By Amy Pearson
April 10, 2023
A soft fluffy towel is an utter joy to wrap around yourself and something to look forward to at the end of a bath or shower. A luxurious and freshly laundered towel is the stuff of dreams, but if that towel is actually damp, smelly and less absorbent, that dream can soon morph into a nightmare.
There are many tips and tricks to getting a perfectly washed towel, one of which is to use vinegar in the wash, but does this truly work and if so, how? Here we will take a look at the reasons you should use vinegar and help you on your way to a sparkling clean towel today.
When properly used, washing towels with vinegar can make them cleaner, fluffier and more absorbent than using normal detergent or other products alone. Detergent can build up on your towels after washing and this can prevent them from drying properly, reduce their ability to take in water, and leave them with a bad or musty smell.
Adding vinegar to your wash can help strip this back creating better-smelling, cleaner towels that are far more pleasant to use. A fresh, absorbent and sweet-smelling towel is the goal and while many people rely on heavy-duty chemicals to ensure their towels are clean and ready to use, often more natural remedies are the best.
Some believe that using vinegar will then leave your towels with a vinegary smell but that is not the case if you use it correctly. You do not need to wash your towels with vinegar every single time, just when you notice that they are starting to smell a little musty or aren’t looking their best.
You also don’t need to use a whole bottle to see results. Even a little vinegar can have a big impact, and for a full load, you certainly wouldn’t need more than a cup added to your machine. Vinegar has several benefits to its use making it a popular choice for hotels and homes alike which it wouldn’t be if it made your towels smell worse rather than better.
Vinegar is also a natural whitener and can produce dramatic results in your washing cycle much like using bleach, but without the long-term damage to your towels. Constantly washing your towels in harsh chemicals can strip away their softness and cause wear over time, while vinegar can leave your towels looking and feeling great without also causing them harm. For all these reasons and more, vinegar is great for refreshing and cleaning your towels.
If you are struggling with less than soft towels there could be many reasons for this. You could be overloading your machine, putting in the wrong type or amount of detergent, or even if you live in an area with hard water where more mineral deposits build up in your appliances.
While there are different solutions to each of these problems, one excellent way to improve the softness of your towels is by using vinegar. If you have been in the habit of adding a little extra detergent or loading up your machine with fabric softener, these chemicals can leave your towels feeling more sticky or oily than soft.
Likewise, if your towel has a build-up of anything from skin cells to oils, giving them a good wash with vinegar added in can strip these back and free up more of the fibres in your towel. This gives it a softer feeling.
Another solution to make your towels feel nicer is to skip the machine drying cycle and hang them out instead. For some with a high volume of laundry, this can be an impractical solution, and they may be better off using a high-quality company like Thai Hotel Towel to take care of their laundry needs. Still, at home, this can leave your towels feeling and smelling wonderful.
For many households, fabric softener is an essential product that is used in every wash, and yet it is not always the best choice to use when cleaning your towels. Vinegar is actually as good if not better than fabric softener in several key ways:
One of the true benefits to using vinegar is its ability to strip the threads in your towel of everything that has built up there. Your detergent, oils, sweat, and yes, fabric softener, can create a layer on the surface of your towel that prevents it from absorbing water. Using vinegar strips this away leaving you with a cleaner and more absorbent towel right away.
Fabric softener can be an unnecessary expense when there are already so many demands on your income. Vinegar is usually much cheaper and you can use less to achieve the same results making it the better option to use.
While your fabric softener can promise a floral or pleasant smell, vinegar rids towels of any bad odours instead of just covering them up, leaving your towels smelling fresh and clean. You don’t have to worry about any vinegary smell either – it goes during the washing process so that only nice smells remain.
As well as softening your laundry, vinegar also brightens colours and leaves whites gleaming without having to use any harsh chemicals. Vinegar is natural and bio-degradable, better for your washing but also for the planet as well.
For all these reasons and more, vinegar is a wonderful addition to your laundry routine. It not only leaves your towels looking brighter, feeling softer and cleaner, and smelling great, but it is also affordable, better for the environment and the best choice for your towels.
While there are many tips and tricks to getting whiter or cleaner towels for your home, if you have a hotel or larger scale business that requires plenty of linens and laundry all cleaned to perfection, using a reliable and high-quality company like Thai Hotel Towel is the best way to guarantee the results you need every time.