Towels with mildew, cures? advice?

[Opti]

I have a couple towels I think have mildew. One was used at my front door under the shovel and to soak up snow, and one was used under the dish drainer too long.

I've washed both of them only once. Is there something I could soak them in that would help or is it just better to toss in the garbage or one of those clothing bins? The kitchen dish towel only has a couple spots, but the old bath towel, its hard for me to tell if its really mildew or ground in dirt.

WWYD?

[thyme4change]

Bleach?  Vinegar?  Maybe one of those Oxy-Clean products?  Use super hot water, maybe?

[Deleted]

Soak in diluted bleach

[Virgil Showlion]

Toss them in the clothing goodwill. Buy new towels.

[Tennesseer]

You probably did not use your finest towels to put under the shovel and dish drainer.  So toss them out.  Or wash and put under the dish drainer again and under the shovel next winter. 

[swamp]

Jun 12, 2015 9:16:42 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Toss them in the clothing goodwill. Buy new towels.

They're mildewed. Why would anyone give them to someone?

Use them as cleaning rags.

[mollyanna58]

Jun 12, 2015 9:27:25 GMT -5 swamp said:

Jun 12, 2015 9:16:42 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Toss them in the clothing goodwill. Buy new towels.

They're mildewed. Why would anyone give them to someone?

Use them as cleaning rags.

Why would you clean something with mildewed towels? 

Toss 'em.

[Opti]

Jun 12, 2015 9:25:42 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

You probably did not use your finest towels to put under the shovel and dish drainer.  So toss them out.  Or wash and put under the dish drainer again and under the shovel next winter. 

The dish towel is one of my nicer ones from Kohls. Its what I use them for most of the time. I am

thinking though of just cutting off the end & letting it unravel at its own pace. (No sewing machine, or friends who do sewing favors.)

 

You are correct about the other one. Its old and already has a rust stain from last year's winter duty. I might soak it in diluted bleach. Xxcept for the rust stain & the new stain, its held up better than many of my newer towels.

[Tennesseer]

Jun 12, 2015 9:52:14 GMT -5 Opti said:

Jun 12, 2015 9:25:42 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

You probably did not use your finest towels to put under the shovel and dish drainer.  So toss them out.  Or wash and put under the dish drainer again and under the shovel next winter. 

The dish towel is one of my nicer ones from Kohls. Its what I use them for most of the time. I am

thinking though of just cutting off the end & letting it unravel at its own pace. (No sewing machine, or friends who do sewing favors.)

 

You are correct about the other one. Its old and already has a rust stain from last year's winter duty. I might soak it in diluted bleach. Xxcept for the rust stain & the new stain, its held up better than many of my newer towels.

MSN New had an article yesterday about how often one should wash their bath towels. They asked several folks that question and I think the answers ranged from daily to once every seven days.

The answer was every three days as mold and mildew start growing on the bath towel.

[Virgil Showlion]

Jun 12, 2015 9:27:25 GMT -5 swamp said:

Jun 12, 2015 9:16:42 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Toss them in the clothing goodwill. Buy new towels.

They're mildewed. Why would anyone give them to someone?

Use them as cleaning rags.

The goodwill bins sort clothing/fabric into "wearable" and "unwearable". Unwearable fabric goes to the recycler and actually earns a good bit of money when sold in large quantities.

Granted, I can only vouch for this in Canada. I fully expect that major US cities would have the same capabilities, but Opti might want to check what can go in the clothing donation bins just in case.

[mmhmm]

Wash them in the washing machine with a cup of vinegar. Then, run them through again with 1/2 cup of baking soda. Won't remove any stains, necessarily, but it will remove the funk. Then, you can bleach them to see if you can get the stains out. 

[Opti]

Jun 12, 2015 9:56:58 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Jun 12, 2015 9:52:14 GMT -5 Opti said:

The dish towel is one of my nicer ones from Kohls. Its what I use them for most of the time. I am

thinking though of just cutting off the end & letting it unravel at its own pace. (No sewing machine, or friends who do sewing favors.)

 

You are correct about the other one. Its old and already has a rust stain from last year's winter duty. I might soak it in diluted bleach. Xxcept for the rust stain & the new stain, its held up better than many of my newer towels.

MSN New had an article yesterday about how often one should wash their bath towels. They asked several folks that question and I think the answers ranged from daily to once every seven days.

The answer was every three days as mold and mildew start growing on the bath towel.

Crap. I do every seven days more or less. My XH's Mom used to do the daily after use, at least when we visited. The nice auxiliary shower we used was right next to the washer and dryer. I'm in a complex with a coin laundry so I do things differently versus when I owned a home with a washer & dryer.

So ideally I need three sets of towels. Two sets for a week and one set to put out while the other two are in the laundry. OT, someone washed something nasty in one of the washers. It smells of sulphur and it is clogged with a 1/2 to 1/4 inch of water.

[Tennesseer]

Jun 12, 2015 10:32:21 GMT -5 Opti said:

Jun 12, 2015 9:56:58 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

MSN New had an article yesterday about how often one should wash their bath towels. They asked several folks that question and I think the answers ranged from daily to once every seven days.

The answer was every three days as mold and mildew start growing on the bath towel.

Crap. I do every seven days more or less. My XH's Mom used to do the daily after use, at least when we visited. The nice auxiliary shower we used was right next to the washer and dryer. I'm in a complex with a coin laundry so I do things differently versus when I owned a home with a washer & dryer.

So ideally I need three sets of towels. Two sets for a week and one set to put out while the other two are in the laundry. OT, someone washed something nasty in one of the washers. It smells of sulphur and it is clogged with a 1/2 to 1/4 inch of water.

Satan's red cape?

[Chocolate Lover]

Are you wanting to get the stains out or a smell out? The stains might be permanent but I've had good luck using a mix of cleaning vinegar and water to soak stuff in (like dish rags that got musty). I also sprinkled in a little baking soda at some point. It sat overnight and smelled like new after that. 

I have no "recipe" just some of this and that.

[Virgil Showlion]

[Opti]

Jun 12, 2015 11:01:35 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

Are you wanting to get the stains out or a smell out? The stains might be permanent but I've had good luck using a mix of cleaning vinegar and water to soak stuff in (like dish rags that got musty). I also sprinkled in a little baking soda at some point. It sat overnight and smelled like new after that. 

I have no "recipe" just some of this and that.

Stains, no smell that I can tell. I cutoff the bottom of the kitchen towel while I was doing laundry. Now to call mgmt. to fix the smelly washer.

[Chocolate Lover]

Jun 12, 2015 11:17:47 GMT -5 Opti said:

Jun 12, 2015 11:01:35 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

Are you wanting to get the stains out or a smell out? The stains might be permanent but I've had good luck using a mix of cleaning vinegar and water to soak stuff in (like dish rags that got musty). I also sprinkled in a little baking soda at some point. It sat overnight and smelled like new after that. 

I have no "recipe" just some of this and that.

Stains, no smell that I can tell. I cutoff the bottom of the kitchen towel while I was doing laundry. Now to call mgmt. to fix the smelly washer.

Yeah, that was probably your best bet. Those 2 kinds of stains don't like to come out.

[Opti]

Jun 12, 2015 11:19:01 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

Jun 12, 2015 11:17:47 GMT -5 Opti said:

Stains, no smell that I can tell. I cutoff the bottom of the kitchen towel while I was doing laundry. Now to call mgmt. to fix the smelly washer.

Yeah, that was probably your best bet. Those 2 kinds of stains don't like to come out.

No rust on that one, but two or three formerly black drops of mildew.  I guess I need  one of those $10 or $15 off Kohl's coupons with a purchase of $10, 15 or more to show up in the mail soon.

The bath towel could be very ground in dirt or mildew. Hard to tell, but its getting one shot before it is saved for door duty or heaved to the clothing bin next time I'm dropping stuff off.

[weltschmerz]

I give my old towels and blankets to the local animal shelter. They can always use them.

They bathe animals and need bedding. If you go this route, maybe you can ask friends, family and coworkers if they have anything they want to get rid of. That's what I do, and usually collect quite a bit. The shelter is always very grateful.

[zibazinski]

Dry outside in sun

[tskeeter]

Jun 12, 2015 8:20:04 GMT -5 Opti said:

I have a couple towels I think have mildew. One was used at my front door under the shovel and to soak up snow, and one was used under the dish drainer too long.

I've washed both of them only once. Is there something I could soak them in that would help or is it just better to toss in the garbage or one of those clothing bins? The kitchen dish towel only has a couple spots, but the old bath towel, its hard for me to tell if its really mildew or ground in dirt.

WWYD?

Bleach the towels.

When I lived near Atlanta, the practice in the area was to use a solution of about 1 part bleach to 3 parts water to kill and clean up the mildew on the house trim or other areas where you wanted to remove mildew.  Worked really well.

I'd think bleaching the towels using the amount of bleach normally recommended on the bleach bottle would take care of the mildew and at least some of the staining.  If you make a practice of washing those towels with bleach, you might eventually remove all of the staining.  

[nikiz628]

Vinegar is definitely my go to when removing mildew from towels. Wash on one cycle (Hot water) with vinegar, and then another cycle (Hot) with detergent.

[Artemis Windsong]

I used vinegar on a sports tee shirt bra that has seen too much sweat then laundered as usually.  I didn't have to replace it.  A YM frugal save. 

[thyme4change]

The answer was every three days as mold and mildew start growing on the bath towel.

Not in Phoenix.