Neither the flour sack nor the microfiber are intended to soak up quickly. It's the terra cloth type material bath towels are made of that absorbs quickly.
I have never had good luck with microfiber being very absorbent. I have terry cloth towels and have never had a problem. However, I also have flour sack towels (my grandma always called them tea towels) and they also absorb well so not sure why Tawra's aren't. Her flour sack look different than mine. Hers look more flat and tightly woven. Mine look more like a diaper.
When I worked at the cafeteria at my college, they would boil the towels in a big pot with dishwasher detergent. It worked beautifully. I do it when I remember
I'll stick to Paper towels, I dump them in my food recycling containers, but I also use towels, but not the flour sack, they don't seem to absorb anything....
I remember Martha Stewart saying maybe 20 years ago that it was a mistake to use any fabric softener on towels because they lost absorbency. I bought one of those dryer balls on Amazon and that fluffs the towels so it’s not like drying with a paper towel and softens them up. I also keep a stack of microfiber towels I got on QVC in the basket in my kitchen to wipe up liquids. It saves on paper towels and I got them in a white so that I can bleach them and keep them clean.
My towels are not new and were always very absorbent. Just recently they became water resistant. So annoying! I've tried everything. I only use natural stuff like baking soda, vinegar, soap nuts and sodium bicarbonate. Never had issues with that.. so strange and frustrating..
I only buy 100% cotton towels and I don't use fabric softener. I only use white vinegar in the rinse water and I have no static. I've been doing this for about 13 years or more.
Okay! I know the PERFECT answer to this. I tried lots of kinds. Here is what works. Works amazingly! Amazon sells it. It is called Polyte Premium Microfiber Kitchen Dish Hand Towel Waffle Weave. Seriously. It's all I buy now. Long enough to do what I want (which is also to use as a potholder) and very absorbent, lint-free, and doesn't seem to get stinky despite being used to mop up wet stuff. I buy them even though they aren't my favorite colors--they just work that well. Plus they don't fall apart in the washer or anything like that. They are a good deal. Did I say they really work? Ha. They do.
I picked up a bunch of swedish dishcloths - they are extremely absorbant, do a great job scrubbing dishes and washable. I use them instead of paper towels.
I figured todays towels have some plastic in them?? Yes, never use softener in towels!! I read onve its a cup of vinegar. I use only “clear” detergents with NO scent or color added.And fir newbies to Micro fiber Always wash separately from other items. You cant use softener in those at all
I put vinegar in the "fabric softener" dispenser each time I wash. I don't use fabric softener at all. Vinegar has cleaning, and, softening properties, and, since it is dispensed before the final rinse, you never get a smell. Possibly the towels have been used so much that a lot of the cotton fibers in the towels has been lost as lint? therefore not as absorbant as before?
The tea towels/flour sack towels are very thin and I don't think were made for absorbency. Growing up we didn't have a dish washer, so we hand washed. We used the thin tea towels to dry glasses and dishes as they don't leave lint. Boy did the glasses shine; it was like they were polished. I have no problems using regular terry type kitchen towels, UNTIL they get older and lose their fluffy absorbent fibers. See all that lint in the lint trap of the dryer? That lint is the shedded cotton fibers from the kitchen towels. Might be time to buy some new kitchen towels.
I hate the new towels! They don't dry you get out of the shower. You try to dry and you stay wet. The only new towels that I just recently bought, that actually dry is the cheapest ones you can buy in Walmart. You got a choice of white ones or blue ones. But they do dry!
We use 100% cotton towels and they work really well for everything. For the kitchen, we use bar mop style cotton towels (you can get them off Amazon for like $15 for a set of 12). To wash we use scent and dye free powder ALL and a scoop of oxiclean powder in hot water (if any towels are stained we let the towels soak for the maximum time in our washing machine). We do not use any fabric softener or dryer sheets.
I’m just an old guy who does nothing special. Regular washing detergent and dryer sheets. Towels absorb great. No problem at all with my cheap dollar store towels nor my expensive towels. Go figure ... Micro-fiber I only use on my antique vehicle interiors. (Perhaps it comes down to the water we have here in the South.)
We have friends in Nashville area who lost their home several years ago from a buildup of substance off dryer sheets. There was a buildup of the softener in their dryer vent that officials from the Fire Marshals office identified as the causative substance building up but not being cleaned out for 3 years, at least. Smells good and works but needs removal by a professional on a regular basis. I use Woolen Dryer Balls in my dryer! They do work as a softener. Amazon.
@@marilynread364 ... Dryer sheets or not, all dryers should be completely cleaned on a regular basis. Trapped lint can be just as deadly. Something I fear most people don't do. I also do my washing machine. If I had a dishwasher, it would get a regular full cleaning as well.
I don't have any problems, even with flour sack. With microfiber, dampen them first. Do you have a water softener? We have hard well water and I don't do anything special.
I know I'm two years late, but I have also had no luck finding absorbent dish cloths or towels! It has been driving me crazy. My old ones my grandmother gave me when I got married 50 years ago have seen better days and are just rags left but I keep sewing them back together and fixing the frayed hems because they actually suck the water up like they are supposed to in the good old days. I have bought enough towels (supposedly cotton or linen and microfiber) looking for something that actually works to sink a battleship and NONE of them work. I have washed them repeatedly in bleach and hot water, changed detergents, don't ever use dryer sheets or softeners. BUT, I finally got an answer. China. Yes, China. They bought up all of our cotton rights and you cannot find a decent cotton product in anything. Pima cotton used to be da bomb and the last set of pima socks I ordered were NOT pima. Same with a head towel I bought from the same company (many years later now), it doesn't absorb the water out of my hair like the original one. If the material tag says "cotton" and it's from China, it's JUNK. I don't know what their definition of cotton is but it sure ain't mine. I even got what I thought were Irish cotton dish towels, paid a lot, and all they do is what everything else does which is push the water around. Now, even my paper towels aren't working (post apocalypse covid - the excuse for everything wrong on the planet today from lousy service to lousy products). There are less towels on the spool and what is there does not work as well as they used to. Ok, rant over. China is the enemy people - just go investigate what they do to our food.
We always baking soda to our washing machine. In some cases they very adamantly say not to use vinegar, because it eats the lining off the inside of the machine.
Along with terry cloth or waffle type kitchen, I wash with regular laundry soap and add dawn dish soap on sanitizing. We use alot of skin butters and it is the best so far in getting the grease out.
No problems with my towels absorbing. I never use fabric softener on towels. I do use bleach on my towels. I would soak the towels in the bathtub adding borax and arm and hammer washing soda and some dawn. Soak them for at least 5 hours. Please let us know if you are able to get your towels to absorb?
Have you tried “ stripping” your laundry Tawra? There are many sites on YT that teach you this method. I’ve yet to try it. I use washing soda and vinegar in my laundry machines routinely because of skin sensitivity and allergies.
I use terry cloth towels as they tend to absorb more than anything that has a flat surface. Way better than microfiber- I don’t like the way those feel.
Tawra try boiling them in a big pot on the stove or try using soaking in very hot water denture cleaning tablets or even washing them in dishwasher liquid I'm the washing machine all of these will strip the fibers clean. My mum boiled her tee towels and dish rags when they got grotty and greasy feeling to her.
I read ONE CUP vinegar on the hottest setting followed by ONE CUP baking soda again washed in hot water. my kitchen towels are all terry cloth and absorb fine, the problem is they aren’t soft anymore. The purpose of this method is to rinse out detergent still locked in fibers so it can not only absorb better but feel less crusty. My towels need to go through this procedure at least twice, still very stiff. I think my HE machine is to blame. I use plant-based detergents like Ecos.
Because you are using the wrong types of towels. All dry fabric will absorb some level of water but not all fabric is designed to be overly absorbant. Microfiber isnt designed to absorb liquid, its a fiber towel for cleaning, and when you clean with it, it should be just moist, not even overly damp, the fibers won't work for cleaning if they are water logged. The fibers are designed to hold dirt particles. Linen is designed to wick only small amounts of moisture, thats why its used for clothes and table cloths, it will never stand up to puddles of water very well unless the ratio of cloth size to liquid size is in its favour. To absorb spills you need cotton loop (similar to most bath towels), turkish cotton, waffle weave, terry toweling or bamboo. Thickness also helps, you want something you can hold up to the light, and the less light you see through the higher the fibers and tighter the weave, the better it will perform. Using the correct items for the issue makes all the difference.
I never used fabric softener or dryer sheets and have never had a problem with flour sack, Terry cloth towels or cleaning rags. The sheets and or fabric softener put a coating or film on the fabric that makes them less absorbant. And your not suppose to use them on micro fiber either.
Try a 100% cotton waffle weave towel. When you first get it , it may have some starches that can be difficult to remove. I add either one drop Dawn dish detergent and a little chlorine bleach for first 2 or three washes. Also add a little vinegar to rinse water. Those are in addition to laundry detergent. It also has worked when I purchased 100% cotton plain woven kitchen towels. Avoid polished cotton.
Make sure not to buy cotton towels woven of mercerized cotton. The mercerization process that causes the cotton to be shiny also causes the fibers to be water resistant. Learned this in my experiments growing my own cotton to spin and weave with and comparing the towels I wove to store bought ones and to ones I wove with store bought, mercerized thread. My homegrown cotton, homespun, hand woven towels absorb better than paper towels! I have some towels that look to have been handwoven of non mercerized thread that are also nice and absorbent. They are by Williams Sonoma. Flour sack towels I only use for things like bread baking when I want to cover the bowl while the bread rises or to cover say, a bowl of dried beans that I am soaking in water overnight, etc.
They are most absorbent when used folded, as cloth baby diapers are. Also, try stripping them in the sink/bucket/tub with dawn and hydrogen peroxide/oxyclean and hot water. The water will literally turn light grey. It's shocking.
First I think u have way to much in ur washer machine. The soap and vinegar don’t have much room to move around PS. I use VMware only plus I have hard water.
I always use a cup of vinegar in the wash with towels, it's a natural fluffer/softener. But, if you go to insta and check out gocleanco she has a stripping formula that strips all the old laundry soap, fabric softener, skin cells, everything from towels, sheets, clothes etc (even fresh from the dryer can leave the stripping water filthy) but it caused my towels to suddenly become absorbent again. And now I only wash them in washing soda and cup of vinegar to keep them that way. 😏 Absorbent vs smell good 🤔
Do not dry the in dryer!!!!! This completely changes them. I have NEVER had a problem with this kind of towel, because they have never been in the dryer.
Try a different format...a box of baking soda, 1/4 cup Dawn, 1/2 gallon of vinegar added last....in the same load so the vinegar is mixed with the baking soda which activates it. Then make sure to dry it on high heat. That's how I revamped my old towels. Was gonna by new ones but that worked.
Linen towels or cotton terry, never use softener just laundry in 60 or 90 degree (Celcius) and let dry on a line outside or in a dryer. They shouldnt be too soft, a little hard is better. Polyester or too soft fabrics are totally useless, then a paper towel works better. I can see that your towel is wrong kind of fabric to use here, it looks like fabric for duvet cover or something like that.
I've never had much luck with linen type material for towels. I usually get a "waffle knit" type fabric for kitchen towels and they work GREAT!
Neither the flour sack nor the microfiber are intended to soak up quickly. It's the terra cloth type material bath towels are made of that absorbs quickly.
I have never had good luck with microfiber being very absorbent. I have terry cloth towels and have never had a problem. However, I also have flour sack towels (my grandma always called them tea towels) and they also absorb well so not sure why Tawra's aren't. Her flour sack look different than mine. Hers look more flat and tightly woven. Mine look more like a diaper.
When I worked at the cafeteria at my college, they would boil the towels in a big pot with dishwasher detergent. It worked beautifully. I do it when I remember
I'll stick to Paper towels, I dump them in my food recycling containers, but I also use towels, but not the flour sack, they don't seem to absorb anything....
I remember Martha Stewart saying maybe 20 years ago that it was a mistake to use any fabric softener on towels because they lost absorbency. I bought one of those dryer balls on Amazon and that fluffs the towels so it’s not like drying with a paper towel and softens them up. I also keep a stack of microfiber towels I got on QVC in the basket in my kitchen to wipe up liquids. It saves on paper towels and I got them in a white so that I can bleach them and keep them clean.
I buy the flour sack towels from Target and they absorb really well. We have soft water where I live, so maybe that has something to do with it?
I use old baby blankets cut up into smaller pieces. Those receiving blankets are great for kitchen towels and hand napkins!
It is a bit of an upfront cost but I have Norwex microfiber. Absorbs a lot more than paper towels and has silver in it to help self sanitize it.
I use tri fold cloth diapers!!! You can still buy them in the baby isles at Walmart and target. I love them, they work really well!
My towels are not new and were always very absorbent. Just recently they became water resistant. So annoying! I've tried everything. I only use natural stuff like baking soda, vinegar, soap nuts and sodium bicarbonate. Never had issues with that.. so strange and frustrating..
I only buy 100% cotton towels and I don't use fabric softener. I only use white vinegar in the rinse water and I have no static. I've been doing this for about 13 years or more.
Okay! I know the PERFECT answer to this. I tried lots of kinds. Here is what works. Works amazingly! Amazon sells it. It is called Polyte Premium Microfiber Kitchen Dish Hand Towel Waffle Weave. Seriously. It's all I buy now. Long enough to do what I want (which is also to use as a potholder) and very absorbent, lint-free, and doesn't seem to get stinky despite being used to mop up wet stuff. I buy them even though they aren't my favorite colors--they just work that well. Plus they don't fall apart in the washer or anything like that. They are a good deal. Did I say they really work? Ha. They do.
I picked up a bunch of swedish dishcloths - they are extremely absorbant, do a great job scrubbing dishes and washable. I use them instead of paper towels.
Why are you not using terry cloth towels?
I figured todays towels have some plastic in them?? Yes, never use softener in towels!! I read onve its a cup of vinegar. I use only “clear” detergents with NO scent or color added.And fir newbies to Micro fiber
Always wash separately from other items. You cant use softener in those at all
I put vinegar in the "fabric softener" dispenser each time I wash. I don't use fabric softener at all. Vinegar has cleaning, and, softening properties, and, since it is dispensed before the final rinse, you never get a smell. Possibly the towels have been used so much that a lot of the cotton fibers in the towels has been lost as lint? therefore not as absorbant as before?
The tea towels/flour sack towels are very thin and I don't think were made for absorbency. Growing up we didn't have a dish washer, so we hand washed. We used the thin tea towels to dry glasses and dishes as they don't leave lint. Boy did the glasses shine; it was like they were polished. I have no problems using regular terry type kitchen towels, UNTIL they get older and lose their fluffy absorbent fibers. See all that lint in the lint trap of the dryer? That lint is the shedded cotton fibers from the kitchen towels. Might be time to buy some new kitchen towels.
I wonder if you soaked it in the vinegar for a couple hours? I am thinking straight vinegar in a sink and towels for a few hours.
I hate the new towels! They don't dry you get out of the shower. You try to dry and you stay wet. The only new towels that I just recently bought, that actually dry is the cheapest ones you can buy in Walmart. You got a choice of white ones or blue ones. But they do dry!
We use 100% cotton towels and they work really well for everything. For the kitchen, we use bar mop style cotton towels (you can get them off Amazon for like $15 for a set of 12).
To wash we use scent and dye free powder ALL and a scoop of oxiclean powder in hot water (if any towels are stained we let the towels soak for the maximum time in our washing machine). We do not use any fabric softener or dryer sheets.
I’m just an old guy who does nothing special. Regular washing detergent and dryer sheets. Towels absorb great. No problem at all with my cheap dollar store towels nor my expensive towels. Go figure ...
Micro-fiber I only use on my antique vehicle interiors.
(Perhaps it comes down to the water we have here in the South.)
We have friends in Nashville area who lost their home several years ago from a buildup of substance off dryer sheets. There was a buildup of the softener in their dryer vent that officials from the Fire Marshals office identified as the causative substance building up but not being cleaned out for 3 years, at least. Smells good and works but needs removal by a professional on a regular basis. I use Woolen Dryer Balls in my dryer! They do work as a softener. Amazon.
@@marilynread364 ... Dryer sheets or not, all dryers should be completely cleaned on a regular basis. Trapped lint can be just as deadly. Something I fear most people don't do. I also do my washing machine. If I had a dishwasher, it would get a regular full cleaning as well.
I purchased durafiber towels from HSN a long time ago and they work great for cleaning
I don't have any problems, even with flour sack. With microfiber, dampen them first. Do you have a water softener? We have hard well water and I don't do anything special.
No fabric softener, line dry the towels, works great.
I have flour sack towels & don't have a prob at all with them. Go figure
I know I'm two years late, but I have also had no luck finding absorbent dish cloths or towels! It has been driving me crazy. My old ones my grandmother gave me when I got married 50 years ago have seen better days and are just rags left but I keep sewing them back together and fixing the frayed hems because they actually suck the water up like they are supposed to in the good old days. I have bought enough towels (supposedly cotton or linen and microfiber) looking for something that actually works to sink a battleship and NONE of them work. I have washed them repeatedly in bleach and hot water, changed detergents, don't ever use dryer sheets or softeners. BUT, I finally got an answer. China. Yes, China. They bought up all of our cotton rights and you cannot find a decent cotton product in anything. Pima cotton used to be da bomb and the last set of pima socks I ordered were NOT pima. Same with a head towel I bought from the same company (many years later now), it doesn't absorb the water out of my hair like the original one. If the material tag says "cotton" and it's from China, it's JUNK. I don't know what their definition of cotton is but it sure ain't mine. I even got what I thought were Irish cotton dish towels, paid a lot, and all they do is what everything else does which is push the water around. Now, even my paper towels aren't working (post apocalypse covid - the excuse for everything wrong on the planet today from lousy service to lousy products). There are less towels on the spool and what is there does not work as well as they used to. Ok, rant over. China is the enemy people - just go investigate what they do to our food.
Love your pink nails!
How many times have you washed and dried these prior to use? They need prepped
More than 100 times.
Good to know.😉 NOW any suggestions for cat towels to clear the fur 🙀off that I use for her bed?
We always baking soda to our washing machine. In some cases they very adamantly say not to use vinegar, because it eats the lining off the inside of the machine.
Along with terry cloth or waffle type kitchen, I wash with regular laundry soap and add dawn dish soap on sanitizing. We use alot of skin butters and it is the best so far in getting the grease out.
No problems with my towels absorbing. I never use fabric softener on towels.
I do use bleach on my towels.
I would soak the towels in the bathtub adding borax and arm and hammer washing soda and some dawn. Soak them for at least 5 hours. Please let us know if you are able to get your towels to absorb?
Have you tried “ stripping” your laundry Tawra? There are many sites on YT that teach you this method. I’ve yet to try it. I use washing soda and vinegar in my laundry machines routinely because of skin sensitivity and allergies.
I am on a water meter here so no way could I wash things three times 😫 I use microfibre cloths for loads of things 😀
I use terry cloth towels as they tend to absorb more than anything that has a flat surface. Way better than microfiber- I don’t like the way those feel.
Wow 🤩 sooo cool
Terry cloth towels
Tawra try boiling them in a big pot on the stove or try using soaking in very hot water denture cleaning tablets or even washing them in dishwasher liquid I'm the washing machine all of these will strip the fibers clean. My mum boiled her tee towels and dish rags when they got grotty and greasy feeling to her.
I read ONE CUP vinegar on the hottest setting followed by ONE CUP baking soda again washed in hot water.
my kitchen towels are all terry cloth and absorb fine, the problem is they aren’t soft anymore. The purpose of this method is to rinse out detergent still locked in fibers so it can not only absorb better but feel less crusty. My towels need to go through this procedure at least twice, still very stiff. I think my HE machine is to blame. I use plant-based detergents like Ecos.
Can highly recommend the TEKLA tea towel from IKEA.
Live the way you say warsh instead of wash
Because you are using the wrong types of towels. All dry fabric will absorb some level of water but not all fabric is designed to be overly absorbant.
Microfiber isnt designed to absorb liquid, its a fiber towel for cleaning, and when you clean with it, it should be just moist, not even overly damp, the fibers won't work for cleaning if they are water logged. The fibers are designed to hold dirt particles.
Linen is designed to wick only small amounts of moisture, thats why its used for clothes and table cloths, it will never stand up to puddles of water very well unless the ratio of cloth size to liquid size is in its favour.
To absorb spills you need cotton loop (similar to most bath towels), turkish cotton, waffle weave, terry toweling or bamboo.
Thickness also helps, you want something you can hold up to the light, and the less light you see through the higher the fibers and tighter the weave, the better it will perform.
Using the correct items for the issue makes all the difference.
I love bar mops!
Use ‘rags’. Like t-shirts, old cut up bath towels, woven cotton. I have had terry ‘dish towels’ that do not work. It is crazy
I never used fabric softener or dryer sheets and have never had a problem with flour sack, Terry cloth towels or cleaning rags. The sheets and or fabric softener put a coating or film on the fabric that makes them less absorbant. And your not suppose to use them on micro fiber either.
Try a 100% cotton waffle weave towel. When you first get it , it may have some starches that can be difficult to remove. I add either one drop Dawn dish detergent and a little chlorine bleach for first 2 or three washes. Also add a little vinegar to rinse water. Those are in addition to laundry detergent. It also has worked when I purchased 100% cotton plain woven kitchen towels.
Avoid polished cotton.
You could try "stripping" your towels.
I use cloth diapers.
You can add a three ingredients at once should be fine
I add vinegar a lot to my laundry natutal deodorizer etc.
Warsh?
Make sure not to buy cotton towels woven of mercerized cotton. The mercerization process that causes the cotton to be shiny also causes the fibers to be water resistant. Learned this in my experiments growing my own cotton to spin and weave with and comparing the towels I wove to store bought ones and to ones I wove with store bought, mercerized thread. My homegrown cotton, homespun, hand woven towels absorb better than paper towels! I have some towels that look to have been handwoven of non mercerized thread that are also nice and absorbent. They are by Williams Sonoma. Flour sack towels I only use for things like bread baking when I want to cover the bowl while the bread rises or to cover say, a bowl of dried beans that I am soaking in water overnight, etc.
They are most absorbent when used folded, as cloth baby diapers are. Also, try stripping them in the sink/bucket/tub with dawn and hydrogen peroxide/oxyclean and hot water. The water will literally turn light grey. It's shocking.
Haha you say warrsh instead of wash just like my mom !! 🤣
Good afternoon!
"Wersh"❤
Have you tried "stripping your towels". They have great recipes on Pinterest.
Where were you born and raised? You say warsh, like my mom. She's from PA.
Born Colorado. Raised Kansas.
My husband was born in Colorado and he also says"warsh".
My mom was born & raised in Illinois, she & my sister say warsh. Lol
First I think u have way to much in ur washer machine. The soap and vinegar don’t have much room to move around
PS. I use VMware only plus I have hard water.
Cut up old bath towels.
I always use a cup of vinegar in the wash with towels, it's a natural fluffer/softener. But, if you go to insta and check out gocleanco she has a stripping formula that strips all the old laundry soap, fabric softener, skin cells, everything from towels, sheets, clothes etc (even fresh from the dryer can leave the stripping water filthy) but it caused my towels to suddenly become absorbent again. And now I only wash them in washing soda and cup of vinegar to keep them that way. 😏 Absorbent vs smell good 🤔
Do not dry the in dryer!!!!! This completely changes them. I have NEVER had a problem with this kind of towel, because they have never been in the dryer.
Try a different format...a box of baking soda, 1/4 cup Dawn, 1/2 gallon of vinegar added last....in the same load so the vinegar is mixed with the baking soda which activates it. Then make sure to dry it on high heat. That's how I revamped my old towels. Was gonna by new ones but that worked.
Try washing them in home made coconut bar soap.
I always wash with vinegar rinse and my towels absorb.
W-ä-sh
Get....over....it....
Linen towels or cotton terry, never use softener just laundry in 60 or 90 degree (Celcius) and let dry on a line outside or in a dryer. They shouldnt be too soft, a little hard is better. Polyester or too soft fabrics are totally useless, then a paper towel works better. I can see that your towel is wrong kind of fabric to use here, it looks like fabric for duvet cover or something like that.