... to get annoyed at DH for using a towel once....

[Jazmyn]

... then throwing it in the wash? After all, when you use a towel you've just had a wash right? So you should be relatively clean.....

How many times do you use your towels before you wash them?

This is possibly a overly sore subject for me atm due to the recent birth of DS resulting in a HUGE increase of washing! I'm worried my machine is going to konk out! :-/

I wash towels once a week.......if DH wants his washed more frequently he's welcom to do it himself

My PILs tumble dry their towels every morning after their shower because it makes them fluffy.......how's that for wasting energy?!

I wash them everytime too. Well, except for my own because I know where thats been! But washing is one of the one jobs that I quite like doing.

My DH never puts towels in the wash basket.It drives me crazy, if I don't move them we end up with about 15 semi-clean towels hanging on the bannisters and no clean ones in the airing cupboard.

We all have our own towels and wash them once a week - i refuse to share a used towel but don't mind a bit of my own muck :)

We have our own towels and I wash them twice a week. They don't sit around getting manky after use, they go on radiators or the airer so are dry for the next use.

I don't wash towels evertime we use them, I hang them up to dry in the bathroom and they usually get used 3-4 times before a wash. Hand towels hanging for guests to wash their hands on get washed every 2-3 das too. I really don't see it as necessary to wash them EVERY time, as others have said ou are clean when you use them!

BUT in the name of a good debate - I do think only washing them once a month makes me go "ewww" we have 2 washes/baths/showers a day, so that means a towel would be used 60 times before being washed.

Also, although we have communal towles in the cupboard, once they are out and used they are only used by one of us, until they are washed again.

I would say i wash them about twice a week, husband thinks the floor is his wardrobe and the stair rail is his towel rack, no amount of training will knock this out of him so i just go along and move things as i see fit

I couldnt use a towel that had been washed only once a month, but each to their own, and i only ever use my own towel

i have always washed after every use but then my mum said it was rediculaous making work for myself when we are a family of 5 and i have enough to do, so now i wash towels on a monday and thursday

Wow, you are all super-clean!

I wash our bath towels once a month (and no, they're not smelly, we only use them straight after a bath or shower, so it's clean water on them!). Hand towels once a week - again, you've just washed your hands so the towel doesn't get dirty very quickly.
Tea towels get changed every day or two as they do get dirty more quickly wiping surfaces in the kitchen etc

In my defence - none of us has any skin/odour problems as a result of this regime! I'm amazed how often everyone else washes clean towels, I had no idea I was unusual.

Oh, and Starbuck - in the spirit of good debate, why on EARTH are you and your family all having having two baths a day? And how do you find the time ?!

If my family don't like the look of a towel on the rail, they just get another one out, use it and dump it on top of the first lot. Result is there are zillions of the things on the floor hanging around and Ive no idea which of them need washing, so I invariably bung them all in the machine.

When you dry yourself i think of the dead skin and oil in it that im rubbing off, and that puts me off so ensures i wash them regularly, and again with hair products and the like, so they need washing frequently i find

I am also a wash towel after each use person - I thought everyone did this - am now feeling faintly ridiculous!

I wash all towels and tea towels after one use, always have done. I also use a muslin cloth every time I feed a baby and that gets washed each time too, so probably get through 10-12 of those a day too (twins).

If a towel has been used a few times then it isn't "clean" it's "used". We may have just had a shower when we rub the towel all over our body but showers don't remove all the dirt and bacteria we may have on us. Also, even if we do hang the towels up after use the constant being wet and drying out process does breed bacteria, plus remember when we rub our skin with the towel millions of dead skin cells are transferred onto the towel.

As I said I'm not one to wash them after ever use, I'm pretty slack with loads of things but using a towel for a whole month (60ish times) is a grim thought - it's not hard to throw a few towels in the wash.

I just wish I had a bathroom big enough, that I could put a hook up for all of us

Once every three times or so for my own towel, after ever wash for my husband. He is much more sweaty than me. Children, every few uses, they don't sweat much and are not really dirty. My husband also wears two t-shirts a day, now that does drive me crazy.

I cannot believe a month use out of a towel, really, unless the house is incredibly hot (and so they dry really thoroughly) and you are incredibly clean. Ours always niff a bit after a few uses, that's usually my test to see if they need washing!

Do all the people who wash their towels afer every use have tumble driers? I wash mine when they start to smell .

hmmm

He throws it into the wash???

I would say YABU

I dont like a wet towel I wash them loads and yes sometimes just after 1 use. yes relatively clean your pores and skin all open so all the dead skin can be rubbed lovely into your towels for you to rub into your skin next time you "dry yourself"

yum

goes back to doing hers as regular as she does

Do some families share towels then? In our family everyone has an easily identifiable towel - not that belongs to them but I wouldn't give the kids the same colour at the same time, for example. I wash mine and the kids towels once a week. Dh when he puts it in the wash but if that was every day we would be having words.

can't believe so many people wash their towels every day!! to me that's too much waste of water/electricity and not kind to the environment....
My DH has a bad habit of leaving his on the bed arrrrrghhh!!!! I put it to dry and then wash it once a week. If left for him, probably would be once a year :)

YANBU.

I Wash mine once a week too. How dirty can a towel get after 1 shower unless..

They get washed when they look/smell grubby... or get really wet from being dropped on the floor, etc. I guess we get 4-5 uses out of a towel before it gets washed. After every use is just ridiculous... a bit of dead skin isn't going to kill you!

The kids have their own towels which get washed every 3 uses or so (about a week). Hand towels I change more often, every 2-3 days as they get wet, people wipe their toothpastey mouths on, or Marmitey faces!