Reply #12: Try this tip [View All]

This is about absorbency and smell more than softness -- but I suspect it might also help with the fluffiness.

http://lifehacker.com/5362234/use-vinegar-and-baking-soda-to-recharge-your-towels

If you're in the habit of using the amount of detergent recommended on the bottle, which is almost always way more than you need, and then hitting towels with fabric softener or dryer sheets you're setting yourself up for towels that lose their absorbency and can even begin to stink.

That's right, most of the time stinky towels aren't a result of failing to wash your towels enough but using too much detergent and fabric softener. The short of it is this: more isn't better and over time soap residue can accumulate within the fibers of the towels ensuring that not only do they fail to absorb as much water as they can but they also don't dry as effectively as they should. When your towels seem to get a funky smell immediately upon getting wet again, failure to dry completely thanks to soap residue is usually the culprit.

What can you do? Saving your towels is as simple as running them through two hot loads. Skip the detergent on both loads, run them through once with hot water and a cup of vinegar and then again with hot water and a half cup of baking soda. Your goal, whether washing brand new towels or old towels, is to strip the softener and detergent reside from the fibers of the towel and get them as absorbent as possible.