AIBU to issue my 14yo DD with ONE bath towel for the week to teach her lesson

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I went out for a couple of hours last night to visit a friend. My DD said she was going to give herself a pamper night. When I came back DD was in her bedroom and on the bathroom floor were four, that's FOUR wet scrumpled bath towels (freshly washed yesterday). My face felt hot. I went into my bedroom and there on the floor in front of my bedroom mirror, was a further wet, scrumpled bath towel. My face was now purple, my eyes were starting to blur with blind fury!!! Five freshly washed towels left wet and scrumpled on the floor. She does this EVERY TIME she has a bath (though five is a record it's normally one or two).

AIBU to issue her one towel for the week (and hide all the others) so she learns to use it, put it on the radiator if it's usuable again the next morning or put it in the wash bin? Yes I know by the end of the week it will be minging but to prove a point that other people live in this house and would like a dry towel occasionally without washing the whole lot every single day, is this a fair and good way of teaching a selfish 14 yo a lesson??

Who on earth has time to wash all the towels daily? Fuck that!

We have four large bath towels plus DDs and I have hair turbans, plus the bathroom hand towels. They all got washed today (2 loads) and slung out on the line to dry. I'll do all the bedding tomorrow. I do all the uniforms and work clothes during the week, normally once on Tuesday night and again on Friday night. In between I do everything else. I literally couldn't be bothered with washing an extra two loads of stuff a day.

I don't have a tumble dryer so don't have the space to be washing towels every day.

Well does your machine also gather it all up, hang it out, bring it in and put it away? Plus the washine machine takes around 1.5hours during which you can't do another load. And if its raining, my washine machine doesn't magically create an extra room in our house to dry all these extra towels!
I tend to do a wash once a day on average. We have swimming kits at least 2-3 times per week plus mine and my husband's sports lots hence bath towels cannot be done daily (usually weekly).

*sports kits

We all just use one bath towel each a week and hang them up to dry after each bath shower etc?Is this not what most people do ?

Another one who doesn't have the space or tumble drier/washing space outside/interest to be washing towels more than once a week. 2 towels between 3 of us plus a hand towel does us fine for the week.

Why to people stand on towels? That's what bath mats are for.

Give her a flannel.

Bath sheets are a pain- we used to use them, but getting the blessed things dry was so tricky that I donated them to the local dog's home who cut them up into smaller bits to dry off bathed canines.. and I bought smaller ones-easier on the washing machine [which sounds like a cement mixer anyway, as the bearings are -gone- going]
The washing line can snap under the weight of bath sheets too :/
Five towels is hugely excessive- one for each limb, and one for the hair, maybe?

My DS leaves his bathtowel in a damp heap on the duvet- now THAT drives his GF mad.

I'm not in awe of how many loads of towel washes people do. I am, however, genuinely appalled by it. It's both wasteful and unnecessary. WHY? Just hang your towels up somewhere reasonably airy after use (the back of a bedroom door will do fine if not enough towel rail space in the bathroom) and use them until they seem to actually need a wash. Once a week or so should be fine as long as you are washing yourselves properly in the bath or shower. If you're not washing yourself well enough that your towel is actually dirty after being used once, then this is the problem.

Even hotels discourage people from only using towels once. It's widely accepted to be hugely wasteful. Not as wasteful as using 5 towels at once, though.

If definitely go for the standard issue so she has to take responsibility for her own towel use in future.

Towel. Towel. Towel.

Ah, Mumsnet at its best, competitive towel washing...... I wash mine before I even use them. Then again before I think about using them. There are fourteen of us in our two bed house and I have no problem washing five towels for each of us every day and getting them all dry, and storing them. And I work 36 hours a day and am 63 weeks pregnant.

I agree. It's incredibly wasteful of water and power, plus the creation and use of additional detergents, oh and washer/dryers too as they will have a much shorter life and need replacing earlier too. All to wash essentially clean towels on a more frequent basis.

My teens do their own washing and we all have our own towels, in our case to stop ds hoarding them in a damp heap in his bedroom. It's been very effective. All of our towels go into an ordinary clothes wash, so the kids just stick their towels in with their weekly wash.

This also avoids us getting annoyed by what they do with their towels, when dd turned her grey towels partially yellow when she bleached/died her hair all the consequences were hers.

I would rather wash and dry my bathroom floor 4 times a day than have a bath mat or pedestal mat. Vile things!! We use a towel to step out onto. Fresh towels usually daily for body, and will reuse them the day after to step out onto unless they've been put in the wash. DSs use just the one towel each for body and hair, same for DH. I use two, one for body, one for hair, and then the step out one. But they're usually fresh daily. My washing machine is on at least twice a day. I do a towel wash every other day, a lights wash probably twice a week, a darks wash every other day. Bedding once every 7-10 days (that's 3 loads). Then I also wash my grandads clothes/towels etc. He's incontinent in hospital. So there's always at least a set of pyjamas and day clothes, plus a towel to wash daily for him. And I don't have a tumble dryer!!

Oh.... Sorry, yes I'd make her appreciate what you do for her too, by letting her do all the laundry for two weeks. And I wouldn't make it easy either, I'd leave your knickers in her bedroom etc.

But bathmats are essentially just thick smallish towels. What's to hate? I have my own (matches my towels) as dh manages to soak them through and I'm not going to step out of the shower onto a wet bathmat. It gets hung up to dry after use and washed once a week like my towels.

Nothing like a toilet pedestal thingy which I remember as small shaped bits of carpet.

Ah, Mumsnet at its best, competitive towel washing...... I wash mine before I even use them. Then again before I think about using them. There are fourteen of us in our two bed house and I have no problem washing five towels for each of us every day and getting them all dry, and storing them. And I work 36 hours a day and am 63 weeks pregnant.

Slovenly behaviour. I wash mine every hour, on the hour.
63 weeks, pshaw. I'm 99 weeks. And counting bath towels

But why? Why on earth are you doing all this unnecessary stuff? I am totally on board with you doing all your grandad's washing, poor chap, but why does everyone else need a towel daily? Are they not washing themselves properly? And if so, why not?

I have read so many towel threads on MN over the years and I don't know why I'm still reading them, tbh. It makes me angry. Why are you using up the planet's resources for no reason? Water, power, towels that will wear out quicker if washed excessively. And why is a bath mat so horrendous to you? It's disordered thinking, isn't it? Even if you got someone to come and tramp up and down on your bathmat with muddy boots six times a day, it would do you no harm at all in all likelihood. If you pissed on your towel and then dried yourself with it, the worst thing that would happen is that you'd be smelly.

There is NOBODY IN THE WORLD who needs a clean towel every day. Anyone who is supplying a clean towel every day to anyone in the world is directly responsible for helping to destroy our planet.

I know, competitive towel washing and blah and whatever. But I can't help myself. WHY ARE PEOPLE DOING THIS AWFUL SHIT WHERE THEY ARE JUST MAKING UNNECESSARY WORK FOR THEMSELVES?

Papaya, when I get out of the shower, I dry every part of my body. Including my armpits and, as you so quaintly put it, my front and back bums (yea, even unto the crack). And then I hang the towel again to dry.

THAT'S BECAUSE I'M CLEAN WHEN I COME OUT OF THE SHOWER

"How do you dry your bum?"

It air dries. I only use the towel to wrap around me. I don't actually have to rub myself dry. I put body lotion on, then wrap towel around me, then dry my hair with hair dryer. Don't see the need for rubbing dry at all unless I was in a terrible hurry or something.

I don't use a towel to stand on as one person mentioned either, I stand on my bath mat, but that's apparently something else that mumsnetters don't like. Yes, the mat does go in the wash from time to time.

I have a bath mat too (several actually). None of them are rubber backed. They are like two-ply towels.

Maybe the air where I live is drier, but air drying is very effective here.

I wonder if the over-washers are on a water meter? Let's hope there's less waste of water when everyone's metered.

Seriously...those who only use a towel once because you dry your (clean) backside with it...how many times do you use your toothbrush, that you clean your dirty mouth with?

More than once?

Enough said. There will be more bacteria on your toothbrush, than on your towel.

ROFL at full on bum floss

Minute by minute towel AND bathmat washing here.