OT: Way to "freshen" up your towels

[Jill in Chicago]

Hot water, as the other poster said, is key. I have found this with my work out clothes. You name it I tried it, but they were still "not so fresh." Hot water. It's magic.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

Put a cup vinegar in the rinse cycle. I promise your laundry won't smell like a salad.

I read about this on an earlier thread on the DIS and reluctantly tried it after ruining a few towels trying to get the smell out with bleach and WOW it worked!

A cup of white vinegar took out musty smells that repeated washings couldn't touch. The towels do not smell at all like vinegar. I just put a cup of vinegar in wash when I put the detergent in and it worked.

 

[ZPT1022]

How does this work if you have a front loader?

I've noticed recently that my towels don't stay as fresh as they used to and we can't use them as many days in a row. We used to be able to get at least 5 or 6 days of use out of them before we washed them and now about 3 days into using them they smell musty and gross. I guess I just use the cup of white vinegar in my wash???

With the front loader you do the same thing, except you can't soak the towels in the baking soda & water overnight. My front loader has a pause feature but it drains the water out, so that's pretty useless. Just run it through like I outlined, only skip the soaking overnight step. Also, when I need to do that in the front loader, I add the baking soda directly into the washer with the towels instead of trying to use the dispensers. Hope that helps!

 

[anitra]

I got into the habit of pouring a cup (or more!) of white vinegar into the machine at the start of the wash (I'm never paying attention to when the rinse cycle starts! ) when my DS would have accidents...just pee (excuse the expression.) I'd let the items soak for a while and then just run the load. It works like a charm - and now I do the same for musty towels and it works great! And so cheap - I buy the big plastic bottles of vinegar at WalMart. I've never had the problem of things smelling like vinegar afterward.