Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Make a sustaining gift today to support local journalism!
0000017a-15d9-d736-a57f-17ff90bb0000Ask Sam features Outside/In host Sam Evans-Brown answering listener questions about the mysteries and quirks of the natural world.Do you have a question you want Sam to answer on NHPR's Morning Edition? Call the Outside/In hotline at 1-844-GO-OTTER or email a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org.

Ask Sam: What Causes That Line-Dried Freshness Smell?

CREDIT FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS | JOSE M. RUS
Ready to dry.

Every other Friday on Morning Edition, the Outside/In team answers a question from a listener about the natural world.

This week, Jeff from Northwood asks: “What makes laundry smell nice and fresh when you hang it out to dry?”

Editor's Note: This edition of Ask Sam first aired in June, 2019.

This is an appropriate question to come from New Hampshire, given the state’s ties to the so-called“Right to Dry” campaign, which pushed back against condo associations that prohibited clothes lines because of the impropriety of seeing someone’s skivvies out on the line.

But where does that wonderful line dried smell come from? The obvious thing to point out is that line dried clothes smell nice because it smells nice outside. Fresh air, fresh laundry!

“Well you know it has everything to do with where we’re at,” explains Bob Monticello of the International Anti-Microbial Council, “If we hang out our laundry in a nice neighborhood where you have lots of fresh flowers and fragrances floating around, that’s gonna be trapped into the fabric.”

New Hampshire is the most tree-covered state in the nation, so even in our urban areas there are nice plant smells floating through the air settling into the folds of your fabrics, but by the same logic if you dry your clothes over a bubbling vat of Bolognese sauce, your clothes are going to smell like a bubbling vat of Bolognese sauce. (Which might be nice too!)

That was pretty obvious, but...

Are you ready to talk about bacteria?

“We never really get rid of the total bacterial load that’s on our fabrics even with washing and drying,” says Monticello.

Laundry has been getting more environmentally friendly, which means lower water temperatures and fewer harsh detergents. This translates to a lower impact on the world with each load of socks, but it does present a challenge: experiments have shown that you can put in a sterile cloth into a washing machine and it will come out with the same amount of bacteria as the dirty laundry loaded in with it.

(Note: while I do have a generalized rant that in our day-to-day life we should all just chill out about germs because the vast majority of that bacteria is harmless and trying to sterilize everything around us has harmful unintended consequences. However, I’ll keep my powder dry for  the purposes of answering this question because it is bacteria that’s the source of these smells.)  

So here’s the kicker: certain wavelengths of UV radiation blow apart the DNA of bacteria, which is why sunlight is a very cheap way to purify drinking water and if you’re in the back-country you can get portableUV lightsto stick in your water bottle. In other words, line-drying doesn’t just add nice smells, it also helps kill the gross ones.

And did I mention it'll save youmoney and electricity? And did I mention that in Italyless than 20 percent of people own a dryer? Oh and did I mention that dryers are really rough on your clothes?

All just side-benefits. Freshness is the main event!

Sam Evans-Brown is the former host ofNHPR’s Outside/In. Subscribe where-ever you get your podcasts. If you’d like to submit a question to the Outside/In team, you can record it as a voice memo on your smartphone and send it to oustidein@nhpr.org, OR call the hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER.

Sam Evans-Brown has been working for New Hampshire Public Radio since 2010, when he began as a freelancer. He shifted gears in 2016 and began producing Outside/In, a podcast and radio show about “the natural world and how we use it.” His work has won him several awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, one national Murrow, and the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best environmental reporting in any medium. He studied Politics and Spanish at Bates College, and before reporting was variously employed as a Spanish teacher, farmer, bicycle mechanic, ski coach, research assistant, a wilderness trip leader and a technical supporter.
Related Content

You make NHPR possible.

NHPR is nonprofit and independent. We rely on readers like you to support the local, national, and international coverage on this website. Your support makes this news available to everyone.

Give today. A monthly donation of $5 makes a real difference.