sour towels, anyone?

I know you moms out there can imagine this with me.

Finally, a moment to yourself to indulge in a warm bath or refreshing (& I'd venture to say long-overdue?) shower. You lather your hair up and then rinse the bubbles away, breathing a sigh of relief as your stress seems to melt away with the disappearing suds.

Once clean, you reach for your fluffy white towel. (You may have to reach a little awkwardly if you're like me and forget to grab one in all the excitement.) Your first move? Press your face into the 100% cotton fluffiness and inhale deeply the sweet fragrance of spring rain ... mildew??

Are you with me? Have you been there?

Well, silly me, I just assumed that once a towel starting smelling like that, it was the death knell for the poor thing. Time for the rag bin, buddy!

But the other day it occurred to me, "I'll bet I could fix this! I want my fluffy towels back and I refuse to allow my skin to take on their sour odor one more time!"

Let alone my babies, my hubby... ew. Bad smell.

I don't know, maybe everyone doesn't smell it. But I've always had an extra sensitive shnoz. I can smell when babies are sick. And I don't mean the obvious throw-up smells. Anyway, I digress.

My first action was to march right to the bookshelf and grab my "Homekeeping Handbook" from the infamous Martha Stewart. Hey, she's good at what she does. And I love that Tiffany-esque blue she uses everywhere.

Alas, Martha merely told me how to fold and organize my towels in the linen closet! "Group by bathroom, then by size," she says. "Always use the towel on top of any given pile and put clean towels on the bottom to ensure even wear."

She did say something about spreading towels over two hooks to dry, or hanging them from rods, instead. Yes, but what if it's already too late to prevent the mildew??

I turned to the internet. Most of the solutions I found mentioned vinegar. Okay, good. I've got that. Also mentioned often was Borax. Don't have that.

So I took some of the tips I read and tried the following:

• hot water
• 1/2 the regular amount of detergent (I guess the detergent builds up in the fibers and can encourage mildew.)
• wait until the rinse cycle starts and add about 1 cup of white vinegar to the wash
• run it through the rinse cycle again to get rid of all vinegar
• tumble dry until they're completely dry

My first load smelled a little vinegar-y. But clean. The second load was when I thought to rinse it a second time. And viola! 

Oh my gosh, I was doing a happy dance all evening and pushing clean towels up to my poor hubby's nose. "Drink it in, Marilla!" (Points to you if you name that movie. Easier than my movie reference from yesterday, right?)

I don't have to buy new towels! I just need to give them a vinegar rinse when I start to smell that old familiar smell. Easy-peazy lemon squeezy. 

Added benefit, the vinegar softened the fibers, too, way better than fabric softener. Try it!

P.S. If you don't see your comment pop up right away, don't worry. You did everything right, it just has to be moderated (okay-ed) by me before it shows up on here. I'm crazy like that. Check back soon and you'll see it.


P.S. towel image from Pottery Barn. I mean, mine are better, but not like *that*!