How do people LIVE with fabric softened towels?

[Haroldwilson]

Staying in a holiday house. Towels soft and fluffy but so fabric softened that they don't absorb anything. I might as well scrape water off me with a spatula for all the good they do at drying.

Do people do this all the time? I can't cope with this savagery

I live in a hard water area and stopped using fabric softener years ago. In my opinion it's completely superfluous and just another marketing con.

Biscuityboyle is that white towel pure cotton? It's hard to tell from the photo?

I can't understand the 'scent booster' things. Do people really like their laundry to smell like sanitary towels?

Dry stuff on the line on a bright windy day and it will smell glorious. Fabric softener makes stuff smell, to me, as though it has been dried in the front room of an old lady addicted to pot pourri.

I like a small amount of fabric softener and line dried or bannister dried towels. Never, ever use the dryer for my towels, I like them rough.

My neighbour irons her line dried towels to make them soft but personally I like a crunchy towel. I never use fabric conditioner. Using it makes my Asthma worse.

Me too. Like a big exfoliator.

Towels - 60 degree wash - then tumble dry.

I’m not sure. The white towel is certainly. The blue one is as old as time and may or may not be.

Either way both towels absorbed the water at the same rate. I also did further experiments where I used the towels to wipe up water and sprinkled water on them. There was no noticeable difference.

At least pot pourri is made of actual organic petals and what not. Fresheners always smell like motorway service stations to me. The furthest from a natural smell you can get.

And if one - doesn't have a tumble dryer - what then?

Sandpaper botty it is

You are absolutely right op. My SIL’s towels are drenched in the sodding stuff and are completely useless. They also stink when you get them wet so she hadn’t even washed out the bacteria. Yuck. Give me a crunchy towel washed at 60 that smells of nothing - I know at least it’s clean.

So many tv adverts at the minute of people going loopy over supposed laundry ‘fresheners’ - oh God they must be effective because out and about people reek of them. I had to leave a shop yesterday as a women was head to toe clothed in acrid floral rank-smelling shit.

Fabric conditioner is one of my room 101 items! Hate it.

Buy one.

No space, sadly. Plus the environmental side puts me off a bit, and I think tumble dried things smell funny.

😂

I have been using fabric conditioner since it first came on the market, and have never had clogged pipes and my towels function perfectly well, thank you.

I hate fluffy towels, I want it crisp and clean- like my sheets .

You can get non scented fabric conditioner, and I use an eco one which is aloe vera, but in reality doesn't have much scent at all and it certainly doesn't linger on the clothing/towels once they have been line dried. You don't have to use highly scented stuff you know.

don't use pile towels. we use hammam/cotton sheet towels now.

dry in a fraction of the time.
absborb just as much
dry with a softener or not - crunch is optional
can get about 6 or more in a wash so much more economical

whole family is a convert. I don’t really know why we have towelling towels after using these.

I am just going to pop back in defence of fabric conditioner.

I do use it, but not in huge volumes, I will use maybe 1/4 of the recommended dose.

I am in winter now and it is extremely dry. I still line dry though, but if I don't use conditioner, the clothes get a static build up. Weird I know, but I can get a little shock from my clothes. And they get super rock hard. Wearing stiff jeans is no joke I tell you (especially when you add in a bit of extra winter padding)

So it does have its time and place to be useful.

Posts like this are why I love Mumsnet 😂

I hate the smell of fabric conditioner. Some people smell so strongly of it, it makes me feel a little sick.
One of my lads mate's came around last week. Lovely boy but he reeked. A heady mix of Lynx Africa and Comfort. Like a girl repellent. Not the effect he was going for I'm sure.

I’m with you there. I don’t use tons of the stuff but will pour some in quite happily to stop my clothes standing by themselves.

I don't use fabric softener but my towels become like sandpaper.

😂 you know its bad when there is a sound when folding.

I love a crispy towel. My favourites are some Christy’s that I’ve had for about 15 years and they’ve never had a drop of conditioner on them, they’re still like new.