Last week, I wrote about how to wash your washing machine, I then received some fabulous feedback on how to fix those funky towels and their smell. Sometimes your towels can smell even if your washing machine is pristine.
Smelling that sour scent in towels is truly one of my biggest pet peeves. It drives me crazy and really grosses me out. So this was a fabulous trick to know. Vinegar and baking soda can fix that mess.
After time, with many washes and use, the towels will start to build up detergent, fabric softener residue and because of this won't allow your towel to absorb as much water, and start to smell.
Instead of buying new towels when you start to smell that stench, just do this simple trick:
Wash your towels in hot water with a cup of vinegar, and then run again in hot water with a half-cup of baking soda. That will strip your towels from all of that residue and mildew smell and will actually leave them feeling fluffy and smelling fresh.
***Do not add laundry detergent to either wash. Just once with vinegar and once with baking soda.
*** This trick also works well with wet bathing suits that were left to dry.
It could also be possible that your smelly towels are coming from a smelly washing machine. You don't want to miss How To Wash Your Washing Machine. But, if you have a front loading washer, the instructions to clean your washer AND your towels is different, so be sure to check out How To Clean Your Front Loading Washing Machine.
92 comments:
Has anyone actually tried this out? How did it work out for you?
White vinegar?
@Anonymous 1 - I have a friend who does this every six months and she is the one who told me about it and says it works like a charm.
@Anonymous 2 - Yes, white distilled vinegar.It is really cheap and can be found at any grocery store.
Can this be done on front load, high effiency washers?
@Anonymous 3 - I'm not sure about that one, but I don't see why not. I think that it could clean any washer.
How much vinegar and baking soda you have to put?
It says right in the post how much to use... ;)
do you wash the towels again after the baking soda with detergent?
I add one cup or more of CLEAR ammonia to each towel washing and always for those towels smelling mildewy. It works wonderfully every time.
I have a front load washer. I use 1 cup of white vinegar in the pre-wash area with my towels. I also use detergent. The vinegar removes the smell and I was told its a natural fabric softener...my towels are soft.
There is no exact measurement.I fill up all the spaces for detergent,softener,bleach dispenser with white vinegar .Then I put a bunch inside the washer.Turn on clean and it works Like a charm .I have done it for over 3 years
Do you dry the towels in between the vinegar and baking soda?
Hi @Mallory, you do not need to dry between the vinegar and baking soda. Just wash back to back.
@anonymous - You do not have to wash with detergent after.
Thanks for commenting!
xoxo
I just threw out a bunch of dishcloths and hand towels last month. I was ready to do it again, found your blog on pinterest and decided to try it. It worked! No more funk! Thank you! You saved me the cost of towel replacement again!
@happinessinMD Yay! That makes me so happy to hear! I'm so happy that it worked and saved you from having to throw those towel out and waste money on buying more! You should take the money and do something nice for yourself, like a pedi or a massage. That would be awesome!
I also heard Borax works great for this!
I have tried almost everything to get the yucky smells out... thank you for one more chance!
Awesome! Worked for a few of my weird smelling towels! Thanks!
I also wash them on hot with a cup of peroxide and it will get the smell out. But I would love to try this and see if they get "fluffy" again.
I have front load washer I put towels in washer put one cup vinegar in were the liquid detergent goes then ran hot wash when it finshed I put half cup backing soda in were powder goes run hot wash OMG towels came out amazing. ♡♡♡♡♡
Do you add this with your detergent?
So you can do this with detergent?
I was doing just a load with ammonia and that helped a little but I could still smell the funk a little. Just tried a load with ammonia first and then washed in white vinegar. Excited to test the results
Can we use the vinegar and baking soda on colored towels?
Hello @anonymous! This trick is especially good for using on colored towels since you can't use bleach to clean them.
Can you do this with high efficiency washers? Also does it matter what type of vinegar I already have apple cider vinegar could I use that or does it have to be the regular vinegar?
Hi @anonymous. Yes, this will work with high efficiency washers, but I would not use apple-cider. It can leave a sour scent that is not easily washed out as white vinegar is.
How about on sheets?
It would absolutely work on sheets too! Thanks for asking!
Awesome!! Thank you!!
I am so happy to find this post !!!
My towels are so gross, I've been on the verge of throwing them all out.
Going to stock up on vinegar & baking soda tomorrow! Thank you :)
Hi Stephanie,
I'm so happy you like this. You are going to be so happy. This really works too!
Good luck!
Another trick I learned a few years ago, I think from Martha Stewart, was to boil my funky towels. That has worked well for me, but I now also use a vinegar (I LOVE vinegar, for its many, many uses!) especially after leaving a washload too long in the washer. I just re-run with a generous splash of vinegar.
I did this and it worked beautifully! I actually did it backwards though but it still worked. I have a front loader hE washer and I just dumped the backing soda right in the tub with the towels just like my oxyclean powder. Then I ran the vinegar in the actual detergent drawer and it worked like a charm. I am still in awe of how fresh and light my towels are. They were so mildewy smelling before. Thank so much!!
Hi Brook! I'm so glad to hear that! Thanks so much for sharing your experience.
-xoxo
oxyclean (one scoop) also taked care of this.
Can't wait to try this over the weekend! :) Thanks for sharing!
This works great for stinky socks too! I don't use laundry detergent anymore, I only use vinegar and baking soda.
Can you put the vinegar and baking soda in at the same time?
Hi Anonymous,
Thanks for commenting. To get the best results, I would follow the directions above.
Thanks!
Thank u so much for ur post! i was about to throw out all my towels and start over! i will try this tomorrow!! :)
Wonder if this would work on my husband stinky tee shirts that he runs/works out in. Much cheaper than Oxyclean.
I love this! And how timely...my teen boys are going on a 5-day camp-out tomorrow...and I KNOW how their towels and wash cloths come back smelling. I will be using this on Sunday upon their return!
I also have linked your post on my blog. You'll have a few extra visitors, hopefully. :)
this is a major need to know. i just thought that my water where i live was the culprit the the stinky smell. your a life saver and im putting this on facebook for all my friends to see thank you so much
I'm going to try this. Another tip, don't use dryer sheets when you dry your towels. It makes them not able to absorb water.
just to confirm, do you run two wash cycles first with the vinegar and then with the baking soda followed by a rinse cycle or does the baking soda go into the rinse cycle?
Hi @Anonymous - I think this would absolutely work for your husband workout t-shirts. I would love it if you tried and and left another comment with your results!
Cheers!
@Cheerfully Vegan! I think this is perfect timing to use this on your kids camp out towels. Thanks so much for sharing on your blog! I really appreciate the shout out!
xoxo
@Anonymous! Thanks so much for sharing on your facebook! I really appreciate the shout-out!
xoxo
@Tammy - Thanks for the dryer sheet tip and commenting!
Cheers!
@Anonymous - Wash your towels in a complete cycle with the vinegar, then run a complete cycle again with the baking soda. Both the vinegar and the baking soda go in at the beginning of the wash.
Cheers!
Do you think they would let me do this at the Laundromat? lol
I'm just relieved I'm not the only one who's towels smell funky after a while...Thanks for the tip! I'm doing this tonight!!
My towels are yucky smelling too I almost threw them out until I read this post!!! I am about to try this out!
I tried this today and it worked great. I added a cap full of peppermint essential oil in with the baking soda load. The towels smell great and are soft. Thank you!
I am so happy to read the comments that you all had some great success. I love this tip and it makes such a difference. The essential oil is a great tip I will have to try next time!
xoxo
This worked great to get the smell out, however, some of the decorative towels became discolored. Ex. The gray lines turned brown. Hoping for feedback on what may have caused this. Man do they smell good and feel great!
Hi Anonymous,
I haven't had an issue with that and I haven't heard of that happening to anyone else as far as I know of. You didn't add detergent to either of the washes right? As long as you just used the vinegar in one wash and baking soda in the second, it shouldn't have caused any reaction. So sorry to hear though. I wish I had a better answer for you.
-Erin
No, red wine vinegar
Just had power turned back on after a week without due to Hurricane Isaac. Our towels were never able to dry out due to the humidity and so have been hanging damp for this past week and all smelled. I just finished trying the method suggested in this post and it worked great. I washed my towels twice, once in vinegar (1 cup) and once in baking soda (1/2 cup). I used no detergent and dried them with a dryer sheet. They smell fresh! Thanks for the suggestion! I plan to repost this on facebook for all my other friends that are still moping up after Isaac!
I moved about 3 weeks ago and when I packed them I decided to use this method to give them a good wash and it works! I was wondering if this vinegar and baking soda method would work on bath mats?
This may b a way to save sponges??? I may save them n toss them in n try it instead of dumping them
Hi LisaGG,
Thanks for commenting! I am so happy to hear that this method helped you out especially with all of the humidity and dealing with hurricane Isaac!
Cheers!
xoxo
Hi Ciera,
I am so happy to hear that this worked for you after a big move. I would absolutely try this out on your bath mats. I know that it will refresh them and make them seem just like new!
Cheers!
xoxo
Hi Anonymous,
Thanks for commenting. I know this could help save your sponges. You can also disinfect them by putting them in your dishwasher and washing them with the rest of your dishes. Or, wet your sponge and place it on a plate and heat the sponge for 30 seconds. You could also add some fresh lemon juice.
That will disinfect them to use fresh!
Cheers!
Gonna try this today. My machine has seperate compartments for detergent, oxi/bleach, and softener. Which space should I put the vinegar and baking soda in?
My boyfriend is a marine mechanic and usually comes home smelling like he bathed in diesel fuel. I've tried everything I can think of to prevent him from throwing all his work clothes away!... Would this trick work on them?
Hi Anonymous,
I don't see why it wouldn't work on your boyfriend's clothes. I think it would work great. You could even wash them a third time in detergent. I would think that you would only have to do this trick every other time. But you should let me know!
xoxo!
Found this on Pinterest. It worked great!! Thank you so much for sharing :)
I have done this to my sheets that I was ready to replace and they are now soft and smell fresh! Works like a charm.....I'm now cleaning all of my clean towels to rid them of smells and make them soft again. not only will they be softer but also will absorb water better since the fabric siftner build-up is being removed. I can't wait to use them!!!
anything that comes in close contact with my body-towels/washcloths, bed linens, panties, socks, sleepwear-I have been washing with a detergent (Method mostly, but any I have used is ok), with vinegar filling the cup where fabric softener is supposed to go. It took a couple treatments but they are all soft and fluffy now, the colors remain bright, and after the dryer all you smell is the fragrance from the detergent, so pick one you like. Once in a while when I feel like it I may use a few of those Purex crystals as well, but just for the smell. Everything is absorbent and the garments are much cooler and absorbent in the summer and more insulating in the winter without that oily softener coating on them.
I noticed one said they used red wine vinegar. That may be the reason the towels got discolored. I also will try this on several of my things. Thanks for posting this.
Not the red vinegar, of course. LOL
vinegar and baking soda is also a great drain cleaner. put 1/2 cup baking soda in drain let sit for 2 minutes then pour vinegar (white or apple cider) in the drain until you can not see anymore baking soda and it will fizzz like crazy let sit for 5 minutes then rinse with hot hot water. it clears the drain, disinfects and makes the drain smell better.
It works! I wanted to scream because of the way my wash clothes smelled, So I tried it, and they smell fresh again. Thanks for a great tip!
A friend of mine works in wardrobe on movie sets and she told me a few years ago to stop using fabric softener with my towels because it's an oil product (with dyes) which means it will make your towels less absorbent. She also said fabric softener builds up in the fibers and can actually be the cause of that bad smell. She never uses fabric softener at all. For anything. Only white vinegar and baking soda. So I stopped using fabric softener on my towels and now use vinegar and baking soda as well as a small amount of detergent (she also said most people use way too much detergent, use half the amount it tells you to use on the box) and my towels have never been fluffier, fresher, softer, and more absorbent. She's a genius with fabric/textile care.
I'm on a mission to the laundrymat to do this right now. I had given up on my super-thick towels I love so much, and am glad to be able to give them a second chance with this method.
Thank you for posting!
Hi all Anonymous' and Monique,
Thanks for your comments and support. I appreciate you all taking the time to leave a comment. I love this trick and my towels are all like new and I'm so glad that all of you appreciate it too!
xoxo
Thanks for sharing this ... gonna try this right now because I really don't wanna buy new towels. ^.^
just a note for pet owners....if you have something that your pet has had an accident on.....this helps to take that odor out also. My cat loves my bathmat for some reason and I have used the vinegar to neutralize that odor.
can you continue to wash the towels in vinegar and baking soday or would you just do it once in awhile. , instead of detergent I mean. Thanks. Did it today and it was great. could not figure out why new towels had that mildew smell. Now I just want to keep washing them that way. Saundra
I had that problem too but did a load with hot water and the white vinegar..worked like a charm !
Hi Saundra,
I am sure that you could do that for every wash, but it would take the two loads each time since you can't put the vinegar and baking soda together. But I don't see why you couldn't do it if you wanted to.
xoxo
Erin
This worked for me! I did the distilled vinegar first wash, baking soda second wash, then used my regular detergent for a third wash just so it would smell good! ;) It totally worked! I am beyond ecstatic!
do you think it is okay to put a color catcher in since you are washing the towels in hot water?
Usually by the time you need to de-funk your towels, they have been washed quite a few times and the colors shouldn't run. You want to try to not mix anything other than the vinegar and baking soda to not compromise. But, if you are really concerned, you can try the color catcher and see if it still works.
Thanks for commenting!
I used laundry detergent in the wash cycle and 1 cup of white vinegar in the rinse cycle. when the towels are dry, they have no smell. but when they are WET, OMG!!! the smell is really bad! Help, what can I do? I want to continue to use natural products but I don't know where to turn.
Hi Heaven,
Try washing with exactly how the instructions say and see if that makes a difference. Don't use detergent and use the baking soda and vinegar to wash. That might make a difference for you.
Thanks for commenting. Good luck!
Will this work for people who have allergies or skin problems with detergents
It should work since it doesn't have any chemicals or perfumes.
I'll tell you how I solved this problem once and for all; I picked up a bamboo towel (yes, bamboo). Bamboo is, of course, a very hard wood. Once shredded into a fiber however, it can be woven into any of several very soft textile items including a bath towel with a lofty, terrycloth weave. Bamboo is essentially antimicrobial, and some species grow so fast--up to 4' per day (yes, that's four feet per day!) making it the most renewable natural resource on the planet. "So, will this really solve my stinky towel problem?", you ask. Here are the specifics of my situation: I wouldn't even THINK about using a cotton towel more than once. 1) It would smell utterly disgusting the second time around, and 2) After the first use, when it dried, any cotton towel I used dried like plywood. With the bamboo towel, on the other hand, I'm able to use the same towel every day for several weeks! (That may sound a little disgusting to some of you but I look at it this way, when I step out of that shower, every inch of my body is CLEAN, therefore, by my reasoning, the towel should stay clean and should really be good to use for even months between washings.) In my experience, there is NO ODOR AT ALL with a bamboo towel no matter how many times I've used it. You can buy these towels (and many other products of a bamboo derivative) at cariloha.com for a whopping $69 or, get what looks to be the same thing on amazon.com for as low as $19.99. The only thing you may not like about the bamboo towel is that it isn't as absorbent as 100% cotton (chemically, bamboo is about the same as Rayon). I'd say the bamboo is maybe 70-80% as absorbent as 100% cotton. I can certainly live with that to get rid of that rancid smell!
Was just commenting to my daughter tonight about how I can't stand the odor left in our cloth napkins and our towels, etc. that all get washed together. So, I typed in a search request for a natural way to clean towels, and found this blog with this information. Did it immediately, and couldn't stop sniffing the napkins as I was folding them tonight. There is no more odor, and I am so thankful. Who wants to wipe their mouth off with an odorous napkin? Can't stand paper napkins, so this was a great way to save my cloth napkins. And, of course, my towels smell fresh and are much softer too. YES! and thank you for posting!
Hi Michelle,
I'm so happy to hear! Thanks so much for posting your experience. I'm glad you found my blog and was able to try this out!
Thanks for your comment! Enjoy your napkins and towels!
Erin
My dealer said NEVER to use powder detergents, borax or baking soda in my new High Efficiency washer....so what do I do?
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