How to wash towels so they stay soft

How often towels need washing

A bath towel used after a shower touches clean skin, but it also stays warm and damp, which is exactly what bacteria, yeasts and mold like. Houston Methodist suggests washing bath and hand towels after every three uses and washcloths after each use. Cleveland Clinic puts the minimum at once a week for bath towels and twice a week for washcloths, and more often in humid weather or if you have broken skin, eczema or an infection. Gym towels that sit damp in a bag belong in the laundry after every use.

Between washes, how a towel dries matters as much as how it is washed. Hang it spread open on a bar rather than bunched on a hook, so air can reach both sides, and never put a damp towel in the hamper. A towel that smells musty after one or two uses is telling you it is not drying fully, either because the bathroom is too humid or because residue in the fibers is holding water.

How to wash towels in a washing machine

Wash new towels once before using them, which removes loose fibers and finishing treatments that make them less absorbent at first. After that, the same routine works every time.

1. 01

   Sort towels on their own

   Towels shed lint and are heavy when wet, so wash them apart from clothes, especially dark clothes, fleece and anything with a zipper that could snag loops. Wash new, deeply colored towels with similar colors for the first few washes in case the dye runs.

2. 02

   Choose warm or hot water

   Warm or hot water, within the limit on the care label, removes body oils and kills more microbes than cold. White cotton towels can usually take the hot setting. Colored towels are usually fine in warm, which protects the dye while still cleaning well.

3. 03

   Use a little less detergent

   Measure detergent to the normal line for the load, or slightly below it, rather than adding extra for bulky towels. Excess soap stays trapped in the thick loops and makes them stiff. Our guide to how much detergent to use explains how to read the cap.

4. 04

   Skip the fabric softener

   Softeners work by coating fibers with a thin waxy layer. That layer makes towels feel smooth at first but repels water, so each wash leaves them less absorbent. Dryer sheets do the same thing in the dryer.

5. 05

   Leave room in the drum

   Towels need space to move through the water. Fill a front loader about three quarters full and leave a hand's width at the top of a top loader. An overpacked load comes out poorly rinsed, which is one of the main reasons towels start to smell.

Dry them for softness

Shake each towel out hard as it comes out of the washer. This lifts the crushed loops and shortens drying time. In the dryer, use a medium or normal setting and take the towels out as soon as they are dry, because long, very hot cycles break down cotton fibers and leave them brittle. Cleveland Clinic recommends high heat when you want to sanitize towels, which is sensible after illness, but for everyday loads a moderate setting is kinder to the fabric.

Towels dried on a line or rack feel stiffer because the loops dry flat in still air. You can reduce this by shaking them well before hanging, drying them on a breezy day, and giving them five minutes in the dryer on a cool setting afterward. Our guide to air drying clothes covers racks and indoor drying. Fold towels only when fully dry, since a slightly damp stack in a closed cupboard will smell within days.

Washing towels with vinegar or baking soda

If towels are already stiff or smell sour even when clean, a stripping wash helps. Run them in the hottest water the label allows with no detergent, and add about a cup of distilled white vinegar to the fabric softener compartment so it arrives in the rinse. The mild acid loosens detergent and mineral residue. If they still smell, wash them again with half a cup of baking soda added to the drum along with a normal dose of detergent. Our guides to using white vinegar in laundry and baking soda in laundry explain the amounts in more detail.

Do these as two separate washes, not one. Vinegar is an acid and baking soda is a base; mixed together they fizz and neutralize each other, leaving mostly salty water, so neither does its job. The combination is not dangerous, but one that is: never use vinegar in the same wash or dispenser as chlorine bleach, because the acid causes the bleach to release chlorine gas. If you bleach white towels, do it in a separate cycle and let the machine rinse before any vinegar goes in.

White towels, colored towels and the hotel question

People often ask how hotels keep towels so white. Commercial laundries use industrial machines, very hot water, softened water and professional chemistry dosed by equipment, which a home laundry cannot copy exactly. At home, the closest you can get is washing whites only with whites, using hot water, and using bleach occasionally rather than every time. For white cotton, chlorine bleach used according to its label works well; for colored towels and for a gentler option on whites, oxygen bleach brightens without stripping dye.

Colored towels fade mostly from heat, bleach and strong sunlight. Wash them in warm rather than hot water, keep chlorine bleach well away, and dry them out of direct sun if you line dry. Our guide to washing white clothes covers the gray and yellow cast that sometimes creeps into white towels and how to reverse it.

How to wash microfiber cloths and towels

Microfiber cleaning cloths, lens cloths and quick dry gym towels need different care from cotton. Their split polyester and nylon fibers trap dirt and lint, so wash them separately from cotton, which sheds lint into them. Use a mild detergent without additives, cold or warm water and a gentle cycle, and never use fabric softener or dryer sheets, which clog the tiny fibers and stop them grabbing dust and absorbing water. Dry on low heat or air dry; high heat can melt and stiffen the fibers.

For a cloth for glasses, a hand wash is simpler: swish it in warm water with a drop of mild detergent, rinse very thoroughly so no film is left to streak the lenses, and let it air dry. Arm and Hammer's care guide for microfiber gives the same advice about separating loads and avoiding softener, which applies whether the cloth is for your car, your kitchen or your phone screen.