- 4 weeks ago
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If your towels still smell musty even after a fresh wash, you're not alone. The problem usually isn't your detergent—it's the buildup of bacteria, body oils, detergent residue, and trapped moisture deep inside the fabric.
In this video, we'll show you why towels keep developing that unpleasant odor and share simple, effective ways to get them smelling fresh again. From common laundry mistakes to easy washing techniques that actually work, these tips can help restore your towels without expensive products.
**In this video you'll learn:**
* Why clean towels can still smell bad
* The biggest washing mistakes most people make
* How detergent and fabric softener can trap odors
* The best way to deep-clean towels naturally
* How to dry towels properly to prevent mildew
* Simple habits to keep towels fresh for longer
Whether you're dealing with musty bath towels, hand towels, or kitchen towels, these practical tips can help you eliminate stubborn odors and keep your laundry smelling clean.
👍 If you found this video helpful, please **Like**, **Subscribe**, and turn on **Notifications** fo
If your towels still smell musty even after a fresh wash, you're not alone. The problem usually isn't your detergent—it's the buildup of bacteria, body oils, detergent residue, and trapped moisture deep inside the fabric.
In this video, we'll show you why towels keep developing that unpleasant odor and share simple, effective ways to get them smelling fresh again. From common laundry mistakes to easy washing techniques that actually work, these tips can help restore your towels without expensive products.
**In this video you'll learn:**
* Why clean towels can still smell bad
* The biggest washing mistakes most people make
* How detergent and fabric softener can trap odors
* The best way to deep-clean towels naturally
* How to dry towels properly to prevent mildew
* Simple habits to keep towels fresh for longer
Whether you're dealing with musty bath towels, hand towels, or kitchen towels, these practical tips can help you eliminate stubborn odors and keep your laundry smelling clean.
👍 If you found this video helpful, please **Like**, **Subscribe**, and turn on **Notifications** fo
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Here is a thing that will vex a woman to no end.
00:04You take a clean towel off the rack, fresh from the wash, and you dry your face with
00:09it, and there it is, that sour, musty smell rising up off it, that mildewed reek, on a
00:16towel you washed only days ago.
00:18So you wash it again, and add more soap, and maybe a stronger soap, and it comes out smelling
00:24fine, and then the first time it gets wet again, the sourness is right back, and you
00:30begin to think there is something wrong with your water, or your machine, or your soap.
00:35There is not.
00:36The trouble is not your soap at all, and adding more of it is very likely making the whole
00:41thing worse, not better.
00:43Let me tell you what is truly happening in that towel, and how the old women kept their
00:48linen sweet long before there was a bottle of anything to buy.
00:51A towel goes sour for one, plain reason, and once you see it, the whole thing makes sense.
00:57A towel is thick, made to drink up water and hold it, and that is just what you want of
01:03it when you dry your hands, but it is the very thing that turns it sour.
01:07For a thick, damp towel that does not dry out quickly stays wet in its heart for hours,
01:14and a thing that stays damp and warm breeds the mildew that makes the sour smell.
01:19The smell is not dirt.
01:21It is the mildew that grows in cloth left damp too long, and it grows down in the fibers
01:26where a quick wash never reaches it.
01:29So the towel that sours is the towel that stayed wet too long, at some point in its life, and
01:35grew the mildew that now lives in it and wakes up sour every time the towel gets damp again.
01:41Fix the damp and reach the mildew already in there, and you fix the smell for good.
01:46Quick word before we go further.
01:49My name is Esther Yoder, and the old household ways handed down to me, the kind I am sharing
01:55today and a great many more besides, are far more than I could ever fit into one video.
02:00I have gathered the whole of them into a book, and you will find it at EliasYoder.com.
02:06If today s tip serves you, that is where the rest of what my mother and grandmother taught
02:11me lives, all in the one place.
02:13Now to the towels.
02:15My mother had no trouble with sour towels, and neither did her mother, and they had no
02:20fancy soaps at all, only plain lye soap and washing soda and a line in the sun.
02:25And the reason they had no trouble is the whole secret I want to give you, plain as she gave
02:31it to me.
02:31She used to say that the wash is not clean until it is dry.
02:35That a thing washed and left damp is only half done, and worse than not washed at all.
02:41For a damp thing left folded goes to mildew and sours.
02:45She would no more have left a wet towel bunched up than she would have left the milk out in
02:50July.
02:51The moment a thing came off the line, she checked it was dry clear through before it went in
02:56the press.
02:57And if it was the least bit damp, it went back out.
03:00That was her whole war on the sour smell, and she won it every time.
03:05Not with a stronger soap, but with dryness, quick and complete.
03:09Dry it fast and dry it through, she said, and it will never sour.
03:13And she was right, and it is as true in your house today as it was in hers.
03:18So let me give you the fixing of it, the little things that are going wrong and the plain
03:22mending of each, and then the rescue for the towels already gone sour.
03:26And you will see that near every one of them comes back to the same root.
03:31That the towel is not drying fast enough, or not being reached deep enough, just as my
03:36mother said.
03:36The first thing going wrong is cramming too many towels in the wash at once.
03:41You stuff the machine full to save time.
03:4410 towels where there is room to truly wash 4 or 6.
03:48And packed in tight like that, they cannot move and turn.
03:52And the water and the soap cannot flush through them.
03:55So the dirt and the old soap never rinse clear away, but stay in the cloth.
03:59It is like trying to wash 10 sponges crammed in one small basin.
04:03The water cannot get at them.
04:05So wash fewer at a time, 4 to 6, and give them the room to turn and be flushed clean.
04:12And they come out truly rinsed and fresher for it.
04:16The second thing, and this is the one that surprises folk most, is using too much soap.
04:22You think more soap means more clean, and it is the very opposite.
04:26Too much soap does not all rinse out.
04:29It leaves a residue behind in the cloth.
04:31And that residue holds moisture and gives the mildew just the damp place it wants to grow.
04:37And it builds up, wash after wash, till the towel feels stiff or slimy and sours fast.
04:45If your towels feel that way, that is soap buildup, not dirt.
04:49So use half the soap you think you need, a little only, and the towels rinse cleaner and
04:55hold no residue to sour.
04:57Less soap, not more, is the mending here.
05:01The third thing is washing always in cold water.
05:05Now cold water is gentle and saves on the heating.
05:08And for much of the wash it does fine.
05:11But cold water does not kill the mildew that makes the smell.
05:15So the sour causing growth survives the cold wash and lives on in the cloth.
05:20Which is why a towel smells fine one day and sour the next.
05:25So once a month or so, give your towels a hot wash, the hottest the cloth will take.
05:30And that heat kills back the mildew the cold cycles leave behind.
05:35And into that hot wash, put a cup of plain white vinegar and no soap.
05:40For the vinegar cuts the built up soap residue and resets the towel back to fresh.
05:46Vinegar is the great friend of a sour towel.
05:49And you will hear me name it again.
05:52The fourth thing is the fabric softener.
05:54And I will tell you plainly to leave it off your towels altogether.
05:58It makes them feel soft and fluffy at the first, yes.
06:02But what it truly does is lay down a waxy coating on the fibers.
06:07And that coating does two bad things.
06:10It locks the odor down into the cloth.
06:13And it makes the towel less able to drink up water.
06:16Which is the one thing a towel is for.
06:19That is why a soft seeming towel sometimes will not dry you at all.
06:23And why it holds it sour.
06:25So skip the softener on towels.
06:27If you want them softened, a half cup of plain baking soda in the wash softens the cloth
06:34naturally without any waxy coating.
06:36And it helps take up the odor besides.
06:39And the fifth thing is the one that sours more towels than all the rest together.
06:45Leaving them sitting wet in the machine after the wash.
06:49You run the load and then you forget it.
06:51And it sits there damp and bunched an hour, two hours, half the day.
06:56Warm and wet.
06:58And that is the perfect nest for the mildew.
07:01And it can sour a whole load.
07:03And stink up the whole washroom besides.
07:06So the moment the wash is done, you must get those towels to drying at once.
07:11Not an hour later.
07:12Do not let them sit wet.
07:14That one habit, moving them straight to dry, prevents more sour towels than any soap ever could.
07:22Now here is where I will speak in my own way, for the drying is the heart of all of
07:26it.
07:27And it is the thing my people never had trouble with, because we dry as the old women always did.
07:33For those of you with the machine dryer, move the towels to it the moment the wash ends,
07:38and dry them on a good hot heat, as hot as the cloth allows, for the heat dries them fast,
07:45and kills back what the wash did not.
07:48That is the English way, and it works.
07:50But I will tell you the better way, the old way, the way that sweetens a towel like nothing else,
07:56and that is to hang it in the sun and the open air on a line.
08:00The sun and the moving air dry a towel clear through, and the sun itself freshens and sweetens the cloth,
08:08and drives back the mildew smell in a way no machine can match,
08:12for there is nothing on this earth that sweetens linen like a day on the line in the sun and
08:17the wind.
08:18My towels have never soured in my life, and that is the whole reason.
08:22They dry fast and complete in the free sun and air, the way the Lord gives us to dry them,
08:28and they come in smelling of nothing but sunshine.
08:31If you have a bit of line in a sunny day, use them, and you will see.
08:36So that is the keeping of a good towel.
08:38But what of the towel already gone sour?
08:41The one that sours no matter what you do, because the mildew is deep in it already.
08:46For that there is a rescue, and it works, and it is only vinegar and baking soda and heat.
08:53First you wash the sour towels in a hot wash with one cup of vinegar and no soap.
08:58at all, and let the vinegar cut the built up residue and the sour.
09:03Then you wash them a second time with a half cup of baking soda, again no soap,
09:08and let the soda take up the last of the odour.
09:11And then you dry them all the way, complete, on a good heat or best of all in the hot
09:17sun.
09:18Those two washes strip out the build up and kill the smell, and reset the towel back to neutral, back
09:24to fresh.
09:25And it is the same plain method used to rescue cloth that seemed past saving.
09:31A sour towel you were ready to throw out comes back sweet, with a cup of vinegar, a half cup
09:37of soda, and a proper drying.
09:40Now think a moment about who gains from your believing the answer was a stronger soap.
09:45There is a great deal of money in the bottles, the extra soap and the scent boosters, and the fabric
09:51softener, and the special towel washes.
09:54Each one sold to you as the cure for the sour smell.
09:58And here is the plain truth.
10:00The extra soap and the softener are among the very things causing the smell, laying down the residue and the
10:07waxy coat that hold the damp and lock in the sour.
10:11They sell you as the cure, the very thing that is the cause, and you buy more of it, and
10:17it sours worse, and you buy more still.
10:20A cup of vinegar costs a few cents, and undoes what a whole shelf of those bottles did.
10:26I will not say there is a plot in it, a room of folk scheming to sour your towels.
10:33It is quieter than that, and worse in its way, for no one had to arrange it.
10:38A whole trade simply grew up around selling you more bottles for the wash.
10:43And the plain old knowing that a towel wants less soap and no softener and a fast complete drying in
10:50the sun just stopped being handed down, mother to daughter,
10:54because no one anywhere makes a dollar teaching you to use less and hang it in the free air.
11:02My grandmother kept her linen sweet with plain soap and sunshine and thought nothing of it, for it was simply
11:09how the wash was done.
11:10And somewhere between her line and your machine that plain knowing slipped away until a sour towel came to seem
11:19a mystery you must buy a new bottle to solve,
11:21when it was too much soap and too slow a drying all along.
11:26The mending of it is small, and it is in your own two hands, and it costs you less than
11:32you spend now, not more.
11:34You wash fewer towels with half the soap and no softener.
11:38You give them a hot vinegar wash once a month.
11:41You never let them sit wet, and you dry them fast and complete in the sun and air if you
11:48can.
11:48And the sour towels you have already you rescue with a cup of vinegar, a half cup of soda, and
11:55a good drying.
11:57That is the whole of it, and your towels come sweet and stay sweet for pennies.
12:02So here is what I would ask of you.
12:05Try the rescue on your worst sour towel this week, the vinegar wash and the soda wash and a good
12:11drying,
12:12and come back and tell me in the comments whether it came sweet again,
12:16for I do love to hear a thing saved that was near thrown out.
12:20And tell me too, while you are there, your county and the age of your house,
12:25for the old houses have the damp cellars and the close washrooms where the sour starts,
12:30and the climates differ so in how fast a thing will dry.
12:34And I learn from every one of you how the damp runs where you live.
12:38I read every comment. I learn from you the way the old women learned from one another across the fence
12:45line,
12:45one wash and one season at a time.
12:48Next time I will show you the plain old way to keep the whole wash sweet and soft,
12:54with a few cheap things and the free sun, the soap you can make,
12:58and the way to whiten and freshen linen without a single bottle from the store shelf.
13:02There is a right and an old way to do the wash that runs on plain things and sunshine,
13:08and almost none of it comes in a bottle.
13:11But today you start with the towels, you cut back the soap, you leave off the softener,
13:17you give them the hot vinegar wash, you never let them sit wet,
13:21and you dry them fast and through, in the sun if the day allows.
13:26And you will understand, as my mother did at her own line,
13:30that the wash is not clean until it is dry,
13:33and that a sour towel was never a want of stronger soap,
13:37but only a want of dryness, quick and complete.
13:41The wash done the plain old way is the one that remembers how the old women
13:46kept every towel and sheet sweet, with plain soap and a day in the sun.
13:52And that is a thing we are only just starting to remember.
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