Originally Posted by
Bedspreadhead
To clarify again, these were not in a meth lab. They were in the home of an addict. They smell because the house was full of black mold and mildew. There are only a few mildewy places on the quilts. The rat pee is a bigger concern. Fortunately, it appears to be concentrated in the quilt that also has cigarette burns going all the way through it.
Things are going much better than expected. Most of these things will be usable. The color catchers are working. I'm washing them in a warm cycle with a prewash and an extra rinse, and I'm drying them on low heat. If I can get them to the point where they don't smell, then I can make sure they're dry, and I can store them indoors without filling the house with mold funk. After that I'll have time to worry about further cleaning.
When they came home, they smelled so awful I had to open the SUV windows. Not a particularly powerful smell, but very oppressive. Like being trapped in a filthy drawer.
Odors that seem to be gone can come back. I have had that happen with other fabric items. Odoban eats odors. I have a silly little dog, that doesn't always let us know she needs to go out. She handles it herself in one of my extra bedrooms. I pour a mixture of 1 capful of Odoban to a quart of water on the soiled area and just let it dry by itself. It does take a while. There is no odor left. Odoban is a wonderful disinfectant, odor eater. It would definitely be worth the $10 cost for the original Eucalyptus scent to get those quilts odor free. I use about a quarter cup of Odoban as the softener when I am doing laundry. Even tee-shirts that have a sweat odor in the fibers don't stand a chance.
That being said, I haven't tried it for the mold & mildew. I always use a little bleach on that type stuff. There are probably better products out there.