How Do You Get the Stink Out of Dish Towels?

I would try tea tree oil. I have used it for stinky cloth diapers and the blankets that my son uses as a "pacifier" (they get a mildew smell) with great results. It is expensive for a small bottle, but it goes a long way - all you need is a matter of several drops in the wash (I am about 1/2 way through the bottle I have had for about 3 years). Good luck!

I put mine in the microwave for 30 seconds and then hang them up to dry before washing. My sister shared this with me and it works wonders!

I have this problem too:
Hot wash with any detergent and 1/2 cup of bleach. I don't like to use bleach, but it's the only thing that works.

Hello L.. My answer to anything that can be washed and has a smell is to add vinegar or ammonia to the wash cycle. I add it in my front loading washer's bleach compartment, and fill it up, with either (never both, as it's toxic to mix ammonia with anything)and it works wonders! I actually use this in every load of laundry I do, since the clothes (or pillows, etc..)come out smelling so fresh. When I had my top loading washer, I just poured it into the water as the washer was filling up. Good luck to you.

The first thing I would try would be to add baking soda to the wash water. If that doesn't work, try Boreteem or Oxy. Are you using HOT water for washing? I always dry towels on high too. LL

Do you have a front loader washing machine? I had that problem and found out that you have to keep the door open so that it can air out otherwise your laundry will have a mildew smell. You also have to run bleach or Afresh through the cleaning cycle to get the smell out. Since I have done this the smell has gone away.

I use white vinegar in my wash - it really does seem to work, and vinegar is CHEAP!

Put vinegar in the bleach dispenser and the fabric softener portions of the washing machine. I left some swim clothes out for 2 day and they stunk, I read this on the internet, tried it and it worked perfectly! Good luck.

Try soaking them in white vineger or baking soda then wash

Add a cup of vinegar to the wash.

Throw them out. The mildew stink will never go away and they could start making all the other towels you wash with them stink, too. Once you have new ones, to keep it from happening again, make sure you don't let them sit in the hamper for more than a day unless you hang them along the edge of the basket to dry out, and if you clean up milk or any other food that smells when spoiled, make sure you rinse your towel before puting it in the hamper.

When my towels seem to be not as fresh as they should be, I add a little bleach to the wash and use hot water. I only do this every so often, and I dont use enough bleach to discolor the towels. It works great, but I will be watching to see if there are any other suggestions =}

Dear L.,
Our daughter's favorite toy got a sour smell, that no amount of washing or hot water seemed to get rid of. I didn't want to use any chemicals that might harm her, and obviously I couldn't throw it out and get a new one.

That smell is caused by bacteria that needs to be killed by more intense heat than your wash or dry cycles can achieve. What worked for us was to get the toy damp (not soaking wet, but not dry) and then put it in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes. You might want to try it. It worked for us! :)

When you run them in the wash, dilute a cup of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (I get mine from Alberson's in the laundry aisle) in a gallon of hot water. Add that to your wash at the beginning of the cycle with your laundry soap and it works great. Then use a dryer sheet (one time won't hurt) in the dryer. It will freshen them up a bit and they will still be absorbant. Good luck, I just had the same problem not that long ago...yuck!

This is probably not the answer you want, but you should throw them out.

I threw mine out and bought "clorox" brand dish towels (yes, they make dish towels). THey are resistent to mildew. So far, so good.

In restaurants we always kept the dishtowels in a small bucket of sanitizer (think about it, you're wiping up bits of food -cooked, or raw- with those towels, and gosh knows what else once we add kids into the mixture. If we left the ACTUAL big pieces of food out on the counter by the sink -at least where my towels tend to live, not sure about yours-, we'd actually be able to SEE the rotting, decaying food. As it is, we just smell the mold that's growing on the little pieces that have been absorbed and coated with oil so they don't wash out. And it's no where near as bad as it would be, if there wasn't ALSO cleaners mixed into the smell...but it's still gross.)

When I had a bigger sink, I had a little bucket with sanitizer in it that I kept my towels, and Id throw them in the wash about once a week, just like bartowels in the restaurants. As it is, these days I just use a fresh one every morning. (Huzzah for costco). I typically am doing at least one load of wash per day, so if the towel doesn't make it into the wash that day, it will the next.

If these towels aren't special to you, I'd suggest tossing them and starting over.

If they ARE special to you:

Sacrifice a bottle of vodka and microwave them in a bowl of vodka until boiling for several minutes (deglazes the tiny particles of oil and grease that keep foods embedded in the fabric, just like deglazing a pan over the stove). Then boil in plain old water over the stove for 30 minutes to an hours. Then toss immediately in the wash. If they're not sanitary by then...they're unlikely to ever be.

Wash them with baking soda. If that doesn't work, throw them away and start over.

Bleach is the enemy of mildew.

When you was your towels, make sure you do it in hot water (cold for the rinse) , also I add 1 cup of white vinegar to every load of washing I do. Just put it in there with your detergent, I also use fabric softener in the rinse cycle. I know it sounds strange...put something stinky in my laundry??? I promise that you will have the freshest and most wonderfully soft towels there are with no mildew smell to be found! :)

Wash on hot and use a little vinegar or bleach

wash them in hot water w/ detergent and pinesol. Get them out of the machine as soon as possible. good luck

try putting a 1/2 cup of lemon scented lysol, that worked for me.

Hot water wash with white vineger added and hot dry. I have to do this all the time with stuff around my house and it works out great. If you've got a machine with a steam sanitizer cycle even better. I use that for bedding once in a while as well as pillows to clean them up proper.

You could try adding baking soda to the wash - It helps get odours out of other things ... and stains.

Hi L.,

Use Shaklee's Get Clean line of laundry products. They are the BEST! They are safe, natural, non-toxic, really effective, and super concentrated so they last you a long time, which saves you money. They're earth-friendly too. The corn and coconut surfactants really get dirt, stains, and smells out. I would definitely start using the laundry detergent and Nature Bright Laundry Booster and Stain Remover. It's the safe alternative to Oxyclean, AND it's 60% MORE effective. If you use the Get Clean line of cleaning products, dishsoap, and hand soap, your towels won't get that mildew smell. Also, they have a disinfectant called Basic-G that is awesome at not only killing germs, but at getting out smells. You could add a little of that to your laundry. You can check out these products at www.greennutrition.info and register to win $200 of free products at www.freegreenproducts.info. Good luck!