Soak your stinky towels in a bucket of white, distilled vinegar for 30 minutes to overnight with a tablespoon of detergent to help loosen body soils. Vinegar contains acetic acid that breaks up mineral deposits and dissolves the build-up of body soils on your towels. Rinse thoroughly.
If a towel continues to have a smell, it means that bacteria are still in your machine or on your towel. Run the washing machine again with bleach, or wash the towel a second time to remove the stubborn bacteria.
So when you notice a musty or sour smell in your towels or they lose softness and absorbency, Forté recommends adding one cup of distilled white vinegar during the final rinse (for a standard top-load washer that fills with water) to remove the odor.
If you start to notice that your towels smell, and not in a spring meadow or clean mountain kind of way, it's a pretty good indication you have mold in your washing machine. The first plan of attack is to clean your washing machine.
Add 1/2 cup of Washing Soda (it's better than Baking Soda, but you can use it in a pinch) and your detergent as normal. Add 1/2 cup of vinegar to your rinse cycle. Wash towels on preferred cycle. Remove from washer and tumble dry immediately.
You left your clothes in the washer too long.
A dark, wet environment like a washing machine is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria, mold, and mildew to thrive. These can build up in your clothing as time goes on, eventually leaving them with a permanent odor.
Throw them out.
I once read that towels should last between 7-10 years… so if you've used your towels for more than 10 years and are struggling to remove the stinky smell, it might just be time to toss them.
Wash With Hot Water and Baking Soda
Baking soda is a natural cleaner, whitener, and deodorizer that works wonders on foul odors like mildew. Use a cup of baking soda only and wash your towels on the hot water cycle. Double rinse your load of towels to remove any baking soda residue.
Wash towels in hot water and one cup vinegar. Don't add any detergent. Wash the towels a second time (without drying them) in hot water and one cup baking soda. Dry your towels but avoid fabric softener, which builds up on towels and reduces softness.
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. And an added bonus: it also acts as a natural fabric softener! All you'll need for each load is 1 cup of white vinegar.
White vinegar is an all-natural towel stain remover—and it can get rid of that musty towel smell, too. To use this ingredient to your benefit, follow Mooney's advice: "Soak items in distilled white vinegar for three minutes before adding them to your washing machine," she says.
'Putting vinegar in the washing machine can be a useful method for cleaning and freshening your towels as well as other fabrics,' agrees home blogger Jenna Kate. 'You can have softer, cleaner, and fresher-smelling clothing and linens by introducing vinegar into your laundry routine.
Washing Towels with Vinegar
Use about half the recommended amount of detergent while washing and add ½ to 1 cup of white vinegar to the water during the rinse cycle. The vinegar helps set the colors and removes excess detergent residue.
Baking soda in the laundry can be a great addition for a natural fabric softener or controlling excess suds, while vinegar in laundry can be an amazing agent for getting those whites extra sparkling and banishing mildew odor. They help even the best laundry detergents to be more effective.
The Watch-outs of Adding Vinegar and Baking Soda to Your Laundry. Although vinegar and baking soda are safe to use in both regular and HE washing machines, they are considerably less efficient than high-performance laundry detergents at delivering an outstanding and odorless clean.
Towels should be washed in the warmest water appropriate for the fabric according to the care label. Generally, warm or hot water is recommended for washing towels. Use a cycle specifically for towels or a normal/regular cycle.
"A good thing to remember is to replace bathroom towels every two to five years and kitchen towels and washcloths every year or every two years, depending on their quality," explains Wischnia.
How often should I wash my bath towels? Dead skin cells, bacteria, and even sweat can accumulate quickly on your towels, so using a fresh one about every three days is a simple rule of thumb—for all kinds of towels. You can of course change them more often.
Vinegar, in combination with hot water and, in several cases, other ingredients like baking soda, is used in several of the methods above. Vinegar is very effective in neutralizing odor and breaking down bacteria. How do you get the smell out of towels without a washing machine?
White vinegar is a natural deodorizer. Add one cup to cold water and soak workout clothes for 15 to 30 minutes. Then wash as normal.
Mold & Mildew Odor: Why Your Laundry Smells Bad After Drying
You may have excess moisture build-up if you wait too long to transfer your clothes from the washing machine to the dryer. Or, extra moisture can build up and lead to mold growth if you forget to turn the dryer on and leave damp clothing in it for too long.
This often happens when there is a buildup of detergent in the clothes, meaning too much has been used over the course of time. Here's what we do when your clothes and linens get a "wet dog" smell: run an extra rinse after washing and smell them again.
Let the washer do it's job. Then, if you still smell a little bit, rewash with just hot water and 1/2 cup of baking soda. I did not need to do this step but if your towels are bad, you might want to. Again, no detergent, just baking soda and hot water.