How many days on average, do you leave wet washing in the machine?

[HisWife]

I leave it between 24-48 hours, If longer than that I usually run it again.

I've got a load of dirty washing waiting to get full, for about 2 days. But no way would I leave clean in for 2 days, yuk.

OMG perfume That's a hell of alot of washing!!!
Why on earth would you need to change bedheets more than once a week, never mind more than twice?
As for the bath towel, you are clean when you get out of the bath/shower, so why does it need to be washed after every use (I use my towels twice), yes fresh flannels every day, and I would wash a rug that was around the toilet daily if I had really lousy aimers in my house, but foot towels for getting out of the bath just get hung over edge of bath to dry out and are changed weekly. Tea towels and cloths I wash daily, but that doesn't take up any room at all, and clothes? Tops yes I change daily but I try to get a few days out of trousers

God, starting to feel neurotic. The fresh beds are just my thing, I just really love fresh sheets and would change them daily if I had time.

Bath mats, seems to get soaked after three showers and three baths a day, they would seem beyond drying out to me, and don't take space, so it's easy to bung them in the wash, rather than look at damp mats all day every day.

Ds has pals over most days and they play in his cabin type bed. Crumbs everywhere, that sort of thing. Jeans can last a few days, but I and ds have clean PJs every night too, and dh changes clothes every evening after work, so theres his tops/underwear to wash.

Saying that, I almost never use the tumble drier, good Scottish air for free, and I never iron, unless it's work/school shirts, half an hour a week does that.

"We use a fresh bath towel for every shower and bath, sometimes twice a day,"

Blimey, I find that a little over zealous. I wash towels and bedding once a week. We have excellent towel rails in our house and the towels get a chance to dry properly between each use.

I have made use of the fine weather and done three loads today - two lots of curtains and all the bedding - two beds.

And clean PJs every day! Why? Are you an exceptionally sweaty family?

My children have clean PJs every night, too. I thought everyone did that

Once we were on holiday at the beach and I spent 30 days w/out washing the bathtowels (not the beach/pool towels, obviously). They were line dried after showers and air temp was about 35C with warm wind. Very interesting experiment; they never seemed to get smelly, just took on a lingering scent of soap and shampoo... (the pool towels, on the other hand, were nasty after 2 days)

I have no idea. DD will have done when she was little, but she is ten now and doesn't need clean ones every night, neither do I.

On average: a couple of hours at most :)

On occasion: 3 days

I once left a wash in the machine for 6 days becasue I had totally forgotten putting it in That needed a full re-run plus a good drying in the fresh air outside!

I normally do c.3-4 washes at the weekend (one coloured, one white and one whatever-is-left): ds is actually quite a clean kid, so his stuff doesn't automatically have to go into the wash and dh and I tend to wear jumpers/T-shirts/shirts/dresses/suits that either don't need to be washed every time or can go at least two "wears".

Towels get washed fortnightly, as does the duvet cover (ie alternate weeks), sheets and pillow cases weekly. Ds' bedlinen gets washed irregulalry cos I forget about it (....which reminds me )

Not sweaty, just clean

See, I really don't understand the reuse of towels. If you are a family of four, that's four towels, more if you use one for your hair. They all have to hang over towel rails all day, every day, for a week, with various people coming and going, using the bathroom/loo. I can only see that working if everyone had a bathroom each. And who wants used towels hanging around the bathroom? I like to see the towels that are out, fresh/folded/ready for use. Not hanging around damp. Yes, they will dry eventually, but not in our house. We all have a shower in the morning, for quickness, and baths at night.

It seems such a small saving to reuse a towel, I just can;t see the point.

That reminds me, i used to hate visiting friends when younger as the towel situation was rather erratic. You would use the loo, wash and go to dry your hands, and there were several large bath towels over the rail. None looked like fresh hand towels, and I really don't fancy drying my hands on the man of the house's towel.

Just because you are clean out of the shower, you are still drying off skin cells. Would imagine the week old towel looking a bit grin under a microscope.

Only dh and I shower daily - still working on ds (10) to do so (am hopeful that the imminent school talk on puberty and the need to keep clean not be smelly will have an effect, although to be fair, he really isn't smelly yet).

Our towel rack is over the bathroom radiator so they dry immediately very quickly. They are also white, so I can see if they are looking grubby.

My handtowel is very obvious (small towel on a ring beside the handbasin) and gets washed weekly, if not more frequently (again, 'cos you can see if it is grubby).

But I will agree with you about the nice Scottish air for drying: I almost never use the dryer and am so happy the weather is good enough again to hanf the washing outside.

Now - I really must go and hang a white washing out (should have doen it earlier to get the most of the UV!)

Sounds like some people have too much time on their hands

Crystalglass - no not enough. Surely those who are emptying it want it done and dusted

Never more than a few hours or it starts to smell. 48 hours? Ye gods!

Shower in the morning and a bath at night must be terribly drying for your skin perfume!
Just get a heated towel rail and damp towel problems are solved. I simply can't imagine wasting spending that much time on washing. Surely you can think of better things to do?

Straight away, I hate the mildewy smell you get if it's left for too long. This week I've been doing a load and hanging it out before work every morning...this is usually unheard of!!

Notamopsa, i was referring to mntters who wash towels, bathmats etc every day

Does anyone know what causes that damp-y wet washing smell? Is it mould or something?

Harder - I think it's bacteria build up that causes the smell, but I could be wrong.

That revolting smell of damp fabric pervades my bedroom as our next door neighbours insist on drying all their clothes in the adjoining bedroom with the windows shut and hanging them up in the built in wardrobe abutting my bedroom wall STILL DAMP. I dry outside if possible, if not, in the dining room with the top windows open and tumble dry towels, muslins etc. So it's definitely not coming from my and DS' clothes!

It's a combination of moisture and lack of airflow I think. Perfect conditions for mould to grow, though it won't in a couple of days I don't think.