How to Get the Gas Smell Out of Camp Clothes

My daughter came back from camp last week with her clothes reeking of diesel fuel. Unfortunately for my family, I didn't notice that nasty gasoline smell until after washing her camp clothes with the rest of the laundry.

As many of us have discovered, removing the smell of gasoline from clothes is not easy. The chemical compounds found in gasoline tend to lock inside the fibers of our clothes where they are hard to remove. After spending the better part of the afternoon trying to freshen up our laundry, here's what eventually worked for me.

1. Wash with regular detergent. To launder my daughter's stinky camp clothes, I used regular laundry detergent with a warm water wash. This removed both the grime and most of the gasoline smell. For work clothes with a strong gas odor, my neighbor the mechanic recommends presoaking the clothes in hot water mixed with a couple of capfuls of baby oil.

2. Add two cups of vinegar to the rinse water. White vinegar is a fantastic all purpose deodorizer and did a great job of neutralizing most of the gasoline odor in our laundry.

If you don't have white vinegar in the house, try a half liter of Coca Cola or a box of baking soda instead.

3. Do a second rinse in cold water. This removes both the vinegar (or cola) and any traces of gasoline odor that's left in the machine.

4. Line dry for several hours. Sunshine and fresh air is all it took to remove the rest of the gasoline odor in our family's laundry. If you don't have a clothes line, try draping those freshly washed camp clothes over the fence, on the patio, or on a drying rack placed in the sunshine.

Following these simple steps, the gasoline odor in your laundry should vanish by the end of the day.