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Original poster

Rampant towel usage driving me mad

99 replies

TwigTheWonderKid · 09/01/2023 17:55

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?

OP posts:
Yankeedoodlemandy · 09/01/2023 19:17

This isn’t as easy to manage as it sounds as is an issue here . 2 sensible teens and they hang and reuse.
one teen who dumps clothes and towel in basket after one use. Claims to use them for days . Also showers 3 times a day often. You simply can’t rationalise with this one same as the others so I just dry and put back and pretend washed. But yes drives me nuts and goodness knows how they cope when they leave home .

ChiefWiggumsBoy · 09/01/2023 19:17

This is a big part of why we have our own towels. Different colour and named labels on ours, they get hung up to dry once used unless you like using a damp musty towel! Bunged in the washing machine at the end of the week and tumble dried.

greenacrylicpaint · 09/01/2023 19:19

3 teens here

we have a hook each in the bathroom where our towels-in-use live.
I change them over twice a week or so.

tbh a teenager should be able to do laundry. maybe make towel laundry a task for them.

viques · 09/01/2023 19:23

bellac11 · 09/01/2023 19:00

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

Don’t bin them! Donate them to your local animal shelter/ cats home. They always need towels.

fruitpastille · 09/01/2023 19:24

I feel your pain. Mine do at least hang them up afterwards but I end up with loads of them hanging over the banister on the landing. I must admit I sometimes put a couple back in the airing cupboard without washing (nobody has suffered any ill effects). I've considered colour coded towels but a) Why should I spend extra money when we have about 10 decent quality white towels already? And b) I just couldn't make a colour decision when looking at the array in Next 😁

Ickapyre · 09/01/2023 19:31

The problem isn't that the teenagers can't use the washing machine - they wash everything far too often and can easily put on the machine with only one or two things in. They have their own laundry sacks and I let them know when to put their dark/light/white wash in the machine so we can be a bit energy efficient...

Izadrennan · 09/01/2023 19:35

No advice unfortunately but can totally relate! As can my sister, both mums to boys (and girls but they are nowhere near as bad for towel usage and floor coverage from damp towels)
The only positive I take from it is I'm not having to chase or nag them into having a wash 😂

Tontostitis · 09/01/2023 19:39

My husband likes a fresh towel with every shower so I just fold the towel up when dry and put it back on the towel cupboard. The actual clean towels are in a different cupboard and I swop the piles and do a weekly towel wash. In 15 years he's never noticed. He does hang them up to dry though.

SLS500 · 09/01/2023 19:55

Tontostitis · 09/01/2023 19:39

My husband likes a fresh towel with every shower so I just fold the towel up when dry and put it back on the towel cupboard. The actual clean towels are in a different cupboard and I swop the piles and do a weekly towel wash. In 15 years he's never noticed. He does hang them up to dry though.

GrinGrinGrin

Ihatepcos · 09/01/2023 20:00

I'm sorry but the fact people ust one towel for days on end (or until it smells!!) is disgusting to me. Reusing it within the same day I can justify but not over multiple days.

hugoagogo · 09/01/2023 20:03

Hiding the towels is the only answer. Now they have their own flats, they don't seem to have a problem with using the same one several times.HmmGrin

SixCharactersinSearchofanAuthor · 09/01/2023 20:06

In defence of teenagers, my eldest did message me after 2-3 weeks at uni and declare his towel smelt "like arse' and was always wet and how could he stop that. Which led to me pointing out 1. Towels need to dry and 2. Towels need to be washed and 3. Had he ever heard me mention that before. Sometimes when the buck stops with them they do actually step up.

Hollyhocksandtulips · 09/01/2023 20:12

TwigTheWonderKid · 09/01/2023 17:55

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?

My slightly different approach was to (passive aggressively some would say ) but my teen a towelling dressing gown to put on after a shower so he can wander about getting dry - previously used one on body, shoulders and head and discarded all 3. Now still discards one but I haven't the strength to tackle that yet and cannot face hiding my own towels!!

42isthemeaning · 09/01/2023 20:25

I had this with teen dd.
The answer is to hide the towels.
It worked for me!

watchfulwishes · 09/01/2023 20:29

No amount of me muttering "Will no one think of the polar bears" has any effect on either of them. You might get further explaining to them it is not the polar bears they need to worry about but themselves, as there will be permanent war and water/food shortages...
Obviously not all to do with their own towel usage.

Montague22 · 09/01/2023 20:31

@Ihatepcos I’m glad you’ve said this. I like a fresh towel every day too…we must have 30-40 stacked in the bathroom…I like to use the heated towel rail to warm my fresh one 😬
I am otherwise not awful environmentally. Use a milkman/veg box/very minimal air miles!

slamwich · 09/01/2023 20:33

When all mine lived at home we had a free standing towel dryer in each bedroom

Toomanysleepycats · 09/01/2023 20:53

Pick the towels up off the floor, put them back on the shelf.

Just make sure you use different towels.

teaandtoastwithmarmite · 09/01/2023 21:17

My dd does this. She's 9 so I guess I will have to try and stop it lol

Busy77 · 09/01/2023 21:27

Put a lock on the cupboard!

Rebel2023 · 09/01/2023 21:30

Ihatepcos · 09/01/2023 20:00

I'm sorry but the fact people ust one towel for days on end (or until it smells!!) is disgusting to me. Reusing it within the same day I can justify but not over multiple days.

It's clean! What a waste to wrap it around my clean body and then wash it Confused
I hang it up, it dries and I use it the next day
I wouldn't wash a hand towel used solely for drying clean hands daily either

Feelallright · 09/01/2023 21:33

One towel each only. Washed once a week. It’s idiotic to wash them more frequently.

Athenen0ctua · 09/01/2023 21:36

Do some teens just randomly start leaving towels on the floor after hanging them back up to dry since early childhood? I haven't experienced it as my siblings and I didn't do it and DS is 16 and doesn't either.

JenniferAllisonPhillipaSue · 09/01/2023 21:40

Like others - pick up damp towel from bathroom floor, dry on a distant radiator that they don't see (e.g. my bedroom), fold up and return to cupboard ready for DH to select again!

boboshmobo · 10/01/2023 11:15

Is your bathroom downstairs and their bedrooms upstairs ? And you have clean towels in a pile in said bathroom?
If so this is your problem , they are teens and by definition lazy . They won't care what towel it is , just that it's too far away to go back for it . Remove towels from line of sight and go and get a hook for their towels on their doors .

Get coloured towels and tell them they can only sue their colours!

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