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.
Home remedies are convenient and can be cheaper than buying ready-made cleaners. All that's needed is some baking soda and white vinegar set on a normal cycle to clean or remove smells from a front loader or top loader washing machine. The more regularly it is done, the easier it will be to clean.
All you'll need is one cup of white vinegar and one cup of baking soda. You'll be using these two ingredients separately, as using them together will only cancel out the effectiveness of each one, during two washes on the same load of towels.
Put your towels into your washer machine. Mine is a high efficiency (HE) front loader washer machine but you can also do this with a standard washer machine too. Add 1/2 cup baking soda right over the towels. Don't worry about using the dispenser, just pour it right over the towels.
Remember, don't use laundry detergent or fabric softener (that means no dryer sheets in the dryer, too!) – just vinegar in the first load and baking soda in the second. I wasn't expecting a miracle, but to my surprise the towels did come out feeling and smelling much more fresh than they went in!
Front-load washer: Vinegar is usually used as a fabric-softener alternative when it comes to laundry, and for that reason should be put in the fabric softener compartment of your washing machine, Matthew says.
Front Loader Machine: If you have a front loader, or HE machine, you will put the vinegar in the softener dispenser. Add a 1/2- 1 cup.
Set your machine to the hottest wash possible and let the vinegar get to work – there's no need to rinse afterward. A second step is to do the exact same process but with baking soda, before putting the towels in the dryer or leaving to air dry to save some money on energy bills and give your dryer a break.
Add sheets and towels to the washing machine. Add ½ cup baking soda into the detergent dispenser and ½ cup vinegar to the fabric softener dispenser. Then wash on the hottest setting possible and dry as usual.
Wash towels frequently.
Now that you know why towels should be washed every three to four uses, stick to a regular bathroom linen washing schedule. If your towels start to feel stiff or less absorbent, add borax to your machine (or vinegar) every few washes to refresh them and remove detergent residue.
Before going further, we have to warn you: adding vinegar or baking soda to the wash along with your laundry detergent increases the risk of poorer cleaning performance, as detergents are optimized for a specific pH level, which is altered by the presence of these two household additives in the wash.
Add Distilled White Vinegar and Wash as Usual
Do not add any detergent or fabric softener. Instead, add two cups of distilled white vinegar to the washer drum. The vinegar will help strip away the residue left in the towels that is causing them to feel stiff.
Add 1/2 to 1 cup of vinegar straight to the washer during the last rinse cycle if you have smelly clothes. This will remove the smells from your clothes without making them smell like 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.
Set your front-loading machine on its longest cycle with the hottest water. When the cycle has finished, sprinkle half a cup of baking soda directly into the drum of the washing machine and run it on the same settings (highest and hottest).
Instead, sprinkle 1/2 cup baking soda into the empty washer tub before you load the clothes. Baking soda acts as a natural brightener and deodorizer. If you have particularly smelly clothes, using a full cup of baking soda will not harm your washer.
“It will help lift dirt and grime from clothing,” says Reichert. Don't put baking soda in your washer's detergent dispenser, however. Instead, sprinkle it into the empty drum of your washer, then add clothes and whatever detergent and fabric softeners you'd normally use.
That's because the clothes are generally tumbling through just a little water rather than floating through lots of it, like they would in an older-style top loader. To get the fibres nicely fluffed up, your towels must be immersed in water."
“With continual use, vinegar can literally melt hoses, causing leaks and thereby possibly all kinds of additional damage to the house,” says Grayson. In his experience, front-load washers are especially susceptible to vinegar-related damage. Plus, it may not even be doing much.
Soften towels with vinegar
The expert-recommended way to soften towels that have become scratchy is to use vinegar. 'Throw a cup of white vinegar in your next wash,' advises textiles expert and CEO of New Sega Home, Brian Delp. The towels have likely become stiff and scratchy because of the use of fabric softener.