The Best ways to Clean your Kimono


Cleaning your Stinking Gi


A lot of people seem to have problems with cleaning their Gi’s or just have issues with smell on the material, while they still take care of it and wash it regularly after each training sessions.

First thing you should be doing is to air dry your kimono if you don’t wash it after your rolling session. Leave it to the open air or on the dryer door for example. Don’t leave it in your bag or in a wet ball in the corner of your laundry room. This is how the Smelly Funk usually penetrates and stays in the cotton.

Some people say that the Funky smell comes from the detergent that did not get properly rinsed out of the Gi and dried into the fabric.  So in most cases, or even try this to see if it works for you: Rinse your Gi with water In the Machine with no soap or detergent or simply in your shower.

It won’t hurt to try and see what works for you.


The most common way to clean your Gi, is of course to use regular or sport detergent, but a combination of few products will add for a cleaner and fresher smelling gi:

  • Use White Vinegar, usually Half a cup would suffice and Oxy Clean or hydrogen peroxide. Mixing all three together will give you great results and you will be satisfied with the smell, so will your training partners…
  • A combination of Tide or Gain + Febreeze sport + Vinegar OR color safe bleach also works well for me.

Now, some people hate the chemical soaps, so you can go buy some natural detergent or even make your own, Here is how:

You can easily find all the ingredients at your local supermarket.

  • Borax: $5 for a 76-oz. box.
  • Washing soda (chemically similar to baking soda): $3 for a 55-oz. box.
  • Fels-Naptha bar soap (in the laundry section of the store): $3 for 1 bar.
  • OxiClean: $4 for 1.3-pound box


½ cup borax, 1 cup washing soda, 1 bar Fels-Naptha soap, 3 gallons water, 5-gallon bucket with a lid.


use 1/1 parts Washing Soda and Borax and Add essential oils if you want any particular scent (Mint, Hemp, Coconut, Lavender…).

During the rinse cycle add either 1/4 c of vinegar or lemon juice to act as a fabric softener and whitener.

You can use this in Bars and Soap form.

So? Which one will you try? Did you try any of these? how did it work for you?




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