washer for hours on end. While you might feel tempted to pretend like nothing happened and throw it all in the dryer, that may not be a good idea.

Whether you can pop a load of forgotten clothes into the dryer or not depends on a variety of factors. If you've cleaned your washer recently, you might find that your clothes are okay to dry, even after sitting for a while. Even the detergent you use could change how long you can leave your clothes sitting, but it will still vary from load to load. 

Fortunately, the most foolproof way to determine if your clothes need to be rewashed is also the simplest: smell them. If you get a whiff of must and mildew, there's no hope left for your load of laundry; you need to run a second cycle with detergent. If they don't smell like anything at all or still smell fresh, however, it's probably fine to throw them into the dryer. If you dry clothes that have already started to smell, that musty scent will stick to them long after they've dried off — and it might even permeate the rest of your closet, too — so make your decision carefully. 

Leaving laundry in your washer for a couple of hours might not seem like a big deal. But if you're starting to pick up a musty scent from them, what you're actually smelling is mold and bacteria. When your clothes are left in a wet pile, they create a breeding ground for bacteria and mold to enjoy — and when these organisms are left on your clothes, they could potentially irritate your skin. They'll also leach into the rest of your washer, causing a mildewy smell to take over the inside of your laundry machine. This will seep into the other loads of laundry you do.

The best way to get the mildew smell out of your laundry for good is to clean both your clothes that were left in the machine and the washing machine itself. You can wipe down the inside of the drum and then run a hot wash cycle on empty with either bleach or white vinegar in place of detergent to sanitize it. Do not use bleach and vinegar simultaneously. Once the cycle is complete, there should be no musty smell left in your washing machine, indicating that the mold and bacteria have been cleaned away.

You can also use white vinegar to help clean and sanitize your clothes. Doing so could help you remove stubborn, musty smells; once the cycle is finished, they won't smell like vinegar but should smell fresh and clean. Just be careful to avoid using it on delicate clothing items or using it too frequently, as this can damage clothes (and potentially your washer when used too often).