Sharing towels???

Let’s be clear. Anyone who uses a hotel towel, goes to a friends and uses a towel ‘shares’ a washed towel. Totally normal and not gross.

sharing used towels at home. I’d not use my husbands towel on purpose, but there have been times I’ve jumped in the bath and forgot to get a new towel put out the airing cupboard. So I’ve used his. He’s only used it when he’s had a scrub. It’s not that gross, considering we share bed sheets and that’s of course not the most intimate thing… he’s not a stranger that might have a manky disease or possibly doesn’t wash himself properly - I know he
does! Same with my kids. I’d happily wrap them in my towel - my daughter often uses my towel at swimming, cos she drops hers on the floor! But I birthed them, I also wipe their bums and clean their snot… a towel isn’t going to phase me.

I have 5 bath towels, each a different colour, the 5 people in my house know their colour and use their own bath towel (which is changed weekly). I can’t bear the thought of sharing - I commented on the last thread about this - would you really wear someone else’s knickers or socks even if they’d just worn them briefly straight after their bath? Just no, not for me. (But I don’t care what anyone else does in their own home, and if I stay at a friends I take my own towel to cut down their washing/ environmental impact).

Meh. We’re a family of 5 and use whatever towel is hanging on the towel rail. I clean my three small children at the same time (share a bath) and then use one or two towels to dry them (depending on how wet it gets. They get into clean clothes/pyjamas and everyone’s happy.

I do a load of washing everyday for clothes and linens, I also work full time and clean and maintain a large home (3 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms to clean - I have no spare time). I don’t have the time to be cleaning multiple towels constantly or trying to remember who’s is who’s. Nor do I want to run the tumble dryer too much.

When we dry ourselves, we’re already clean. I don’t mind what others do but I assure you, my family aren’t dirty or smelly. It’s absolutely fine to do either option and live a happy healthy life.

Sorry, I lost myself in a wave of nostalgia there didn’t I !

Mr Monkey share towels, but we also share a bed and many other things (not tooth brushes obvs). It is fine. How filthy do you think the people you have chosen to live your life with are?

I swear half of mumsnet is in danger of going full Howard Hughes at some point.

Guests of course get their own towels for the durarion of their stay.

Interesting how things change isn’t it, growing up in the 60’s/70’s there were 5 of us, one bathroom and one shower room. Separate shower rooms were a new thing ! It never occurred to us to have 5 towels in there so we just used to share whatever was there ! As a kid we didn’t used to shower every day either, and Sunday night bath night was a thing. My sister and I used to fight to have our bath when the Top 20 countdown was on to listen to the charts on a transistor radio. Pop music was otherwise banned unfortunately. Complete with drying your hair in front of the fire.

That's certainly not what sprung to mind when I read 'sharing towels'. Kinda extreme reaction from OP.

I'm responsible for towel washing here. Regarding bath towels, there are 3 of us, we have one bathroom. We have sets of towels in coordinating colours. I tend to have a bath towel in same colour as DHs bath sheet and DS will also have a bath sheet. Usually, they are all same colour as we know who is using which towel by where it's hanging up.

I think the idea of having towels that are only ever used by one person is a bit odd. If you have all same colour or sets then you must need to put names/markings on them somewhere. Not really practical and certainly not necessary.

Also, with bedding, do people have specific bedding sets for spare room double/king etc. that they don't use on the main bedroom bed? Surely the only reason for that would be to match decor. Otherwise a bit too persnickety

If my husband forgot his toothbrush, I’d rinse in hot water and let him use mine! Not ideal, but I don’t think it’s that awful.

Absolutely not, nope, never, not sharing with anyone unless in completely unusual desperate circumstances like war or something.

We share towels as long as they’re dry. We’re all still alive and in rude health so it’s not something that has crossed my mind. They’re just drying clean bodies

Yes. It's just my husband and kids. I wash them all about twice a week. If one's got period blood on or is visibly dirty it'll obviously go straight in the wash. I throw them in the dryer for a few mins when damp to freshen them up.

I’m certain you share toothbrushes too. Absolutely grim.

Me too, the towels had a distinct smell of dampness. I cannot tolerate that damp smell today. I had a shower at a friend's, the shower curtain had the same musty smell. I felt sick.

We share hand towels, but, we each have a bath towel.

The first problem for me would be that the towel wasn’t dry when I came to use it. I don’t think it’s particularly likely that used towel sharing causes diseases especially if washed often, but I wouldn’t choose to use a towel someone else had dried their bum on if I had a nicer option.

We don't have personal towels. We re-use the towels after the children, then they go in the wash.
DH is a hairy bear, definitely not using a used adult towel.

I am not clear if people mean sharing used towels , or if they have a collection of towels which anyone in the household can use, exclusively , between washes.

Definitely no sharing of used towels.

DH & I keep our towels in our own space on the towel rail, and they get changed every couple of days.

We have a 'bank of towels that everyone uses. If in the cupboard they are clean, if hung up in bathroom/bedroom been used once, for the SAME person to use again. Then washed.
We do long term fostering and our young person was getting anxious about the used towels in bathroom, which was his etc so he'd get another clean one out. I bought him 2 on a distinct colour so he knows that ONLY he has used them, so he will use it a 2nd time. That is for him and has cut washing the towels dramatically!

I had a colleague who marked her pillow case so she never had to lie her head where her husband 'had had his dirty head' despite it being washed etc! Bizarre in my eyes!

Growing up we all shared bath towels and flannels. As an adult I have my own bath towel

Large cupboard of towels, each person takes one and uses that towel with no one else using it at the same time, until it goes in the wash. When it’s dry and in the cupboard again, a different person can choose that towel and it’s then “theirs” until it’s washed and back in the cupboard and up for grabs.

Anything along those lines is normal imo, though it’s true that there are a few towels particularly beloved of individuals and they tend to often choose those ones.

Not normal would be another household member using any old towel in the bathroom that was used the previous day or earlier that day etc by someone else, and it not having been washed inbetween uses.

Everyone has their own swimming towel too!

When I grew up in the eighties, we shared towels - after your bath, you put it on the radiator to dry and the next person used it. I don't see a problem - you are using it to dry clean water off a clean body. We never had any diseases due to towel sharing.
I live on my own now, so it isn't an issue for me, but I can't see a problem with sharing towels a couple of times before washing.

Everyone has their own towel. We have a towel for the kitchen which gets changed pretty much every other day and hand towels in bathrooms which again get changed pretty much every other day.

Things a couple do are generally far more intimate than towel sharing can make you so I wouldn’t get worked up about couples sharing.
With children obviously wouldn’t.

Growing up, we only had one bath towel in the bathroom. We all used it 🤢. If you were last to bathe / shower, it was inevitably damp. Gross.
We all have our own towels in my household now.