s/o How often...

[Mama Geek]

Do you change your bath towels?

 

I change mine once a week unless something strange happens. My MIL changes them every day. That causes lots more laundry when they visit.:tongue_smilie:

[Daisy]

Hubby and I use the same towel for a few days (probably 3). I change towels every day with the kids because inevitably they've used them to wipe their hands as well. :glare:

[Kathleen in VA]

Once a week. I figure, how dirty can they be? I mean, I use them to dry off my just washed body. I do know other people who wash them after each use and that just seems like a huge waste of time, energy, water, money to me. It's not a hill I would die on, though.;)

[Jen in PA]

DH and I rehang bath towels once, so roughly every other day. The DC have hooded character towels that I air overnight and wash about once a week -- they dry much faster than the other towels.

[Laura Corin]

Once a week. We have electric towel rails, so the towels dry quickly and don't smell.

 

Laura

[hsmom3tn]

We wash them after every use here, and change the hand towels every day.

[KrissiK]

I change bath towels once a week. Hand towels in the master bathroom - same. Hand-towels in the kids' bathroom - daily, sometimes more than once a day.

[Laura Corin]

We wash them after every use here, and change the hand towels every day.

 

I'm not in any way criticising you, but I'm trying to understand why you would want to.

 

Laura

[Parrothead]

Bath towels get washed after the first use. Even though they are hung up they don't dry within 24-hours. Or if they do dry they stink, smell moldy.

[justamouse]

the kids? every time they use a towel it goes into the wash. Dh and I use them probably two times.

 

wash is a constant in my house, just like cooking. It just is.

[Aggie]

Once a week. We have electric towel rails, so the towels dry quickly and don't smell.

 

Laura

 

 

I've never heard of these. Do they warm the towels so there's a nice warm towel waiting when you get out of a shower?

 

Off to google this great invention......:001_smile:

 

ETA: Wow! Where have these been all my life?! I must live under a rock.

Edited October 28, 2010 by Aggie

[kristavws]

My husband and boys usually will use a towel for 2-3days. I freely admit that I get a new towel every time I shower. No real reason why, other than I like a fresh towel.

 

Krista

[Laura Corin]

I've never heard of these. Do they warm the towels so there's a nice warm towel waiting when you get out of a shower?

 

Off to google this great invention......:001_smile:

 

We have a radiator - which is warmed by the central heating boiler in winter - which also has an electrical immersion coil in it. There's a timer on it so that you can set it to warm the towels for an hour around shower time. It's great to use that in summer when the central heating system isn't on. Ours aren't as stylish as this, but the idea is the same.

 

Laura

[AHASRADA]

Hmm. Never thought about it. When I get out of the shower, grab my towel off the hook and realize it smells, I toss it in the laundry and get a new one. Dh does the same. I assume the kids do as well, but if I notice the same towel has been there for a while, I'll change it myself. Dh stays on top of changing the handtowels, since he uses them much more often than I do (I am inevitably washing my hands in the kitchen!)

 

As my mom always told me growing up, "Towels are for drying clean, wet things!" If this principle is adhered to, I see no reason to wash them, unless they begin to smell from not drying properly. I can see young children not respecting this rule, though :tongue_smilie:.

[Nestof3]

:iagree:

 

I do use a fresh wash cloth and hand towel every night when I wash my face. I go through about six kitchen hand towels a day, though. LOL

 

Once a week. I figure, how dirty can they be? I mean, I use them to dry off my just washed body. I do know other people who wash them after each use and that just seems like a huge waste of time, energy, water, money to me. It's not a hill I would die on, though.;)

[Mom in High Heels]

We each have our own color towels (Indy's are light blue, James Bond's are dark blue and mine are pink). This keeps us from using each others towel (Dr. Oz even did a show segment about this recently) so the same towel isn't getting used over and over. We each have 3 towels. Two of them get used during the week and washed on the weekend. The 3rd towel is rotated in while the others are in the wash. It's a great system. We have a separate set of towels for guests BTW (beige). We use 2 hand towels a week, unless Indy gets something on them, but bless him, he's a pretty clean kid.

[secular_mom]

When we live in a dry climate we change them every few days, but living in a humid environment we change them daily.

[Laura Corin]

This keeps us from using each others towel (Dr. Oz even did a show segment about this recently) so the same towel isn't getting used over and over.

 

Apart from specific illnesses (warts, upset stomachs) is this a problem? We are all very healthy.

 

Laura

[Mejane]

We all have our own towels. We use them twice, then they get washed.

[Mom in High Heels]

Apart from specific illnesses (warts, upset stomachs) is this a problem? We are all very healthy.

 

Laura

 

Any kind of illness or infection (especially athlete's foot or jock itch) can be transferred via towels. I do NOT want that. Neither of my boys have anything like that, but any kind of cut or wound can spread infection too. We're healthy too, but Indy is a very boyish boy and James Bond is well, a guy. I don't know what those two get up to. :D

[ondreeuh]

Dh and I share 3 bath towels, and the kids each have 2 (color coded). Each week I wash the towels that are hanging up, which usually isn't all of them. We use them to absorb plain water off our clean bodies and they dry between uses so I don't see any need to wash more than that.

 

DH has different towels he uses when he goes in the sauna. They are only used once before washing - in fact I try to make dh put them directly in the laundry room. The sweat that he makes in the sauna is FOUL!

[Chris in VA]

Every day. I'll occasionally reuse if there aren't any clean ones around...

[RoughCollie]

Every time a bath towel is used, it goes into the laundry immediately afterward. It is the way DH was raised, and he is convinced it is unsanitary to use a towel more than once. Whether it is a good idea or not is a moot point around here.

 

I put wash cloths and kitchen towels into the laundry after they are used, and I change hand towels daily.

 

According to the CDC, sheets, pillowcases, towels, and wash cloths should be washed in hot water and detergent to prevent the spread of diseases from conjunctivitis to MRSA. I do that, and I dry those items thoroughly using the hottest setting on my dryer.

 

The CDC's website has a wealth of information about what we can do in our homes to help prevent the spread of diseases, from washing towels to disinfecting surfaces after cleaning them. I use their guidelines in hopes that by so doing, our family gets fewer illnesses.

Edited October 28, 2010 by RoughCollie

[lllll]

..

[hsmom3tn]

I'm not in any way criticising you, but I'm trying to understand why you would want to.

 

Laura

 

Honestly, I just grew up doing it that way. They go straight into a laundry basket after being used and the basket of towels gets washed every other day, if not every day.

 

Bath towels get washed after the first use. Even though they are hung up they don't dry within 24-hours. Or if they do dry they stink, smell moldy.

 

This is another reason. Since we've been back at my father's house, there are 5 of us sharing one bathroom. It seems like the shower is going all day, and there's no other place to hang a towel except over the shower doors... so they would never get dry.

 

Before we separated, my husband would use his towel twice before putting it into the laundry basket. We had plenty of bathrooms and showers, so there was no problem with the towels getting dry in between uses. Still, though, I just used mine once because that's what I'm used to. :)

 

The hand towels get changed at least every day, sometimes more than once a day. Again, it's because there are so many of us sharing a bathroom. They just don't seem to ever get dry and often look dirty.

[MamaAkins]

We change them every 2-3 days for bath towels. Hand towels in our downstairs bathroom get changed every day. Kitchen towels get changed after we cook a meal.

[Sherry in OH]

A minimum of once a week, more often in humid weather. We each have our own towels and they dry between use. Hand towels are washed more frequently. My boys still don't believe that dirty hands should be washed with soap and water BEFORE wiping them on the towels.

[Punks in Ontario]

We have a radiator - which is warmed by the central heating boiler in winter - which also has an electrical immersion coil in it. There's a timer on it so that you can set it to warm the towels for an hour around shower time. It's great to use that in summer when the central heating system isn't on. Ours aren't as stylish as this, but the idea is the same.

 

Laura

 

Ha,ha. My dh just spent 8 hours installing one of these. I bet the family fell over when they saw the bill.

[melissel]

Hmm. Never thought about it. When I get out of the shower, grab my towel off the hook and realize it smells, I toss it in the laundry and get a new one. Dh does the same.

 

Here too...

[Laura Corin]

Ha,ha. My dh just spent 8 hours installing one of these. I bet the family fell over when they saw the bill.

 

It took our plumber about an hour to put the electric element into the existing radiator, including moving a pipe and re-doing a tile.

 

Laura

[mo2]

Every 2 to 3 days. We live in a humid environment and they don't dry well hanging in the moist bathroom. Hand towels get changed everyday, because with so many of us washing our hands, it is inevitably soaked by nighttime. Kitchen towels and washcloths daily too.

[NanceXToo]

I won't use a towel more than twice. And often only once. Just one of my 'things.'

[angela in ohio]

We change hand towels daily in each bathroom (one towel in each,) and everyone has a color-coded bath towel hanging on the back of their bedroom door that is washed twice weekly.

[mcconnellboys]

Once a week here, unless the boys have been particularly dirty when bathing, etc.

[fairfarmhand]

We each have our own color towels (Indy's are light blue, James Bond's are dark blue and mine are pink). This keeps us from using each others towel (Dr. Oz even did a show segment about this recently) so the same towel isn't getting used over and over. We each have 3 towels. Two of them get used during the week and washed on the weekend. The 3rd towel is rotated in while the others are in the wash. It's a great system. We have a separate set of towels for guests BTW (beige). We use 2 hand towels a week, unless Indy gets something on them, but bless him, he's a pretty clean kid.

 

 

our towels are color coded so I know who to yell at when it is left in a soggy heap in the floor :)

[Binalina]

Once a week for bath towels and hand towels unless obviously dirty or smelly. Kitchen towels the same but I don't use my kitchen towels to wipe up food or wipe dirty hands on - only something that is clean and wet so I don't see how I would need to change them every day.

[ecj98]

I wash bath towels twice a week. Hand towels at least twice a week if not more often.

[JoyfulMama]

We only have hanging room for two towels - one for dh and one for me. The kids don't take daily showers, anyway, and I try to clump them on the same nights, that way I can toss them all in the washer right away.

[Annie Laurie]

 

I go through about six kitchen hand towels a day, though. LOL

 

Me too. I can't stand the thought of reusing bacteria laden dishcloths and kitchen towels, since they tend to stay damp, or to be used on food prep surfaces. I do a load of kitchen linens daily.

 

But bath towels get changed about once a week or when it seems to need freshening. Hand towels two or three times a week, since the kids make a mess of them.

[jenL]

Dh and I use our bath towels for about 4 days. The boys get a new bath towel every 2 days because they usually use it for more than just after bath. Hand towels are every 1-2 days. Face cloths are after every use.

[Ellie]

Clean washcloths for each person for each bath/shower; clean handtowel daily; clean bathtowels weekly.

[LauraGB]

Our linen closet in built into the hallway. Dd and I share a bathroom, and we each just grab a new towel on the way to the shower. Dh and ds share a bathroom and I'm not sure what they do :001_huh: (but I don't think they grab a new towel on the way to the shower).

[Mommyfaithe]

Honestly...every time we use them. I know that is definitely too often...BUT, I can't stand dirty or used towels. It just grosses me out. My pet peeve.

Faithe

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

We change towels after every use. We do a load of towels and washcloths daily.

[sonsmama]

Weekly for the bath towels. As needed for everything else.

[zaichiki]

We wash them after every use here, and change the hand towels every day.

 

Ditto

[kitten18]

1x/week

[clarkacademy]

I have issues but every towel and washcloth are only used once in my house then washed. I know it makes more work but I can't help myself.

[AngieW in Texas]

My dh and I have one bath towel each (color-coded) and I wash them 1x/week.

 

The kids can't seem to get the hang of hanging up their towels to reuse them, so they use a new towel almost every day.

[prairiegirl]

I change the towels every day.