Dealing with a musty towel smell right after taking your laundry out of the dryer can be extremely frustrating. There is nothing worse than getting a towel off the dryer and smelling that awful, damp scent before using it. Fortunately, most musty smells in towels can be cleaned at home, often with simple means. This article explains what to do if your towels have a musty odor, how to get rid of the smell, how to clean the washing machine to prevent the smell, and how to keep towels from smelling musty.
Why Do Towels Smell Musty After Washing?
If your towels smell bad right out of the washing machine, it’s not the towels. It’s the washing machine. The three ingredients necessary for mold and mildew growth are water, warmth, and a food source. Your washing machine not only provides the first two, but the third if you leave residual soap, fabric softener, and lint in the drum. Mildew tends to accumulate on the drum, the rubber gasket around the door, and the detergent dispenser, eventually wafting foul odors into clothing during subsequent cycles.
A few everyday habits make this worse:
- Leaving wet towels sitting in the washer after the cycle ends, even for a couple of hours
- Using too much liquid detergent or fabric softener, which leaves residue behind
- Washing in cold water only, which doesn’t fully break down oils and bacteria
- Closing the washer door right after a cycle, trapping moisture inside
- Skipping machine cleaning cycles for months at a time
Once you understand the cause, fixing it is pretty simple — it just takes two things: treating the towels, and treating the machine.
How to Remove Musty Smell From Towels: Step-by-Step
What you’ll need: white distilled vinegar, baking soda, and your regular detergent.
- Load the washer with just the smelly towels. Don’t mix them in with a regular laundry load, and don’t overcrowd the drum — towels need room to move through the water.
- Run a hot-water wash with 1 cup of white vinegar (use 1/4 to 1/2 cup if you have a high-efficiency or front-load machine). Skip the detergent for this cycle. Vinegar is mildly acidic, so it breaks down soap buildup and helps kill the bacteria causing the smell.
- Run a second hot-water cycle with 1/2 to 1 cup of baking soda, again with no towels added yet — just the same load. Baking soda neutralizes leftover odor instead of just masking it.
- Wash once more with your regular detergent, using about half the amount you’d normally use. Extra detergent is actually part of what causes musty smells in the first place.
- Dry towels immediately on high heat, or hang them somewhere with good airflow. Never leave damp towels bunched up in a basket or in the washer — that’s prime mildew territory.
For towels that are still musty after this process, let them soak in a mix of hot water and 1 cup of vinegar for 30–60 minutes before washing again. Stubborn, years-old odor sometimes needs two full rounds of this routine.
How to Clean Your Washing Machine to Stop the Smell for Good
If your towels keep coming out smelly no matter what you try, your washing machine needs a deep clean.
- Empty the machine completely and remove the detergent and fabric softener drawer if it pulls out.
- Run the hottest, longest cycle your machine has, empty, with 2 cups of white vinegar added directly to the drum. Many newer machines have a dedicated “Tub Clean” or “Self-Clean” cycle — use that if available, since manufacturers often recommend it specifically for this purpose.
- Wipe down the rubber door gasket (front-load machines especially) with a vinegar-dampened cloth, pulling back the folds where water and lint collect. This is the single biggest hiding spot for mold.
- Scrub the detergent drawer under running water with an old toothbrush to remove caked-on residue, then let it air dry before sliding it back in.
- Run a second empty cycle with hot water only to rinse away any loosened residue.
Most manufacturers, including Whirlpool and LG, recommend repeating this deep clean about once a month or every 30 wash cycles.
How to Prevent Musty Towels in the Future
- Leave the washer door and detergent drawer open between loads so everything can air dry
- Remove laundry from the washer within 15–20 minutes of the cycle finishing
- Use high-efficiency detergent in the recommended amount — more isn’t better, and it just feeds mold
- Wash towels in hot water every time, not just when they already smell
- Let towels dry completely between uses by hanging them spread out, not folded on a hook
- Wipe the drum and gasket dry with an old towel after your last load of the day
A few minutes of upkeep after each wash saves you from a much bigger smell problem down the road.
FAQ
Why do my towels smell musty again a day after washing them? This almost always means the towels didn’t dry all the way through, or they sat damp somewhere (in a hamper, folded on a shelf, or bunched in the dryer). Any dampness left in thick terry cloth gives mildew a chance to start growing again within hours.
Can I use bleach instead of vinegar? Bleach can work, but check your washing machine’s manual first — some manufacturers, especially LG, warn against chlorine bleach because it can damage rubber seals and hoses over time. An oxygen-based cleaner or vinegar is the safer default for the machine itself.
How often should I wash my bath towels? Every 2–3 uses is the general rule. Towels that get used daily and left bunched up on a hook should be washed more often since they stay damp longer between uses.
Is musty towel smell actually harmful? It’s usually more unpleasant than dangerous for most people, but mold and mildew can trigger allergy or asthma symptoms in sensitive individuals, so it’s worth addressing rather than ignoring, especially in humid climates.
Do quick-dry towels actually help? Yes. Thinner, quick-dry towels hold less water and dry faster than plush, heavyweight towels, which gives mildew less time to take hold between washes.
