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Soften towels with vinegar


How Do I Keep Towels Soft?

Posted on December 4, 2013 / in Towel Care / 42 Comments

It’s a hard life, being a towel. All that hard water and friction can really wear a fabric down. Not to mention regular exposure to oil and soil. Even our fluffy, luxurious Turkish towels need a little TLC now and then, to keep them feeling their best.

If you’ve ever asked the question ‘How do I keep towels soft?’ we can help. We’ve put together some tips to get your towels as good as new.

Cut back on detergent.

Towels feel stiff because they start to build up soapy residue. By using a little less detergent than suggested, your machine’s rinse cycle will have an easier time washing out those last pesky bits of soap.

Wash in warm water.

Warmer water (around body temperature is best) absorbs detergent better, leaving less buildup on your towels. You can also let detergent dissolve in the washer before adding towels – just start the wash cycle, add soap and wait a minute or two before adding your towels.

Replace fabric softeners with vinegar.

Fabric softeners contain silicon that will make towels water repellent, so they won’t get as good a wash. Instead, soften your towels by using one cup of white vinegar about every six weeks; this will remove the soapy residue that makes towels feel rough, bringing back softness while restoring them to full absorbency. Simply run the towels through a regular washing cycle, then redo them using vinegar instead of soap.

Use baking soda.

This will help loosen up fibers and clean off any chemicals or grime, making your towels softer. Just mix half a cup of baking soda with your normal amount of detergent. As an added bonus, baking soda naturally eliminates musty odors that may have built up – say, if you left damp towels lying around in a gym bag or in a pile on the bathroom floor.

Lighten your load.

Don’t put too many towels in your washer at once. Not only will it strain the machine, it won’t allow enough room to rinse out all the dirt and detergent from your towels. The same goes for your dryer; if you overload it, there won’t be enough air in the dryer to properly fluff the fabric. So you’ll get stiff, matted towels, instead of soft, fluffy ones. For most standard machines, try two or three bath towels at a time, along with hand towels and washcloths.

Toss in a tennis ball or dryer ball.

Having a few unused tennis balls or dryer balls bouncing around in the dryer helps remove lumps while softening and fluffing your towels.

Go easy on the tumble drying.

True, it makes towels fluffier, but heat from the dryer can damage the integrity of the Turkish cotton. So use a lower setting, or alternate between air drying and tumble drying. You can also partially dry towels on the line and then finish them up in the dryer. If you prefer line drying, shake the towels out afterwards to fluff up the fibers, or toss them in the dryer on a cool setting for additional softness.

There you have it – the answer to the age-old question ‘How do I keep towels soft?’ Follow these self-help tips and your towels will stay plush and fluffy their whole lives. For more advice, visit our towel care section.

 

How to Soften Towels

By

Mary Marlowe Leverette

Mary Marlowe Leverette

Mary Marlowe Leverette is one of the industry's most highly-regarded housekeeping and fabric care experts, sharing her knowledge on efficient housekeeping, laundry, and textile conservation. She is also a Master Gardener with over 40 years' experience; writing for over 20 years.

Learn more about The Spruce's Editorial Process

Updated on 07/20/22

Reviewed by

Brandon Pleshek

Reviewed by Brandon Pleshek

Brandon Pleshek of Clean That Up! is a seasoned veteran of the cleaning industry with over 20 years of experience in commercial and residential cleaning. He is a member of The Spruce's Cleaning and Organizing Review Board

Learn more about The Spruce's Review Board

Fact checked by

Jillian Dara

Fact checked by Jillian Dara

Jillian is a freelance journalist with 10 years of editorial experience in the lifestyle genre. She is a writer and fact checker for TripSavvy, as well as a fact-checker for The Spruce.

Learn more about The Spruce's Editorial Process

The Spruce / Ana Cadena

Project Overview

Even the plushest towels can feel stiff and scratchy after a few months. It's because of how they're washed and dried, and if you have hard water, but with a little TLC, you can safely soften towels.

Washing towels in hard water leaves a build-up of minerals, as well as body soil, body oils, detergents, and chemicals on the fibers. Stripping all the gunk away is the best method for softening towels. Learn from the following steps how to soften towels and ways to prevent the problem from happening on future purchases.

What is Hard Water?

Hard water has high amounts of dissolved minerals, mostly calcium and magnesium. The higher the concentration of these minerals, the harder the water.

Equipment / Tools

Materials

How to Soften Towels
Detergent None
Water Temperature Warm or hot
Cycle Type Normal
Drying Cycle Medium heat or permanent press
Special Treatments Distilled vinegar, conditioned water

The Spruce / Ana Cadena

  1. Load the Washer With Towels

    Gather similarly colored towels and washcloths, and load them into the washer. Do not overload the washer because the towels need room to move in the washer drum.

    The Spruce / Ana Cadena  

  2. Select the Water Temperature and Cycle

    To remove body soil, detergent, and fabric softener build-up that is causing the problem, select the warm or hot water option. Set the cycle to normal wash.

    The Spruce / Ana Cadena  

  3. Add Distilled White Vinegar and Wash as Usual

    If you have pre-loaded automatic detergent and fabric softener dispensers, disengage them for this load. Do not add any detergent or fabric softener. Instead, add two cups of distilled white vinegar to the washer drum. The vinegar will help strip away the residue left in the towels that is causing them to feel stiff.

    The Spruce / Ana Cadena 

    Tip

    If you live in an area that has hard water and don't use a water-softening system, it will take more than vinegar to cut through the mineral deposits built-up in the fibers of your towels. Instead of vinegar, add one cup of household ammonia to the hot water wash. Do not add anything else. Combining other products with ammonia can cause toxic fumes.

  4. Load the Dryer Correctly and Choose the Correct Cycle

    As you remove the towels from the washer, give them a quick shake to help fluff the fibers before you toss them in the dryer. Choose a medium heat or permanent press setting to prevent over-drying the fibers. After loading the dryer, toss in several wool dryer balls if you have them. The balls will "beat" the towel fibers during the tumbling action, leaving them softer and fluffier. Give the towels another good shake as you remove them from the dryer before folding.

    The Spruce / Ana Cadena 

    Tip

    If you choose to hang your freshly vinegar-washed towels on an outdoor clothesline or drying rack, they may still feel a bit stiff after drying. Give the dry towel a quick knead to help loosen fibers before folding.

  5. Repeat If Needed

    If the residue is particularly heavy and the towels have not returned to a soft state, repeat the steps.

    The Spruce / Ana Cadena

Tips to Keep Your Towels Softer Longer

The 11 Best Bath Towels of 2022 from Soft to Luxury Options

Article Sources

The Spruce uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

  1. Household Cleaners. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Washing towels with vinegar in the washing machine

Most housewives wash kitchen mittens and napkins like other things - with regular powder and conditioner. But this is wrong, as the canvases become discolored, become hard and unpleasant to the touch. Washing towels with vinegar will correct the situation, since the latter is not in vain famous for its softening and color-restoring effect. Everything is done simply, quickly and at no extra cost.

Why do kitchen towels get stale?

Kitchen paper becomes hard for several reasons. Long term use is only a minor factor as most towels "fail" due to improper care. As practice shows, the following errors lead to "hardening":

The problem is that kitchen napkins get dirty quickly, but accumulate to a full batch. During this time, the dirt penetrates deep into the fabric and destroys it from the inside. Wrong washing aggravates the situation, because of which the towels “stale” more. Fortunately, it is possible to return softness to textiles.

We restore towels with vinegar

Washing with acetic acid will help restore the original softness of the towel. Ordinary table vinegar not only removes difficult stains and removes an unpleasant odor, but also restores the pile of textiles. The main thing is to act strictly according to the instructions:

If washed regularly with vinegar in the washing machine, the wipes will not only soften, but also restore their original color.

Everything! After that, it remains to remove the towels from the drum, shake and smooth with a steamer or iron with steam supply. Usually the result is visible after the second wash.

How about baking soda and vinegar?

To enhance the effect, it is recommended to wash kitchen towels with vinegar and baking soda. Together they clean, soften, whiten and freshen laundry. Moreover, a rather modest dosage: half a glass of essence and half a glass of powder. The first is poured into the powder receiver, and the second is poured into the tank.

Experienced housewives advise you to go further and make homemade conditioner based on vinegar and soda. Acid is taken 6 glasses, powder - one, and everything is mixed with 250 ml of water. As soon as the mixture foams, another 6 glasses of pure water are added, and a few drops of your favorite essential oil are added for aroma. After that, it remains to pour the resulting solution into an empty dispenser and use if necessary.

Do not forget that both baking soda and vinegar are considered excellent water softeners on a budget. In order not to buy expensive special equipment, you can add them together or separately when rinsing. The advice applies to both machine and hand wash.

Restoring "beaten up" towels

Old kitchen towels only look like that. In fact, returning them to their former softness and freshness is quite simple. The first way is to soak the napkin in salted water before washing. To do this, salt is added to the filled basin at the rate of 2-3 tablespoons for every 5 liters, and the cloths are lowered into the resulting solution and remain in it for 30-40 minutes. After the textile is washed in the usual way.

If the towel is gray or too dirty, and bleach cannot be used, then the second method will help - soaking in salt and ammonia. We take a tablespoon of the powder and add it to a liter of water along with a teaspoon of ammonia. Leave the wipes in the solution for at least 8 hours, preferably 10 hours.

It is important not only to save old towels, but also to protect new ones. To do this, we choose delicate gels and powders for washing, forget about high-temperature cycles, turn on double rinses and refuse intensive bleaching. We also remember the obligatory softening of water with vinegar, salt or soda.

Towels smell bad

The second problem after the hardness of towels is bad smell. This is not about insufficient washing and smelling stains, but about more serious and large-scale nuances. As a rule, napkins exude "ombre" for reasons:

It is easy to remove the smell from towels. An excellent method is to soak the fabric for 8 hours in a solution of water, baking soda and vinegar, and then wash. If it doesn’t help, then you should turn to the professional Oxiclean tool, which is used strictly according to the instructions.

How to make towels soft after washing

To tidy up hard towels, it is worth giving up both washing powder and fabric softener. We tell you how to replace the usual means so that the results exceed your expectations

Grazia

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life hack

Helpful Hints

Legion-Media

Over time, even the best quality and most expensive towels can become stiff and no longer absorb moisture. This happens when lime salts from tap water, powder particles and dirt accumulate between the fibers. Incorrect washing also plays a big role in the deterioration of quality.

If your towels start to look unpresentable, and after washing they have an unpleasant smell of dampness, do not rush to throw them away. Believe me, they can be restored to their original form, and soda and vinegar will help you with this.

Vinegar will help dissolve soap buildup, remove bad odors and soften fabric fibers. Baking soda, in turn, will get rid of stubborn stains and bacteria.

After washing with vinegar and soda, your towels will smell fresh and regain their ability to absorb moisture. So what needs to be done?

  1. Load dirty or clean towels into the washing machine first. Only fill the drum halfway, because otherwise any solution or detergent you add will not be distributed evenly throughout the laundry, and the wash will not be as effective.
  2. Switch on the highest water temperature setting. Add one cup of vinegar to the air conditioner compartment or drum. It is better to do this before or during washing.
  3. When the machine goes through a full wash cycle, including rinsing and spinning, your towels will probably smell like vinegar, but this is normal. At the next stage, the smell will disappear.
  4. The laundry needs to be washed again. When the washing machine is completely filled with water, add 1/2 cup of baking soda. Then the baking soda will be mixed with a small amount of vinegar left on the towels, and a chemical reaction will begin. During it, all residues of acetic acid and detergents will be neutralized.
  5. Remove the towels from the washing machine and hang them up immediately after washing.

Do not add vinegar and baking soda during one wash cycle. This may damage the washing machine.

If your towels are not soft enough, you may need to repeat the steps above. To keep the towels in perfect condition in the future, carry out this procedure about once a month.​

This method is also suitable for new towels. You may assume that they do not yet contain any detergents, but in fact they do not. Before being sent to the store, towels are treated with fabric softeners, which include water-repellent oils.

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