There’s a difference between your clothes needing a wash and needing a refresh. If you sat out in the scorching heat and have the pit stains to prove it, that shirt should probably be thrown in the hamper. But if you walked through a department store and a strong, musky cologne stuck to your fabric like glue, all you need to do is remove the odor.
While there are plenty of products out there specifically designed to do this, one laundry expert says all you need is something you might already have: vodka.
This happens to Patric Richardson — self-proclaimed “laundry evangelist” and host of HGTV’s new show “The Laundry Guy” — all the time, and he keeps a spray bottle of vodka on hand in his shop to help waft away any worrisome scents.
“There’s this wonderful costumer that comes to my store, and she always wants to give me a hug, and when she leaves I smell like [perfume],” Richardson told Apartment Therapy. “I go in the stock room and have one of my sales people spray me with vodka to take that away.”
Thanks to its antibacterial properties, vodka has the unusual quality of removing an odor from anything — so its powers go well beyond perfumes and colognes. “You can spray your gym bag with vodka; if you go to your favorite restaurant and you leave [smelling like food], you can spray that with vodka; If you stand next to a smoker, you can spray that with vodka,” Patric explained.
Even in the trailer of his new HGTV show, Richardson instructed to a client “you need to have vodka in your bar and in your laundry room.” But before you start cringing at the thought of vodka hitting your clothes, Richardson said that the alcohol is odorless when it dries, so it won’t leave you smelling like you just left a bar.
So the next time you find yourself restocking laundry supplies, remember to check your bar cart before heading to the store or online cart. And hey, maybe sip on a cocktail while you do your laundry, too.
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Article previously published on Apartment Therapy.