Rampant towel usage driving me mad

[TwigTheWonderKid]

This seems such a minor thing but it's doing my head in and I can't work out how to solve it. My two teenage sons take a new towel from the stash in the bathroom each time they have a shower, rather than bringing the one they used the time before and then a pile of damp towels grows on their bedroom floors.

I can't keep up with the washing and environmentally it's really wasteful for them to have a clean towel each time they have a shower. I appreciate some people will disagree with that, but those of you who re-use towels once or twice before washing them, how do you manage your towels?

One towel each, put the rest in the loft. Tell them to wash it when it smells.

If you need to keep some spares for visitors hide them in the loft.

YUK why woukd you wait until it smells? That's grim.

What’s your system for damp towels? I’d take away the stash and highlight they need to hand used ones up etc and put a limit on how many per week they can have

We had exactly this problem with 4 young adults/teens at home and it was an absolute nightmare with every single towel being used every day and mostly dumped, damp, in room corners. We removed all from the bathroom except one small hand towel. Each person has a colour set of their own (flannels, hand towel, bath sheet). All towels get washed and dried on a Saturday. Any not laundered on Saturday have to be reused the following week.

Hide your towels. The airing cupboard isn't secure. You must just hide them.

Same here!
3 teens/YA and there's a constant mountain of towels on the towel rail. I end up washing them every day and it's driving me mad..

If I find a towel on the floor the culprit does the next load of washing. Wash, hang, fold and put away. DS lasted a week before always hanging up his towel!

Develop a highly contagious fake skin disease and tell them about it in glorious detail, often.
also give them their own towel and keep your stash under your mattress.

How are you supposed to know which day is the day before it will start to smell? I wash ours weekly and they don't normally smell, but if it's in between temperatures where they aren't drying properly in the bathroom because the heating is barely kicking in then sometimes they need changing sooner.

I don't wait until it smells. I imagine that the teens who use all the towels are going to wait for someone else to wash it for them. I was suggesting that the op make it the job of the teens to wash it and that it would be time to issue a reminder if op could smell the towels from outside their rooms!

Ours don't leave the bathroom so they are just hung up after use.

I used to go into dd's bathroom and take her damp towel out of the basket (or off the floor) and dry it in my own bathroom, fold and return when dry so she never knew it was un washed. Obvs i did wash them weekely but she would have used and did use a fresh towel daily (she thought)
Interestingly, now she has her own flat, towels last a week!

This thread has made me giggle! I have the exact same problem with my two teenage sons. My youngest refuses to use a towel twice! I too ranted about electrical bills, the environment, spoiled brats yadayada....

They do actually hang up their towels so when they are dryI just fold them and put them back in the cupboard and pretend they have been laundered. Im really pleased with myself for being so sneaky and they haven't cottoned on.... yet.

I do it with all the clean clothes they stick in the washing basket as well. Just fold them in with the clean washing and hand it back to them to put in their wardrobes.

I know I'm not being very helpful for their future partners and I'm still doing the sorting and folding so not the best solution, but saves laundering and nagging.

I have a OH like this although he doesnt leave towels on the floor but does change them a lot

I use hammam towels, they are thin cotton like a tea towel although a bigger size. They dry very quickly and take up far less space in the machine

He on the other hand likes normal towels which are old white ones which are horribly manky, I am going to sneak them in the bin one by one over the next few months

They have a different coloured bath towel each, which they have been trained since infancy to hang on the heated towel rail after use. If I see one on the floor the culprit is removed from whatever they are doing to pick it up - a few interrupted games and they learnt (rule also applies to clothes on the floor).

Periodically I gather the towels up, wash them, dry them (we tumble dry towels so it doesn’t take long) and put them back. There is no stash or pile and there are no spares accessible. Works fine. The concept of using a towel only once then getting a fresh one from some huge stash is totally alien to me.

Everyone here has their own towel which stays in their bathroom and is used for a week and goes back on the towel rail.

Tell them not to and fling it back in their bedroom .. get coloured towels so they know which is theirs !

Lock the airing cupboard , don't leave them in sight of the teens !
Sorted

DD and I have two towelling dressing gowns and two hair towels. They get alternated so always dry and washed on Sunday.

Don't keep the towels in the bathroom

Your two teenage sons need to be introduced to their new best friend, the washing machine.

You need to stop doing their laundry. Only do your own, and keep your towels hidden.

There is absolutely no reason why two healthy lads can't do their own.

Step back, let the towels and all the rest of it pile up. Act surprised when they wonder where all the clean towels are.

Inform them of your retirement.

Alternatively, don't play games. Just tell them they're doing their own laundry (towels and everything else) from now on.

Don't fail in this important lesson in hygiene and adulthood or you'll end up with daughters in law who will curse you daily.

I haven’t got kids but had a family member aged 16, stay for two nights.
She got through
Three hand towels
Two bath sheets
Two bath towels
Four face cloths
The bedding was an absolute disgrace, caked in fake tan, it took several washes to get it clean.
I found various glasses and mugs left in the bedroom along with all the above mentioned towels.
She has not been invited back

I'm glad it's not just me!

So,personalised towels and then hide the spares in such a fiendishly difficult to get to place that walking back up the stairs to their bedrooms to retrieve their towel will actually be easier that obtaining a new one.

I might replace all the towel stash in the bathroom with a stack of flannels though; that should also help concentrate their minds😁

Exactly the same problem here! You’d think they’re at the Ritz. Have been known to rescue 6 towels and 15 tea towels… imagine! Problem is, all towels are in the airing cupboard so help themselves willy nilly.. drives me nuts!

They can use the washing machine. It's not that, I just don't want them to be washed so frequently! No amount of me muttering "Will no one think of the polar bears" has any effect on either of them.

Restricting access to the towels is the only way to go.

My son drove me mad about the damn towels when he was a teen. He absolutely refused to reuse a towel, although he was good about hanging them up after he would use them. Washing the towels, getting them dry and putting them away was his job for years.