White vinegar is an acid that kills mildew, mold and other bacteria. It also strips away any build-up left on towels from soaps and from using too much detergent. The baking soda is an extra step to neutralize any leftover smell from the vinegar. Baking soda also works as a natural fabric softener.
Run your towels through a regular cycle with very warm or hot water, your regular detergent, and 1/2 to 1 cup of vinegar as a natural fabric softener for the rinse cycle.
Wash With Vinegar and Hot Water
Wash your musty towels on the hot water cycle with one cup of distilled white vinegar. White vinegar is a natural cleaner and deodorizer, so it's an ideal solution to get mildew smell out of towels.
'One cup per two big towels works well,' she says. Either pour it into the fabric softener dispenser of your machine or straight into the drum.
Top Loader Machine: If you have a top loader, you will put the vinegar directly into the drum after it's filled with water. Add a 1/2- 1 cup. Wash towels in warm or hot water and do not use detergent. To up the cleaning power, add a cup of baking soda directly to the drum with the towels after adding the vinegar.
If a towel continues to have a smell, it means that bacteria are still in your machine or on your towel.
If you've found that regular laundry detergent isn't doing the trick when it comes to cleaning your clothes, we have a solution: white vinegar. The product can brighten clothes, remove stains, eliminate odors, and even act as a natural fabric softener.
If it's on a soft surface, it may take a day or so. Air circulation can make the vinegar aroma dissipate more quickly. The vinegar aroma will go away when it's dry.
Wash the towel with vinegar
Just a cup of vinegar and hot water. Once the cycle is done, throw your towels in a dryer or let them dry in the sun. Just make sure it is a hot, dry day and that your towels dry out completely before putting them away.
All you'll need is one cup of white vinegar and one cup of baking soda. You'll be using these two ingredients separately, as using them together will only cancel out the effectiveness of each one, during two washes on the same load of towels.
After having a shower and drying your body with a luxury soft towel, you just throw it on the bathroom door, floor, or somewhere it can't dry. Not properly giving your towel time to dry will make the towel breed bacteria and cause your hand and bath towels to give unpleasant odors.
'Leave a bowl of vinegar out overnight,' advises Saskia Gregson-Williams, cookbook author and founder of Naturally Sassy. 'In the morning, the vinegar will have absorbed all the unsavory smells and your kitchen will be as fresh as a daisy. '
There's another thing you can do, though: Pull out a bottle of distilled white vinegar. The acetic acid in vinegar neutralizes alkaline odors, which means it can help get rid of cooking smells cheaply and easily. Some people make a diluted solution of vinegar and keep it in a spray bottle to mist around the room.
Unpleasant odors lurk in the carpets, rugs, and upholstery. To remove these musty smells, fill a dish with half an inch of white vinegar and leave it out in the room until the smell dissipates.
To use vinegar as a fabric softener and static reducer: Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of distilled white vinegar to the final rinse cycle of your washing machine. If you are washing blankets and comforters, add two cups of vinegar to the final rinse.
If you notice that your towels begin to smell after a single-use, then it's probably due to a bacteria build-up. Your regular washing methods won't be enough to break it up.
Because vinegar contains acetic acid, it dissolves all sorts of grime and mineral deposits on your towels. Baking soda is alkaline, which helps to neutralize odors. To recharge your towels, be sure to: Wash your towels with 1 cup of white vinegar and hot water.
1. Wash your towels with hot water and 1 cup of white vinegar, (don't use any detergents or fabric softeners). 2. Run the towels through a second wash with 1/2 cup baking soda and hot water, (again, no detergent or fabric softener).
Add Distilled White Vinegar and Wash as Usual
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.