We Tried 3 Ways to Wash Towels, and There’s One Superior Method for Getting Them Clean
Over the years, my family has amassed quite a collection of towels. With a household of seven and a revolving door of overnight guests, we use everything we have on hand. But heavy use takes its toll, and some of our towels have seen better days. This is especially true of our white towels, which show every stain as well as the yellowing that happens over time.
How to Wash Towels
The best way to wash towels, especially white towels, is to use vinegar and baking soda separately in a washing machine. Add a cup of baking soda to the wash cycle and a cup of distilled white vinegar to the fabric softener dispenser and run a normal wash cycle. Dry normally in a dryer.
Although I am very familiar with how to wash towels in general (use hot water, don’t use fabric softener), I wanted to test a few ways to wash our white towels specifically. After all, dingy hand towels look dirty even if they’re technically clean — and that’s just not the vibe.
I decided to try out three methods: vinegar and baking soda (an old favorite of mine for whitening bedding), hot water and regular detergent (this is kind of a control), and lemon juice and sunlight (an old classic that uses both lemon juice and the sun to whiten).
How I Tested
To test these methods I did the following:
- I grabbed three white hand towels — all the same brand and roughly the same level of dirtiness.
- I took pictures of each of the towels in their “before” state, which included general dinginess from being washed with no particular effort to whiten them, an accumulation of makeup stains, and dirtiness from hands and faces being wiped.
- I tested each towel on its own, separate from the other towels.
Ratings: I awarded two scores for each method: one for the results, and another for ease of use, which is an indication of how easy it would be to replicate the method in daily life. I used a scale of one to five, with one being the lowest score and five being the highest.
Method 1: Vinegar and Baking Soda
Results: 5/5
Ease of Use: 4/5
Method: To whiten a dirty hand towel with baking soda and vinegar, I made sure that the baking soda and vinegar wouldn’t interact with each other (which basically just cancels them out). Instead of running two separate loads, I added a cup of baking soda to the wash cycle, and then added a cup of distilled white vinegar to the fabric softener dispenser, which runs after. I dried the towel in the dryer.
How it went: I’m pretty used to using vinegar and baking soda in my laundry routine. I use this combination to whiten our bedding and also to wash our blankets. I keep a big bag of baking soda from Costco in the laundry room, along with a gallon of distilled white vinegar. The white towel that came out of this load was not only clean and a noticeably brighter white, but also so soft.
Method 2: Hot Water and Regular Detergent
Results: 3/5
Ease of Use: 5/5
Method: Testing out this method was extremely straightforward, as to be expected. I simply ran the towel through a regular load with the washer set on high, using the laundry detergent I always use. I dried it in the dryer after.
How it went: Washing the towel with hot water and regular detergent was just as easy as throwing in any load of laundry. The results were fine. The towel came out cleaner, but not completely clean and no whiter.
Method 3: Lemon Juice and Sunlight
Results: 2/5
Ease of Use: 2/5
Method: To test out washing towels with lemon juice, I squeezed the juice of about three large lemons to get half a cup of juice and combined this with half a gallon of hot water in a plastic laundry bin. I added the towel and let it soak for about an hour. Then I rinsed it out and hung the towel out in the sun until it dried.
How it went: Cutting and squeezing the lemons was time-consuming and I couldn’t help thinking of the cost. If I were washing more than one towel, I would have had to use at least half a dozen lemons. Additionally, drying the towel out in the sun seems like it would be easy, but the added step of going outside, finding a clean and sunny spot to hang the towel (not to mention having to wait for a sunny day in the first place), and then feeling like I needed to run the whole thing through the washer and dryer to really get it clean took a lot of time and effort. It’s not something I would do regularly. The results definitely weren’t worth the effort, either. The towel didn’t get very clean, and it was significantly stiffer than the other two towels.
Conclusion
The baking soda and vinegar method was by far the superior method of the three. Using baking soda and vinegar requires more steps than a regular laundry routine, but it takes less than 30 seconds total. Both additions are inexpensive as well.
The results are exceptional. The towel that was washed with baking soda and vinegar came out bright white and was soft and supple to the touch. I’m going to be adding baking soda and vinegar to all my towel loads from now on. Even more so, I’m less afraid to make the switch to all white towels like I’ve been thinking about doing because now I know I can keep them white.