Home Cleaning Laundry 7 Mistakes That Make Your Bath Towels Dingy Spa-worthy bath towels await. By Mary Marlowe Leverette Mary Marlowe Leverette Facebook Twitter Mary Marlowe Leverette has over four decades of experience and has been writing and consulting for more than 20 years sharing her knowledge on efficient housekeeping, stain removal methods, and textile conservation. Real Simple's Editorial Guidelines Updated on December 31, 2022 Fact checked by Isaac Winter Fact checked by Isaac Winter Isaac Winter is a fact-checker and writer for Real Simple, ensuring the accuracy of content published by rigorously researching content before publication and periodically when content needs to be updated. Highlights: Helped establish a food pantry in West Garfield Park as an AmeriCorps employee at Above and Beyond Family Recovery Center. Interviewed Heartland Alliance employees for oral history project conducted by the Lake Forest College History Department. Editorial Head of Lake Forest College's literary magazine, Tusitala, for two years. Our Fact-Checking Process Share Tweet Pin Email When you visit a luxury spa, there are stacks and stacks of pristine, white bath towels. Each one is stain-free, soft, fresh-smelling, and absorbent. Do your towels at home measure up? The touch of a soft, fluffy bath towel after a warm shower or bath is the best. But if your bath towels are dingy, scratchy, and smell a bit funky, it's probably due to your laundry routine. Cleaning and drying your towels incorrectly can lead to discoloration, changes in texture, and odors. Here are seven bath towel laundry mistakes you're making—but don't worry, they are all simple to fix. 10 Laundry Mistakes You Might Be Making 01 of 07 Choosing the Wrong Detergent Martin Vecchio for Neat Method Bath towels are used on the most intimate parts of our bodies and can trap body soil and bacteria. To remove body oils and soil, you need a heavy-duty detergent. Take the time to read labels to be sure that your detergent has several enzymes (protease, amylase, cellulase) in the ingredient list. Enzymes break down oils and stains so they can be flushed away in the wash water. 02 of 07 Using Fabric Softener The Spruce / Ana Cadena If the towels do not come clean during the wash cycle, adding fabric softener to the rinse cycle traps the soil in the fibers, leaving the towels dingy. Fabric softener fragrances smell nice for a while, but in addition to soil, the residue also traps odor-causing bacteria that reappears when the towel gets damp. Finally, fabric softeners also coat the fibers, causing the towel to be less absorbent. Instead of fabric softener, use one cup of distilled white vinegar in the rinse cycle. The vinegar cuts through any detergent residue left in the fibers, so it is flushed away, leaving the fibers soft and absorbent. 03 of 07 Washing With Cold Water all the Time The Spruce / Nelly Cuanalo While washing with cold water is ecologically responsible, it's a good idea to add a hot water wash for bath towels at least monthly, especially if you use a less-effective detergent. Hot water helps break down soil and detergent residues so they are flushed away. 04 of 07 Forgetting to Clean Your Washing Machine A clean washer produces cleaner clothes. Adding a monthly cleaning cycle to your laundry routine reduces the chance of soil redepositing on towels and leaving them dingy. 05 of 07 Failing to Sort Your Laundry The Spruce / Sanja Kostic When that white towel is tossed in the washer with blue jeans and a red T-shirt, it will most likely absorb some of the loose dyes that are released in the wash water from the colorful fabrics. You'll have whiter, brighter towels if you sort the textiles first and don't overload the washer. If you use microfiber towels, don't wash them with cotton fabrics, because microfiber attracts lint that can dull colors. 06 of 07 Washing With Hard Water Shutterstock Washing towels in water high in mineral content (aka hard water) and using too much detergent can leave them with residue that makes the fabric dingy, stiff, and scratchy. Add a water conditioner, reduce the amount of detergent you use, and add distilled white vinegar to the rinse cycle. 07 of 07 Using too Many Body Washes, Soaps, or Other Products Good Juju If you notice dinginess and gray stains, especially on washcloths, your body wash or soap may be to blame. Some "natural" soaps react with minerals in water to leave a residue on the fabric. To remove the stains, make a paste of powdered detergent or laundry borax and water and work it into the stains. Let the paste sit for at least 15 minutes and then wash the towels in hot water. Change your soap brand to prevent stains from reoccurring. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit Sources Real Simple is committed to using high-quality, reputable sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts in our articles. Read our editorial guidelines to learn more about how we fact check our content for accuracy. Gotoh K, Horibe K, Mei Y, Tsujisaka T. Effects of water hardness on textile detergency performance in aqueous cleaning systems. J Oleo Sci. 2016;65(2):123-133. doi:10.5650/jos.ess15168