What do you do about facecloths that have gone stiff?

[ChocolateCinderToffee]

I don't mean freshly-washed, nice and crisp, I mean like cardboard.

I've tried washing with vinegar, to no effect. I've tried boiling them for an hour, ditto. Is there some magic solution (literal or metaphorical) that I should try?

What fabric are the face clothes? It sounds like your washing detergent isn’t compatible with them, or too hot a wash.

Throw them away or use as rags

Tumble dry them?

They're great for doing the windows with a vinegar spray 👍

Agree with the tumble drier.

What are they stiff with…..🤢

I haven't got a tumble drier.

Soap residue, you absolute unit.

cotton

I'd like to know too and how does everyone keep towels soft when line drying? I don't want the tumble dryer on in summer.

Tumble drying is the solution so if you really want to be keeping them I'd be heading down the laundrette.

Or I keep seeing those stand alone machines near supermarkets where you can dry for a couple of quid.

Keep using them. Once they're wet they go soft again and are perfectly usable.
(Unless they're still like stiff cardboard when wet, in which case I would be very bewildered, and toss them out.)

White vinegar in the wash (fabric conditioner compartment)

Ours end up cleaning the toilet!

Too much detergent.

Put them on a rinse cycle, or full wash, with white vinegar.

What do you wash them with?
I put a scoop of soda crystals in the drum and wash our towels and face cloths on a steam wash, they’re not as soft as when they’re tumble dried but much softer than they used to be.

I don't put facecloths in the rag bag until they start to get a bit threadbare, honestly - and then they're great for general cleaning. I'm not sure I could bring myself to use a facecloth for the toilet though. Idk why, because it's a perfectly reasonable use!

Mine are always stiff as I don't like tumbling towels. But they go floppy when wet, so I wring them out then wash my face.

You waste an hour’s fuel on a facecloth, @ChocolateCinderToffee?

I don’t believe you.

Don’t use them myself but when I did, old ones became shoe polishing cloths.

Try drying them in the shade and giving them a shake or two while drying. If you have somewhere nice and windy and shaded then dry them there. Direct sunshine and no shaking for a stiff scratchy towel.

“You absolute unit” has made me lol

My facecloths don't go stiff. This is a whole new world for me. And if it is soap residue, why wouldn't it be resolved by extra rinsing?

When you say stiff, do you just mean 'less soft'?

Chuck 'em and get a multipack of new ones! Go on, treat yourself!

Ot perhaps you just mean that they are stiff when they first come off the washing line? That just isn't a problem. It disappears as soon as the cloth is manipulated, and certainly isn't there once they get wet.

WD40

(It worked for our bathroom door lock that was stiff.)