How to Make New Towels More Absorbent

Removing the Fabric Softener from New Towels

Load the new towels into an empty washing machine. Don't stuff the machine with a full load of new towels. You don't want to overload your washer, so try to keep the amount of towels in one wash to about half of a load. Don't wash anything else with the new towels because colors may bleed. If you have a variety of light and dark towels, create separate loads so the dark towels don't bleed onto the light towels.

Start a rinse cycle with hot water and let the machine fill completely. Hot water will break down and wash off the fabric softeners that towel manufacturers use to make towels feel fluffy in the store. Make sure they are completely submerged so that the entire towel soaks in the water.

Add 1 cup (240 mL) of white vinegar to the hot water. Vinegar aids the hot water in the breakdown of the fabric softeners. Plus, it also helps to make your towels soft without leaving an oily residue on them. Be careful not to get the hot water on your skin, as you could hurt or burn yourself!

Let the washing machine go through a complete wash cycle. A regular full cycle will include rinse and spin cycles. After the full cycle ends, there should be no water left in the washer. Your towels will probably smell of vinegar, but that's okay! The vinegar scent will dissipate during the next wash.

Begin a second wash cycle without drying your towels first. Do not take your towels out of the washing machine to dry them yet! Instead, leave them in the washer and let it fill up with hot water again. Use the same settings that you used the first time.

Add 1/2 cup (120 g) of baking soda to the second wash cycle. Add the baking soda when the washing machine is completely filled with water. When the baking soda mixes with the small amount of vinegar that is still on the towels, it will produce a chemical reaction, neutralizing any leftover vinegar and getting rid of detergent or fabric softener that is stopping your towels from being absorbent. Do not mix the vinegar and baking soda in the same wash cycle! This will cause a large chemical reaction that will probably lead to a big, foamy mess and could cause damage to your laundry machine.

Take the towels out of the washing machine and dry them. You can dry your towels as you normally would. You can use any method that you like—your dryer, a drying rack, or air drying in the sun.

Keeping Towels Absorbent

Avoid using fabric softeners when washing your towels. Even though fluffy towels are something most people enjoy, the fabric softeners used to get fluffy towels can leave behind hydrophobic oils that repel liquids, which means they won’t be very absorbent. Not using fabric softeners stops this from happening. If you still want the softest towels you can get, there are ways to soften them without the use of fabric softeners. If you want to use fabric softeners on your other laundry, just wash your towels in a separate load.

Use half as much detergent when doing loads of laundry with towels. Detergent, like fabric softeners, can leave oils on your towels that repel liquids. Using only half as much as you normally use will dilute the detergent in the water just a little more and help to make your towels more absorbent, and your laundry will still be clean. Using less detergent is also a good way to save a little money!

Do half-sized loads of laundry when you wash your towels. Overloading your washing machine means that any detergent you do use won’t distribute evenly across the laundry. Take the amount of laundry you planned to do in one load and divide it into two equal piles so that you have two loads. Consider doing loads of only towels instead of throwing them in with other laundry. Your towels won't be washed as thoroughly if you're using large loads, ultimately causing them to be less absorbent.