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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to only wash bath towels once a month?

657 replies

starkadder · 25/11/2011 14:58

or less Blush

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:
valiumredhead · 01/12/2011 13:13

If there IS feacal matter on bath towels you need to address the way you wash!

Ophuchi · 01/12/2011 14:54

I consider myself a normal, reasonable person. I wash bath towels after every use (three a day - more if we've been swimming) and also go through about three kitchen towels every day. I change the bed sheets once a week. I think reusing bath towels (especially for a month) is a bit minging.

mathanxiety · 01/12/2011 15:13

Instead of towel flicking, we could do something like (but we'd have to put on a wash afterwards).

Moln · 01/12/2011 15:59

i have been giving much thought to thae towel flicking fight

ilve made the assumption that the fight is going to be a three way one, between the one-use-people v the-less-than-once-aweek-people v the-inbetween-the-two-people.

Howeve i feel that the one-use-people will be at a disadvantage as they will have the added fear of feacal matter and skin cells landing on them. So it might have to be evened out that they use 100% egyptian cotton bath sheets, with the size and thread count decreasing with the frequency of the group.

Ariesgirl · 01/12/2011 16:08

THEIR PROBLEM!

oldenglishspangles · 01/12/2011 17:33

Aires and all you towel flickers - bring it on - with my trusty steam cleaner (full sized not one of those hand held amateur jobs...) you wont get within 30 feet of me. Grin

Mathanxiety - all that animal fecal matter ...

zimm · 01/12/2011 19:55

Oh my god. Who are all your people? Daily towels changes? I beyond shocked. that is the most wasteful thing I ever heard. Poor planet earth does not stand a chance. Do you all sponge down your sofas daily as well? plenty of dirt and dead skin cells on there. Amazing lack of logic to do towels daily... Do you also disinfect your door handles each day? Far mire germs.... think people!

JarethTheGoblinKing · 01/12/2011 20:06

I bet none of these people clean their keyboards/phones/etc every day Wink

(I agree - washing a towel after one use is just as disgusting a not washing one for a month)

bebemoojem · 01/12/2011 20:08

those of you washing towels so much : Y'all sound like Yanks Wink

JarethTheGoblinKing · 01/12/2011 20:10
Wink

This thread does remind me about something I read on here once about a woman living in Texas who tumble-dried all her laundry. Someone apparently pointed out to her that as she lived in such a warm dry place it would be much more energy efficient to dry the laundry on the line outside, her reply: "that wouldn't be more efficient, I'd have to walk all the way downstairs"

Grin
bebemoojem · 01/12/2011 20:31

:)

IWillOnlyEatBeans · 01/12/2011 21:11

I keep my towels for Display Purposes only. Then they never have to be washed.

OP - you've just had a baby so don't worry about it. When DS was 5 weeks old I was lucky if I managed to get washed and dressed, laundry was the last thing on my mind :)

AnyoneforTurps · 01/12/2011 22:08

Can't believe no one has really mentioned time yet. Allowing for 10 minutes per wash (to collect, put wash on, put in dryer/hang up, put away), the clean freaks doing 3 washes a day are spending 3.5 hours a week on laundry.

Those of us with slightly more relaxed standards have an extra 3 hours a week or 456 hours a year to waste time on the internet read great works of literature/drink martinis/stare into space.

wigglybeezer · 01/12/2011 22:33

I never even washed my DC's terry nappies at 90oC and they didn't get get horrible diseases.

I now use them to clean the floor but I wouldn't go as far as the woman I met when pregnant who cheerfully advised me to buy large terry nappies as she used her old ones as hand towels!

MudandRoses · 01/12/2011 23:24

so far on this thread i've been called 'dirty', 'minging' and 'weird'. But why? do I smell? no. (you'll just have to take my word for that). do i have impetigo/scrofula/nits/cooties from my 'lax' hygiene? no. Am i much better off in terms of time, money and conscience than all the people who go to bed happy that they've successfully warded off EVERY SINGLE SPECK OF GERM by washing EVERY SINGLE THING THEY TOUCH AFTER EVERY USE? yes. The world is full of 'dirt' and 'germs'. Did you know most of us have microscopic lice that live specifically in eyebrows and feed on the oil around the hair follicle? Good god, how do people in Delhi's slums survive without being able to wash their (non-existent) towels, like, ever?? The truth is, most dirt is harmless, and so are most germs. so try NOT washing your towel next time and see what happens...

Moln · 01/12/2011 23:37

they won't though mudandroses

for whatever reason they think they are right, even if they aren't

PelvicFloorOfHighTensileTinsel · 01/12/2011 23:39

Why have British women allowed themselves to be guilted into thinking they and their laundry habits are alone responsible for global worming?

I see it as why have British women allowed themselves to be guilted into thinking it's necessary to wash towels after every use. I've yet to see a man tell another man he should wash his towels more often, yet so many women have been conned into thinking they need to do this much laundry.

Ophuchi · 02/12/2011 09:55

I'm clean and I'm happy and no, I'm not going to dry my face with something I dried my bum with yesterday, thanks.

I have an average of 18 loads of washing a week which I don't think is excessive for a family of 3.They are line dried before I'm accused of tumble drying the earth to it's doom, not that I buy into that anyway. Sofas, phones, door handles, light switches and keyboards are cleaned weekly.

I definitely couldn't have faced reusing a towel after I'd just had a baby, leaking blood and milk as I dried! Perhaps I was just a particularly leaky person though?

By the way my husband and I are rarely ill and DD, 21 months has never been ill. I know the world outside is dirty but my house is my haven and it's clean.

Oh and I'm not American, I'm from Scotland.

Ariesgirl · 02/12/2011 10:09

Pelvicfloor I don't think anyone with half a brain thinks they have been guilted into believeing their laundry habits are alone responsible for globing warming. Anyone who says that is what they have been "made" to feel is merely playing the old "Why should I do anything until everyone else does something?" card. All round excessive energy use may well be contributing to mad made global warming though. Washing towels after one use at 90 degrees would generall be classed as "excessive energy use". I agree it's confusing as to know where to place your guilt though - shall I feel guilty about excessive energy use or guilt about my towels? Would anyone give their towels a second thought other than "Ooh must chuck some towels in the wash - haven't done it for a week or so" if they hadn't been watching too many adverts which have brainwashed them into paranoia about germs? I, and I am certainly not alone on this thread so I refuse to be made to feel like I'm being smug and superior about my views, tend to centre any paranoia I have on the effects of climate change rather than a couple of germs getting on my precious family's skin.

Ariesgirl · 02/12/2011 10:10

Apologies Pelvic floor, I see you were quoting someone else. Sorry.

My post still stands though

JarethTheGoblinKing · 02/12/2011 10:30

nobody el se Grin at 'global worming' then? Wink

Ophuchi · 02/12/2011 10:31

I think I'm a single use towel person because I was brought up that way. I'm not going to change my mind, I'm happy with what I do.

My DD was clean and dry day and night at 18 months. I could kick up an environmental fuss regarding nappies about those who don't toilet train until 3. But I don't, firstly because I don't really believe in it and secondly because it's nothing to do with me what other people do with regard to nappies.

Ophuchi · 02/12/2011 10:32

Global worming would be good - I have a fear of parasites!

schroeder · 02/12/2011 11:05

We'd be wading through dead bodies if there were no worms though, so better on reflection not to have Global worming. Grin

I'm confused about people drying their faces on towels? Do people really do this? I've never felt the need, it just dries naturally.

PelvicFloorOfHighTensileTinsel · 02/12/2011 20:53

Aries - I should have used quotation marks, would have been less confusing! Smile

I think I've finally realised why this thread annoys me so much, it's all about whether the OP is doing enough laundry with all the other women on the thread wading in to say she should be doing more washing because they do.

When DS2 was 5 weeks old laundry was not my problem, I was solely in charge of bfing the baby and trying to spend enough quality time with DS1 to prevent him getting jealous, housework was DP's department.

So why has the OP's DH not managed to escort any of these towels to the washing machine in 5 weeks? If the OP has had a CS (which to be fair, I've not thought to ask so I don't know) she shouldn't be lifting piles of wet towels yet, even after a natural birth spending the first 5 weeks concentrating on the baby, other DC and getting as much rest as possible should be her priority.

I still don't think towels really need to be washed more than every couple of weeks but, unless the OP's DH has some debilitating illness, then really it's down to him that their towels haven't been washed in over a month.