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?

Errrrr mingining! Are you my mum! I find that after a week they go all manky and need to be washed.

and happyhazydaze :) I am also quite happy :) Perhaps our laidback attitude to hygiene helps?

Although probably the clean people are happy too, in their own way.

we're about the same OP, me and DP have 2 towels each...and the kids have 1 each. We have a few spares as well....wash them about once a month. They are only used on clean bodies and heads after all and hung up to air straight away. No tumble dryer here so they get washed when I can hang them out or take them to the laundrette to dry.

I am a happy yet clean person! Clean tea towel daily, clean hand towels a few times a week, clean bath towels weekly. All washed at 60. I couldn't dry myself with a month old towel - I would be convinced it was teeming with manky bacteria.

oh lord! I thought my standards were low, bedsheets every fortnight-ish, but towels every week. I think you're allowed a bit of lee way with a new born though, congrats!

We have quite alot of towels, and they normally get washed after each use, because the dd's leave them in a big pile of sopping wet mess on the bathroom floor.

Tea towels, I change every day if not more often. Depends if someone has swiped it to mop something up.

We have individual bath towels, which live on the ladder-type radiator in the bathroom and are therefore generally nice and warm/dry, communal hand towels in bathroom and downstairs cloakroom, all changed weekly, or more often if needed. Tea towels in the kitchen changed as required (we have a dish washer so they tend to get used for hand drying in the kitchen rather than dish drying). All towels are washed at 90, usually on Thursday.

Bedding changed weekly, generally Fridays (DH and I) or when we can get it off DCs beds, washed at 40.

Erm, are you 3+ loads of washing per day folks SAHMs? Not sure how I coukd physically fit that number of washes in...

No, work FT here, just put a wash on in the morning, and a couple in the evening.

Get0rf Same here, I can get two washes on in the morning before work and then a couple in the evening depending on what needs doing. It isn't all that time consuming, less than five minutes to lift a pile of dirty washing into the machine and press a couple of buttons, it does all the hard work for you. Clever little thing.

OP you need to wash your towels more often.

Having said that I am currently undertaking an experiment to see how long it is before DH changes our bed sheets. We both work, but I always change the sheets. I'm wondering how stinky the sheets have to be before I cave in. So far it's nearly two weeks.

Yuck. We all have our own bath towels and they get washed at least weekly. Hand towels are changed daily (usually straight after DS1 has licked them in the morning)

This is why the planet is going to pot! Washing sheets/towels every day is madness!

I think I'm probably about the same as you OP, SKANKS UNITE!

T towels should be washed every few days. Towels at least once a week.

starkadder I was genuinely just surprised that when you get out the shower or bath so soon after giving birth that you find there is no blood on your towel (or running down your legs!) at all.

Wasn't suggesting there were lumps of placenta on said manky towel!

Anyway, it is a bit rank so pick a day and stick 'em all in for a nice hot wash!

Well I must be the slovlieniest of them all as I have no idea how often we wash ours.

We wash towels more than sheets. Bedding chaned once a week and towels prob every other use if not more often like daily (me and dh) and once a week max for dcs towels. We have loads though.

OMG I read the first post and cant read the rest of the thread in case other people do the same.

People really only have one towel each? And wash them once or less a month????

I am so glad I dont sit next to you at work, I am sorry but you must stink.

We have a massive pile of towels and they are washed after every use, although I do try if I have a morning shower and dont wash my hair but know I will wash it with my later shower to keep the morning towel for my hair later. Even this towel, which has dried me once, been carefully put on the radiator, and used only on my hair, smells weird later. And I have a really bad sense of smell.

This is mankiness of the first degree! OMG!!!! YEAUCH!

And as for clean Pj's every day...thats such a far off dream that it actually features on my list of 'things I would do if I won the lottery'. I would have seven pairs of PJs and pay for a laundry service :)

Well said snuffaluffagus. Not only is all this manic obsessive washing at high temperatures bad for the environment, I also find it amazing that people are such slaves to their washing machines ! I prefer to have a life ! And we are never ill, and have lots of friends, so can t be that stinky......

It really is not good to re-use towels for a month op. They are breeding grounds for bacteria with all the nooks and crannies in the fabric, and dead skin cells still get sloughed off the body in drying. Then there is the damp prior to drying. Why, when you have loads of spares, would you deprive yourself of such a basic hygenic pleasure?

I had a pal who seldom washed towels and bedding and yet proclaimed she was clean and healthy. I could smell the dead skin cells odour when I entered her bedroom, and the musty scent of old towels. She may not have been covered in sores but she did vomit rather more than was healthy and seemed to pick up every bug going.

I am astounded by how much unnecessary washing people do no wonder some people have huge water/ elec/ washing powder bills.
I work FT hence an inability to do the washing 24/7 - we are not dirty, do not get ill and our house does not smell. Shock horror we do not wash our towels daily or even weekly. I wash towels probably once or twice a month or more if stinky or dirty from something specific. Mind you I only bath my DS when dirty or on weekends (which I've got flamed for before). DH & I have a quick shower every morning (more to wake up than anything else).
I rarely wash above 30 degrees - my washing is clean, white(bright) and smells nice. The obsession with hygiene that I often read about is frankly weird.
I do have lots of towels sheets clothes etc to avoid having to wash things too often because I don't have enough time life to obsess or worry about these things.

tuffie I'm not obsessive about washing, I just get on with it and pop it in the machine, the machine does the work, not me. I can see your point if it was the old days and we were slaving over a mangle and twin tub but it's easy now. I don't believe everything I read and prefer to use hot temps to kill bacteria as opposed to low temp and detergent.

It was the unobsessed who actually wondered about this enough to post. Something must have made her doubt her methods.

I forgot to say why I find the hygiene worry so ridiculous - I find that people who worry about this the most are the most healthy and feel a weird need to obsess about it. I am severely immuno compromised and have been for most of my adult life, through a medical condition. Through this I have learnt what to worry about and what not to worry about.... This is not something to worry about !

Ewwwww. Towels (hand and bath and faceloths) all washed weekly. Tea towels twice weekly. I am on a train and gasped out loud when read the op!