Towels - each person their own set, or take nearest (clean!) one from the cupboard?

[Ramekin]

Having just realised that some of our towels are over 15 years old (and our "new" towels are 9 years old, I'm planning to splash out (ha ha) on some new ones.

Current towels are various shades of blue, DH and I take clean one from the cupboard and use it for a week. DDs have smaller towels, again, next clean one from cupboard and use it for a week.

Now that I am buying new ones, I am considering bringing in a colour-coded "own towel" policy, everyone gets a different colour and only ever uses towels of that colour, we have a seperate colour for guests and handtowels and bathmats (and the ancient blue towels are relegated to swimming towels).
I think DD would be excited to choose her own colour, and I feel somehow this way is more hygienic.

DH is resistant and reckons it is unnecessarily complicated, and he won't be able to remember which colour is for what, and that when we wash all the towels together all the colours will run and they will look dingy.

What do other people do?

OMG!!! this is such an issue in our house we operate a 'clean towel from the pile' but ds1 used 4 yes 4 bath sheets this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cant believe you use the same towel for a week???? really???? is that hygeinic?? we use a towel then its washed .....so you can see today im gonna have at least 7 towels to wash and dry!!!

Total free for all here, if it smells cleaned you use it. If it's dirty it goes in the wash.

My family used to have our own towels when I was a child, but we had room for two long towel rails.

We don't, I've posted before that our bathroom is tiny.

It's a free for all here.

In my house there are towels available. You use whatever you find. And they get washed around once a week. They are just a bit wet - they dry fine and don't need washing ever time (IMO).

Oh and ours get washed about once a week, when I have rounded them up from DD's floor

None of us suffer any skin problems, or any other health problems as a result, and AFAIK, we don't smell!

Nickseasterchick I am sure the bath towels your DS used today could be hung out to air and don't need washing.

I have a different colour for DD, but generally there are a number of towels in the bathroom and I change them every couple of days. I tend to put out a couple of colours and I think the older kids tend then to use the same colour towel - it does seem more hygenic that way. (I like to use the same towel myself and not share, so usually keep it on the landing on the banister so no-one else can use it).
The washing a towel every use/washing them less often debate is always a lively one on MN...

Noooooooo! The colour of the towels is chosen to go with the bathroom! You can't possibly have all different colours in one bathroom. I know which are mine and DH's current towel by where they hang in the bathroom. Children's towels are muddled up. I don't know how often they get washed - DH does all the laundry - but it's definitely not every time. I hope it's once a week.

Free for all here - we have white towels, and they get washed when they look grubby. All are (theoretically) hung up to dry after use - but if left on the floor too long will be washed

My parents operate a frer for all and wash a towel after every use (even if its just used to wrap around clean wet hair).

We have a free for all but towels are refolded and used again. however there is just me and dh plus a 4month old. It would seem bit brutal to tell her she couldnt use our towels

irregular my bathroom towels would cause you to implode....we have dark blue, light blue, lime green, pink (DD's) and white (mine)

Miranda west ......id agree but he put one on the floor used one to wipe gel etc off his hands dried his body with one and draped the other over the side of the bath so it got all the water from the shower on ......also hes a very 'groomed' lad which means everything will smell like 'armani code' not a bad scent but very overpowering especially for me .....

We have 2 bathrooms ...and we all have our own towels. All different colours.
And they're washed every 2 days.

Clean towels from cupboard, used then hung to dry. Use mostly our own towels, well the dcs are probably fairly interchangeable :o then they get washed and the whole thing starts again

[irregular] Our bathroom is just white. But it is so tiny there isn't room to keep bath towels in there anyway (hung on a towel rail in spare room, or clean ones in the cupboard in the spare room), so no co-ordination problems.
Only have a hand towel and bath mat in the bathroom (I do try to make sure these match one another, and was planning a sophisticated neutral shade for the new ones)

We each have our own colour, and they get put over radiator airers in the bedrooms to dry between each use. They get washed about once every 3 days.

We have different coloured hand towels which match the bathrooms which get washed everyday.

, meant to say above Irregular

We all just take the top one from the pile, use it, put it in the wash.

Agree with towels match bathroom.

Towels match the bathroom. Beige in family bathroom, White in guest ensuite 1 , green in guest 2. Except DS's which are a bright green hooded monster towel & a superman hooded swimming towel. Bright beach towels for swimming.
Washed on a weekend or when guests have been. Never had a problem with colours running tend to pop similar colours in together though.
As for the whole hygienic thing - it's only a towel, unless you have an infectious skin disease, you will live with it being washed once a week/ when smelly dirty. People who get anxious about hygiene are rarely the people who should worry.

Ours are all white.

But each person has their own. The DC keep theirs in their rooms - to air on the radiator after use. DH and I keep ours inthe bathroom.

They get washed after a few uses/when I can be bothered collecting them in. To be fair I get throiugh the most - as I have hair (?) so use two - and I often have more than one shower/bath a day due to frantic last minute running training!

I don't like the though of sharing towels - bums/faces !! We used to have communal towels as a kid and i didn't really give it a thought - but it doesn't sound nice to me.

But surely a towel is used to dry a clean body - so therefore it shouldn't need to be washed every time it's used

Bingo! Someone brought up the hygiene thing on the second post. This will run and run.

Someone uses a towel to dry their clean body. They do not need to then wash the said towel after every use. There's a water shortage!

I can't believe nobody's linked to the yet.

nickseasterchick I think you will find that you are in the minority!! Most people realise that a towel dries a clean body so can be used more than once. If everyone adopted your policy we'd be on a permanent hose pipe ban - please think of the environment!!

We all have our own towels but even after years of having them DH still has to ask which one is his !!