The towels come in a vacuumed sealed bag as the notice states. I put them in the washer in two batches. The large towels followed by the hand towels and washcloths. I'm glad I did because the large towels really expanded. The washer I have it an apartment unit, so it wouldn't have held all of them. Finding room in a closet for them is the next challenge. These are soft which is nice until my cats decided they would make a nice bed to lay on or knock them on the floor and lay on the pile they created.