to only wash bath towels once a month?

[starkadder]

or less

DH is in charge of washing his own towel and I am sure he never puts it in the wash more often than once every 2 or 3 months...

DS's goes in about once every 2 months (but it barely touches him as he likes to run around naked pretending to be a train driver straight after his bath, which dries him quite effectively).

I usually wash mine about every month but have realised that I haven't washed it since coming home from hospital with DD, who is now 5 weeks...in my defence, there is one HECK of a lot of other washing to do and it just won't ever fit in the machine....

We do wash out clothes (!) and sheets once a week. And I do the kitchen hand towel every week or two - it gets quite grubby and also fits in the machine with another wash easily.

But are we grim and disgusting when it comes to bath towels? How often do normal people wash bath towels?

We wash towels after they've been used 3 -4 times. In between uses, they are dried and they never smell.

Surely it's more environmentally friendly to only wash items when needed. I can't understand why you would wash towels after one use - that's just unnecessary and wasteful IMO - unless the towels are clearly dirty/stained.

We don't smell either. Nothing to mask the smell and I know my mum would comment when she visits!

I'm sorry, but if you wash your towels every day you have a problem. You are neurotic. And you are wasting a lot of energy.

Either that or you're completely filthy.

ANd for God's sake wear pants in bed so you don't need to change your sheets every day.

I wash things when they are dirty. It doesn't matter how long it's been since they were last washed. If they're dirty/smelly they get washed, if they aren't, they don't. It's not rocket science...

I'm about with Weasle. I don't understand why you don't all have your own colour towels. That's how it is in our house. Had to be very strict about it after a bout of impetigo. We all know which is our towel. If you want your towel washed in my house you have to put it in the laundry bin. Everyone has one shower a day apart from DS1 who will have up to three! I can't understand washing after every use. What about the planet? Your bills must be sky high, let alone your carbon footprint. Also, if you're doing 3/4 washes a day you must be putting your tumble drier on all the time? More carbon footprint.

Very healthy family here. Hardly ever ill. No one off school, no one off work unless with a broken arm or such (impetigo was pre school).

The one thing I can't stand is everyone using the same towels. Hate, hate, hate it. Also, when I go to my DB's house it's not obvious which is the handtowel and which are the bath towels.

You wash towels when they start to smell? Jeeez, they start to smell because of cruddy bacteria, if it was truly just clean water you were drying off your body they wouldn't smell! Some people are just mingers!

I was reading something recently (can't remember what but was a novel) where the family all had a bath once a week, in the same water, in a tin tub in front of the fire - set in the 50s I'm pretty sure

It didn't go into specific detail about towel use, & I can't remember if bath night was Friday or Sunday, but blimey, hasn't personal hygiene come on with washers & dryers & daily showers!

'bacteria is invisible to the naked eye but most bugs originate from the home and I would rather lower the risk, having an auto-immune illness already.'

Auto-immune diseases often result from people being over-hygienic, rather than the opposite. Unless you have a horrible infection there's unlikely to be anything that bad on your towels.

Otherwise earlier generations would have died out. They washed themselves and their towels very infrequently.

Glad to see some more skanks are appearing :)

Honestly though, we really don't smell bad. Have now read through all the replies and a few people have been bit rude, I think...someone said "I'm glad I don't sit next to you at work". No call for that kind of comment, I think. We wash ourselves often enough - just don't see the need for washing towels all the time. As long as they dry out OK, they don't smell musty. And all this worry about "dead skin cells" is a bit OTT, I think.

And no, we don't smoke or have pets, so it's not that our foul stinking towels are masked by even fouler stinkier stinks

I think I might up the frequency to once every 2 weeks. But really, I think that's enough.

Reading these threads is like landing on another planet! I can't BELIEVE some people wash towels after each use - that's INSANE!!!

I'm with you OP. I used to wash my towel once a month - after each period. But as I haven't had many periods recently it may have been a bit less often.
I think sharing towels between family members is gross though!

We are a family of 3 and do a wash every other day (more if DS is sick or nappies leak). If I did more I wouldn't be able to get it dry before the next lot needed hanging up. Not everyone has tumble dryers or spare rooms with acres of airers.

As for it making you ill? Nonsense.

Altinkum I always knew I liked you!!

Im revolted at the amount of skankiness going round. I mean, did someone actually say they washed their towels when they started smelling???

Seriously, come on, how many of you lot smoke or have animals in the house?

Also, how many of you have asthmatic people? Towels slough off the dead skin cells you know - which many asthmatics are allergic to. I am far from the cleanest person I know, but you are really grossing me out, and that takes a bit.

Dust mites etc live on the dead skin cells dont they.

Even a towel you use only for drying yourself can harbor invisible bacteria. Proper care and cleaning of bath towels is essential to decrease bathroom germs. Bath towels can harbor viruses and infections and are an ideal conductor for mold development. Wash bath towels used at the gym or in a locker room after each use to kill germs, and clean bath towels used only at home at least twice a week.

Read more: How Often Should You Clean Bath Towels? | eHow.com www.ehow.com/info_7953011_should-clean-bath-towels.html#ixzz1ekfmZ5Kq

I dunno about having a bath using the same water being a 50's thing.. we regularly bathe the whole family in the same bathwater.

We are on a water meter as well so no way would I wash towels unnecessarily after each use. It is not drying them after each use that causes problems. We have colour coded towels, doesn't everyone?

Not my disease Abra. I have graves disease, a thyroid illness and it was brought on after childbirth, quite common. I like clean, fresh things and a bathroom free of drying out towels, my choice, not madness. Environment, well, I seldom fly so that's my contribution.

I don't smoke
I have no animals in the house
I am not asmatic

and I'm perfectly healthy, don't smell, am environmentally friendly and don't have huge energy bills .... You do the maths

Tell mem more about colour coded towels!

( mine are al cream and turquoise ones that mil bought us. and black ones. and brown ones)

Also Abra no one 'needs' to change bed sheets every day, just that some people choose to do so. Was a free country, last time I looked. Who on earth wants to wear pants in bed?

I'm not saying everyone ought to wash their towels after each use, just what I do. I do however think waiting until they smell is disgusting, as is once a month, whether they need it or not

Colour-coded to me means that each person has their own colour towels - bath, shower and flannel. They are the only ones allowed to use that colour. In our house the kitchen towel and bathroom handtowels are another colour again. Stops cross-infection.

So how often do you wash your towels then altinkum?

Ilove What a brilliant idea!

If we ever get 'cross infected' i'll implement it ;)

'Cross infected' - what a ridiculous concept! If you live with/share a bed with other people, you're pretty going to get anything what's going around. Washing the towels is hardly going to make a difference in the grand scheme of things.