AIBU about changing my sheets?

[CarmineRose1978]

I had a conversation at work this week with a few of my colleagues about how often we change out bedding. I and several of my friends say they should be changed once a week, once a fortnight at least. But a couple of my younger colleagues (I'm talking 28, so not teenagers!) said they change theirs every couple of months to every four or five months. Ditto their towels because "they are clean when they get out of the shower". Were we unreasonable to a) practically boak and b) tell them they're old enough to know better, in no uncertain terms? Should we have held our peace instead of hoiking our judgey pants sky high?

That was probably the starch .

Adult's bedding is once a month, on average.

Toddler and baby is 1 or 2 times per week, dependant on leakages.

Towels are 1 or 2 times per week.

You want me to do more washing? I never said I wash them every day make your mind up!

eeewww....

towels and bedding get washed when they need it - probably weekly but it depends on sweatiness levels.

every few months is quite disgusting.

obfus & carmine - Fairy (non bio) at my parent's house set DD1's skin off when she was little (12 yrs ago) - has grown out of it now thankfully
(And my mum had bought it especially cos we were coming to stay )
I was using a big name non-bio at home -probably Ariel (?)...with no problems....
Have been using Ecover Non-bio for years now - (buy in bulk so works out more or less same price as named brands)...and a friend thinks that is the only powder they can use for their DC's 'problem' skin!!!!

Best advice I was given is use much less than the amount recommended on the packet - and if you have a modern machine do at least one extra rinse and use the extra water setting. To get an A rating modern washing machines have to use so little water that they complete rubbish at rinsing!

No, I didn't realise what it was at first - just felt itchy... then it got worse and worse. We were only there for four nights, I think.

Mmm, starch... I didn't think of that. Fairy works well for me, anyway - I think I've had particular issues with Bold here in the UK.

You said every use -don't you wash / shower every day?

Sheets roughly every two weeks and towels weekly maybe. Totally do not get this washing towels everyday. You hang them up they dry, they only have clean water on them.

I don't have a set routine for sheet washing...the shame of it :(

I wash them when I feel they need to be washed if DP hasn't slept in my bed and it's just been me I normally do it approx every 2 weeks, if DP and I have slept in them (he's a bit sweater than me and really anal about clean sheets, damn army) it can sometimes be 3 sheets over the weekend but not duvet and pillows or just once for the full bed on the friday before he comes home so we can have clean sheets and duvet for the weekend and I chuck them in the wash Monday after he has left.

It's madness it's like a ad hoc basis in my house haha.

Yes after every use and yes showers every day. I have a big drum and a fair few towels these days. No need to wash every day and I don't use the drier for towels and bedding.

Do I pass?

I was thinking about it actually after the last thread on this topic. Growing up towels would be used and reused by the whole family until they were practically standing up on their own and smelt horrible. When I got my own house it was a buzz to have a fresh towel every time. I'm unlikely to change now

I wash towels after every use but I have only white towels so they look dirty if you don't wash them, also I don't like the idea of last showers dry skin cells on my towel when I've just cleaned myself.

I shower daily so have approx 16 white towels so always a clean one to hand as about 9 wash at once in the machine.

I dunno. Sheets every week to every month depending if we're around at weekend . Towels just get f

done when they look like they need it , but I do hang them outside to dry when possible. I think saving them up to wash in a basket's a bit rank.

This thread has made me appreciate just how incredibly fortunate (some might say profligate!) we all are to be able to wash towels, sheets etc at the very first sign of minor grubbiness or because we prefer the feel of a freshly laundered item. When you think how many people in the world don't even have fresh drinking water, it's rather humbling.

Once a month after a period. Kids probably every 6 weeks or so - would change teen dd's a bit more often if she stripped her bed when I asked her to...her bedding tends to change colour with foundation rubbing off on it! If any sick, wee or anything else yucky, (thinking of ds here) I will change them then...

When I have students to stay and have to change sheets every week (required by the terms of the agency) I notice how crisp and clean they still are, and think what a waste of energy and water this is.

I change my shower towel once a month unless it smells, hand towels when they look a bit grubby (every few days usually) and dd usually has about 4 resident rotting towels in her room which get washed when she finally clears up!

I am definitely with DoJo and others who prefer to be green then excessively clean, and of course I don't have a tumble dryer! And I have a job...and students to look after...and better things to do!

yeah it's shocking really.. we should just go down to the local river and beat out the dirt on rocks because a chunk of the world aren't equipped like we choose to be.

And there's the worst of MN in a nutshell for you. You can have a genuine "we're pretty bloody lucky in the scheme of things" musing, triggered by something as mundane as laundry, and someone will make a PA remark about it...

Nowt pa about it. Somebody ALWAYS pops up with that crap on these threads. You could set your clock to it.

My bestest sheets - Descamps, tasteful pale grey cotton, zillion threadcount - have a number of persistent stains that are tribute to our enthusiastic sex life despite washing.

They look a bit like a Game of Thrones map.

So how high a temperature do you clean-freaks think I should go?

I've never gone beyond 60 degrees because I can cope with stains but I don't want to destroy my nice sheets.

Agree that's a pretty unnecessary and bitter-sounding comment in response to quite a sensible thought trying to put things in a little perspective.

Doesn't make it any less true, gamer.

Yeah, thats the worst of MN

On MN it's only OK to complain about disparities of wealth within the UK, not between UK and the third world. FYI.