She could smell the dishwater even before she opened the washing machine. A sad pile of kitchen towels and tea towels, which were said to be “clean,” sat in a damp knot, looking grey and tired. The happy lemons on one towel had faded to a sort of beige. The one with blue stripes and white? It smells more like dishwater from a week ago. She sighed, got the baking soda out of the cupboard, and stopped what she was doing. She had done this many times. Every wash promised to work miracles. Every wash made it a little less yellow. Not ever bright white. It never looks like the clean, hotel-kitchen look you see on cooking shows and Pinterest. She looked at the clock, then at the pile of dirty dishes, and felt that familiar feeling of giving up. Then a neighbor gave them a strange, old-school tip that changed everything. A tip that doesn’t use baking soda in any way.
Why your kitchen towels turn yellow even when you “wash them right”
When you have guests over, you usually notice the color of your kitchen towels for the first time. Next to a clean sink and polished worktop, that “not so bad” beige looks pretty bad all of a sudden. You use them to rinse plates, pick up hot pans, mop up sauce spills, and wipe up coffee drips. As more and more tiny stains build up, they make a background haze that the eye doesn’t notice until there is a contrast. You wash them, add baking soda, and raise the temperature, but the grey seems to be baked into the cotton. That’s the annoying part: they’re technically clean, but they look tired.
Marie cooks a lot and swears by her tea towels. She had a pile of white cotton towels that she washed at 60°C with a scoop of baking soda, just like everyone says to. The red tomato stains and curry spots had faded after a year. The whole pile, though, looked like it had been through ten winters without any sun. She even tried scented beads and a “magic” washing machine program. What happened? It smells good, but the color is still dark. She knew she had a problem that went beyond just detergent the day she saw that her “white” towel made her stainless steel sink look dirty.
Baking soda doesn’t always work well on whites that are very dirty for a simple reason. Soda is a great way to get rid of smells and make water softer. It can make the detergent work a little better. But grease, oxidized food stains, and washing clothes in cold water over and over again leave a thin, invisible film on the fibers. This film catches pigments and makes light-colored cotton look dull. If you only add the same thing to the same cycle, you’re mostly just moving dirt around. Your towels are clean, not reset. You need something that breaks this film, lifts old grease, and reopens the fiber to get that real “back to white” look.
Say goodbye to baking soda: the easy way to get tea towels back to white
A little-known trick that people who work in real kitchens share is to soak things in hot water with oxygen bleach and dish soap. Not mystery powder or chlorine. Oxygen bleach, which is made from sodium percarbonate, makes oxygen bubbles when it is put in hot water. Put very hot water (about 60°C) in a bucket or your sink. If your hands can’t take more, that’s fine. Put in one tablespoon of oxygen bleach and a squirt of dish soap that cuts through grease. Stir until everything is mixed together, then add your wet towels and push them down. Soak them for at least two hours, or all night if they are really sad.
People think that the smell of chemicals will be strong and that the color will change right away. What really happens is slower and almost fun to watch. The water turns cloudy and then beige, as if the years of sauce and frying oil are leaking out. Even before you put them in the washing machine, the towels look lighter when you take them out. Then you wash them like you normally would, but without baking soda, on a hot cycle. When they come out, there’s a quiet surprise: the weave looks sharper, the white is clearer, and the colored stripes stand out again. *For once, the promise on the box of the product seems real.
A lot of people mess up this trick without even knowing it. They put too many towels in a small bucket, so there isn’t enough water for the oxygen to work. They say they use lukewarm water “to save energy,” but then they complain about weak results. They don’t use the dish soap, which is the part that really gets rid of the greasy film. Or they wash the towels in cold water before putting them in the machine, which washes away half of the active solution. Let’s be honest: no one really does this every day. The point is not to be perfect. You should do this deep reset once a month or when your whites start to look like old dishcloths on a bad day. You won’t want to throw away your towels as quickly if you do this.
Camille, who runs a small bakery at home, says, “After the first overnight soak, I opened the machine and laughed.” “These were the same towels, but they looked like they belonged in a professional kitchen again.” I realized that I didn’t need more things; I just needed to make the right move at the right time.
Use hot water (about 60°C) to fully activate the oxygen bleach and get it into the fibers.
Let the oxygen bleach sit for at least two hours, and up to overnight for towels that are very yellow.
To get rid of grease and old oil that dulls the cotton, add a squirt of strong dish soap.
Don’t put too many towels in the soak; they should be able to float freely in a lot of water.
After soaking, run a hot wash cycle to get rid of the dirt and other things that came up.
Living with white towels without going crazy about them
Once you’ve seen your towels go from sad grey to almost‑new white, you start noticing all the little gestures that keep them that way. Hanging them up between uses instead of leaving them in a damp ball on the worktop. Rinsing off big tomato splashes under cold water before they dry. Choosing cotton over microfibre for heavy kitchen work, because cotton survives hot cycles better. You don’t have to become a laundry influencer. You just need two or three habits that fit into your real life, not somebody else’s perfect routine.
The bigger question behind that “goodbye baking soda” moment is simple: what else are we doing out of habit that doesn’t actually work anymore? We follow tips we heard from a friend of a friend, or from a viral post, and then wonder why our stuff wears out so fast. When you share this soak trick with someone, you’re not only giving them whiter towels. You’re giving them back the small pleasure of using something that feels properly clean, in a room where so much of daily life happens. Your kitchen becomes a little lighter, a little calmer, without buying anything fancy or changing everything overnight. Sometimes, the reset we need starts with a bucket, hot water, and a towel that finally looks like itself again.
Key point Detail Value for the reader
Hot oxygen‑bleach soak Use sodium percarbonate + very hot water + dish soap before washing Restores whiteness and brightness to tired kitchen towels
Space and time Let towels soak at least 2 hours in plenty of water Maximises the effect without extra products or effort
Simple habits Hang towels, treat fresh stains, favour cotton for hot washes Keeps whites cleaner for longer and reduces textile waste
FAQ:
Question 1Can I use regular chlorine bleach instead of oxygen bleach for this soak?Chlorine works fast but is harsh on fibres, colours and the environment. Oxygen bleach is gentler, safer on coloured stripes, and better for repeated use on kitchen textiles.
Question 2How often should I do this deep soak on my kitchen towels?Once a month is enough for most homes. If you cook and fry a lot, every two weeks keeps whites bright without feeling like a chore.
Question 3Does this method work on coloured towels too?Yes, as long as the colours are colourfast and you use oxygen bleach, not chlorine. Test on a corner if you’re unsure, and avoid very delicate prints.
Question 4What if I don’t have oxygen bleach at home right now?You can still improve things with a hot soak using dish soap and a splash of white vinegar (in a separate rinse). The result won’t be as dramatic, but it already lifts a lot of grease.
Question 5Are my towels “ruined” if they stay slightly yellow after the first try?No. Very old or heavily stained towels sometimes need two or three soaks over a few weeks to fully recover. The fibres didn’t age in one day, they won’t come back in one day either.
