How to get mildew smell out of towels (and keep it out)

Step by step: how to get mildew smell out of towels

Safety first. Never mix chlorine bleach with vinegar or ammonia; it releases toxic gas. Use one treatment per soak or wash, and rinse the towels before switching. Wear gloves for bleach and borax soaks and keep stripping ingredients away from children and pets.

1. 1

   Get them out of the hamper or washer

   Pull damp, smelly towels out of the hamper or the washer drum now. Tide notes mildew smells can start after only a few hours in a warm, dark place, so the longer they sit, the harder the smell is to shift.

2. 2

   Soak in vinegar or oxygen bleach

   Soak the towels in a bucket or sink of white vinegar with about a tablespoon of detergent for 30 minutes to overnight, the method Tide describes. Or dissolve oxygen bleach in warm water at the dose on the tub and soak for 1 to 6 hours. Pick one, not both at once.

3. 3

   Rinse the soak out

   Drain and rinse the towels in clean water before they go in the machine. Vinegar left in the wash shifts the pH that detergent is built for, which is why Tide calls vinegar plus detergent together hit or miss.

4. 4

   Wash hot with a full dose of detergent

   Wash on the warmest temperature the care label allows, usually hot for white cotton and warm for colored towels, using the detergent dose for a large or heavily soiled load. Leave out the fabric softener: it coats the fibers, holds odor and makes towels less absorbent.

5. 5

   Add chlorine bleach for white cotton only

   If the towels are white cotton and the label allows it, add chlorine bleach to the bleach dispenser for this wash. It kills the mildew outright. Skip it for colored towels, which can spot, and never use it after a vinegar soak without rinsing first.

6. 6

   Dry them completely, straight away

   Move the towels to the dryer the moment the cycle ends and dry them until they are fully dry, not just warm. Line drying in sun works too, as long as they dry within a few hours. Damp towels folded into a cupboard will smell again.

7. 7

   Smell-test them wet

   The real test is the next shower: a towel that smells fine dry but sour when damp still has residue in it. If that happens, strip them as described below, and clean the washer, which is often where the smell comes from.

Why towels smell like mildew even after washing

Towels smell when body soil, detergent residue and moisture stay in the thick cotton loops long enough for mildew and bacteria to grow. Tide points to two causes: towels left bunched up and wet in the washer or hamper, and body soils that a weak or underdosed detergent leaves behind, which break down into a sour smell.

That is why the smell comes back when the towel gets wet: the residue reactivates. Washing the smell out means removing the residue, not covering it with scent beads or more softener.

Vinegar, oxygen bleach, chlorine or stripping: which to use

Start with the mildest fix and step up only if the smell survives a wet test.

How to strip towels that keep smelling

Stripping is a long hot soak that pulls built-up detergent, softener and minerals out of the fibers. affresh gives a widely used ratio for a bathtub filled halfway with hot water: 1/4 cup borax, 1/4 cup washing soda and 1/2 cup powdered laundry detergent, dissolved completely.

• Start with towels that are already washed, and use only sturdy, colorfast cotton.
• Soak for several hours, stirring every hour or so. Cloudy, grey water is normal.
• Drain, rinse, then run the towels through a plain wash cycle with no detergent to flush the soak out.
• Dry them completely, then smell-test them wet.

Stripping is a once-in-a-while fix, not a routine. If you need it every month, the washer or your detergent dose is the problem.

How to keep towels from smelling again

Dry towels fast and keep the washer clean. Tide recommends hanging towels spread out after every use, never putting wet towels in the hamper, drying them right after washing, and storing them only when fully dry.

• Hang towels open on a bar, not bunched on a hook, in a room with a fan or an open door.
• Wash bath towels after three or four uses, sooner in a humid bathroom.
• Use less fabric softener or none. Wool dryer balls soften without coating the loops.
• Clean the washer monthly. If the drum or door seal smells, Samsung’s mildew routine uses chlorine bleach in a Self Clean cycle; our washing machine guide covers every type.

Mistakes to avoid

• Adding vinegar and chlorine bleach to the same wash or soak.
• Using more fabric softener to mask the smell, which adds the residue that causes it.
• Washing smelly towels on a quick cold cycle with a small detergent dose.
• Leaving clean towels in the washer overnight, which undoes the whole wash.
• Packing towels into a full dryer so the middle stays damp.
• Cleaning the towels but not the washer, so the next load picks the smell back up.