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Left Clothes in the Washer Overnight: Do You Need to Rewash Them?
- by Brodie Cook
You open the washer the next morning and there it is: yesterday's load of laundry, still wet in the drum. The T-shirt on top smells of detergent, but the towel underneath has a sour, damp whiff. So does everything need washing again?
The short answer: if your clothes smell like a forgotten swimming bag, an old mop or a sour dishcloth, rewash them. If the wash finished and they smell the way they normally do, you can usually dry them straight away.
Before you decide, pull out a few items from the middle of the pile. The fresh scent at the top of the drum doesn't tell you much about the wet clothes underneath.
How long can wet clothes sit in the washer?
The honest answer is that it depends, and the advice you'll find online doesn't fully agree. Here's how the common guidance compares:
|
How long |
What it means |
|---|---|
|
Within 30 minutes |
The ideal, known as the 30-minute laundry rule (see below). |
|
A few hours |
Usually fine. Whirlpool says a few hours won't hurt, so let your nose decide. |
|
8-12 hours |
Often quoted as the outer limit. |
|
A full day or longer |
Rewash rather than just drying. |
You'll often see 8-12 hours suggested as the limit. Treat that as a rough guide, not a countdown to the moment your clothes need rewashing.
How long you can leave wet laundry also depends on the original load and wash. Whirlpool's laundry guidance lists soil level, water temperature, and detergent type and dose among the factors that affect the result.
Count from the end of the wash cycle, not the start. A cycle that finishes at 2 am has been sitting for five hours by 7 am. One that finishes at 7 pm and stays put until 9 am has been sitting for fourteen hours.
Rule of thumb: after a single overnight delay, check the fabric. If wet laundry has been left for a full day or longer, rewash it. That's a practical recommendation, not a proven hour at which every load goes stale.
What is the 30-minute laundry rule?
The 30-minute laundry rule means taking your clothes out of the washing machine within 30 minutes of the cycle finishing.
Most of us can't be at the machine the moment it beeps, so think of 30 minutes as the ideal and the hours above as your safety net. If you know you'll be out, use delay-end so the cycle finishes when you're home (more in the tips at the end).
You may also see the "30-minute rule" used for short, cooler wash cycles to save energy. That's a different idea, and we cover quick washes in the cycle step below.
Why do clothes left in the washer start to smell?
Wet clothes don't smell sour by themselves. The smell comes from bacteria feeding on leftover body oils, sweat, and other soils that a wash doesn't always remove completely, and giving off smelly by-products as they go.
A closed, damp drum with little airflow is the perfect place for that, and the longer wet laundry sits, the longer the bacteria have to work. Mildew can add a musty note too, so the odour isn't always easy to pin down. That's why step 2 below uses a laundry sanitiser: it targets odour-causing bacteria rather than just masking the smell.
How to tell if clothes left in the washer need another wash
A musty smell isn't always strong enough to notice when you open the door. Take a few items out and smell them away from the washing machine, so you can tell whether the odour is coming from the clothes or the drum. Unfold a towel, open up a sweatshirt, separate a twisted bedsheet, and smell the inside folds as well as the exposed fabric.
|
What the clothes smell like |
What to do |
|---|---|
|
Their usual detergent scent, or hardly any smell |
If it was a completed overnight wash, dry the load now. |
|
Stale and damp, like a towel left in a swimming bag or a damp cupboard |
Rewash the load, even if the smell is faint. |
|
Sharp and sour, like a used dishcloth left scrunched beside the sink |
Rewash. You may still catch detergent fragrance alongside the sour smell. |
A smell tells you something is off, not exactly why. What people call a mildew smell can also involve bacteria and leftover body soils, without any visible mould. And if a towel from inside the load smells stale, we'd rewash the whole load rather than assume the clothes on top are fine.
How to rewash wet clothes left in the washing machine
For sour-smelling clothes, you need detergent and a proper wash cycle. A rinse-only cycle skips the detergent stage, and an extra spin just squeezes out more water.
1. Add a fresh dose of laundry detergent
Yesterday's detergent has already been through the wash and rinse, so measure a new dose for the load. Detergent helps remove body oils, dirt, and other residue clinging to your clothes. Tip: Use our Laundry Detergent Sheets so you don't need to measure them, no chemical nasties and no spills.
If your clothes smell normal but you can see excess suds or detergent residue, run a detergent-free rinse first. More detergent won't remove detergent that's already left behind.
