this post is in partnership with 20 Mule Team Borax

being stuck at home for as long as we have now, my dish towels and cloth napkins have gotten GAHHH-rooose. from all the cooking and cleaning, i noticed within two weeks of quarantine how funky everything was smelling.and when i was posting on instagram complaining about it, i got soooo many messages saying you guys were having the same issues. i moved them into their own basket in the kitchen, so that they would stay separated from our clothes, i tried soaking in vinegar prior to washing in the machine. nothing really worked to get the mildewy stench out until i tried using Borax recently.

Borax is an all-natural laundry booster and multi-purpose cleaner that you can use in a ton of different ways, you can use to clean your kitchen, your laundry and all over your house. for the #boostwithborax challenge you may have seen that i took part in on instagram, i used Borax to make a laundry pre-soak for all my kitchen towels before i washed them. this works well for odor, but also tough stains (i also did all of arlos clothes that have been getting thrashed from the crafting we’ve done at home)

for the laundry presoak, fill a large tub with warm water and pour in the Borax (½ cup for every gallon of water). stir together and make sure you wear gloves! rinse your clothes before putting them in so they’re nice and wet, and then soak in the solution for 30 minutes (you can do longer for tougher stains). once they’re done soaking, just wash in the machine as normal.

it was an extra step but made such a big difference. when i did the vinegar soak, it was freshER but still not actually “fresh” smelling whatsoever. but after the Borax pre-soak the dish towels actually smell great!! and i don’t mind wiping my mouth with our napkins anymore lol. if you have been struggling with smelly dish towels, you should definitely try it.