How often do you wash your towels? After each and every use, your bath towels accumulate millions of dead skin cells. This equates to numerous types of bacteria that you are reintroducing to your body every time you dry off. According to public health researchers, laundry experts and dermatologists, bath towels should be washed after 3 uses. Towels used to wash your face should ideally be replaced or washed after each use in order to avoid exposing your pores and eyes to unnecessary bacteria. Aside from health concerns, you have probably noticed that your bath towels have a tendency to smell musty if you go too long between washes. This is partially because the towels have done what they were made to do: absorb water. If you don’t hang them up where they can dry out between uses, this problem will be even worse.
Another culprit is fabric softener. You already know it is awful for you and for all of your fabrics. It coats everything it touches with awful chemicals that will cause fabrics to deteriorate more quickly than they should. Fabric softeners cover towels in chemicals that don’t allow them to dry thoroughly, thereby locking in both moisture and odor. Yuck. Often, washing towels with conventional detergents is not enough to strip away bacteria and unpleasant odors, it also does not remove the nasty residue left by fabric softeners and those detergents may leave additional residue of their own as well.
In order to rid your towels of musty smells, you only need two of our favorite natural cleaning products: vinegar and baking soda, plus your favorite scent of Roux Maison Essential Detergent. Vinegar is an acid cleaner, so it will work by itself to strip any unwanted gunk from your towels. Vinegar is great for cleaning and the odor neutralizes in the rinse cycle. No musty smells and no stinky ones either. Baking soda, which you will use separately, will leave your towels smelling fresh. After properly washing and drying your towels, they will remain odor free longer. Always remember to wash new towels before their first use! New towels, sheets and clothes have chemicals on them when they leave the factory. You want to be sure none of those chemicals stay on your fabrics or get on you.
Step 1
Gather your towels and separate them into lights and darks. You’ll be using hot water, so you don’t want any colors bleeding onto your lighter colored towels. In addition, we do not recommend adding clothes to the washer during this process. Towels have a tendency to shed lint and we always suggest that you wash them alone.
Step 2
Place your towels in the washer and make sure not to overfill the machine so everything gets thoroughly cleaned. Mix about a cup of vinegar with your regular dose of two capfuls of your favorite scent of Roux Maison Essential Detergent. You can also add some extra water to dilute this mixture, or else make sure there is water in the washer first. Neglecting to do so may result in the vinegar damaging the color of your towels. Run the cycle with hot water on a normal setting. If the towels smell clean, dry immediately.
Step 3
If any musty odors remain after the washer completes its cycle, you can repeat Step 2 or else add one cup of baking soda and run a second cycle, also with hot water. Do not add any detergent to this cycle. The combination of vinegar, Roux Maison detergent and baking soda will strip any unwanted substances from your towels, and leave them smelling fresh!
Step 4
Dry your towels on normal heat right away, and make sure that they are completely free of moisture before removing them from the dryer and putting them away. Excess moisture is one of the biggest contributors to musty odors and mildew. If you have the time and space, you can always line dry your towels outdoors as well! Sunlight can minimize yellowing, stains and also kill bacteria.
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