Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 ··· 14 15 16 ··· 26 27

Original poster

to only wash bath towels once a month?

657 replies

starkadder · 25/11/2011 14:58

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?

OP posts:

MummyAnnabella · 25/11/2011 23:10

I am a bit skanky re cleaning but OMG once a month?!

Bath towels once a week min as touch naked bodies.

Sheets once fortnight min unless good reason:)

Hand towels twice a week as lots of use

Tea towels twice a day as tonnes of use!!

TeaOneSugar · 25/11/2011 23:12

I mean we have a pile of towels in the cupboard, which are for everyone to use, no one has a personal towel, not since dd was a baby anyway.

DD always has a fresh one for her bath, but I'd usually hang it up to dry and use it for my shower the following morning or if I'm having a bath after dd I'll use the same towel and then it'll go to the wash.

DH always drenches towels, so they tend to go straight to the wash.

ThePathanKhansWitch · 25/11/2011 23:14

My towels get washed after use. Sounds a bit rank, also shocked that you.ve been using the same towel since giving birth.

But, i think we're just manky in our house .

perfumedlife · 25/11/2011 23:14

Faceclothes washed after each use. I have about twenty of them in a little plate thing, use it, drop in laundry.

No individual towels here, just take towel, use it, laundry basket it. Simple. No damp towels hanging about the bathroom messing the tidy lines

Overnight guests have their own bathroom with fresh towels in there.

I remember going to stay with inlaws the first time and there was an en-suite in our room but the towels in there were filthy ones belonging to the boy of the house. There were no fresh towels left out, we hadn't packed any and it was drip dry all the way. Awful. I did ask a few times and was told to just go ahead and use them, they would wash them when we left!

workshy · 25/11/2011 23:16

hair towel will get used 2 or 3 times

body towel gets used and then straight in the wash

don't own a tea towel but the kitchen hand towel gets washed every 2 days

TeaOneSugar · 25/11/2011 23:17

My MIL doesn't have hand towels, there are just bath towels hanging on the towel rail and radiator, so you don't know which one is supposed to be for your hands and which one's been used by someone after a shower (shudder).

Moln · 25/11/2011 23:17

We share towels in this house too rhondajean, it it's the general understanding that sharing means using a towel that previously was used by someone else, then washed and dried, and would possibly be used by someone else after it was washed and dried again.

Though personally if someone told me that the shared a towel I'd think that they were using the same towel in between washing and drying sessions

I was just trying to figure out what was the general consensus on what sharing towels meant

rhondajean · 25/11/2011 23:26

You and me share in the same way moln.

DonkeyTeapot · 25/11/2011 23:39

When I saw we share towels, I mean there are normally a couple in the bathroom, we both shower at night so we each use one and leave them to dry for the next night, when they'd get used again, we wouldn't care who used which one though. They'd both get chucked in the wash after a couple of uses.

Moln · 25/11/2011 23:47

So there is a third option for sharing!

This Towel Usage is a complex thing

FlouncyMcFlouncer · 25/11/2011 23:47

Stunned.

In this house bath towels go in the wash immediately after use. Hand towels are changed daily. Tea towels are washed as soon as some muppet has used them to wipe up a spillage instead of getting the kitchen towel.

For those who are saying 'but I only use it on my clean body', could you answer me this: Would you, after a shower, happily rub your hand between your legs and then rub it freely over your entire face?

If the answer was 'no', and I suspect it was, then how can it be ok to do the same with a towel???

PelvicF1oorOfSteel · 25/11/2011 23:52

Can I just ask why on earth you'd need to shower twice a day? What are you doing to get so dirty?

I'm hoping some of the posts about cross-contamination were slightly tongue in cheek (I can't quite believe they were serious). I'm sure if our family were harbouring anything awful we'd all get it from hugging each other anyway!

IloveJudgeJudy · 26/11/2011 00:01

The one person, one colour towels thing goes thus: I have a colour, DH has his colour, each DC has their own colour. Guests have yet a different colour. If we have two guests they will each get one big towel. They may, or may not, be the same colour as each other's, but they are definitely a different colour from our five.

DC are all teenagers. If they want their towels washed, they put them in the laundry basket. Both bathrooms have towel rails with enough room for all towels. Towel rails are fixed above radiators so towels dry after each person's daily shower before the next time the towels are used.

Also, if DC want their sheets washed, they change their own beds and put sheets in laundry basket, then the washing fairy! washes them, dries them and puts them back in the airing/sheets cupboard.

This all sounds quite complicated now I've written it down, but it really isn't. If your family had had impetigo like my family/DD had it, you would never, ever share towels again.

Handtowels are yet a different colour and washed/changed daily-ish. Teatowels/dishcloths are washed/changed daily.

IloveJudgeJudy · 26/11/2011 00:07

Pelvic. Unfortunately, I am not writing tongue-in-cheek about cross-contamination. DD had impetigo so badly that it was sort of eating away at her flesh on her arm. It was absolutely horrible. Also, she has always been very averse to taking medicine. We were on holiday in France and she was given liquid antibiotics. It was a major struggle to get her to take it three times a day. Poor girl, she was only 4. We were very upset as we know exactly where she caught it. Just before we had gone on holiday we had a paddling pool in the garden with water going down a slide into the pool. DH's sis came round with her DC and all were playing happily all after in the water. After DD had caught impetigo the French doctor told us that that was where she'd caught it. We were on holiday with friends who, understandably as DD's infection was so bad, were pretty adamant they didn't want their same-aged children to catch it. It meant that, instead of spending all our time together, we couldn't as DD wasn't allowed to go swimming all holiday. It was grim.

When we got home, SIL breezily told us that she had known that her DC had the impetigo, but let them play with our DC anyway.

usualsuspect · 26/11/2011 00:08

Do people really take towel washing so seriously?

who knew...

somedayma · 26/11/2011 00:09

soz if I offend you but that's rank. I can't imagine how grimy a towel would be after a month. Boke. I usually change mine after less than a week

startail · 26/11/2011 00:10

I haven't a clue, we have lots of towels and 4 untidy people. If it's been screwed up in a soggy heap for days or it smells it's washed. If it been put vaguely to dry and doesn't smell it lives to fight another day.
DDs have favourite beach towels, otherwise it's a total free for all.
At home we all had own towels, perfectly hung in their correct places, washed and returned. Another of my mother's standards I don't live up to.

perfumedlife · 26/11/2011 00:13

Pelvic, what about if someone has a small cut, germs get in and out, or someone has dandruff, or skin condition, or just hasn't washed to your standards? Why increase the risk of an infection when you can lower it? Schoolkids bring all sorts of bugs home, I don't want to increase my chances of catching anything. Plus, this way, you are in the routine and don't have to make changes as soon as you learn someone may have a skin complain/bug/sore/thrush/whatever.

DwayneDibbley · 26/11/2011 00:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

TheFrogs · 26/11/2011 00:17

Bath towels after each use, hand towels about two days, tea towels when they look grubby/have been used to wipe up spills/dropped on floor (probably use one a day).

Mine and dd's sheets, prob once a week, ds's sheets when he can be bothered to bring them down (I refuse to climb up onto the high sleeper, bugger that). I also machine wash sofa throws, curtains and rugs often but they do need it with two clumsy kids, four cats and a dog!

DwayneDibbley · 26/11/2011 00:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

TheFrogs · 26/11/2011 00:22

Unfortunate cross post there . I cant help it dwayne, cant stand the thought of using a towel that isn't completely clean.

HopefullyDH · 26/11/2011 00:22

Now I feel that we have an excessive number of towels but DW and I have one large and one small bathtowel each and then a handtowel in our bathroom. We change the towels once a week, but I can't imagine washing the towels seperately as we put them all in together on a hot wash. I guess I just see it as one more load of washing to do during the week.

Maisieskates · 26/11/2011 00:29

Once every 2/3 weeks here for towels and sheets. No one's died yet.

susiedaisy · 26/11/2011 00:41

What makes me smile is some people knowing how often their towel is washed but have no idea about Dh's towell,

Flip

1 2 ··· 14 15 16 ··· 26 27