Like any past romance, your relationship with your gym clothes starts off wonderful. They fit right, they look good, they don’t smell (I’m doing a poor job relating the two, aren’t I? Bear with me). Over time, things change — it’s only natural. But by following these 3 simple Golden Rules, you can keep the spark alive and the smell away.

1. Show them that you love them. Wash your gym clothes when you get home from the gym instead of adding them to the laundry pile. The longer they sit, the more likely they are to hold on to the stink — even after they’re washed.

2. Be kind. Avoid harsh detergents and fabric softeners. They spoil the very qualities that make our gym clothes our gym clothes — the moisture resistance. Instead, try using a gentle detergent or something specifically formulated for synthetics, like ProWash activewear detergent.

3. Give each other space. Don’t wear your gym clothes multiple times before washing. Once again, this contributes to the perma-stink that gym clothes often get, plus all that dry sweat and bacteria (the stuff causing the smell) puts you at risk of getting a rash. Clingy clothing + bacteria. Think about it.

Looking for a way to keep that laundry room—or any other room, for that matter—smelling fresh? Well, we found a few natural solutions on Green & Clean, a site devoted to eco-friendly cleaning. Give ‘em a whirl.

1) Place cloves, cinnamon sticks, allspice or other favorite scented spice in a pot of water , simmer for 1-2 hours
2) Put a few slices of leftover orange or lemon rinds in a pot of water, simmer for 1-2 hours
3) Place baking soda in an open container of your choice. Good for closets, refrigerators and other small enclosed spaces
4) 2-3 slices of white bread absorbs refrigerator odors
5) Place lemon slices in an open bowl in the kitchen
6) Lemon and baking soda spray:
Dissolve baking soda in 2 cups hot water, add lemon juice, pour into spray bottle, spray into air as air freshener
7) Place unscented kitty litter placed in bowls to absorb room odors Vinegar in a cup or bowl rids rooms of odors
9) Charcoal placed in a bowl rids rooms of odors
10) Simply light a match for a few moments or burn a candle (scented or unscented). The flame from either will “eat-up” bad smelling gases in the air
11) Pour vanilla extract into a shallow dish and set in an out of the way place
12) Spin-Fresh Bathroom Deodorizer
Add a couple of drops of your favorite essential oil to the inside of the cardboard toilet tissue roll. With each turn, fragrance is released into the room.

There’s nothing more embarrassing than a pair of smelly old sneakers. Most of the time, they start getting pretty gross after you’ve worn them without socks once or twice, or if you sweat in them a lot (workout shoes). But before tossing them in the trash, try to save yourself some money by giving them a thorough cleaning. Here’s how you do it, according to WikiHow.com:

1. Wash your sneakers. Take a bit of soap and water and scrub them down. Then, using a hair dryer and towel, dry them off. Be sure to scrub carefully so that you don’t damage the shoe.
2. Put a bit of baking soda into the sneakers and let them sit over night. When you wake up, the smell will be gone!
3. At this point, you have a choice. You can either:

• Simply spray your shoes with some perfume to get rid of any traces of odor left in the shoe.
• Or buy some special shoe spray. This is probably the better option as it actually gets rid of the smell, whereas the perfume just masks it.
• In the end if this doesn’t work try using Odor Eaters.

Some rules to live by in the future:

• When wearing your sneakers, wear good socks and never go barefoot.
• Wash your feet regularly before and after sport.
• Try having two pairs of shoes and alternating between them.
• Use foot spray on your feet regularly.

Tired of dealing with stinky gym clothes? Tired of those stinky gym clothes contaminating everything around it with the ripe smell of sweat? We have just discovered an amazing product that will make you a winner in the battle against after-workout odor.

The product is called X-Static, and it’s a high-tech fiber technology that molecularly bonds silver atoms to traditional workout fabrics. The microscopic amounts of silver embedded into socks, shorts, shirts and even ski jackets neutralize and prevent the growth of odor-causing bacteria. You’re not just masking the sweaty odor with another smell—the nanotechnology inhibits your gym socks from stinking in the first place.

Pros
If you forget to bring your gym home clothes to wash—no big deal.
You won’t risk offending the person next to you on the treadmill.

Cons
Without stinky gym shirts people might not think you’ve worked out at all.

Just like our skin, leather has pores. These pores can collect scents like cigarette smoke or mildew and make your leather clothing smell pretty bad. On that note, here are a few tips we found floating around cyberspace that explain how others were able to get rid of these odors:

Carpet Deodorizer
Try sprinkling baking soda-based carpet deodorizer on soft suede leather and rub it in with your hands. Then take a barely dampened soft cloth and very gently mop the outside of the item. Hang it up outdoors for a day and then gently shake out the deodorizer.

Dryer and Fabric Softener
Try tumbling the item in the dryer with several fabric softener sheets at the lowest heat setting possible. The gentle heat may can open the pores in the leather while the fabric softener will give it a nice smell.

Lotion
For smooth leather clothing, rub a nice smelling lotion or leather balm into the item to get rid of the bad odor. Some foot oils and other leather treatments can be used as well.

We here at Dry Cleaner’s Secret blog have an endless list of tricks of the laundry trade. As we keep adding, please leave comments with questions that you may have about stain removal, odor removal, or anything else related to keeping your clothes and your life as clean as can be. We’re sure we can help!

Here are solutions to three of the most common clothing woes:

When your towels smell sour or musty, pour a cup of white vinegar or 1/4 cup fabric freshener into the washer with the towels and detergent. Do not let the load sit in the washer for long and dry it as soon as possible. Whenever possible, always use bleach when washing white towels.

Perspiration stains under your armpits are the bane of T-shirts, but we do have one solution: Soak the stained shirt in equal parts ammonia and water. Add a few tablespoons of dish soap and let it sit overnight. Wash the shirts as you usually would.

When you have a stubborn zipper on your jacket, rub a bar of soap on the teeth of the zipper and it will open and close more smoothly.