The Biggest Mistake That's Leaving Your Towels Stiff And Scratchy

If your towels feel more like sandpaper than a spa day, the culprit might be lurking in your how you're washing them. It might feel like more soap means cleaner towels, but using too much laundry detergent is the fastest way to leave them rough and unwelcoming. Think of your towels like a sponge: they can only soak up so much before the excess starts building up, making them stiff, scratchy, and strangely water-resistant.

That buildup doesn't just rinse away. With each wash, it traps dirt, minerals, and softener residue deep in the fabric. Once it settles in, towels lose their softness and stop absorbing moisture; the exact opposite of what they're supposed to do. Even if they look clean, they can come out of the dryer with a musty smell and a texture better suited to exfoliation.

Detergent is meant to grab onto grime and oil, but once there's more soap than water can rinse away, it leaves behind a sticky film. That residue creeps into the nooks and crannies of your towel's loops, where it mixes with hard water minerals and traps lint. Washing without breaking up this buildup only makes things worse, leaving towels stiff no matter how many rinse cycles they get.

Cotton towels are highly absorbent thanks to their dense fibers, which soak up water quickly during use. Cotton soaks up water easily thanks to its natural structure; its tiny fibers pull moisture in like a sponge through a process called capillary action. However, when hard water minerals aren't fully rinsed away, they can build up and cause towels to feel stiff and less absorbent after repeated washes and air drying.

Fabric softener doesn't fix it. While it promises softness, most softeners coat towel fibers in a waxy film that locks in all the buildup already there. That temporary fluff masks the issue at first but eventually makes towels harder to rinse, slower to dry, and more likely to smell musty.

Fortunately, restoring towels doesn't mean replacing them; it just means resetting them. The easiest way to remove buildup is to wash towels in hot water with 2 cups of white vinegar; skip the detergent entirely. Vinegar dissolves soap residue and neutralizes lingering odors. If your towels still aren't back to their old selves, a second wash with about ½ cup of baking soda can help lift any remaining buildup and freshen things up.

Pro tip: Never mix vinegar and baking soda in the same wash cycle; they cancel each other out and won't do much good. Keeping them separate like this gives each ingredient a chance to work its magic: vinegar breaks up detergent residue, and baking soda helps neutralize odors and revive towel fibers.

Moving forward, if you want to keep your towels soft and fluffy, keep detergent light and ditch the fabric softener. Use only the recommended detergent amount (it's probably less than you think). For fluffiness without buildup, toss a few wool dryer balls into the dryer instead of dryer sheets. These small shifts will help you avoid mistakes everyone makes while washing their towels — and bring your towels back to feeling like towels, not gym mats with trust issues.