How to Breathe Life Back Into Your Microfibre Towels

While thoroughly cleaning your towels after use is essential, an intensive machine clean can sometimes leave their fibres looking and feeling a bit flattened and clogged, so stay tuned to see how I recommend quickly rejuvenating them so you can continue on safely and effectively swiping, buffing and wiping with them. Right so just a relatively short and sweet one for this I think. I'm waiting for the horrible stormy weather to pass here in the UK at the moment so I can't really get outside and get any dedicated cleaning content filmed. So I thought why not try and get at least something done indoors that might sort of you know represent an extra bit of content uploaded by the end of the month which is what I'll be aiming to do here. Now this aims to address, outline and remedy I wouldn't even call it a problem really, an issue or a phenomenon that I've experienced many times over the years and so thought plenty of others may have or will have experience. And that is the fibres of your towels, whether that be drying towels, general purpose towels or buffing towels, maybe even microfibre mitts as well to an extent, sort of matting, clogging up. And, you know, just becoming a bit bedraggled and hardened after a thorough machine wash cycle, which is what I recommend for keeping your microfiber towels clean and contaminant free. But I found that that sort of intensive cycle, while it's great at cleaning the towels, can sort of leave them a bit beaten up. Some of them can conform to the... The contours of the drum itself, you know, the drain holes, you can see dimpled in their fibres. Some of them will clog up in groups and some of them will just become almost cardboard-like, like an old chamois leather. It won't be malleable and soft, which is exactly what you want for your microfibre towel. Now, some microfiber towels, your sort of general purpose Kirkland jobbies, for example, are sort of disposable, you know, some of you will strictly use them once and bin them. I will try and use them twice, you know, once and then downgrade them, you know, from paintwork to tile walls, shuts, what have you, engine bays, arch liners. Thank This doesn't really work for certain kinds of towels. Your waffle weave towels, your twist loop towels, your sort of suede towels shouldn't require this. you Although twist loop towels you can still try it with. very So we'll just pull them out for now. But sort of your more traditionally fibred towels if you like. much. This can be really effective at just keeping them going, breathing a bit more life into them. Keeping them soft, malleable, supple and effective at what they do. So this isn't all my towels this is just a small selection here just to give you an idea a couple of different kinds of drying towels some general purpose towels and some buffing towels we've got a couple of as I say microfiber wash mitts here that we can also employ the technique on just for illustrative purposes but you know it's the same regardless of the kind of towel really so Let's just pull all these out the way and focus on this sort of more plush drying towel to begin with because I think that'll be good for illustrative purposes. So prior to folding and packing my towels away, mine go in a canvas bag obviously because I'm transporting them in the boot, yours might be going on a shelf in the garage or a tub under the kitchen sink or something. I will commit to working each and every one of them over each and every way. With a soft sort of maybe an upholstery brush and I'll just run the bristles of that brush through the fibers of the towel just to rejuvenate that pile and breathe a bit of life back into it really. You can see my hand printing that there illustrating that it's nice and fresh and plush again ready for use which it arguably wasn't before and for the sake of a couple of seconds you know if you're not making a a cringy little youtube video you might be uh you might be able to get this done far quicker you'll flip the other side you know and you just repeat the process it's really not that technical involved or difficult and but at the same time i think it makes all the sense to do so for the sake of those extra few seconds now when it comes to brushes i'd recommend sort of a relatively soft plush bristled um upholstery brush that's you know safe on sort of soft nappa leather something like that i would recommend once you find a suitable bristled brush getting a new one and and reserving that solely for this purpose now the reason being because Even if you clean a brush that you've used elsewhere, there's still likely going to be abrasive bits of dirt in the base of their bristles that if you then go on to brush your towels over with, you could be dumping in, which again is one step forward, two steps back. You might be rejuvenating your fibers while at the same time introducing abrasive dirt particles, which defeats the object of what you're doing to begin with. So in an ideal world, get yourself a suitable brand new brush that does nothing else but brush your towels over, if that makes sense. Or if you're adamant on using a brush that's been used for other things before, really make sure it's thoroughly cleaned out, whether that be under a pressure washer, a hose pipe, in the shower, under the sink or whatever, and ensure that's as clean as possible. Maybe do a test on a piece of paper or something, you know. and make sure nothing comes out and if there's nothing there then maybe you're safe to go but for the sake of a cost the cost of one brush i'd say just get yourself one fresh out the packet and don't put it anywhere near any dirt just save it for use on your soft fibers Peace. Now I will mention that if you don't like the idea of running a brush over your fibres because to be fair you know that sound that you can hear is impacting you know there's an argument to be made that doing so on a regular basis will prematurely wear your towels. I mean I can't see any material being removed on these bristles but I understand over time this might prematurely wear your towels compared to not doing it. I still think it's worth doing overall. But if you're not comfortable or haven't got a correct brush and have just got to do it in the moment, one other quick technique I'd recommend is simply rubbing the fibres of the towel over themselves. So just take one side of the towel and just rub it over like that and that can have just as an effective... Result is using a brush, now it's a bit more laborious and awkward but it's not too much hard work and it brings about pretty much the same result. Now for a small towel like this you don't really need a table, you can do this when you're standing up in the moment and just sort of rub them against each other like that, that's all it needs, flip it. Make sure you get every sort of side, every quarter, every eighth, every half or whatever of the towel. And that's probably all something like a general purpose towel like this needs. Now when it comes to twist loop towels, twist loop drying towels, running a brush over them won't be as effective at rejuvenating the fibers as a sort of traditionally more open-ended fibered towel because of the construction of them they're all kind of their own separate entities that don't ...sort of interact with each other. So, you know, arguably you can overlook this. Also, I think you're more likely to pull them and inflict damage by rubbing a brush over. So if you're going to, don't use anything too stiff. Don't incessantly go to town on them. You're never going to get them. ridiculously soft because they're always a bit rougher to begin with anyway it's just the nature of the towel it's the price you pay they're a bit more heavy and rough you know but they're far more effective at absorbing water but generally speaking I'd still recommend gently rubbing a brush over them just to ensure they are as open plush and soft as they realistically can be before being put to use on the surface. Now while you can also brush your microfiber wash mitts over with some soft bristles like this which will have pretty much the same effect as it does on your towels and make sense for the same reasons, you can also if you haven't got a brush or don't want to put one to use on them chuck one on each hand if you can and I think you can probably see where I'm going with this. Simply rub them together, won't damage the fibers will just help declog Rejuvenating as least impactful and most effective way possible just makes sense go around the edges there. I don't know how many people have you seen doing that before I've never seen anyone doing it does that mean I'm the only person that does it or it's such a routine thing people don't think of filming themselves doing it I don't know but that just makes perfect sense to me and they'll certainly be a lot softer a bit more plush and a bit more effective in the job they do for it. So I think that's pretty much that. How long do you prattle on in regards to brushing your towels over, your microfibre towels with a soft bristle brush? I don't know, I could probably prattle on about it for hours. I think I've been sitting here for the best part of an hour now. But either way, I think that's enough to drive the point or to brush the point home, so to speak. As I say, it was just a bit of an impromptu one while the weather was a bit crap. I thought something was better than nothing in that respect, so hopefully you'll appreciate that. Now, before I head off, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the subject matter and the process in general. You know, is it something you agree needs doing? Is it something you do yourself, or is it something that you just wouldn't bother going near? You know, it's something I do for myself behind closed doors, so... I haven't really got much perspective on it. I've never seen much content on the subject matter. I've never really spoken to anyone about it. So I kind of sit here and do this and assume others do the same, which they may well do, but also they may well not. So, yeah, let me know your thoughts in the comments below. And I promise I'll be back with something a bit more dedicated and, you know, long-winded next time.