Help! My dish towels STINK

[leomom]

I have tried washing in hot with baking soda and vinegar. I've tried Tide. I've soaked in vinegar. They still have that mildew smell. I don't use bleach, but is it time to go there??

[spiderdust]

Did you try soaking them in baking soda and water?

[leomom]

Originally Posted by spiderdust

Did you try soaking them in baking soda and water?

No, just vinegar and hot water. Could you give me the proportions? TIA!

[spiderdust]

Hmm, maybe a 1/4 cup of baking soda to a gallon of water? Just guessing proportions. Soak until you think it has soaked enough, then launder as usual.

[Melhow36]

If you have hydrogen peroxide on hand you could use it - it seems to help mine and brightens them up too. I put one-cup in a gallon or so of water.

[Siennaflower]

Originally Posted by Melhow36

If you have hydrogen peroxide on hand you could use it - it seems to help mine and brightens them up too. I put one-cup in a gallon or so of water.

Yup, give peroxide a try before bleach.

[alsoSarah]

Oxyclean has never failed to remove mildewy smells for me.

alsoSarah

[koofie]

Check you washing machine - my front loader makes things smell mildewy when I haven't aired it out enough.

[leomom]

Originally Posted by koofie

Check you washing machine - my front loader makes things smell mildewy when I haven't aired it out enough.

It's just my dishtowels. I think it's because I get them wet and then throw them to the bottom of my hamper for a few days.

[zensven42]

soak them in water, wring them out and spread them out inside the microwave. (lay them flat) microwave them on high for 30-45 secs. Make sure you supervise them. They should steam not smoke. This also works on mildewy sponges.

[leomom]

Originally Posted by zensven42

soak them in water, wring them out and spread them out inside the microwave. (lay them flat) microwave them on high for 30-45 secs. Make sure you supervise them. They should steam not smoke. This also works on mildewy sponges.

I don't have a microwave.

[anniegirl]

Oxyclean and then drying them in the sunshine works for me. Sunshine is awesome for getting stink out of stuff.

[roostery]

I second the sunshine. It quickly removes stains and stinks from diapers. I'm always sad when winter comes and I can't hang them out anymore. They get stinky.

[wakkun]

I had some trouble awhile back with some dish towels with a funky smell that didn't go away with regular washing. What I ended up doing was a wash with baking soda + regular detergent and added vinegar in the rinse cycle (where you would put softener if you used it, but had vinegar in it instead) and then a wash with tea tree oil, detergent and vinegar in rinse cycle. The cloths are back to normal and I am not having anymore trouble....

[roostery]

You could always boil them. That should finish off the smell. I believe that's what people used to do with towels and diapers and other smelly items.

[North_Of_60]

Originally Posted by leomom

I have tried washing in hot with baking soda and vinegar. I've tried Tide. I've soaked in vinegar. They still have that mildew smell. I don't use bleach, but is it time to go there??

I'd say yes. The thing a lot of peple don't know about bleach is that it is effective in very, very, very small quantities. Like one part per thousand has been shown effective in killing e coli, which works out to about one DROP per ounce. So for the sake of argument, if you made up a 20 ounce spray bottle for disinfecting, you would only need 20 drops, or maybe a teaspoon. And how long would a spray bottle last for disinfecting? Meaning that the concentration of bleach actually being used is very, very, very small.

For laundry I only use a little bit, and it usually almost always is enough. I start with a cap full (= a couple of tablespoons) for funky towels, and that almost always does the trick. The key though is hot, hot water. If I wash my towels in cold water for a few weeks, I find I need to de-funk them once every several weeks. If I wash them in hot more often, I don't need to do it as much.

[leomom]

Well, we were out of hydrogen peroxide...

So, right now I have them in a hot water soak with bs, vinegar, and TTO. With more vinegar in the rinse cycle cup...

Should I dry them after wash and then boil them if they still stink, or just take them out and boil them first?


Any ideas on how to keep them from stinking again? I don't do a hot wash everyday, so they sit in hamper for a few days. Should I start putting them in my diaper hamper and wash like I do my dipes, or is that gross? Should I soak them in something until wash day? What works for you guys? Note: we use these for spills, cleaning, and any other time we would use a paper towel since we don't use paper napkins or towels...

[North_Of_60]

I would do a rinse before you wash, like you do with diapers. Otherwise they're essentially being washed in the dirty water of whatever comes out of them in the wash, which could contribute to the smell. And I wouldn't dry them until they no longer stink, especially if you're using the dryer. And rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, and rinse some more.

I would probably wash these the same way you'd strip diapers. For me, that would go something like this (keeping in mind this is NOT a regular wash routine) -

1.) Rinse in cold.

2.) Wash in the hottest water possible with regular detergent and a cap full of bleach.

3.) Rinse again in the hottest water possible.

4.) Sniff check.

5.) If needed rinse again with vinegar.

6.) Sniff check.

If needed repeat steps 2-4. You could omit the second round of bleach, or may try borax in the rinse. Then do extra rinses.

And at the risk of sounding like I'm pro-bleach, which I actually am not, the thing drives me to using it is that it reduces the amount water I use. Both hot and cold. In what could take me 7-10 wash/rinse cycles to do it "naturally", I can get the problem knocked out in 3-4 wash/rinse cycles.

When we lived on well we got some funky towels, and as hard as I tried to avoid bleach, sometimes I just didn't see the benefit in using so much water washing and re-washing, and trying different additives to my rinse cycles, etc, when a cap full of bleach and 2 extra rinse cycles did the trick once and for all.

[AngelBee]

Febreeze has an odor eating detergent that works wonders for things like this.

[North_Of_60]

Oh yeah, and if they're sitting for a long time before washes, try to leave them some place where they get some air. If they're in a hamper, especially with a lid, mildew and mold and germs will multiply and grow like crazy. They'll atually stink less with a bit of air. I just toss my towels in a pile next the washing machine in the laundry room. No hamper. They get washed once or twice a week. Only a very few towels on the very bottom of the pile get smelly.