Can You Wash All Colored Towels Together?

Can You Wash All Color Towels Together? You can wash all colour towels together, but you should not. There are several reasons you should not wash all your towels together which I will get into in a minute.

One of them being the fact that if any of the towels you’re washing is of low quality and begins to bleed, the colour will fade into your other towels.

This colour will completely take over the rest of the towels, and if there are whites in there, they will be ruined beyond repair. So, always sort your towels out by colour whenever you’re doing laundry.

Reasons why you should not wash all coloured towels together

Other reasons you should not be washing all colour towels together in case you are not convinced are—

It Will not wash properly

If you’re washing your towels in a washing machine, no matter the size of the machine. If you wash all your towels together at the same time, your towels may not wash properly.

Because some of those towels are used for different purposes which makes them have different washing modes, and if you decide to wash them singularly. It may cause some of them to be unwashed.

The washing machine will not run at full capacity because it’s so full and because both your thick and lighter towels are together, it may end up not cleaning as effectively as it should. So, always sort your towels, so they wash properly.

Bleach

Bleach is known to be a super-effective cleaning agent, it has antibacterial properties and it is very powerful, however, it is often used to wash white clothing items because it removes tough stains.

If you’re going to be washing your white towels using bleach, then it is advisable not to wash all colour towels together. The bleach will cause your coloured towels to begin to lose their colours because it’s so corrosive.

Do not use bleach to wash your towels if they are not white, no matter what anybody tells you. You may think since your towels are of high quality then that makes it okay, but that’s not true, the bleach will ruin your towels and that would probably mean you have to get new towels.

Lint Transfer

For older towels, after long years of service like most things they will begin to fail, this may be through the fabric as the fibres begin to slowly deteriorate, producing lint. This is very annoying and hard to get rid of when they get on your clothes, no matter how hard you try.

When you wash all your towels together, including the ones that are old and producing lints, there will be a transfer to your other newer towels.

Once this happens, it will be almost impossible to get rid of, to avoid this unfortunate incident, always sorting out the older towels. Purchase new towels if your towels are old and produce lint.

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Overload

You may think your washing machine is big enough, so why not wash all my towels together. Believe it or not, there is such a thing as overloading a washing machine, by doing this you make the machine work extra hard to clean the multiple towels at once and this will cause stress on the mechanisms controlling the pedals.

It may even cause it to break after a while, all because you were impatient and could not take your time and lighten the load.

When you overload your wash machine it also makes your towels more likely to rip in the machine because of the maximized friction between all the clothes in there.

Unhygienic

It is super unhygienic washing all your towels together, especially if they don’t all belong to you. If one or more of the towels you’re washing belongs to someone who has a skin disease, by washing them with yours, you run the risk of getting the microbes from his towels on your towels.

If you end up using the towel on your skin, you have inevitably contracted what the person has, therefore for hygiene reasons, always sort your towels and wash them accordingly. To save yourself a trip to the dermatologist, wash them separately. 

Fabric softeners

Fabric softeners have different effects on your towels, the older towels may need it often but the newer ones don’t need it as much.

And if you’re going to apply it while washing, and you are washing all the towels at the same time, it would make the newer towels more prone to tear because the fabric will be weakened by the fabric softener.

If you are going to apply it to your towels, sort the towels by those that need it and those that do not, that way you save yourself the trouble.

Different uses

There are different uses for different towels, all they all can’t be washed at the same time for a number of reasons.

• Kitchen towels— These are typically used in the kitchen to clean various food stains off the countertops and stove. They tend to carry food residue and grease stains, by washing your kitchen towels with your other towels you run the risk of getting those food specks all over your bath towels and face towels. The grease may also stain your white towels permanently, grease stains are incredibly difficult to remove once it’s in your clothes.
• Face towels— Face towels is usually popular in spas and beauty salons, it is usually used to wipe the face. And it is reserved mainly for face cleaning, and it needs to be soft and fluffy. There the mode of washing is typically different from regular towels like a hand or bath towels, if the same detergent and wash mode is used on the others it can end up ruining the aesthetic. Always sort your towels by use when washing.
• Hand towels— hand towels are used after you wash your hands, it is for wiping the water off your hands. When you wash hand towels with other kinds of towels it may end up making it less absorbent, it won’t do the one job it’s made for.

Bleeding

Bleeding occurs when the dye in the fabric of clothing items begins to come off and when you apply water to the material it begins to fade.

If you wash all your towels together and do not separate them by colour, if any of the towels are bleeding, the colour will end up affecting the other towels thereby damaging them permanently.

Bleeding stains are very hard to come off, no matter what you try to do. It’s best to avoid this situation altogether and just sort them out by colour before washing.

How to properly wash towels

There is a right and wrong way to wash towels, besides the fact that some come with specific washing instructions from the manufacturers.

There are techniques that work for most towels and if you implement these techniques, your towels will come out clean every time and stay fresh and fluffy.

Separate by colour

Always separate towels by colour, by doing so you reduce the risk of dark-coloured towels bleeding into the lighter ones.

Also if you want to apply bleach to the white towels to remove tough stains, by separating them by colour it makes it super easy and less messy.

Get the right laundry detergent

The right laundry detergent is the difference between a properly washed towel and a towel whose fabric is gradually falling apart.

If you purchase detergent that is not ideal for cotton, you may notice that after a couple of months the towel fibres will begin to break apart, forming lint. And after a while, it will inevitably rip.

Right washing temperature

There are certain temperatures that are ideal for washing towels, too high and you will end up with a shrunken towel and too low it will not clean the towels properly.

These temperatures are known to be around 60-80 degrees, at this temperature the water is hot enough to kill off all the bacteria but cool enough for the towels to retain their shape and texture.

Lighten the load

When washing, to get all the towels properly clean, you have to lighten the load in the washing machine to let it do its thing.

When there are too many clothes in there, it reduces the efficiency of the machine, and this will translate to your clothes not getting washed properly. When you sort your clothes out by colour and thickness. Ensure you do them batch by batch to maximize efficiency.

Clean washing machine

Your washing machine also needs cleaning, because it is for cleaning does not make it any less worthy of getting cleaned.

When you don’t clean it regularly, it gets clogged and begins to develop a smell after a while. When you wash your clothes with a dirty washing machine, you end up with clean clothes that have a foul smell.

FAQs

Can you wash towels with your clothes?

Sure you can, but you should remember to sort them out by colour if you do not sort them out by colour. You may end up with a batch of clothes that have become a “hive mind” single-coloured and a whole mess.

If the towels are kitchen towels, then you should probably not wash them together to avoid cross-contamination between both “parties”.

Can you wash your towels with cold water?

You can wash your towels with cold water, but the best and most highly recommended way to wash your towels is with warm water.

It does not mean cold water won’t get the job done though, if you use antibacterial detergents and wash properly, cold water should do just fine for towels.

Should you wash towels with hot water?

Yes, this is the method that’s most recommended. But not boiling hot water though, because if the water is too hot, it may end up shrinking the fibres of your towels. Which will ruin the towels, if your bath towels shrink, it may end up becoming hand towels and I’m not even kidding.

Use warm water to get the best washing experience for your towels, and wash on a gentle cycle, because the hot water will have made the fabric soft and if you go too rough it ends up ripping.

Can towels and darks be washed together?

White towels and darks? Heck no, but if they are dark towels, then you can make it work. Washing your white towels with your dark coloured clothes is the number one recipe for disaster, I guarantee it does not end well, even if the cloth does not bleed into your white towel.

As it’s a dark coloured cloth, there may be stains that you can’t see, and once you start washing, it comes out and into your white towels. Just don’t do it.

How do you wash multi-coloured towels?

You can wash multicoloured towels the same way you wash dark coloured towels, with warm water and on a gentle wash cycle.

However, if you want to go the extra mile to preserve the colour and texture of the fabric, you can use colour retaining laundry detergents to help maintain the colour so it does not bleed over time.

Some of these detergents are super affordable so you don’t have to worry about the price, it also helps to remember that just because it’s multicoloured does not mean you should wash them with your whites, also do not apply bleach to them either. An example of the colour retaining laundry detergent is the Tide Pods 3-in-1 Laundry Detergent.

Can You Wash All Color Towels Together – Conclusion

Always sort your laundry out by colour whenever you’re washing, and this includes your towels. As I went into details above on the cons of not sorting the towels out, I hope it acts as a guide in case you want to cut corners in order to “save time”.

You end up saving time but at the cost of ruining your towels, it’s not worth it, especially if you paid a hefty sum for the towels. Do not add bleach to coloured towels, that’s the fastest way to make them lose their colour. Take care!