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How to Recharge your Towels with ingredients you already have at home!! This will leave them soft, fresh and more absorbent!
How to Recharge Your Towels
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If you have brand new towels that are a little rough and not as absorbent as they should be, or if you have older towels that don’t mop up water like they used to, don’t throw them out. They just need a little recharging.
This does work VERY well… and don’t worry, using vinegar doesn’t make your towels smell like vinegar! It leaves them completely odorless.
You can boost your towels performance with two simple ingredients: white vinegar and baking soda.
TOP LOADING WASHER: Place your towels into the washer, with no soap, and let it fill up with hot water. Once the washer is filled, before the wash cycle starts, drop in a cup of vinegar. Let it dilute for a moment, then add a half of a cup of baking soda. Run the washer, and dry as normal. Your towels will be recharged and like new, or better than ever! (Do not add fabric softener).
FRONT LOAD (HE) WASHER: If you have a HE (front loading) washer, place your towels in the washer with 1 cup of baking soda (no detergent). Start the washer let the water fill for about 1 minute. Add 2 cups of vinegar to the “liquid” cup (again no detergent) and allow the load to run through. When you dry them, do not add fabric softener.
Bonus hint: Keep your towels recharged longer by never using fabric softener on them! (Some of my older towels I had to run through twice but this works awesome!!)
You obviously never studied chemistry. Mixing soda (a carbonate) and vinegar (an acid) together in the same cycle just creates a chemical reaction that creates carbon dioxide and a salt. That has no positive effect on the laundry whatsoever. The acid and the soda have to be added on separate cycles or the whole thing just turns into a superstitious waste of time.
will be trying towel softening tip today. thanks.
I hope it goes well for you, Janis!
My washer is front load however it doesn’t run hot water at all. So will the baking soda dissolve all the way? I think it would but I have to ask. Also washer doesn’t tell me cycles. Like when it’s on fabric softener or rinse cycle. It’s a sweedish brand and way more efficient than the US brands.
If you’re concerned about it dissolving, you can dissolve it in hot water then add it to the washer.
I’ve seen other posts on this and a lot of them say to do separate cycles, one with the vinegar and another with the baking soda, but to not mix them together. Have you tried to see which is better? Or why you decided to mix them together?
I haven’t tried it in separate cycles. I do them together because I want to vinegar and baking soda to combine as it creates a reaction.
Great information…….thanks.
Because balled up aluminum foil disintegrates and makes a mess I take an aluminum loaf pan, crumple it up some, put it in a lingerie bag and let it live in my dryer. No more static and no mess either.
Great tip, thank you for sharing!
I used the baking soda in my top loader and the baking soda did not dissolve?
Did you place the baking soda directly in with the towels or was it added to a dispenser?
If you do this and hang them outside in the sun to dry they will smell so good and dry like no towel you ever had!
Is the vinegar ordinary (malt) vinegar, or white vinegar?
White vinegar.
Vinegar & baking soda? Doesn’t this just fizz?
It does fizz, but this really works to make your towels like new again!
No, no, no. It’s fizzing because they’re NEUTRALIZING each other. They’re literally canceling each other out. The vinegar + baking soda = carbonic acid (which breaks down to water and CO2) + sodium acetate (vinegar/salt flavoring…used to flavor chips). So you’re basically creating water, carbon dioxide and salts. That fizzing is that process. You are NOT creating a cleaning solution. Better to use JUST vinegar or JUST baking soda but NOT TOGETHER.
We do them together because we want to vinegar and baking soda to combine as it creates a reaction. We haven’t tried separately.
I would be very careful adding the vinegar and baking soda together. I did this and I believe it added to my washer arm breaking. I added vinegar and baking soda at the same time I heard a clunk and my washer had broke. The arm on a front load (it holds the drum up) is always exposed to water. My washer was maybe 5 years old I feel that maybe the arm may have rusted and the combination finished it in. As we know vinegar and water creates a fizzing action. I will not ever use the combination again.
This may be a dumb question but I’m going to ask it anyway. It says to put the towels in with no detergent. Does the vinegar and baking soda “clean” your towels?
I already put in detergent can I still add the baking soda and vinager ??
You can add a little vinegar but I would suggest doing the recharge separately another time.
This worked for my towels!! I had been looking for a solution for my “stale” towels. They now remind me of Landry dried outside! Thanks!!
Perfect Sharon! :)
Great idea …thank :-)