White and fluffy

(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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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

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!

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.

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.

TriciaF, yes I used to rush to put nappies out on frosty days.
Also good for whitening net curtains. The ones my mum had for around 30 years were white enough to be passed on to a charity shop when we cleared out her bungalow. Maybe there is something in it?

MissAdventure - frosty weather - I was told that in the days when we had to wash towelling nappies.
I always hung them on the outside line, and in the winter they became very soft.

It does partly depend on the brand of towels. The best ones I've ever had are,believe it or not, from Primark. I think they do 2 kinds,the more expensive (!)ones are better. Part line dry, then tumble. A little bit of Lavender towel softener from Lakeland helps, if they're a bit stiff.
Mind you,I can hardly believe I'm such a saddo posting this!

The most fluffy and white towels I've ever used were my mum's, which she used to boil up in a bucket, using fairy snow, before they were put out on the line. She also used to say that frosty weather was ideal for 'whites'.

My brother (works in the chemical industry) told me a long time ago that conditioner coats the fibres and makes it less absorbent. So I use a hot wash with detergent n soda crystals, and a last rinse. Our towels are soft n fluffy!

DH does all the washing and ironing and manages to get the towels just right. He tells me that the trick is to stop the dryer after an hour, rearrange the towels and then give them another forty minutes. Towels stay soft because they are not tangled together.

I tumble all our towels and it never takes as long as an hour to dry them.
I also use stain remover (Waitrose's or Vanish) in the wash to keep them bright white.
Do some people have a problem with this? .

I have a bed and breakfast so this is a daily problem. Tumble drying them dry costs too much and wears out the towels, so I wash them at 60 degrees in Persol non bio and Napisan, then tumble for an hour and finish off on drying racks indoors. Seems to keep them just about ok.

What's so great about white towels? I've accumulated many different colours over the past 50 years!

I hope he is still friends with me.
I hate being unpopular.?

Rinse in white vinegar - keeps them beautifully soft.

Doesn't it depend on the type and quality of the cotton they're made from?
I find some of mine always finish up harder than others, after the same kind of wash.
We're not fussy BTW.

Thanks ALL for your helpful advice, I will pass on the info to DH.

Annsixty I shall tell my Laundry Man you think he is odd . Anything he wants to do himself in the Household Dept suits me fine. He sometimes describes me as a Lady of Leisure.

I wash them at 60C with Surcare liquid detergent plus a tablespoon of Napisan to maintain whiteness. They're line dried when possible because I like the fresh smell but do seem softer when they're tumble dried.

I tumble them too but don't use white towels! I'd be changing them every 5 minutes in our household with 7 GC around - and menfolk!!!