How can I get my bath towels to stop smelling after they've been used?
Question:Eew! I buy new bath towels; I wash my bath towels in hot water with plenty of soap; I have even tried adding baking soda to the load. It seems that no matter what I try my towels always stink like mildew after one use! Any suggestions?
Answers:
That's the problem right there, plenty of soap and baking soda.you have a build up of detergent which will make your towels smell bad. Wash your towels again, this time add 1 cup of clear vinegar to strip your towels of all the detergent. Now wash your towels with the recommended amount of detergent, this time put them through the rinse cycle twice. You can add fabric softener at the recommended time on the FIRST rinse. Or use dryer sheet type fabric softener.
Just remember when you wash your towels, to put them through the rinse cycle twice to keep from having a detergent build up:-)
Some of the other suggestions on here recommend masking the problem. I love fabreeze but don't want to be drying my body and face with it!!
wash them
are you drying them extra good?? I had this problem as well...hate it!!
I wash in hot water, only towels, add color safe bleach, extra rinse cycle...
Dry on "towel" setting, or if you don't have that, dry them until they are super dry..if you can hang them out to dry, the sun will usually also kill any bacteria...
Is your house damp? or behind the radiator where you are leaving them? something doesn't sound right. Do you put them to dry and air after every single use? I've never had a problem like yours and wonder if perhaps its something like fabric conditioner that is making them smell?
make sure they arent folded when you hang them to dry. I also was keeping my towels on a rack in my bathroom and the unused ones would smell so I put them in the closet down the hall and now they are fine.
try downey or suavitel
and clorox
and dry them
Use downey fabric softner in the rinse cycle
I know exactly what you mean! Hmm. Try adding some color safe bleach or pinesol *yes pinesol* to the wash. Make sure you're not letting them sit in the washer for too long after running the cycle, put them directly in the dryer, and add some scented dryer sheets as well. That should help. Otherwise, try running just bleach through a hot cycle - it could be your washer causing this (this happened to me, my clothes were smelling too... yuck).
Hang them to dry in a well-ventilated area and give 'em a couple spritzes of Febreeze.. You could give thinner, less absorbant towels a chance, too, as they won't take as long to dry and will harbor less of a mildew smell..
gain dryer sheets
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