Help me to cull the towel usage in my house!

[fedup21]

There are 5 of us- 11/15/17 and two adults.

All have a shower every day, DS often has a bath too. DDs will use a bath towel for hair and one for body each time. I have just done a tidy up and found one or two towels in every bedroom (some wet on the floor) and 5 (5!!!) hanging on the back of the bathroom door. I have no idea how many times they have been used and as I washed the whole lot of towels on Monday-am sick of this!

What happens in your house?
Own towels? Colour coordinated?
One use only and in the wash?
Own washing?
Fewer towels?!

Advice needed before the teens get back from work and the family meeting starts....

Everyone has their own hook or towel rail. Towel goes on there after every use. Washed every 5-7 days

I was joking about using hand towels to as a bath towel but someone else isn’t. How on earth is a hand towel big enough to dry your whole body and hair without being freezing cold while you get to your bedroom?
I use two, one for hair, one for body - it doesn't take so long to get dry that I'm in danger of getting cold then I put my dressing gown on to go back to the bedroom. As I said they are plenty big enough to get you dry, but I've never been one for lounging around wrapped up in huge fluffy bath sheet.

Give them a bath sheet each weekly, with an extra towel for the long-haired. And put a lock on the linen/airing cupboard.

We only possess 2 towels each (plus some extras for guests, swimming, gym etc).
One towel each on a hook on the back of the bathroom door. Switched out aprox once week for washing.
Several handtowels. Switched every time an appropriate coloured wash goes on (realistically, only there 2 or 3 days).
I can see the case for one body sized towel and one smaller hair towel out. Washed once a week.

Own towels. Don’t hang it up it’ll be damp = natural consequence.
Hair wraps for hair - much thinner, dry quicker and actually work better (stay in place).

We all have towel dressing gowns and 3 hair wrap things which I use. If the dressing gown is in a heap soaking wet on the floor, then tough for the next shower!

Everyone keeps their bath towel in their bedroom, on those little hanger rail things that fit on the front of radiators. Then the only towel in bathroom is hand towel which is changed regularly. Keeping towels in bedroom means they dry quickly and don’t get muddled up

2 people. 2 bath sheets - shared. 1 microfibre hair towel - me. All washed weekly.

Get rid of the basket for towels - it's causing temptation and single use of towels.

You need colour co-ordination and some rationing of towels per person. And hair turbans/microfibre hair towels for people fussy over their hair.

If they don't hang their towel up, they are stuck with a damp smelly towel for the week. Everyone will soon learn

I do not believe for a second that a hand towel can be used sufficiently to dry yourself to being absolutely dry. If you’re putting a robe on afterwards then it absorbs some of that moisture but no way can a hand towel be big enough for a whole body and a head of hair

There are 3 of us, 4 when ds is home. We have a large dresser outside the bathroom and everyone takes a clean towel whenever they need one. I mostly use the en suite and use the towels I have in there so I’ll use a towel or two, hang it up to dry and then reuse them several times. We probably have 30 odd towels and wash most of them every week.

I'm talking about these towels, they are 50x100cm. I've used them for years - if they weren't getting me dry, I would have bought bigger towels. They work fine (for me), one for my body and a separate one if I wash my hair and they aren't even soaking wet afterwards.

@NannyR my post was in response to @woodencoffeetable

We have our own colour/pattern and a different set for gym.
I change them weekly. One large, one hand/hair each and a communal hand towel for the family bathroom, which is a smaller size to the others.

Gym towels are dried overnight and appear in the laundry at the end of the week and fresh one is dispensed. I would change these more often but the user is happy with this arrangement.

All towels are hung to dry after use.

Clean ones are accessible if needed but we have a routine for laundry that works.

Ds & I have an extra large bathsheet each & a bath towel for hair drying as we both have long hair. I also put a hand towel & guest towel for drying hands & faces. Bath towels & sheets go on towel rail over radiator & hand towel goes in loop next to wash basin. We live in a flat so often bath towels go on hall radiator to dry after showers.

I use old t shirts to dry hair. I heard it stops your hair getting as frizzy. They aren't so bulky to wash either. As for the towels, it's all a bit random but they're not kept in the bathroom. If someone wants a fresh one, they usually ask and I'll get it as the cupboard it awkward to get to. I have a basket of clean flannels in the bathroom, I think dd uses them to dry her face as she can get through about 5 a day! It's hard enough keeping up with that.

I love the idea of each person having a colour. We have our own hanger, you use your towel each time until it needs a wash, going back on you hanger each time

We wash around weekly or so. We also use small towels (they are ikea hand towels, but to me they are very large for a hand towel), so that it isn’t such an ordeal to wash them.

If it were me I would consider rationing, and telling them that if they didn’t use the towels more responsibly that the next step would be that everyone would have to wash and hang their own laundry.

We all have our own supply of towels, but more impotantly we have our own bathrooms so therefore individual drying racks.

I think the probem when there are a few of you in the house is getting towels dry, hence overuse or being used once

I still have to moan at DS for leaving his towel on the bedroom floor I dont do that at all, oh no

Also something I learned from OH that just didnt occur to me was to roughly dry off when getting out the shower, hair towel if Ive washed my hair or a small towel/flannel. Then wrap my bath sheet round me. Means the towel isn't sopping wet.

We each have our own towel and our own place on the towel rail so they don't get muddled and can dry off properly between uses. They are washed weekly.

Different coloured towels hang on the bannister upstairs. Washed once a week, or actually more like 10 days when I remember!

Everyone has their own towels, dried after each use, washed once a week.
I use only a handtowel when I have a shower. I dry my body and hair with one small towel.
It gets washed after every use.

1 towel each hung up on towel rail/ back of door. If towel left damp on floor then it will be damp when you want to use it again ( DS2). No special hair towels , we dress or put on dressing gown after bathing and use the original towel if needed. I wash the towels once a week.

We have our own towels. We don't have hair specific towels, just use one big towel each. Dry on the bathroom radiator. Wash every couple of weeks.