White and fluffy

NanKate - maybe tell your husband to soak his towels in Napisan, (you can still buy it) give them a rinse, the hang them out on a frosty night .
The first frosts should arrive soon.

I really can't believe the silly, unimportant things that some people get hung up on.

That said, running a B&B is a bit different. Recently we watched a couple putting duvets through an automatic washer - this was when we were buying petrol in France.

We don't use white towels, and we use the same ones - a set of 3, pale green John Lewis towels. We don't use a tumble dryer. Either they get a nice blow on the line if the weather is suitable, or they get dried on the little airer in the kitchen if not.

I remember that thing about frost being good for washing, from years back. I don't know the science of it though, but I used to be told it was good for terry nappies.

Terribull:
My husband insists on ironing his own trousers. I give him a hurt look and tell him I do my best.
What he doesn't know is that just before we got married, my Aunty told me that if asked to iron trousers, I should do it, do it willingly and with a smile, but do it very badly indeed as then I would not be asked again.
This has worked well for the last 52 years!

Missadventure how i would love to be rushing out to hang nappies on the line again.!!!!

I hate soft fluffy towels! Give me a hard rough one any day ?

Soft towels don't seem to dry me easily, a hard, rough towel not only dries, but gives my back a lovely scratch at the same time. DH gets what he is given!

We have paying guests regularly throughout the year and they often use the downstairs loo so it needs to look fresh and clean.
I keep a pile of very cheap folded white hand towels by the basin. They're washed with my white bedlinen, very little liquid bio detergent and Vanish whitener at 30-40 degrees depending on the rest of the load. I hang until almost dry and then tumble overnight using cheap power in the early hours. Each towel is only used for a day (or less) - I think that white hand towels stain too easily to use for longer, especially with grubby DH in-house! It is true that conditioner makes them softer but also less absorbent - I've accidentally conditioned them a couple of times and they're less good at drying.
I've had these towels for more than 20 years and they're still respectably soft and white, though definitely not up to the cocooning a GC standard!

It also depends on what sort of water you you have. I live in a very hard water area and if you didn't tumble dry towels they would stand up on their own, despite a hot wash and gentle washing power!

A caveat about using biological detergent for b& b guests, - many people are extremely allergic and react violently to towels or bedding washed in bio detergent. Two years ago our Christmas was very nearly ruined whe Paw started itching uncontrollably and DD and I had to put every towel, sheet, pillowcase etc in our extremely expensive luxury holiday lodge through the washing machine and tumble dryer. It was either that our come home ?? We could only assume it was the linen and he had to keep popping the antihistamine tablets.

Thank you EllaKeat - thought I was the only odd one who prefers rough towels, drying time is so much longer with soft towels and not as effective. Love towels dried in the hot sun - nice and hard! Luckily husband is of the same opinion , not that he would dream of washing his towels separately but he does do all his own ironing . No complaints from me.

(I also wash white towels as hot as possible, as 30 or 40 degrees is not hot enough to kill bugs)
This is particularly applicable to hand towels.

No way would I ever buy white towels! It is bad enough that we have to have white shirts to try to keep looking their best but life is too short for white towels which will inevitably turn a murky grey.

Nor me, icanhandthemback. We currently have some pink bath towels which I know my children were taking to the swimming pool back in the '70s. M&S. They're still absorbent.

I think I might start taking my own towels when staying in hotels and B&B's. One place we often go to has sage green towels and I'm sure they can't be washed at a very high temperature. I'm continually worried about where they have been before, when I am drying my feet and nether regions with them.

At the risk of stating the obvious, if coloured towels do not show the dirt and white ones (or any pale colour) do, isn't that a clue when they need washing?
Vanish or any other stain remover for whites will get everything out (even blood I have found as DH bleeds easily) and stop them going dingy, but NOT Ace or other biological stain removers please.

I had no washing machine forty odd years ago and I handwashed everything and drip dried on line. Terry nappies came up lovely and white. Bedding also lovely and soft. Used to trample that and the towels in the bath with the three children. It was fun at the time.

No softener for me - I like my towels to be line dried and slightly stiff so they're more absorbent. Washed at hottest temperature, usually overnight so they can be hung out in the morning.

Oh thank heavens for that EllaKeat, Dharmacat and grannyactivist, I thought that I was the only one who preferd my towels slightly rough. Thay do dry me faster and are nice for a buff up. White towels I gave to my DS2 a couple of years ago, where they were received with open arms. By the way, I stopped using fabric softener as I found it made the dispenser drawer manky. ?

Thanks MawBroon for raising that really important point about people with allergies to anything perfumed. Staying in other houses, B&Bs etc can be a nightmare and leave me sneezing and puffy eyed. I put in a special request when booking B&Bs etc and it is usually ignored. I get fed up with people regarding me as a freak if I raise the subject. I wanted to hug a woman who went the extra mile recently & understood completely. I often take my own pillowcase and cover those sticks in perfume with a plastic bag and switch off or remove what I can.

PS to above post. I use small amounts of Surcare or Waitrose Pure/Senstive liquid. Most main brands' sensitive soaps still have a perfume.

I can well remember hanging terry nappies out in frosty weather---had to stand them up by the fire to thaw out before they could be folded.

Just have to say this - all this very hot washing, tumble drying and using special cleaning products in the washer is not doing the environment any good. Biological washing powder is one of the worst things for the environment. Towels last much longer if you don't tumble dry them.

Re ironing trousers, my lovely mother did the same to my father and brother .... i.e. she ironed their trousers with the crease the 'wrong' way, so they both always ironed their own. Just realised, that so did I ... she really was VERY clever! ?

White items only - anything else in the drum, even if it is pale in colour, seems to 'bleed' into the white clothes or towels. I also put half a cup of white vinegar in the wash cycle and it has made my white bed linen, which was quite good even after a few years of washes, absolutely sparkling white. I couldn't believe how good my husband's white business shirts looked either - and there is no whiff of vinegar left after washing.

ER -- I always tumble dry my white towels and have not bought any new ones at all for over 10 years.
They were best quality when I bought them from J Lewis or the White Company and are lasting very well indeed, thank you.
I put 'whitening' sheets or Vanish platinum in with them sometimes, wash at 60 degrees and tumble dry with tumble drier sheets for extra softening. (But we don't have any allergies etc, I realise that would not be at all good for people who do)
But I may try the vinegar tip, it sounds good.

We have extremely hard water here, and our towels used to be like Brillo pads. But I'm winning...
Half a cup of white vinegar in the main wash goes a very long way towards countering the calcium build-up. And no, it doesn't make the towels smell. Plus a little fabric conditioner in the final rinse. Spin them to get out as much water as possible, then line dry, finishing off in the tumble dryer to really fluff them up.
But the vinegar in the main wash is the absolute key.