You are currently viewing How To Get The Mothball Smell out of Wool Clothes

I thrifted a wool sweater. A beautiful black wool crew neck sweater. It was vintage. It was fluffy. It was cozy. It was made in Scotland (which, if you know me, you know I’m obsessed with Scotland…and if you didn’t know, now you know :). It only cost $15. Oh, and it had an awful mothball smell!

Funnily enough, I didn’t notice this when I tried it on, or when I checked it out, or on the way home with it confined in my car. Nope.

I didn’t notice it until I put the sweater in water for that first hand washing just after I got home. And then, I couldn’t notice anything else! The smell was so intense that I could barely stand it.

But I went through the process as I normally would when washing wool clothes. You can read more about my process of washing wool clothes at home here.

I tried hanging it over our stair bannister to dry but the smell was too strong. So I laid it out on a towel on our screened porch. I let it stay out there overnight and I checked it the next day. I had hoped that the fresh air would make a difference.

Did it make a difference to the mothball smell?

Nope. It still reeked.

Part of me couldn’t understand how I didn’t notice the smell when I tried it on. I think that it was probably pretty faint when I tried it on and I was wearing a mask which probably blocked the mildly offensive smell. But once it interacted with water, it was like “BAM”…full on mothball smell.

And I just have to say that I get the function of mothballs but I think I can confidently say that I’d rather holes from moths than walking around smelling like mothballs!

In the back of my mind, I knew that I could take it to the dry cleaner for an “ozone” treatment to neutralize the smell. But I try to avoid the dry cleaner as much as possible and I’m generally pretty successful at it. This sweater was not going to change that.

And I’m always up for a challenge when it comes to making a secondhand item as good as new.

Cleaning used items isn’t new to me. Most of my wardrobe is secondhand, which is one of the best ways to build a sustainable wardrobe. You can read more about that here.

So I started researching how to get rid of the mothball smell. Google was pretty sure that vinegar would take care of it. I also found advice for a vinegar/baking soda bath and that bleach could help.

While bleach would have been useful for an all white item, it wasn’t a possibility for this project. And I didn’t have any vinegar, but I did have a big a** bag of baking soda, so that’s the path I chose.

* It’s worth noting here that I did a thorough inspection of the sweater before I decided to buy it. I carefully checked the sweater for any sign of moth damage (since this is a looser knit, I was looking for holes…for cashmere sweaters, I would also look for pock marks, or pitting, in the sweater). There was no evidence of damage, and honestly, If I had noticed the mothball smell, I would have known that it was likely safe anyways.

I can’t imagine anything living wanting to get near that smell!

So, let’s see what steps I took and if my little experiment worked!

Using Baking Soda to Get Rid of the Mothball Smell:

Step 1:

  • First I cleaned out the sink really well so that it was as clean as possible!
  • I filled a sink to about half full with cold water.
  • I added 1 cup of baking soda to the water and used my hands to mix it around.
  • I fully submerged the sweater and added 1 more cup of baking soda and used my hands to mix it into the sweater and the water.
  • Then I let it soak for 30 mins.
A sink is filled halfway with water and there is baking soda being sprinkled into the water. The baking soda is added to get rid of the mothball smell in the sweater.
Fill the sink to about half full. Add 1 cup of baking soda.
A black sweater is in the water and more baking soda is being sprinkled onto it.
Submerge sweater and add another 1 cup of baking soda.
A partial image of the sweater after it has been soaking for a half hour to show how dirty the water is. Could this be the mothball smell washing away?
After 30 minutes of soaking. The water is gross!

Step 2:

  • I let the water out of the sink and squeezed all of the water out of the sweater.
  • I gave it a quick rinse under the tap to get any of the dirt from the previous soak out.
After the first wash. The sink is empty and a woman's hand is squeezing the water out.
After 30 minutes of soaking, let water out of the sink and squeeze out excess water.
A stream of water from a tap is rinsing the black sweater.
Run water over the garment to remove any dirt from the previous wash.

Step 3:

  • I repeated Steps 1 and 2 with a second baking soda soak.

Step 4:

  • Once I’d completed a second soak with the baking soda for 30 minutes, and I’d rinsed and squeezed all of the water out of the sweater, I smelled the garment for any mothball smell. I wasn’t able to notice the smell at the point.
  • If you can still notice the smell, repeat Steps 1 and 2 for a third time before moving onto the next step.

Step 5:

  • I filled the sink to the point where I could fully submerge the sweater, but I didn’t want too much water because I was going to add detergent and I didn’t want to dilute it too much.
  • I would choose my regular detergent for this step if this was any other material than wool. But I chose to use my regular shampoo for this step since it was a wool sweater. This shampoo smells amazing and I knew that it would help with any remaining odor if there was any. I also figured that the wool could benefit from soaking in a moisturizing shampoo.
  • I added 1 tablespoon of shampoo to the water.

** If you are in the market for a new shampoo, this is a black family owned brand. The shampoo is great and I’m pretty sure I’ve already mentioned them smell…umm, amazing!

The sweater is back in some water and there is a tablespoon of shampoo in the picture that will be added to the water. This should mask any leftover mothball smell.
I added 1 tablespoon of shampoo to just enough water to submerge the sweater.
An image of the shampoo that I used, which is OYIN Handmade honey wash hydrating shampoo.
I chose to use my regular shampoo because it’s moisturizing and it has a great smell.

Step 6:

  • I let the sweater soak for 15 minutes.
  • I let the water out and then I rinsed and repeated for another 15 minutes with a fresh batch of soapy water.

Step 7:

  • Once the sweater had been soaking in the shampoo for 30 minutes total, I gave it a really good rinse.
  • I have a double sink so I used the divider to place the sweater over so that I could rinse out the shampoo really good.
  • If I didn’t have a divider, I would have filled the sink with just water and rinsed it.
A stream of water from a tap is rinsing the black sweater after the shampoo wash to get rid of any leftover mothball smell.
After a 30 minute shampoo soak, I let the water out and rinsed the sweater.
The black sweater is placed over the sink divider between the 2 sinks and a stream of cold water is running over it.
To get a better rinse, I draped the sweater over the sink divider to make sure that I got all of the shampoo out.

Step 8:

  • After the shampoo soaks, I was pretty confident that the mothball smell was completely gone, so I laid out a dry towel and placed the sweater on top of it.
  • I made sure that there was room at the bottom of the towel so that I could fold it up over the bottom.
  • Then I rolled the sweater up into a “towel taco“, folded it in half and used my body weight to press down on the towel and squeeze the water out.
The black sweater is laid out on a white towel.
The sweater has been rolled up into the towel.
The towel roll was folded in half to squeeze water out.

Step 9:

  • Once all of the water had been squeezed out, I laid a clean towel out on my outdoor table and I laid the sweater on top of that.
  • I wanted to let it dry flat for a little while before I hanged it to dry. I did this to make sure that it wasn’t too heavy so that it wouldn’t stretch.
  • Once it was mostly dry, I hanged it over a porch chair that I had removed the cushion from so that I could get as much air circulation as possible.
  • I left it hanging over this chair all night.
The sweater was laid out flat on a clean, dry towel to dr.y outside
I laid it out to dry a little so that it wouldn’t be as heavy when I hanged it over the back of a chair.
The sweater was hanged over a chair to dry outside overnight to completely dissipate the mothball smell.
I left it hanging to dry overnight like this. In the morning, I pulled the chair into the sun for a few hours.

Step 10:

  • The next morning, I pulled the chair into the sunlight and left it out for a few more hours.
  • And voila…
A beautiful black wool crew neck sweater. Vintage. Fluffy. Cozy. Made in Scotland. $15. Oh, and no mothball smell (at all)!

And just to confirm that it wasn’t just my wishful thinking, I had my family smell it and they confirmed that the smell was gone…and you know that kids would tell you if it still smelled! 🙂

Styling My “New” Sweater

It’s not quite cold enough to rock this sweater in real life yet, so I thought it would be fun to show you some of the ways that I plan to wear it this fall and winter.

Whenever I am debating a clothing purchase, it has to pass the “3 outfit test”. Essentially, I have to be able to come up with 3 outfits off the top of my head using items that I already own. The following 3 outfits are the ones that I thought of when I was trying on this sweater.

All of the items, except a pair of sandals, that I chose to style with it are old ones that have been in my closet for at least a year. Four (4) of the items are secondhand, 2 were purchased new by me and 1 was a brand gift.

Outfit 1

A white woman with blond hair is wearing a black wool sweater after getting the mothball smell out. She is wearing it over a black dress with silver polka dots and a pair of black Moto boots with silver detailing.

I had pulled this dress out for a spot in my fall capsule a few weeks ago so it was fresh in my mind. I envision this dress being worn with a lot of sweaters this fall so I thought of this outfit pretty quickly. It’s a pretty fancy dress…it’s silk with lots of tiers and silver threaded polka dots.

A white woman with blond hair is wearing a black wool sweater after getting the mothball smell out. She is wearing it over a black dress with silver polka dots and a pair of black Moto boots with silver detailing.

I decided to wear my black moto boots with silver detailing. These are the boots that I wear most with this dress. I think I like the matchy-matchy look of the silver polka dots and the silver arrows on the boots.

A closeup of a woman from the neck down who is wearing a black wool sweater after getting the mothball smell out. She is wearing it over a black dress with silver polka dots and a pair of black Moto boots with silver detailing.

I left my hair down because I liked the contrast of the blonde with the black sweater. I also felt it added to the casualness of the outfit. This is definitely an outfit that I would wear anytime, but especially on the weekend.

A white woman with blond hair is wearing a black wool sweater after getting the mothball smell out. She is wearing it over a black dress with silver polka dots and a pair of black Moto boots with silver detailing.

\\ Outfit Details //

  • Vintage wool sweater, purchased 2020
  • Secondhand Rebecca Taylor silk dress, purchased 2019
  • Frye moto boots, purchased 2018

Outfit 2

A white woman with blond hair is wearing a black wool sweater after getting the mothball smell out. She is wearing it with a white pleated skirt that is just below the knee with pink suede sandals.

This skirt was another of those items that came to me very easily. I knew that the sweater would look amazing with something white. And this skirt had also been pulled out for my fall capsule recently.

A white woman with blond hair is wearing a black wool sweater after getting the mothball smell out. She is wearing it with a white pleated skirt that is just below the knee with pink suede sandals.

The sweater is quite warm so I knew that the rest of the outfit could be more minimal. Because of this, I chose to add my recently thrifted pink suede sandals. And I’m loving the pop of color that the shoes add to the otherwise monochromatic outfit.

A white woman with blond hair is wearing a black wool sweater after getting the mothball smell out. She is wearing it with a white pleated skirt that is just below the knee with pink suede sandals.

I experimented with my hair up and down. I think I prefer it up with this outfit just a little bit more.

A white woman with blond hair is wearing a black wool sweater after getting the mothball smell out. She is wearing it with a white pleated skirt that is just below the knee with pink suede sandals.

\\ Outfit Details //

  • Vintage wool sweater, purchased 2020
  • Vintage wool skirt, purchased 2019
  • Secondhand pink suede sandals, purchased 2020

Outfit 3

A white woman with blond hair is wearing a black wool sweater after getting the mothball smell out. She is wearing it with a pair of brown pants and brown and black leopard print booties.

I had to think on the final outfit a bit more. I knew that it would look good with a nice pair of pants. And I love a good black and brown combo (we don’t adhere to the “fashion rules’ here do we?!!). It took me a few minutes but I finally settled on these silk pants.

A white woman with blond hair is wearing a black wool sweater after getting the mothball smell out. She is wearing it with a pair of brown pants and brown and black leopard print booties.

I won’t worry about the warmth of this sweater once the winter is here but because it is so warm, I want to make sure that the other items I wear right now are a little lighter and these silk pants are perfect.

A white woman with blond hair is wearing a black wool sweater after getting the mothball smell out. She is wearing it with a pair of brown pants. The photo is a closeup that ends at the woman's knees.

I added my cute little leopard print booties for a fun touch of print to an otherwise solid outfit.

A white woman with blond hair is wearing a black wool sweater after getting the mothball smell out. She is wearing it with a pair of brown pants and brown and black leopard print booties.

\\ Outfit Details //

  • Vintage wool sweater, purchased 2020
  • Elizabeth Suzann silk pants, purchased 2018
  • Huma Blanca leopard print boots, gifted 2019

Which of these outfits was your favorite…1, 2 or 3?

Have you ever bought a vintage item that had a mothball smell or some other strong odor? If so, were you able to get it out?

I hope that you enjoyed this little experiment and found it useful. If you enjoy my content, please subscribe to receive updates straight to your inbox. Follow me on Instagram to see how I style this sweater all fall and winter.

And if you liked this post and thought that it was useful, please share it with your friends and family :). Thank you!

Until next time,

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This Post Has 13 Comments

  1. Becc 01/19/2023

    Hi, the smell might actually have been the smell of the jumper being previously drycleaned. As soon as wool hits the water the drycleaning chemicals come out and they stink..

    I thrifted 2 of the same, in mint condtion gorgeous Australian wool blankets that didn’t smell at all till I washed them. Another 3 times washed, hung them on the washing line for 3 full days and nights and then learned what was causing the smell after doing some research. I left each blanket in their own garbage bag each with a sock full of bi- carb for 2 weeks. Smell gone. Another reason I don’t buy dryclean only clothes etc. Chemicals don’t belong in clothes or blankets.

    How good is bi-carb soda. I do like your way, it’s much quicker.

    I hope this helps.

    Becc

  5. Chris 11/20/2020

    Hi Gillian. I do fair bit of thrifting, and have recently started buying fragments of vintage fabric, mostly wool, for small upholstery jobs. I found a great one today, which is cursed with the mothball malodor. I suspected already at the store that it smelled like mothballs, but convinced myself that it was something else in the vicinity which was possessed. I was even asking other customers if they could smell it for me, to see if they smelled the same. The smell permeated my mask, but the cool factor of this fabric was too hard to resist. Now that I have it at home, I realize how serious it is, and I feel like it might end up like Jerry Seinfeld’s car in that one episode, if you’re familiar with it.
    Your recipe seems very thorough, so I’m going to give it a shot. Do you think your initial wash of your sweater helped with the odor, or is following your subsequent steps enough to do the trick? I live in Vancouver, Canada, so we won’t be getting anymore sun until around May, 2021. Thanks!

    1. Gillian 12/01/2020

      Hi Chris! Thanks for commenting. I really hope that you were able to get the smell out! Some pieces are just too special to leave behind. Even if I had smelled the mothballs at the shop, I still would have bought this sweater. I’m not sure if this reply will help you at all but I think that soaking with the baking soda would be enough. I’d probably do a few extra soaks if it was really bad, until it passed the sniff test.

      1. Dorothy Row 10/04/2021

        I. use lavender spray in my closet that smells of mothballs. i find it doesn’t help. what kind of spray could i use? what can i use on my cashmere sweaters. instead of mothballs. i noticed even in a tightly closed plastic box the moths still put holes in a good cashmere sweater. help.

  6. Amy 11/13/2020

    I bought a second hand wool throw. Whew!! Like you, it wasn’t until I got it home that I smelled the mothball smell pretty strongly.
    I’ve set it outside in the fresh air. This seems to have initially helped it. I will check it out in the morning to see if it’s still fresher smelling or not.

    Thanks for the baking soda tip.

    I like outfit 3 the very best!

    1. Gillian 12/01/2020

      Hi Amy! Thank you for writing. I hope you were able to get the smell out of your wool throw.

  7. TaniaS 09/18/2020

    Great tips for getting rid of bad smells in wool. I buy woollen items 2nd hand too but haven’t come across the mothball smell yet, phew!

    My favourite outfit is the dress with boots, that repeat of silver is brilliant. Loved your styling thoughts for each outfit also.

    1. Gillian 10/07/2020

      Thank you so much Tania! I really love that outfit too. I’m glad you haven’t come across that smell yet…yuck! 😂

  8. Brennie 09/18/2020

    I have some washclothes filled with lavender in my closet. No moths and nice smell. Easy to do and no more the smell of mothballs.
    Cederwood is also good to use, I have some to hangers to hang my woll clothes on.

    1. Gillian 10/07/2020

      Those are such great ideas, Brennie! I wish the previous owner of this sweater had used one of these instead of mothballs 😂 I will definitely be doing something like you suggest in the future.

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