How to Remove Smell from Towels: Easy DIY Methods

You pull a towel from the cupboard, it looks clean, then it hits you the moment you start drying off: that sour, musty smell. It is one of the most common laundry frustrations, and washing the towel again the usual way rarely fixes it. Learning how to remove smell from towels comes down to understanding the cause. That odor is mildew, the result of bacteria feeding on detergent and softener residue trapped deep in the fibers. Clear out the buildup and dry the towels fully, and the smell disappears.

Why Towels Develop a Musty Smell

Towels are designed to absorb moisture, which is exactly why they trap it for so long. Add a layer of leftover detergent, fabric softener, and body oils, and you have created a buffet for odor-causing bacteria and mildew. Every time the towel gets damp, those microbes wake up and release that familiar musty smell. The two biggest culprits are using too much soap and not drying towels completely between uses.

The Vinegar Hot Wash: Your First Move

White vinegar is the most effective fix because it kills bacteria and strips away the residue holding the odor. Here is the method that works for most towels:

1. Load the towels alone, without other laundry and without detergent.
2. Set the machine to the hottest water setting the towels can handle, usually warm to hot for cotton.
3. Add one cup of plain white vinegar to the drum or detergent dispenser.
4. Run a full wash cycle.

The hot water helps dissolve buildup while the acidity of the vinegar neutralizes the odor. Do not add fabric softener; it will only redeposit the very residue you are trying to remove. Vinegar will not leave a smell behind once the towels are dry.

Follow with a Baking Soda Wash

For towels that are especially stubborn, run a second cycle immediately after the vinegar wash, this time adding half a cup of baking soda instead. Never combine vinegar and baking soda in the same load, since they neutralize each other and you lose the benefit of both. The baking soda deodorizes and gently boosts cleaning power, leaving the fibers genuinely fresh rather than just masked with fragrance.

Dry Towels Completely and Quickly

This step is where most people undo all their hard work. A towel that sits damp in the washer, or one that never fully dries on the rack, will smell musty again within a day. After washing:

• Move towels to the dryer right away, never letting them sit wet in the machine
• Dry on medium to high heat until completely dry, with no lingering dampness in the folds
• If line drying, hang towels spread out in a sunny, breezy spot; sunlight is a natural deodorizer and disinfectant

Between uses, hang towels fully open on a bar rather than bunched on a hook, so air can circulate and dry them out before the next use.

Stop Over-Soaping Your Loads

More detergent does not mean cleaner towels. Excess soap cannot fully rinse out and becomes the food source for the bacteria that cause odor. Use about half the amount you normally would, and skip liquid fabric softener entirely on towels. Softener coats the fibers with a waxy film that reduces absorbency and traps smells. If you want softer towels, a little vinegar in the rinse or wool dryer balls in the dryer does the job without the buildup.

Keep Towels Fresh Long Term

Once you have reset your towels, a few simple habits keep them smelling clean:

• Wash bath towels every three to four uses, not once a week if they stay damp
• Run a hot vinegar wash on your towel load every month or so to prevent buildup
• Make sure your washer itself is clean; a smelly machine will transfer odor to everything inside it
• Leave the washer door open between loads so it can dry out

Boost Stubborn Loads with Borax or Oxygen Bleach

When vinegar and baking soda alone do not finish the job on heavily soured towels, an oxygen-based laundry booster gives you extra cleaning power without the harshness of chlorine bleach. Dissolve a scoop of oxygen bleach or a half cup of borax in hot water, add it to the load, and run a long hot cycle. Oxygen bleach is safe for colored towels and works by releasing oxygen that breaks down the organic residue feeding the bacteria. For white towels only, a separate hot wash with a small amount of chlorine bleach can be used as a last resort, but never mix it with vinegar or ammonia, and rinse thoroughly afterward.

A practical trick for the worst cases is the overnight soak. Fill the tub or a large bucket with the hottest tap water, add one cup of vinegar, and let the towels soak for several hours or overnight before washing. The extended contact time loosens deeply embedded buildup that a single wash cycle simply cannot reach.

Don’t Forget Your Washing Machine

It is easy to blame the towels when the real source of the odor is the machine itself. Front-loading washers in particular trap moisture and detergent residue in the rubber door gasket, where mildew thrives and then transfers its smell to everything you wash. Wipe the gasket dry after each load, and run a monthly cleaning cycle with hot water and either vinegar or a dedicated washer cleaner. Pull out and rinse the detergent drawer too. A clean machine is the foundation of fresh-smelling towels, so no amount of towel washing will help if the appliance itself is harboring odor.

When Towels Are Beyond Saving

Most musty towels come back to life with the vinegar and baking soda routine. But if a towel has visible black mildew spots that will not wash out, or it has been damp and sour for a very long time, the mildew may be permanently embedded. At that point, retiring it to the rag pile is the practical choice. For everything else, the combination of a hot vinegar wash, a baking soda follow-up, less detergent, and thorough drying will banish that musty smell and keep your towels fresh load after load.