How to soften towels

You know that feeling when you get out of the shower and your grab your brand new, big, fluffy, bath sheet and wrap it around your body? It's like a soft, warm hug! If you are anything like me you want them to stay that way forever, but they don't. No, it's not as easy as washing them with your favourite detergent and adding a great fabric softener then tossing them in the drying on the "fluff cycle".

In fact those things actually contribute to roughing up your towels. All those great smelling laundry products build up in the fibres over time. So what do you do? Find a new, better product? Sure, and you might even get them a tad softer. Or you could go buy new towels every few months? Um, no. I can't afford that!

After scouring the web for ideas I was surprised to see that the answer might be very simple. I saw people recommending the following things:

• Soaking in hot water with fabric softener for an hour before each wash (who has time for that?!)
• 15 Easy Steps to soft towels! (I'm not buying that. If there are FIFTEEN steps it ISN'T easy)
• Sodium tripolyphosphate. (What now? If I can't say it and I'd have to go to a chemistry supply store it's WAY too much effort for me.
• Adding a cup of salt to the wash cycle. (I salt my fries, not my laundry.)

I guess you are starting to see a trend here. I'm looking for a sure fire way to do it with as little effort as possible. After trying all sorts of combinations here's what I can say worked really well for me.

1. Go shopping! Buy a pack of tennis balls from your local dollar store. Three seems like a good number. Then hit your grocery store and get a big box of baking soda and a big bottle of white vinegar. You can get the Big box of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda at a big box store for next to nothing. Same with the vinegar.
2. Start your machine on your favourite cycle using warm or hot water.
3. Add your detergent, 1 cup of the baking soda and 1 cup of the vinegar.
4. Toss in your towels, but not too many. They need room to swirl around and get clean.
5. Avoid the temptation to use liquid fabric softeners. They build up, making towels crunchy and therefore less absorbent.
6. When your load is finished, transfer to your dryer along with the tennis balls and a fabric sheet (if you MUST have that extra scent added)
7. Dry them on your heat setting but remove them just before they are fully dry. You don't want to cook them.

You should find they are dramatically improved! It certainly works for me! 

I'd love to hear your tips! Have any tried and true methods, please share them in the comments.

30 Minute A Day Chore Chart

I regularly have people asking me what house cleaning system I use because even though I have a day job, I also spend a lot of time blogging, and still have a great amount of family time, yet  my home is still tidy. 

Where DO I find the time?!

Believe me, if it was in my budget I would have hired help! A housekeeper once a week is my dream luxury! Sadly I do not have the kind of lifestyle or budget that warrants it. Even though I have twice pleaded my case to the Mr. I keep getting shot down. 

So, until I find my situation changes I had to find a way to spend as little time cleaning as possible. Because frankly none of us WANT to clean, but we also don't want the neighbours thinking the closest dump is at your house.

I tried so many different things. Nothing really helped/worked, but lets face it I'd rather be doing ANYTHING other than cleaning. Don't believe me? Here's a list of things I'd rather do when I should be cleaning:

Watch my nails grow 

(*snort* as if they really do)

Iron socks and underwear

(no really, people DO that!)

Observe the drying of painted walls 

(which would leave me high afterwards...)

Watch the bubbles in my soda until it is flat 

(Count them as they pop for extra points)

De-seed a massive watermelon with a toothpick 

(then flick them at my napping hubby!)

Cut my grass with scissors 

(what else do you do if your lawn mower is on the fritz?)

Read War and Peace to my five year old 

(she's dramatic, she can act it out!)

Are you beginning to understand just how much I will do to avoid scrubbing toilets and cleaning my fridge?

So after many attempts to get a working routine that I would ACTUALLY follow, I found this little gem. It was created by Amy over at My 3 Monsters

It truly works, it keeps me sane and my house tidy (relatively)  and it leaves me with a lot of time. Basically it helps me achieve a really nice work, blog, family, housework balance and that, my friends, is worth a fortune! Though if you click through to her site you can get it for FREE and a template to create your own, if this one doesn't quite work.

You can thank me later!

Do you have a system that keeps your home clean? Or do you scoff at the idea of a housework routine?