A towel can look perfectly clean and still smell sour, damp, or musty the moment it gets wet again. If you are trying to figure out how to get mildew smell out of towels, the problem is usually more complicated than simply adding extra detergent. Towels are thick, absorbent fabrics that can hold moisture, body oils, detergent residue, and odor-causing microorganisms deep inside their fibers.
Good news: That stinky towel doesn’t automatically need a one-way trip to the trash. The secret to cleaning this household staple is a combination of proper washing techniques and mindful use of cleaning boosters, meticulous drying, and smarter moisture management when it’s not in use. It also involves pinpointing whether that mildew smell is originating from your towels themselves, or from a stale washing machine that’s redepositing musky odor onto clean laundry.
Here, we detail the reasons why towels get mildewy, how to tackle various degrees of odor, which cleaning remedies can truly work, common mistakes that’ll only worsen things, and how to prevent odor in the future.
Why Do Towels Develop a Mildew Smell?
Musty smell is most commonly linked to moisture left inside the fibers too long. And a towel is notorious for being a wet object since that is exactly its function; to soak up water. Think about all the damp a big fluffy bath towel might hold after your shower.
If it sits crumpled up in the dirty laundry hamper or on the floor of your laundry room, or even forgotten in the washing machine after it completes a cycle, it could be damp for quite a while which allows odors to build up.
Not the only cause, though But, dampness may not be the only culprit. Your towels might be full of body oils, sweat, dead skin, lingering detergent residue, excess fabric softener, etc., stuck within the loops of terry cloth and the cycle just might have washed away some but not all of the components that produced the odor. According to Whirlpool, odors can also happen due to the detergent if over-dosing occurs, overloading clothes and a dirty washing machine. Now that’s probably why it makes no sense to just pump in more detergent to an overloaded machine with detergent-fouled machine: you might simply get more residue stuck in your towels and underwear.
The First Thing to Check: Is the Towel or Washer Causing the Smell?
Smell the washing machine first before trying to wash your towels multiple times.
If the machine has a musty or mildewy smell, especially on the rubber gasket of the door, the dispenser drawer, the inside of the tub, or any other consistently wet part of the washing machine, it may also be to blame. You may then be putting clean towels in a dirty washing machine and taking them out smelling about the same, or almost as bad.
Front load washers are also somewhat notorious for retaining moisture around the rubber gaskets on the door while also harboring mold and mildew because that is where moisture tends to stay longest in a front loading washing machine with the door shut.
Those individual detergent dispensers and other constantly damp inside areas of the washing machine may also build up residue over time and develop their own smells if not routinely cleaned out with those chemicals or any special instructions left by your washer’s manufacturer for those parts. If several different loads that are washed by the same machine start smell the same then it may also be just as important to treat the washer as the towels are.
How to Get Mildew Smell Out of Towels: Start With the Basic Reset
It is best to start with the least complicated and the most simple to attack most washable cottons and that have a light musty smell: a normal wash at the appropriate heat and load, a normal quantity of detergent and dry thoroughly at high temperature.
Step 1: Separate the Smelly Towels
Wash the affected towels separately from normal clothing whenever possible. This allows your towels adequate space for movement through the wash cycle and ensures that no powerful odor from a special load will unnecessarily transfer to other articles of laundry. Whirlpool advice towels to be washed separately, do not overload the machine because towels do have room to get clean. Do not pack in too many thick towels because enough movement and water are needed to create mechanical cleaning and rinsing.
Step 2: Check the Care Label
Always refer to your care instructions when choosing a hot wash or heavy duty wash cycle for your bath towels. Many cotton bath towels are durable enough to go in warm and hot water, but not all bath towels are made exactly alike; look for other materials such as trim, microfiber construction, specialty fibers, specialized dye colors, or elastics. For pretty much every towel, you can follow the rule, apply a hot water wash and, if your towel tolerates it, the strongest wash cycle suggested. The American Cleaning Institute advocates using a wash cycle appropriate for your load and to use the right water level and temperature according to the clothing.
Step 3: Use the Correct Amount of Detergent
More detergent does not automatically mean cleaner towels.
Excess detergent can leave residue behind, particularly when the washer is overloaded or the product is not rinsed adequately. Over time, this residue can contribute to a towel that feels coated, loses absorbency, and retains odors.
Use the amount recommended for your washer, detergent, water conditions, and load size.
1. Use a White Vinegar Pre-Soak Carefully
Another of the common ways to tackle musty-smelling fabric is to use white vinegar. This is often recommended for cleaning most fabrics, but you may want to be careful to just pre-soak, if permitted by the towel’s care tag, rather than pouring vinegar directly into the washer. Whirlpool itself advises soaking with a dilute white vinegar solution for certain causes of smell and then rinsing before putting fabric into the wash again.
For an easy pre-soak, mix up water and white vinegar, submerge the towels, and soak for no more than a certain amount of time, which depends on how well the fabric will tolerate the soak and how effective the vinegar will be on that specific kind of odor.
Before putting them in the washer, soak the towels in the mixture of water and white vinegar, and then rinse thoroughly before washing. Never use vinegar on special, delicacy materials or any towels made from something sensitive to acidic substances. What’s MOST IMPORTANT: Never mix or combine white vinegar with chlorine bleach or any other harsh, incompatible cleaning substances. Use one treatment, then rinse completely before the next.
2. Try Baking Soda for Lingering Odor
Baking soda is another commonly used laundry deodorizer.
Its alkalinity should combat bad smells and is a good candidate for when towels have built up residue or odor over time even after a wash cycle. Whirlpool suggests that adding soda to a regular towel wash can help with musty smells and softens towels.
Do not use more than suggested if you plan on using it as part of a regular wash; the directions listed on the baking soda product or the laundry rules should be used to figure out how much.
Before adding soda you will want to rinse away all the vinegar from previous towel treatments since the two are chemically opposite and can’t both do their separate jobs well. Mixing the two really doesn’t have much of an upside other than one extra step. The concept here is the separate treatment rather than a mixture.
3. Use an Oxygen-Based Laundry Additive for Stubborn Odors
A oxygen based laundry product may be a better option if a standard wash does not work and the product will work with your towels. Oxygen based laundry additives are formulated to get rid of organic soils and stains that may cling to the fabric and is a good way to tackle foul-smelling wash if the towels have visible discoloration as well. The Whirlpool recommends using the oxygen based product by soaking the heavily soiled washable towel for a few hours then wash it according to your instructions for care of the fabric.
Always follow the product label for:
- Water temperature
- Product quantity
- Soaking time
- Color compatibility
- Whether the product is appropriate for the fabric
Do not assume that a product labeled “oxygen bleach” should be treated the same way as chlorine bleach.
4. Consider Color-Safe Laundry Products for Colored Towels
Colored towels need more gentle handling. They have a higher likelihood to fade or discoloration when strong bleaching agents are used.
Whether or not a laundry additive is appropriate depends on the color and fabric of the towel. Check to make sure a detergent or additive will be compatible with colored towels; if the towels are dark blue, gray, green, red, or patterned; and if so, whether the laundry additive is compatible with colors.
Clorox, for instance, provides recommendations to use their colored-towel detergent and their laundry sanitizer in combination if the odor on their colored towels is particularly stubborn. They also give warnings to use the correct placement of each product and follow label instructions. One is best to buy the cleaning product that has been designed for that certain towel color and material type, and simply guess nothing about whether a whitener would work.
5. Dry the Towels Immediately and Completely
Washer completion isn’t success. Any time the warm towels you laundered linger in the washing machine cycle until hours have finished, the dampening can develop once more. To help stave off the musty scent’s return, Whirlpool suggests moving your warm bath towels out from the washer to the dryer right away.
Give each towel a shake to untangle it and encourage airborne flow, then utilize the suitable heat setting for its care instructions.
Don’t routinely jump at the chance to transform your hot-towel dryer up all of the way: It can weaken certain materials and embellishments. You could likewise opt to dry the warm towels outside whenever local weather conditions permit – if both towel and machine-care directions are OK. Breeze flow and direct sunlight in outside drying can accelerate air flow and remove damp smell. The objective isn’t “warm,” it’s “completely dry.”
6. Clean the Washing Machine if the Smell Keeps Returning
Suppose you wash your towels correctly, dry them immediately, and they still smell musty.
At that point, stop treating the towels repeatedly and investigate the washer.
A washer can accumulate detergent residue, soil, and moisture in areas that are easy to overlook, making washing machine cleaning and maintenance an important part of preventing recurring laundry odors. The odor can then transfer to laundry during future cycles.
Clean the washer according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Depending on the model, this may include:
- Running a dedicated washer-cleaning cycle
- Cleaning the detergent dispenser
- Wiping the door gasket
- Removing visible residue
- Cleaning accessible filters or other components
- Leaving appropriate areas open to dry after use
Whirlpool recommends cleaning the washer interior, detergent dispensers, and door gasket and suggests a regular cleaning routine based on the appliance’s instructions.
This is an important distinction: a towel cannot stay fresh if the machine repeatedly reintroduces the odor.
7. Avoid Fabric Softener When Towels Are Losing Absorbency
How fabric softener can dry out your towels Washing towels with fabric softener will definitely help them feel softer to the touch, but over time it deposits a layer onto the fibers that saps out the moisture-wicking power. Whirlpool even points out that the buildup can inhibit the ability of a towel to absorb moisture when used too often because of the coating they leave behind. Any kind of mustiness, waxy texture on your towel shortly after a wash, or a water repellence could all point to a fabric softener-build-up.
A towel must absorb water effectively so that it can also give up the water on the low-heat/tumble setting of your dryer.
The drier the towel feels after being washed, the more space that there is for moisture when needed.
8. Treat Towels That Smell Fine Dry but Stink When Wet
This is a particularly frustrating situation.
A dry towel might seem fine when you pick it up, but the moment it gets a bit damp it stinks. This usually occurs because odor-causing elements haven’t been thoroughly washed out from the fibers. When you add moisture, the trapped odor is released and made apparent again.
Forget to spray the towel with room freshener.
Instead, think of the problem as a deeper laundry one. Begin by washing it in the hottest water possible without causing it to shrink, then treat it with a pre-soak or oxygen-based laundry cleaner followed by complete drying. If multiple treatments still result in the towel’s being smelly, showing the formation of mold, discoloring drastically, or suffering from damaged fibers, then at some point it will be less expensive and more sanitary to just replace it.
9. Prevent Mildew Smell From Returning
Once the towels are fresh, prevention becomes much easier than repeated odor removal.
Hang towels so they can dry
Do not leave a wet towel crumpled on the floor, over a crowded hamper, or in a pile.
Spread it over a towel bar or another suitable surface so air can reach as much of the fabric as possible.
Do not leave wet towels in the washer
Move them to the dryer or another drying location as soon as the wash cycle finishes.
Give towels enough room in the washer
Overloading prevents proper movement, cleaning, and rinsing. Thick towels are especially likely to create a tightly packed load.
Wash towels regularly
The American Cleaning Institute recommends washing towels and bathmats weekly, while Whirlpool suggests washing frequently used towels after roughly three uses as part of a consistent towel washing routine. The appropriate frequency depends on how the towel is used, how quickly it dries, and household conditions.
Store them only when completely dry
Even slight residual moisture can become a problem when towels are folded and stored in a closed cabinet.
A cool, dry, well-ventilated storage area is preferable.
What Not to Do When Removing Mildew Smell From Towels
Some popular laundry shortcuts can create more problems than they solve.
Don’t mix vinegar and chlorine bleach
This is an especially important safety rule. Keep acidic products such as vinegar away from chlorine bleach. Use one treatment at a time and rinse thoroughly before applying another.
Don’t keep adding detergent
If residue is part of the problem, more detergent may make the situation worse.
Don’t overload the washer
A washer full of densely packed towels cannot clean the same way as a properly sized load.
Don’t store damp towels
Folding or throwing a wet towel into a hamper traps moisture.
Don’t hide the smell with fragrance
Fabric sprays may temporarily cover an odor without addressing the underlying moisture or residue problem.
Don’t assume every towel can tolerate hot water
Always check the care label first.
Why Does the Mildew Smell Come Back After Washing?
If you regularly encounter the same musty towel odor, you may want to look into that instead of just running it through another cycle. Reasons Why Towels Stink A wash simply didn’t do the job. There could be some odor-inducing chemicals stuck in the towel.
The towel wasn’t thoroughly dried before being put away.
Something in the washing machine is stinky. You were overloaded the washer with dirty linens. You used too much detergent to have residue buildup. You’ve got a towel that is beyond cleaning.
Think of the process as a chain:
Moisture → residue and microbial activity → trapped odor → incomplete cleaning or drying → odor returns.
Breaking that chain requires more than making the towel smell better temporarily. You need to address the source and then prevent moisture from remaining trapped in the fabric.
When Should You Replace a Mildewy Towel?
Most ordinary musty odors are worth treating before throwing the towel away.
Replacement becomes more reasonable when the towel has severe or persistent visible mold growth, permanent staining, damaged fabric, structural deterioration, or an odor that remains after appropriate cleaning and complete drying.
A towel that is thinning, unraveling, no longer absorbs water properly, and repeatedly develops odors may simply be reaching the end of its useful life.
In other words, odor alone does not automatically mean the towel is ruined, but persistent odor combined with physical deterioration is a stronger reason to replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
1.What is the fastest way to get mildew smell out of towels?
Start by washing the towels using the warmest water allowed by their care label and an appropriate amount of detergent. If the odor persists, a compatible pre-soak or oxygen-based laundry treatment can provide a deeper cleaning. Dry the towels completely and immediately after washing.
2.Does Vinegar Really Remove Mildew Smell From Towels?
White vinegar can help with some fabric odors and residue, but it should be used carefully. Some appliance manufacturers advise against routinely adding vinegar directly to washing machines because its acidity may damage certain components. A diluted pre-soak followed by thorough rinsing can be an alternative when the towel’s care instructions permit it.
3.Can I use baking soda and vinegar together on towels?
It is better to use them as separate treatments rather than mixing them together. They react when combined, which reduces the useful properties of each. If you use both, rinse thoroughly between treatments.
4.Why do my towels smell like mildew after I wash them?
The smell may come from trapped residue, insufficient drying, an overloaded washer, or odor buildup inside the washing machine. If multiple loads develop the same smell, inspect and clean the washer according to its manufacturer’s instructions.
5.Does hot water kill the mildew smell?
Hot or warm water can help clean towels and remove some soils and odors, but temperature alone is not a guaranteed solution. Always use the warmest setting permitted by the towel’s care label and combine proper washing with complete drying.
6.Should I use fabric softener on smelly towels?
It is generally better to avoid relying on fabric softener to solve towel odor. Fabric softener can leave a coating that reduces absorbency, which may make it harder for towels to handle moisture effectively.
7.How can I keep towels from smelling musty again?
Allow towels to dry fully between uses, avoid leaving them in the washer, wash them regularly, do not overload the machine, use the correct amount of detergent, and follow a consistent laundry care routine according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Conclusion
Learning how to get mildew smell out of towels is really about addressing three things: trapped odor, moisture, and cleaning habits. Refer to the care label, wash towels as directed on the tag but try not to over stuff. Then use the appropriate odor-treatment method for cases where normal washing isn’t doing the job. For the truly tough smells, the right kind of oxygen booster or well-controlled soak can help get a really deep clean.
Equally important is drying-making sure you get towels completely dry, without leaving them damp. If towel after towel keeps returning stinking after wash after wash, look for fault within the machine itself rather than on each individual towel. A clean washer, free of excess detergent and softener build-up, with the capability to thoroughly dry towels between uses will interrupt the cycle.
Ultimately, the cardinal rule of long term odor prevention is simple: Wash thoroughly. Dry completely. Do not leave wet fabric to fester.
