Try washing it with Borax, no soap. Give it a long soak in the Borax solution.

In addition to the Borax soak, Add 2 cups white vinegar to rinse water, stop washer and allow to soak for 2 hours, then turn washer back on to finish. Vinegar will cut through the perfume smell.

Depends what the fragrance used as a carrier to make it “stick” to the textile. Usually this is some form of oil/petrochemical. Using a degreasing agent like Dawn dish soap or similar can help to remove the carrier and the fragrance along with it.

I have used Dawn dish soap (small amounts) many times to remove smells and fragrances from many textiles. Try that or some of the other options above.

Try to never use public laundries. You never know what the previous user put in the washer, both chemical and soiling. Lots of people have no problem have washing items at the laundromat that they would never wash as home (chemical/pesticide soiled items, industrial chemicals, etc,)

Thank you all for these suggestions! I would not have thought of any of them. I am hesitant to use Borax because I don't have it already and would have to buy the box. The Dawn sounds great, since I could always use it for other purposes, but it too is scented, even its "Free and Clear" version has a "lemon essence scent" (yet Dawn calls it "Free and Clear"??). I will try the vinegar method, though I am not sure how to stop the washer in mid cycle, but I will look at the manual and see. Any other suggestions are welcome.

@luna123456 - I didn't know that fragrance would purposely "stick" to the textile, and think this is terrible of the detergent manufacturer - I feel like the fragrance will "stick" for the next decade! Thanks for your advice about public laundries. It never occurred to me before, so I guess I learned the hard way!

Another note - this sounds really obvious and "duh" of me, but I am wondering if I just re-wash the bedspread in my washer (now that I know it is just barely big enough to do it), and use my trusty Tide Free detergent, if that would do the trick of un-sticking the detergent fragrance from the bedspread?

Your detergent may or may not remove the fragrance. Detergent manufacturers specially design the fragrance carrier to NOT be removed by detergent otherwise the fragrance would not be there when the wash is done.

lots of people like walking around smelling like laundry detergent it seems based on the number of detergents with such strong perfumes. You need a chemical that is designed to remove the carrier. That is why I recommended dawn as most of the carriers are oil based. The original blue dawn works great. I can’t say I smell it at all when the wash is done.

My sister uses whatever is cheap at the grocery. You can smell her family before you see them at family gatherings. My son lived with her for a while during covid when she needed babysitting help. He couldn’t stand the detergent smell. I gave him some Tide PurClean I scented to use to wash his clothes. It was good enough for him, but took multiple washes to get to the point where he could not smell the fragrance.

I would try washing it with vinegar first, but if that doesn’t work, I have gotten stubborn smells out of things by washing with a few drops of tea tree oil in with my regular detergent, and then washing again just with my detergent to get the lingering tea tree oil smell out.

Most likely washing it again will remove the fragrance....you just rinsed it before, try washing. Sometimes simple is the best.

If you use vinegar it may smell like vinegar.....and don't use dawn in your washer or you will clog it up with suds.

We use dawn all the time our washer. Just don’t use much. 1 teaspoon is more than enough.

Dawn is fine in the washer in small amounts, I use it as my go-to stain remover by just putting drops of dawn on any stains before I put them in the hamper. Since I’m a klutz, I probably end up with a tablespoon or so in most loads,what with all of my stain treated items. And vinegar will not make your clothes or bedspread reek of vinegar. But tea tree oil will leave a lingering scent unless you wash again like normal.

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