Tea towels - how do you wash yours?

[TyneTeas]

Do people wash them separately or stick them in with an ordinary wash?

I always do mine separately, but it means they are hanging around until I have a few to do.

I'm not sure whether everyone segregates things that go on bodies from things that go on things that food goes on or if I am being a bit ridiculous...

It goes into the washing machine to be cleaned, so why on earth does it matter if there is stuff that has been in your body in there too??!

@FattyBoom to be honest, I don’t really mean all clothes- no issue with a T-shirt etc but I don’t mix towels, bedding or underwear with tea towels.

Online article which gives the gist- “Washing towels with clothes can transfer germs and bacteria between items in the wash. For sanitary reasons, you should always wash bath towels separately from clothing items. “

Do people really go to such ridiculous lengths? It's no wonder viruses and such have gained such a foot hold, people have sanitised their immune system to extinction.

I am in no way an obsessive cleaner, my carpets are hairier than my dogs right now, but this seems pretty obvious hygiene to me.

As far as I’m concerned you lost the right to take the moral high ground about tea towels as soon as you mentioned having dogs.

@MonkeyToesOfDoom exactly. Where I live, people think you need a separate washing machine for baby clothes. Not to wash them separately, an entire separate machine.

My baby spends 90% of his day attached to me, touching my clothes, why the hell would he need a separate machine.

This is what I don't get about tea towels.

If they're still filthy enough to need to be separated from underwear despite being washed, why would you rub them all over your plates?

Or is it that the underwear filth is transferring to the tea towel?

Which one is the originator of the filth?

The only reason I seperate tea towels is because I dont want softener on them - I affects absorbency. So anything I use for cleaning, whether it be my body or the house, gets washed in a seperate wash with no softener.

I have a storage basket in the utility room and cloths and towels get chucked in there when they're dirty when it's full I put a wash on.

@MrsFezziwig there’s nothing moral about tea towels!

mrsfezziwig

As far as I’m concerned you lost the right to take the moral high ground about tea towels as soon as you mentioned having dogs

That really really made me laugh. Bet you didn’t ever foresee the need for that sentence.

With towels/bedding/flannels at 60

I used to always wash them separately but my DH would always just chuck them in with the normal wash and eventually I gave in to it. I still think it's a bit gross but we've survived so far...

@fussychica

With bedding and / or towels on 50/60 degree wash normally but if I just done that wash I'll bung it in with any 40 degree wash rather than leave them hanging around.

Same here.

I put them in the washing machine when dirty and it gets washed with whatever the next wash in is.

Well I never thought there would be so many variations!

incredibly I meant hand towels from kitchen and bathroom not body towels, I suppose that's still gross in a way but I do do them at 60.

I separate thus:

Dishcloths, hand towels and tea towels
Bath towels and flannels
Bed sheets and pillow cases
Black/dark underwear (pants and socks) 60 degrees
White underwear 60 degrees with bicarbonate soda added
Dark clothes
Coloured clothes
White clothes

I find this system works a treat. It makes it easy to sort at the start and end and means I have to deal with pairing socks once per week.

To people saying they don't add fabric softener to towel washes, how do they not come out like sandpaper?

We go through about 5 a day for some reason. They go in any hot wash.

I have a tea towel hierarchy (doesn't everyone ), yet my family of boys are very disrespectful of this.

I do them on a 60 degree wash with the cleaning cloths, usually every week or two.

@Staffy1

To people saying they don't add fabric softener to towel washes, how do they not come out like sandpaper?

Has never happened to me. Have you tried using a capful of vinegar in place of the fabric softener?

Mind you I haven't noticed any particular roughness of fabric where I haven't used the softener! I don't know what it actually does, adds a smell I think, it def doesn't make them any softer IME.

I wash them with any cloths I’ve used for cleaning rarely a very big load of washing but I don’t want to wash them with clothing.

@Ninkanink

I do them on a 60 degree wash with the cleaning cloths, usually every week or two.

Same except 90 wash.

I don’t actually use them to dry up so they just get thrown in with everything else.

@Angelina82

I don’t actually use them to dry up so they just get thrown in with everything else.

I do a 90 degree wash every few months.

Hot wash with hand towels