Laundry can prove to be a little tricky when it comes to washing certain items – one of them being towels.
Towels that aren’t washed properly can become stiff and scratchy, making them less pleasant to use.
Even using too much detergent or fabric softener can reduce the softness of towels, leaving them feeling hard or rough to the touch.
Unsure of how to remedy this, a cleaning enthusiast took to the Mrs Hinch Army Cleaning Tips Facebook page for advice.
Rob Whiting asked: “How do you keep your towels soft? Ours have gone brick-hard. We don’t have a tumble dryer the towels are usually put over an electric Airer.”
Taking to the comments section, group members were keen to share their suggestions – many of which were recommendations for using soda crystals.
Jane Herd said: “Don’t use fabric conditioner, use soda crystals instead. I don’t have a dryer either so I just hang mine on the line but definitely softer than with the conditioner, they also come up much cleaner.”
Katie Paterson wrote: “I wash with soda crystals. I’ve done this for 30 years and never had a problem with hard towels. My hubby likes hard towels though.”
Gail Radford replied: “I wash on 30 degrees with soda crystals, then once a month I give them a 60-degree wash – it helps prevent a build-up of chemicals on them.”
Paula Bear commented: “Soda crystals, never fabric softener. If you do start to use this it takes two to three weeks to get all the build up out of all the towels.”
Clare Connery said: “I stopped using softener reluctantly a few weeks ago after reading posts from members on this group about how bad it is for your washing machine and clothes.
“I put some soda crystals in my washing machine instead and I can honestly say my towels and washing in general have never been softer.”
According to the laundry experts at Dri-Pak, adding soda crystals to your general detergent will soften the water and laundry.
If towels are particularly hard, they recede soaking them in a warm medium solution of soda crystals for 10 minutes before rinsing thoroughly and washing in the machine as normal.
