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 I cant believe people have time to wash their towels and sheets so often. i just about manage to wash all our clothes. the machine is always on but thats just with clothes.
feel bad now, must try to fit that onto my list of things to do more often.

Bathmats and hand towels - weekly ( or more often if mucky, but we have 3 bathrooms and are out a lot)

Tea towels - daily

Bath towels - after use

Sheets etc - weekly in summer, in winter I might be slovenly and slip to fortnightly.

Minimum of 60 degree wash but I do have to use nonbio due to allergies.

Do you perhaps have smokers in the house, or animals, masking the other smells?

I honestly thought I was a bit of a slob myself until this.

facecloths/ tea towels/muslin cloths -daily
All towels - min weekly
Bedding - weekly or two weeks poss in winter!

Is it just me whose family members have an irritating habit of stashing once-used towels in bedrooms & then just getting a clean one out every time, so that you end up with loads of towels in use - all of them still smelling sweet? Airing along my banister at the moment are 12!!!!!! towels - none of them needing washing. I want to strangle whoever's got them all out.

tea towels, dishcloths idealy have a fresh one daily, but on environmental grounds I don't think you should wash your individual bath towels very often. You should dry them after each use so they stay fresh. The bath/shower is for getting the dirt off so the towels should only be wet not dirty. Unless you live in a hot country its difficult to dry towels after washing them in the winter without using a tumble dryer which most people would see as an extravagance. We wash far more often than my grandmother did - not so long ago there was washing day, usually Monday and people did not wear so many clothes as we do now!

madmomma It's not just you.

Gross. I'm skanky and even I wash towels once a week!

Bedding changed at least once a week.
Kids have a clean towel each bath time or every second one.
I change my bath towel twice a week but have decided it will be after every other shower now.
Kitchen towels get changes several times a day as I use them for all sorts.

Once a month is minging imo.

Towels washed after every use.
Sheets once a week, twice in summer.
Tea towels, twice a day but they get used as oven gloves not for drying dishes.

Totally agree once a month is minging.

I'll never win housewife of the year but wash shower towel after 2 uses, hair towel after 1, footmat after 3-4 uses; use multiple teatowels/dishtowels (even though I have a dishwasher) and don't use a hand towel in the kitchen - kitchen papaer only. The state of my house indicates I'm a slob, but my level of personal hygiene is high

Once or twice usage for bath towels imo. You may be have just been in the bath/shower and are technically clean but lets face it - bits of skanky skin etc get sloughed of when you dry yourself and must stick to the towel - think CSI - yuk!!!

Just popping in to add my solidarity to the skanks

I'm sure we don't smell and we never get ill!

I can't be arsed to read the whole thread as phone is painfully slow, but YANBU! I wash ours when I think to do it, which is every few weeks whether they need it or not.

I use a towel 2-3 times, then it goes in the wash. Your towels must stink, just think of the dead skin cells and body oils that must gather on a towel.

Just yuk!!!!!!

Washing bath towels after every use is simply madness, and wasteful of energy, detergent etc not to mention, there are more interesting things to do....

but once a month is skanky for towels and beds. You may not think you smell, but I bet I'd smell you if i was standing next to you on the bus.

Gross, OP.

Bath towels, wash cloths, bathmats - weekly
Sheets - fortnightly, except my son who keeps wetting his bed, so his have been daily lately!
Tea towels - I always have 3 around the kitchen so as and when they are manky, every day or 2.

I think having twelve bath towels hanging over a bannister all the time is just madness. I like my house to be and look clean. Whats hard about sticking it in the machine? Still plenty of time to lead an interesting life, and it isn't simply the smell that makes me wash them. 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.

In theory a towel shouldn't really get minging because you are rubbing it over freshly clean body or should be anyway. But they do get minging especially if they don't fully dry between dries. Once a week minimum I would suggest or at least before they get slimy. On another note why is it the soap drawer in the washing machine gets so dirty. I mean it only has SOAP in it. Why? WHY?

In theory towels should NEVER need washing as they are used to dry clean bodies ... but in practice they get smelly after a week - can't work out why though!

Totally gross. Sorry Op.

We wash ours after 2-3 days.

The kitchen towel every second day. More if it seems grubby.

How much space can ONE measly towel take?

And towels should be washed on 60 degrees together with underwear. You need 60 degrees to clean bacteria. Otherwise, it is just dipping around in bacteria, and washing has no point. Which, in your household, it seems it doesnt, as all washing do to your skanky towels is add some detergent scent.

Towels of any sort washed after use. Mainly hung on the line to dry but tumble dried if damp or raining.

I thought this was the norm - have always done it that way, so has most of my family. No way would I want to use a towel that hadn't been washed. I wouldn't accept it at a hairdressers/spa etc so why would I at home?

Blimey I have never heard of people washing towels after each use unless in a smart hotel and then it's ridiculous too!

What a waste of water, energy and time! What hope is there for our planet! (don't you have anything better to do!)

Each person should have their own towel. Easy if you colour code them so each person has different colour. I think washing every 1-2 weeks is reasonable. But with a newborn I used dark towels and probably washed daily but then dh and dc towels would be left longer as I was so busy!

Tea towels - I have loads of them but don't wash often as I never really use them. Kitchen and loo hand towels clean every couple of days?

"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."

this line makes me think this is a wind-up. Who on earth has one kitchen towel, that gets minging, and only gets a wash every two weeks or so? Why couldn't it be chucked in with the clothes more regularly? Hang about, why couldn't OP purchase a bundle?

YANBU. I wash them when they start to smell, which with bath towels is not often tbh as once you are clean you dry yourself, then they are hung up to dry.

Clothes I wash as and when (normally a load a day), tea towels every few days as they do get minging, and sheets...I try for weekly but it's more likely fortnightly.