How to Strip Your Towels (And Why They Smell After Just One Use)

You know that moment when you pull a fresh towel from the dryer, it smells clean, and then you use it once and it immediately smells… like it’s been chillin’ in your kid’s hockey bag for a week? That gross, musty, moldy smell. Yuck!

Yeah. That was the fate of every single towel in our house. I was so sick of buying new ones so often but it turns out, we just needed to strip them.

What Is Towel Stripping?

Towel stripping is a deep-cleaning process that removes all the buildup trapped in your towel fibers—detergent residue, fabric softener, body oils, and minerals from hard water. This buildup is what makes towels smell bad after one use, even when they’re technically “clean.”

Clean towels soaking in hot water before stripping process begins

Why Your Towels Smell (Even When They’re Clean)

That immediate musty smell after one use? My new bestie, Claude, taught me it’s bacteria trapped in the fabric coating from too much detergent and fabric softener. When towels get wet, the bacteria reactivate. Gross, right?

The good news: One (long) afternoon can fix this. No problem though, it was the perfect activity for the sub-zero temps we’ve been experiencing up here lately!

The Towel Stripping Process

Here’s what I did (and you can download the steps here):

What you need:

Bathtub or large basin
1/4 cup Borax
1/4 cup washing soda
1/2 cup laundry detergent
Hot water (as hot as your tap goes)

Borax, washing soda, and detergent dissolving in hot water for towel stripping

The steps:

Fill your tub with the hottest water possible.
Add Borax, washing soda, and detergent—stir until dissolved.
Add your towels (run them through a wash cycle first with no detergent) –> psst…I skipped [forgot] this part.
Let them soak for 4-6 hours, stirring occasionally –> the mixture really dries out your skin so be warned — not comfortable if you’re struggle with the winter dryness is real [like mine]
Watch the water get gross (that’s the buildup coming out!)
Drain, rinse thoroughly.
Run through a regular wash cycle with a small amount of detergent.
Dry as normal — and add some wool balls to help soften naturally.

This is how much detergent I used for the final wash after soaking

The Results

My towels soaked for about 4 hours. I swished them around at the two hour mark. The water turned… well, not horrifyingly gross, but definitely discolored enough to prove something was happening.

Towels soaking in discolored water for two hours showing detergent and fabric softener buildup being released — After soaking two hours

Dirty water after towel stripping process showing released buildup and residue — After soaking four hours

The real test? I used them on my boys after bath time and the towels still smelled fresh—not fragrant, just… clean. No must. No sour smell. Just normal towels doing their job.

They’re also noticeably more absorbent now, which makes sense when you realize they’d been coated in waxy buildup. Not going to lie though, they don’t feel as “soft” but they do feel like absorbent towels. I’ll take the trade for actually clean towels!

adorable chihuahua in yellow bath towel — Not our kids but that’s how content they felt in their new, old, clean towels.

This Is a One-Time Fix (If You Change Your Routine)

Here’s the thing: stripping your towels removes the buildup. However, if you keep washing them the same way, the problem comes back.

The real culprit? Fabric softener. It coats towel fibers, traps bacteria, and creates that smell you’re trying to avoid. (I had an informative chat with Claude about this—turns out fabric softener and fragrance can cause way more problems than just smelly towels.)

For now, the fix is simple: strip your towels once, then stop using fabric softener on them. Your nose will thank you.

Hope this helps!