How to Switch to a Fragrance-Free Detergent

Switching to a fragrance-free detergent works best when you change the detergent and stop scented fabric softener and dryer sheets together, then wash normally for a few weeks before judging the result. Wash one test garment first, and add an extra rinse for bedding and towels. Love Brands doses its Love Paks Dye & Scent Free at one pak per standard load, two for large or heavily soiled loads.

A switch can look like a failure for reasons that have nothing to do with the new detergent — the softener and the dryer sheets are still in play, and a shirt washed once still carries fragrance from every wash before it. The four steps below are ordered to remove that confusion.

Step 1: change one variable at a time

There are two honest ways to run this switch, and they answer different questions.

Clean slate. Stop the old detergent, the scented fabric softener, the dryer sheets and any scent booster on the same day. This gets fragrance out of your laundry fastest. The trade-off: if something about the new routine bothers you, you will not know which change caused it.
One product at a time. New detergent for two weeks. Then drop the softener. Then drop the dryer sheets. Slower, but each step tells you something. Use this version if you are trying to work out which product in the cupboard is the one you react to.

Either way, hold everything else still. Do not also change your wash temperature, switch cycles, start a new stain pretreat, or buy new towels in the same week. If four things change at once, the wash tells you nothing.

"Fragrance-free" and "unscented" are not the same word

The US Food and Drug Administration warns that products labeled unscented can still contain fragrance ingredients, added in a small enough amount to mask the smell of other ingredients rather than to perfume the product. The FDA also notes that under US rules a whole fragrance mixture can appear on an ingredient list as the single word "fragrance." The FDA is describing cosmetics there; laundry detergents, fabric softeners and dryer sheets sit with the Consumer Product Safety Commission instead. The labeling habit is the same on both sides of the aisle.

For laundry specifically, California's Cleaning Product Right to Know Act of 2017 (SB 258) is the more useful lever. It requires makers of designated cleaning products, laundry detergent included, to post intentionally added ingredients on their website and to carry ingredient information on the label. Online disclosure was required from January 1, 2020, and label disclosure from January 1, 2021. It also requires disclosure of fragrance allergens drawn from Annex III of the EU Cosmetics Regulation when they are present at 0.01% or more. In practice this means you can usually look up what is in a detergent without asking anyone. Ask any brand you are considering for its full ingredient list, and if it is not published, treat that as an answer.

Love Paks Dye & Scent Free is made with no dyes and no added fragrance. That is the claim Love Brands makes, and it is a different statement from a certification. If you want the longer comparison, see fragrance-free vs. scented laundry detergent.

Step 2: wash a single test garment

Pick one item that sits against your skin all day. A cotton t-shirt, a pillowcase, a base layer. Not a whole wardrobe.

Wash it with the new detergent, no fabric softener.
Dry it with no dryer sheet, or hang it.
Wear it, or sleep on it, for a full day and night.

One garment, not one load, is the point. If the result is not what you wanted, you have not already rewashed everything you own. And you still have an untouched identical item to compare against.

One practical wrinkle: paks are pre-measured, so you cannot dose down for a tiny load. Do not cut a pak open to use half. Make the test a real load instead. Put the test garment in with the sheets or the towels you were going to wash anyway, and use one pak. Keep the water temperature the same as your usual wash so the detergent is the only thing that changed. Love Paks Dye & Scent Free works in warm or cold water; if cold is your default and you want the detail, see do laundry paks work in cold water?

Step 3: the softener and dryer sheets have to go too

Fragrance can come from the detergent, the fabric softener, the dryer sheets and any scent booster. Liquid fabric softener and dryer sheets work by leaving something on the fabric, and scent boosters are fragrance with nothing else to do. Change only the detergent and your laundry still comes out scented, which is usually why a switch appears not to work.

Whirlpool's own guidance is useful here even if you never buy their machines. Whirlpool tells owners not to exceed the recommended amount of fabric softener because residue can build up, and not to combine softening products in one load. It also lists items to keep softener away from when absorbency or performance matters, including towels, moisture-wicking athletic wear, microfiber cloths, flame-resistant children's sleepwear, swimwear and cloth diapers.

Dryer sheets leave their own deposit. Whirlpool says detergent and fabric softener residue builds up on the dryer lint screen and can lengthen drying times or stop a load before it is dry, and recommends scrubbing the screen with a nylon brush and hot water. So when you drop the sheets, clean the lint screen once. Otherwise you have removed the source and left the film.

Expect a bit more static than you are used to, especially with synthetics in a dry house, and especially if you over-dry. Pulling loads out slightly damp helps more than anything you can add. Wool dryer balls are the usual substitute, and adding nothing at all is also a valid answer.

Step 4: an extra rinse for bedding, towels and baby clothes

Should you run an extra rinse cycle for detergent residue? Yes for specific loads, no as a permanent setting on every load.

An extra rinse earns its place on:

Items that stay against skin for hours: sheets, pillowcases, towels, baby clothes.
Any load where you used two paks because it was large or heavily soiled.
Loads you packed tight, where water could not move freely.
The first several loads after the switch, while old residue is still working its way out of the fabric.

GE Appliances recommends the Extra Rinse option specifically when extra detergent or bleach has been used on heavily soiled clothes, to clear the additional residue. Whirlpool gives the same advice for a different symptom: to stop detergent redepositing on fabric it recommends choosing a cycle with an extra rinse, following the detergent maker's dosing directions, and not overloading the drum, because an overloaded machine keeps detergent from circulating and rinsing out.

The counter-argument is real. An extra rinse uses more water and adds time to every cycle. If you find you need one on every single load indefinitely, the more likely cause is dose or load size, not rinsing. If your machine has no extra rinse button, run a rinse-and-spin cycle after the wash finishes.

Why your clothes may still smell like the old detergent

This is a common complaint after a switch, and there are four separate places the old smell can be living. Getting the detergent smell out of clothes usually means dealing with more than the clothes.

The fabric. Fragrance and softener deposits accumulate over dozens of washes. One wash does not strip them. The smell fades across successive washes rather than disappearing in one.
The washer. Whirlpool warns that using more than the recommended amount of detergent can speed up how fast detergent and soil residue accumulate inside the machine, and that this can produce odor. Run your machine's clean-washer cycle. Whirlpool recommends doing that at least monthly, or every 30 wash cycles, whichever comes first. Wipe the dispenser drawer and the door seal by hand, since that is where old liquid detergent and softener sit, and leave the door open between loads.
The dryer. Sheets and softener leave film on the drum and the lint screen. Clean the screen properly once, with a brush and hot water, not just by pulling the lint off.
Storage. A drawer or linen closet that held scented laundry for years will re-scent clean laundry. So will the sachets and scented drawer liners people forget they own.

What actually works: rewash, with an extra rinse, no softener, and a load small enough to move. What does not work: adding more detergent to try to wash the smell out. That makes residue worse, not better.

If what you are smelling is musty rather than perfumed, that is a different problem with a different fix: start with the washer itself and the clean-washer cycle described above, not with the detergent.

How long to give the switch before you judge it

Do not decide after one load. The reason is arithmetic, not patience. "My laundry is fragrance-free" only becomes true once you have actually washed everything you own in the new detergent.

Do the math with your own numbers. Count your loads per week. One pouch of Love Paks holds 39 paks, and one pak handles a standard load, so a pouch covers about 39 standard loads. At five loads a week that is roughly seven to eight weeks of washing (39 ÷ 5 ≈ 7.8). At ten loads a week it is closer to four. Most of your everyday clothes and bedding will come round well before the pouch is empty.

A workable checkpoint schedule:

Day 1: the single test garment.
Week 1: everyday clothes, plus one set of sheets.
Weeks 2 to 3: towels, the rest of the bedding, and the things that rarely get washed.
End of the pouch: decide.

The items that hold old fragrance longest are the ones you almost never wash: winter coats, throws, mattress protectors, car seat covers, the blanket on the sofa. Put them on the list on purpose or they will still smell like the old detergent in March. If you are weighing cost across that period, work in cost per load rather than pouch price: divide what you paid for the pouch by 39, since one pak handles a standard load.

Dosing Love Paks so nothing is left in the fabric

One pak per standard load. Two paks for a large or heavily soiled load. That is the entire instruction, and the pre-measured format exists so the guess is removed, since using too much detergent is one of the main reasons residue builds up on clothing — Whirlpool lists it first. The full breakdown is in dosing one pak per standard load.

Do not split a pak. Cutting one open to dose down defeats the format and makes a mess of the drum.
Do not stack paks to "get it cleaner." Two is for large or heavily soiled loads, not for stubborn odor.
Leave room in the drum. Whirlpool's point about overloading applies to paks as much as liquid: laundry that cannot move cannot rinse.
Water temperature. Love Paks Dye & Scent Free works in warm or cold water. If a pak is not breaking down the way you expect, look at load size and water temperature before you change the dose.
Keep the pouch closed and dry. Store it away from humidity.

One household note. Love Brands sells two Love Paks formulas: Dye & Scent Free, and Citrus Flower Blossom, which is the scented one. If someone else in the house keeps running the scented formula through the same machine on alternate days, be realistic about what your switch can deliver. It is a shared drum.

What to do with the detergent you already own

Do not pour a half-full jug down the drain as a first move, and do not put a full one in the bin. Work through the options in order.

Use it up where fragrance does not matter. Cleaning rags, car mats, mop heads, garage towels, pet bedding. Run those as their own loads. If you are being careful, run an extra rinse on the machine before your next load of clothes.
Give away what is unopened. A neighbor, a family member, a local buy-nothing or freecycle group. Some shelters and food pantries accept unopened household cleaning supplies, but policies differ, so call and ask before you turn up with a box.
Dispose of it properly if it has to go. Detergent is not automatically household hazardous waste, but the US Environmental Protection Agency's general guidance applies: read the product label for disposal directions, and check whether your community runs a collection program for leftover household products. Your local program, not a blog, is the authority on what your town accepts.

Same logic for the softener and the dryer sheets. Softener can finish its life on rags. Open boxes of sheets can simply be used up on the loads that are already going through the old routine.

When you are ready to start, pick up a single pouch of Love Paks Dye & Scent Free for the test load rather than a multi-pouch bundle, so the trial costs you one pouch. Go to Love Paks Dye & Scent Free, or see what else is available on the Love Brands shop page. If you buy through a participating organization's Loads of Love link, 20% of net sales goes to that organization: details at Loads of Love.

Common questions about switching to fragrance-free

Should I run an extra rinse cycle for detergent residue?

Run one on bedding, towels, baby clothes, any load where you used two paks, and the first several loads after a detergent switch. Do not leave it on permanently for every load: it costs water and time, and a permanent need for it usually points to overdosing or overloading instead. GE Appliances recommends the Extra Rinse option when extra detergent was used on heavily soiled clothes, and Whirlpool recommends an extra rinse to stop detergent redepositing on fabric.

How do I get the old detergent smell out of clothes?

Rewash the items with no fabric softener and an extra rinse, in a load small enough that the laundry can move. Then deal with the three sources that are not the clothes: clean the washer with its clean-washer cycle and wipe the dispenser and door seal, clean the dryer lint screen with a brush and hot water, and check whether the drawer or closet the clothes live in is itself scented. Adding more detergent makes it worse.

Is "unscented" the same as "fragrance-free"?

No. The FDA warns that a product labeled unscented may still contain fragrance ingredients used to mask the smell of other ingredients. Read the ingredient list rather than the front of the pack, and ask the brand for a full ingredient list if it is not published. Love Paks Dye & Scent Free is made with no dyes and no added fragrance.

How many Love Paks should I use while I am switching?

The same as always: one pak per standard load, two for a large or heavily soiled load. There is no "extra pak to get the old detergent out." More detergent leaves more residue, which is the opposite of what you want mid-switch.

How long does the switch take?

Long enough to wash everything you own once. Count your weekly loads and work from there. One pouch of Love Paks holds 39 paks, so at five standard loads a week a pouch covers roughly seven to eight weeks, which is usually more than enough time to get through clothes, bedding and towels. Rarely washed items such as coats and throws need to be added to the list deliberately.

Do I really have to stop using dryer sheets?

If your goal is to take fragrance out of your laundry, yes. Dryer sheets deposit onto fabric by design, and Whirlpool notes that detergent and fabric softener residue accumulates on the lint screen and can lengthen drying times. Clean the lint screen when you stop using them. Expect more static at first, and dry loads slightly less than you have been.

Can I use Love Paks Dye & Scent Free in cold water?

Love Paks Dye & Scent Free works in warm or cold water. The longer answer, including what changes when the wash runs cold, is in do laundry paks work in cold water?

Love Paks are described as "rose quartz infused." What does that mean for a fragrance-free wash?

It helps to keep four things apart. As a matter of geology, rose quartz is the pink variety of the mineral quartz. As a matter of cultural history, it has long been associated in folk and metaphysical traditions with love and care. As a matter of brand philosophy, Love Brands names and describes Love Paks around that stone, and states that Love Paks are rose quartz infused. As a matter of science, no scientific evidence is offered for the stone doing anything in the wash, and none is claimed. Love Brands publishes that it makes no health, medical or physiological claim. Separately, "Aura Frequency Starter Pack" is the name of a different Love Brands product, so "frequency" there is a product line name rather than a description of the rose quartz. The background is covered in what is rose quartz.

I have sensitive skin. Is this the right detergent for me?

That is not a question this page can answer for you, and Love Brands makes no skin or health claim about any of its products. What this page can do is describe the attributes: Love Paks Dye & Scent Free is a plant-based, pre-measured pak made with no dyes and no added fragrance, at 39 paks per pouch. For what to look at when comparing options, see what to consider when choosing laundry paks for sensitive skin. Anything to do with a diagnosed skin condition is a conversation for a clinician, not a detergent label.

Sources

US Food and Drug Administration, Fragrances in Cosmetics — on "unscented" products containing masking fragrance, on fragrance appearing as a single ingredient term, and on laundry products falling under the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
California Legislature, SB-258 Cleaning Product Right to Know Act of 2017 — website disclosure from January 1, 2020, label disclosure from January 1, 2021, and fragrance allergen disclosure at 0.01% or more.
Whirlpool Product Help, Preventing Detergent from Re-depositing on Clothing — extra rinse, load size, following the detergent maker's dosing directions, and using too much detergent as a major reason for buildup.
Whirlpool Product Help, Removing Odors from the Interior of a Washer — over-dosing, residue accumulation and clean-washer cycle frequency.
Whirlpool Product Help, Tips for Using Fabric Softener in Washer — softener residue build-up and the fabrics to keep softener away from.
Whirlpool Product Help, Cleaning the Lint Screen on a Dryer — detergent and softener residue on the lint screen and its effect on drying time.
GE Appliances, Washer — Optional Extra Rinse — when GE recommends the Extra Rinse option.
US Environmental Protection Agency, Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) — reading label disposal directions and community collection programs.

Frequently asked questions

Should I run an extra rinse cycle for detergent residue?

How do I get the old detergent smell out of clothes?

Is "unscented" the same as "fragrance-free"?

How many Love Paks should I use while I am switching?

How long does the switch take?

Do I really have to stop using dryer sheets?

Can I use Love Paks Dye & Scent Free in cold water?

Love Paks Dye & Scent Free works in warm or cold water. The longer answer, including what changes when the wash runs cold, is in the Love Brands guide to whether laundry paks work in cold water.

Love Paks are described as "rose quartz infused." What does that mean for a fragrance-free wash?

I have sensitive skin. Is this the right detergent for me?

That is not a question this page can answer for you, and Love Brands makes no skin or health claim about any of its products. What this page can do is describe the attributes: Love Paks Dye & Scent Free is a plant-based, pre-measured pak made with no dyes and no added fragrance, at 39 paks per pouch. Anything to do with a diagnosed skin condition is a conversation for a clinician, not a detergent label.