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?

OMG people actually use tea towels to dry plates etc??? And not just as a kind of proxy oven glove/to wipe hands on when cooking?????

I am going to have to run round the room flapping my hands at the people who do not air dry. I didnt think it could sink lower than the monthly bath towel washing!! Are you people all students or something!

God almighty! Don't any of you care about the environment???

Nope they do not care

Can't believe this is still going!

Rhonda - if these practises were really dangerous the entire university educated population of this country would have been wiped out soon after leaving home! However I'd like some cleanliness bonus points for never, ever drying dishes because I cannot be arsed and they dry themselves if you leave them on the side

Does it mean I'm a dirty skank if I don't have a kitchen towel specifically for hands? I just have the tea towel which gets changed every day or two.

In case it makes a difference, I don't dry pots very often, just wipe the bottom bit where there's still a drip of water after the rest is dry.

Why have British women allowed themselves to be guilted into thinking they and their laundry habits are alone responsible for global worming?
Why the guilt about using a dryer and washing what needs washing when it needs washing?
Where did the idea come from that a woman washing towels once a month instead of weekly and drying them in the dryer instead of leaving them out in the rain will make tuppence worth of a difference?

It's not a British women guilt thing it's a common sense thing (something often lacking in modern society).
If you wash a load of towels every day then that's 6 more loads of water, detergent, electricity (washer & dryer) than someone who washes weekly, 13 more times than someone who washes fortnightly. The more people who do this the more resources are (unnecessarily IMO ) used the more of an effect on the environment we have... That is a fact. The necessity to wash that much is opinion (and not based on evidence.... Unless you are particularly ill or have special issues which is another matter), it's based on what people feel comfortable with , there is no evidence base and it is a relatively new 'necessity' brought about by modern society.
So it's not unfounded guilt, rather common sense.

And there are lots of small things that add up to the big things but if millions of us have the same small bad habits then they add up to one big bad habit (simple maths)

You are totally normal..... I'm terrified of the cleaning-nazis. Roll in mud, have a shower before you smell and washing things before they crawl....:)

For the sake of helping all the mumsnetters who would like to be green and hygienic I have nobly conducted an experiment on myself...

I dried myself with one (new) microfibre cleaning cloth after my shower this morning. I had to wring it out a couple of times (especially after drying my long hair) but it did a remarkably good job and mildly exfoliates your skin as you dry. it then was put in the wash where its light weight will not add much to the laundry burden.

I dried myself while still in the shower cabinet to keep warm, it really wasn't that bad and no soggy towels on the radiator afterwards.

`i dare you to try it.

oh wiggly i wish i had a shower cabinet, miens over the bath and i freeze when i get out, although i couldn't honestly tell you how often i wash towels, never do them at 60, always at 30 with all the other whites (knickers and suck) and we are still alive, who knew?

But does running the washing machine really use that many more resources than running a car or a fridge or Christmas tree lights or a hoover... How about power tools? Hair dryer? Straightener?

Why is it that it seems women are so much more concerned about the impact of the washing machine and the dryer than they are about other gadgets?

Quite math

Your machine will only last half the time if you wash many extra, heavy loads of towels and bed linen though, the bearings wear out even on quality machines.

Also the argument about not cutting use of some items because you are not cutting others is just daft.

But why not cut out the power tools/X-box/hoover/hair dryer/straightener/iron/masses of Christmas lights?

What values dictate that women (and it's usually women) should spend time watching the weather to get the drying done instead of just bunging it all in the handy dryer and living our lives according to our schedule? Britain (and Ireland) are probably the two countries in all the world where a dryer would be the most incredibly practical and useful thing to use all the time and yet there is all this hand wringing about destroying the planet when the subject comes up. It is baffling.

And what values dictate that we should be happy to dry ourselves in manky towels (yes, five weeks right after childbirth is far too long to be leaving towels) and sleep in sheets that are none too fresh? It won't kill you to do it, no, but it really and truly isn't the last straw for the planet either for someone to wash their towels weekly. Nor will it kill your washing machine. The whole point of having a washing machine is to make life easier and cleaner than our grannies' lives and they are a good deal more robust than suggested. Nothing is meant to last forever. If the bearings don't wear out then the rubber seal will. Just use it. It is not there to be preserved, household museum-wise.

It's not cutting out the washing rather curbing excessive use... The same can be said for car/straightener/tv/any other electric goods etc. It's not a guilt on 'women' thing its a common sense for everyone thing.

The 'why should I do it when there's always someone out there doing something worse' is just naive and passing the buck. We all have to start somewhere even if you don't believe in global warming , there is no arguing on the fact that most of our energy is still obtained from finite resources and these will run out (and cost more and more until they do)

what if its not about the environment and we're just manky? hehe

So why not stop cooking, Wonkilegs? Why not turn off the heating? The computer? Why does it have to be some area that results in women spending more time doing drudge work that our grannies did where the saving of the planet has to start? There doesn't seem to be much acceptance of 'common sense for everyone' when it comes to power tools. I do absolutely believe in global warming. I just don't believe that the whole population of the British Isles deciding that there's too much washing machine use and cutting back to what is thought to be the barest acceptable minimum will make more difference than a drop in the ocean compared to the onward march of industry in Asia and America.

Stacey, I think there's a lot of truth in that. Some of the environment conscious comments here sound a bit like rationalisation of habits that are not very clean. What is 'excessive' use of a washing machine? The answer to that question lies in individual acceptance of a certain level of grunginess.

I have yet to see some stats on household laundry versus the CO2 emissions of large companies.

What I have seen is the stats for benefit fraud v tax evasion and the bank bailoouts. I know its two very different things but honestly are we all so naive we believe the crap designed to keep us fighting among ourselves about people getting a few extra qid or using a dryer as opposed to the damage done by huge corporations?

Methinks theres another thread in there, so sorry.

I too was a student once and only washed every blue moon - but I refuse to live like that any more (heads off to empty dryer)

I will never ever give give up my washing machine and tumble drier use.

My energy bills are no where near excessive (in fact I saved over £300 from the previous year)

I dont drive and I dont go abroad so no plane use. My environmental conscious is as clean as my towels

I've heard it all now . Are there people out there that dry their dishes on kitchen towel?

Yes! I do this sometimes, either because I've forgotten to take a tea towel down from the bedding and towels cupboard and it's 2 flights of stairs up to get one, and I only use a tea towel for wiping off things that aren't-quite-dry from the dishwasher, such as cutlery or tupperware boxes
or
When I have to dry up anywhere else other than my own house. I have a real thing about touching damp towels and tea towels. They just freak me out. Even as a child, I couldn't bear to use the same hand towel as the rest of my family, although funnily enough, I don't mind sharing with DH and DS.
If I use the loo in someone else's house, I prefer to use toilet roll to dry my hands rather than touch their towels (particularly houses where you're never quite sure if the towels are hand or bath). Tea towels are even worse, imo, as some people actually dry their hands or wipe up spills with them and then don't think twice about using them to dry up crockery . Now that is much more disgusting than not washing your towels at least weekly!

I'm think ewww!! I shower every morning and hang my towel up to dry in airing cupboard, I still wash it once a week on a hot wash! I also change bathroom hand towel twice in the week.

I bleach my dish cloth daily and never dry anything up as I'm a lazy cow who only uses the dish washer!

Doesn't a tumble dryer use a similar amount of power as an oven, hour for hour?

I wouldn't think twice about putting a casserole in the oven for 3 hours, why would I think differently about a tumble dryer?

If it's sunny, I'll dry outside - if it's cold and miserable and there isn't a chance in hell of getting laundry dry in the garden (tiny and north facing, doesn't see the sun this time of year) then I'll use the sodding tumble dryer. It's either than or damp, mouldy smelling towels.

Why can't people, you know, just make a bit of effort? Given that the bit of effort is better than none at all? Why should we do nothing because China uses a lot more energy then we do? If everyone thought like that, changes would never be made.