Combining loads of laundry can save time and resources. But do you need to wash your towels with your clothes? The brevity of the response is “yes” and “no.”
You can wash towels with clothes when:
They are made of similar materials:
Before washing them together, it’s a good idea to separate clothing and towels made of the same material. So, you can wash bamboo towels with bamboo garments, and so on, with cotton towels.
You can use the same wash cycle settings if you wash comparable or identical fabrics together. This is a fantastic technique to protect your garments from any harm.
They have similar colors:
It is advisable to wash colors together when doing laundry. This will lessen the likelihood of color bleed-through. Wash white towels with white clothing and colored towels with colored clothing.
You can’t wash towels with clothes when:
You’re using fabric softeners:
Although they work well for garments, fabric softeners don’t necessarily work well for towels. While they soften and leave your garments feeling lovely, they can also make towels less absorbent. Think twice before using fabric softeners on your towels if you want to use them on your garments.
You need to sanitize your towels:
A towel is prone to accumulate soap residue and skin oil after being used for more than a week. Additionally, towels can get readily contaminated with mildew and mold due to repeated moisture and delayed drying. We have a thorough post that will assist you if you’d like to get rid of the musty smell in your home.
If a towel has been shared or used by someone who has an infectious skin disease, there is another reason you should sanitize it.
Washing towels and clothes at high temperature
Always check the care labels before adding towels to the washer to be sure it can withstand the suggested temperature. It is recommended that the optimal temperature for washing towels is a high temperature of about 130°F. This temperature is also excellent for washing white and stained garments and linen in towels. They keep clean and fresh because of the high temperature. However, at this temperature, some textiles will fade, shrink, and suffer other harm.
Washing towels and clothes at low temperature
All fabric kinds can withstand low temperatures (between 80°F and 90°F) without fading or shrinking. However, the low temperature is not enough to eradicate the fungi and germs on a towel. As a result, sanitizing towels and clothing at low temperatures increases the risk of hazardous bacteria spreading.
Importance of not mixing colors
Sorting your clothes and towels will assist stop fading and bleeding while washing and drying, so do this before you wash them.
Whites and pastels should be washed separately and then combined. Keep green, blue, purple, and other deeper-hued clothing separate from red, orange, and yellow clothing. One piece of advice is to first wash your brights separately.
Can you wash colored towels with colored clothes?
To prevent dye bleeding, you can wash colored towels in the same warm water as colored clothing. It is best to avoid washing brightly colored clothing with darker-colored clothing, so they must be the same shade.
Can you white towels with white clothes?
To avoid slow color fading, wash white towels alongside other white items in the washer. Additionally, since white towels and white garments can be washed together, chlorine bleach can be added to the bleach reservoir to help remove stains.
Can you wash white towels with colored clothes?
Your white towels will become discolored if you wash them with colored clothing. This is so that white towels, which are incredibly absorbent, won’t easily pick up color from colored clothing. To maintain the color of your white towels, wash them only with other white towels and laundry.
Can you wash jeans with towels?
And if we’re talking about jeans, can you wash your garments with towels? They work well together since they often require the same amount of drying time, according to Wayne.
Drying clothes and towel
Towels dry more slowly than clothes. You must therefore keep an eye on them while running a tumble dryer cycle with both of these things to prevent problems. To avoid over-drying, separate the clothing from the towels once they are done drying.
Shaking the towels before putting them in the dryer will help them dry more quickly. The creases that improve absorbency will be released as a result. Additionally, by shaking your towels, you can prevent them from balling up in the dryer and lengthening the drying process.
Folding or rolling the towels after they are dry will help them keep their suppleness. To keep your garments from crumpling, fold or hang them.
Tips for sorting your towel and clothes when washing
1. Sort clothes and towels by colors
The color of the clothing should be sorted before all other things. This will help prevent dye transfer, which frequently destroys white or lighter-colored garments.
Make separate piles for your white, light, and dark garments. Socks, pants, t-shirts, and other durable white cotton goods belong in your white pile, for instance. In the same way, light shades of pink, lavender, blue, green, and yellow belong together. In contrast, the hues in your dark pile ought to be black, gray, navy, red, and purple.
Last but not least, wash dark-colored clothing by itself the first few times, such as crimson towels or deep blue sweatshirts.
2. Sort clothes and towels by fabric type and laundry instruction
You probably have a variety of fabrics and textures in your wardrobe. After separating the goods into color piles, you can protect your delicates and prevent dye bleed by first categorizing them according to fabric kinds. It can also help the drying process go more quickly and evenly.
Here are a few standard categories for classifying fabrics.
- Knits, lingerie, pantyhose, washable silks, and other delicate clothing should only be washed gently.
- Lint-receivers and lint-givers: Wash microfiber, corduroy, and other dye-attractive fabrics separately from clothing or towels that are lint-givers.
- Denim is the material used to make khakis, trousers, and other bulky clothing items.
- Shirts, blouses, and clothing made of poly-blends are primarily constructed of polyester.
- Cotton is the primary component of t-shirts, leggings, and cotton mixes.
- Sheets, pillowcases, and other bedding.
- Sweaters: Be sure to wash them separately if they shed.
3. New clothes and towels
Any new clothing, linens, and towels should be washed separately, particularly if they are bright or black. This is because the first few times you wash them, the remaining dye will run out. The majority of recently manufactured towels also have coatings like silicone or other anti-absorption materials.
4. Sort by the degree of dirt
Think about moving highly stained or filthy clothing to a different pile. These items may need to have stains pretreated, or they may need to be washed using a specialized cycle that is too abrasive for everyday clothing. Additionally, sorting by degree of dirt prevents dirt, perspiration, and stains from reappearing on cleaner clothing.
- Aim to avoid putting a lot of clothing in the washing at once. Rather, remove each item from the sorted categories one at a time. Then you can easily find any clothes items thrown into the wrong pile.
- Prioritize washing the largest pile before moving on to the lowest. By doing this, you can better manage your laundry.
- Turn the garment inside out while sorting it to avoid wear or damage from washing.
Laundry sorting easy
When sorting laundry, less is frequently more. If you need more than one hand to count all the different laundry piles, you’re probably overthinking things. Having said that, it’s always beneficial to have a separate basket for outliers that don’t fit into your regular sorting categories that we’ve discussed previously, such as delicates and badly filthy clothing.
Conclusion
The simplest solution is not always the best one. Towels should be washed along with the rest of your laundry. Contrary to popular belief, washing and drying your towels among your other clothes and linens may cause much more harm than you may imagine. For their opinions on whether or not you should wash your towels separately, their top towel-washing advice, what to avoid, and more, we consulted two cleaning professionals.
FAQs
Can you wash anything with towels?
Your preferred detergent should work just fine because most detergents are suitable for washing towels. Add bleach if desired; bleach will effectively remove stains from your towels. You can use chlorine or non-chlorine (color-safe) bleach to clean white towels.
Can you wash towels and sheets with clothes?
Always follow the instructions listed on the tags of your clothing, towels, and bedding while washing them. When you wash towels, sheets, and kitchen towels with your clothes, you run the risk of contaminating your clothing with bacteria from those other items.
Do you wash towels in a cotton setting?
Use the cotton program and set the wash temperature to at least 40 degrees since most towels are made of cotton: White towels work best at 60 degrees. To avoid fading, darker towels should be dried at a temperature of 40°.
