Sharing towels???

[LavenderFields7]

Inspired by another thread, do people actually have family towels that they share? This seems absolutely revolting to me 🤢

YABU - sharing towels is normal
YANBU - eww, everyone should have their own towel.

We have family towels, they do get washed between uses!

We also share cutlery and dishes, again washed after use.

I probably shouldn't tell you about bathtime for kids in the 80s if shared towels grosses you out that much 😂

We “share” as in you grab a towel from the cupboard, use it a couple of times then pop it in the wash. So only one person is using it in each clean cycle iyswim. I wanted us to have 2 sets of towels each but dh didn’t grow up like that and he organises the washing so we do that his way. That said, I have a couple of towels that are “mine” and I did get territorial over them when dh used one once so I guess I have my own. When I buy towels I get colours each dc like so they generally use those but there’s also a “anyone’s” towels you can just grab.

I just had a pile of towels in the bathroom when I was married to exh and kids at home, you just grabbed a dry one, never had issues

The other threads was that people have a single bank towels that the family take from. They were not sharing towels as in both using the same towel to dry. It was that each member of the family didn't have their own designated and exclusive towel set

Sounds pretty uptight to get worked up about sharing towels with your own flesh and blood. But it's the kind of thing some people like to feel superior about isn't it.

Our towels all go in the machine together m, they are identical so we wouldn’t know whose is whose when they come out.

When they are in use everyone sticks to their own towel. (Well broadly- suspect DDs sometimes get theirs mixed up).

Growing up, we only had one bath towel in the bathroom. We all used it 🤢. If you were last to bathe / shower, it was inevitably damp. Gross.
We all have our own towels in my household now.

Things a couple do are generally far more intimate than towel sharing can make you so I wouldn’t get worked up about couples sharing.
With children obviously wouldn’t.

Everyone has their own towel. We have a towel for the kitchen which gets changed pretty much every other day and hand towels in bathrooms which again get changed pretty much every other day.

When I grew up in the eighties, we shared towels - after your bath, you put it on the radiator to dry and the next person used it. I don't see a problem - you are using it to dry clean water off a clean body. We never had any diseases due to towel sharing.
I live on my own now, so it isn't an issue for me, but I can't see a problem with sharing towels a couple of times before washing.

Everyone has their own swimming towel too!

Large cupboard of towels, each person takes one and uses that towel with no one else using it at the same time, until it goes in the wash. When it’s dry and in the cupboard again, a different person can choose that towel and it’s then “theirs” until it’s washed and back in the cupboard and up for grabs.

Anything along those lines is normal imo, though it’s true that there are a few towels particularly beloved of individuals and they tend to often choose those ones.

Not normal would be another household member using any old towel in the bathroom that was used the previous day or earlier that day etc by someone else, and it not having been washed inbetween uses.

Growing up we all shared bath towels and flannels. As an adult I have my own bath towel

We have a 'bank of towels that everyone uses. If in the cupboard they are clean, if hung up in bathroom/bedroom been used once, for the SAME person to use again. Then washed.
We do long term fostering and our young person was getting anxious about the used towels in bathroom, which was his etc so he'd get another clean one out. I bought him 2 on a distinct colour so he knows that ONLY he has used them, so he will use it a 2nd time. That is for him and has cut washing the towels dramatically!

I had a colleague who marked her pillow case so she never had to lie her head where her husband 'had had his dirty head' despite it being washed etc! Bizarre in my eyes!

I am not clear if people mean sharing used towels , or if they have a collection of towels which anyone in the household can use, exclusively , between washes.

Definitely no sharing of used towels.

DH & I keep our towels in our own space on the towel rail, and they get changed every couple of days.

We don't have personal towels. We re-use the towels after the children, then they go in the wash.
DH is a hairy bear, definitely not using a used adult towel.

The first problem for me would be that the towel wasn’t dry when I came to use it. I don’t think it’s particularly likely that used towel sharing causes diseases especially if washed often, but I wouldn’t choose to use a towel someone else had dried their bum on if I had a nicer option.

We share hand towels, but, we each have a bath towel.

Me too, the towels had a distinct smell of dampness. I cannot tolerate that damp smell today. I had a shower at a friend's, the shower curtain had the same musty smell. I felt sick.

I’m certain you share toothbrushes too. Absolutely grim.

Yes. It's just my husband and kids. I wash them all about twice a week. If one's got period blood on or is visibly dirty it'll obviously go straight in the wash. I throw them in the dryer for a few mins when damp to freshen them up.

We share towels as long as they’re dry. We’re all still alive and in rude health so it’s not something that has crossed my mind. They’re just drying clean bodies

Absolutely not, nope, never, not sharing with anyone unless in completely unusual desperate circumstances like war or something.

If my husband forgot his toothbrush, I’d rinse in hot water and let him use mine! Not ideal, but I don’t think it’s that awful.

That's certainly not what sprung to mind when I read 'sharing towels'. Kinda extreme reaction from OP.

I'm responsible for towel washing here. Regarding bath towels, there are 3 of us, we have one bathroom. We have sets of towels in coordinating colours. I tend to have a bath towel in same colour as DHs bath sheet and DS will also have a bath sheet. Usually, they are all same colour as we know who is using which towel by where it's hanging up.

I think the idea of having towels that are only ever used by one person is a bit odd. If you have all same colour or sets then you must need to put names/markings on them somewhere. Not really practical and certainly not necessary.

Also, with bedding, do people have specific bedding sets for spare room double/king etc. that they don't use on the main bedroom bed? Surely the only reason for that would be to match decor. Otherwise a bit too persnickety