How to keep towels soft: laundry tips for fluffy and soft towels

Even when it starts out super soft, several things can wear the fabric of a towel down, including hard water, friction, and regular exposure to oil and soil, resulting in rough and stiff towels after repeated use. Getting your towels back to their original state of softness may seem tricky without knowing where to start; with these easy-to-follow laundry tips from Lenor, you can ensure that your towels will be soft, fluffy, and great-smelling after every wash!

On the one hand, regularly washing your towels will keep them from spreading germs and developing that musty smell we all dislike. On the other, frequent laundering can break down the fibres of your towel, which is why it’s best to have a rotation of a couple of towels within arm’s reach, so that the fibres can get some rest in-between washes. Follow Lenor’s step-by-step guide on how to wash towels in order to protect them from the degrading effects of wear-and-tear, and make your towels soft and fluffy for as long as possible.

First things first: you’ve got to separate your towels from your other laundry items, such as your sheets, to prevent lint transfer between the fabrics. It’s especially important to wash brand-new towels separate from your more seasoned towels, as new ones can be serious offenders when it comes to lint creation.

Using a high-quality laundry detergent like Bold, Fairy or Ariel All-in-1 PODs is key to getting impeccably clean towels. No need to dose, you just need to pop a laundry pod in the empty washing machine drum before adding your towels to ensure it dissolves properly

For super soft towels, add fabric conditioner to your load of laundry. Pouring a bit of liquid fabric conditioner like Lenor into your machine’s dispenser drawer will prevent your towels from fading, stretching and bobbling during the wash, acting as a lubricant and helping to make them feel soft. You can read more about using liquid fabric conditioners and how they help your laundry feel soft and fresh here.

Even just-washed towels can get that damp odour after one or two uses. Want to avoid that? Use Lenor In-Wash Scent Booster to ensure your towels stay fresher for weeks, both in storage and in use, preventing the appearance of damp smells. Check out our guide on how to use in-wash scent boosters for the whole chapter and verse on this innovative laundry solution. And now, we’re finally ready to load the washer!

If you want your wash to soften your towels, rather than leaving them feeling hard and scratchy, it’s important to leave plenty of room for them to breathe in the drum of your machine, so that they can be rinsed and agitated properly. Otherwise, your towels will clump together during the wash, resulting in the formation of moisture pockets within the fabrics, and you’ll end up with stiff towels when dried. In short, try to stick to small to medium size loads – both in the washer and the dryer.

Although washing your towels on a high temperature is the most sure-fire way to get rid of all the germs cooped up in the fabric of your towel, it can also be very damaging to the fibres themselves. The reason? Cotton (the material most towels are made of) is a very soft, cellulose fabric, which reacts to high heat by flattening out and becoming hard to the touch. That’s why you should choose a medium heat setting (think 30 or 40 degrees Celsius) instead, which will not only preserve your towel’s fibres and help you achieve the desired softness but will also eliminate most of the yucky bacteria. Occasionally, you can run your towels through a 60 degrees Celsius wash to get rid of pent-up bacteria and potential mould, but generally, it’s best to stick to lower temperatures when taking care of your cotton fabrics.

Now that you’ve learned the proper way to wash your towels, it’s time to move on to the next phase of your laundry journey, so we’ll share a few tips with you on drying your towels for a more fluffiness, then we’ll give you the lowdown on drying towels in a machine and on a clothesline:

● Don’t let your damp towels wait around in the dryer for too long, or else you risk mildew growth.
● Make sure your towels are completely dry before they’re folded up and put away.
● At the end of the drying cycle, shake your towels and fold them soon after.
● Never radiator-dry your towels; it will dry them too quickly, giving them a rough finish.

The best way to make your towels fluffier is by placing them inside your tumble dryer right after the wash.

1. Add towels. Place your towels inside the machine dryer while making sure there’s enough space for the items to move around freely inside the drum.

2. Add a dryer sheet. Place a Lenor Dryer Sheet on top of your towels to preserve their just-washed-freshness, provide them with extra softness, and reduce creasing and static cling.

3. Choose the right setting. Use a lower heat and slower speed settings to prevent the damaging of the fibres of your towels.

4. In case of stiff spots. If you feel there are still stiff spots on your towels, run them through the cycle once more, using a dryer-safe ball (for example an unused tennis ball) in the dryer. The repetitive action of the ball circulating with the towels will gradually soften up these stiff spots.

Although tumble dryers can be great at giving you fluffier towels, they can also wear the fabrics down in the long run, even if you use gentler settings. That’s why we suggest to line dry your towels occasionally (possibly outside, if it’s a windy day), alternating between the two methods. Make sure to shake the towel well before hanging it, as it helps loosen the fibres of the fabric.

Here’s what you can do if you want to enjoy your towels’ softness for a long time:

● Buy good-quality towels made of pure cotton.

● Don’t overuse laundry detergent during the wash, as it can lead to crunchy towels. Luckily, this can’t happen if you’re using All-in-1 PODs.

● Use a fabric softener like Lenor in your dispenser drawer, which will act as a lubricant and help your towels to stay soft.

● Store your towels in a dry place neatly folded side-by-side rather than in stacks, to prevent the bottom towels from being crushed by the ones above.

● In case you’re hanging towels from a rack, avoid hanging them on top of each other to prevent stiffness in the ones at the bottom.

Now that you know how to take on your towels, learn how to keep blankets soft.