Do you wash your bathroom towels with your kitchen towels?

[Bluerose27]

Just that really.
I like to keep on top of washing, especially when the sun is shining. So today I had half a load of bathroom towels and half a load of kitchen towels so I threw them all in on a high temperature.

I feel like it's two different types of germs mixing though.

But I feel a bit silly as I type this. If I'm crazy to worry about this please let me know gently!!

I just bung towels in with the dark/light load. Everything goes in at 40 except bedding, which goes in at 60 with a bit of Zoflora added. My bath sheets won't fit in with a load of king size bedding so they go in with everything else. It's not killed me yet!

It makes me 😷 putting the bath mat in with towels - it's been on the floor with people standing on it and next to the toilet. I don't wash tea towels with bath towels 🙊.

Doing a hot wash with bio washing powder/liquid is completely pointless, just saying.

I have started to wash everything except delicates at 60 as a chemist friend told me my kids would get ill less often and I have actually noticed a marked improvement. All anecdotal obvs.

But a dead arse germ is much the same as a dead food germ, so I mix everything all together.

No one ever died from towel poisoning.
40 for towels, is meant to be 50 but ffs is expensive.
I wash EVERYTHING in Head and Shoulders, it's cheap and I am allergic to powders. If the towels need it I add Oxy Clean.
I wash the towels pretty often and I wash them all together.
Towels are changed every 2 days and tea towels every day. Main thing is frequency lovely!

I haven't got the time or inclination to do different loads. I'm sure we would all be more at risk of infection if I left everything unwashed for more days to be sure there was enough to make up a load. Neither DH or I have had a day off work sick for over 10 years, and both our sons won attendance awards, so it doesn't seem to have done us any harm washing tea towels and bath towels together. I do my lwashing that is not delicate on a 60 degree speed wash, which takes an hour. Line drying is another way to kill off germs ( except those In bird poo)

My mind's a bit boggled by the idea of 'different types of germs mixing' being an issue!

All my towels go in a 60 cottons wash, with tea towels, oven gloves, cooking aprons, bed linen etc.

I have literally never thought about this my entire life. I do a dark wash and a light wash. Both at 40 degrees. That is all. Tea towels, bath towels, clothes, bedding, whatever colour it is it gets washed together. Must be exhausting to be that bothered by germs?!

Just to add a little bit of science; biological washing powders/liquids don't actually function as 'bio' at temperatures above 40oC. So it makes no difference whether you use bio or non-bio at any temperature over 40oC. Same effect.

Water gets rid of most bacteria anyway. They are... you know... washed away.

Yes - towels and bathmats and tea towels all together on a hot hot hot wash

Wow! I didn't expect this to take off

Bless. Are you new OP? Did you spot the daily towel washers early in the thread? And there would be a fair few who would outsource to industrial washing boilers if it was a service commonly available to the public.

Washing all goes in the machine and gets separated by colour + whites not by which part of my body it's touched

I don't even separate whites. We deal with that by not having white clothing - I would spill food on them anyway when I'm not at home so stains tend to set before you can do anything with them.

It doesn't matter how our stuff is washed. The kittens play in the washing basket and we all know how filthy their feet must be when they've been in the litter tray. Only concern I have is making sure none of them end up in the machine. I have to close the machine door and then check they are all accounted for before I can switch it on.

Wouldn't have ever occurred to me to separate them.

What I would not wash with everything else is the cloth used for cleaning the toilet. (That's why I consider a toilet brush absolutely necessary ) That is better discarded after use.

But realistically, unless you have an infectious disease in your household, it is not going to matter even if you did wash tea towels and bathroom towels at 30° and together.

See I was all devil-may-care about germs too until my youngest caught scarlet fever and then everyone in the house kept getting throat infections featuring the same bacteria. I washed all the linens in the house at 60/95 and the infection stopped, but it was a bit horrid for a while there.

What are kitchen towels? I dry my hands on a piece of cheap kitchen paper and bin it. why would I want towels in the kitchen. I don't have tea towels hanging about either, they are in a drawer so handy if required for an emergency then straight in washing machine. I probably use one a week.

clearly I am a gold medal slut but no one has collapsed on my kitchen floor writhing in agony from a sudden attack of viques filthy kitchen germs, so either my friends and family are tough or I have got it about right.

I don't use zoflora or bleach either.

And as for the pp who washes towels after one use! The idea is to get the dirt off in the bath or shower so that you are drying clean water from your clean body, that way the towel is still quite clean, just damp..... They have these things called towel rails, some are heated to dry the towels faster.

OP, did you know that if it wasn't for bacteria you wouldn't even be alive?

I'm taking it the OP has no pets. I do wash the dog towels and bedding separately. But I bet people do mix and are perfectly well!

Towels are changed every 2 days and tea towels every day

Christ. I AM a skank going by this.

Towels all together 60. Or 90 if I bleed on them during period. And yes, I clean my fanjo well but I make blood clots so one is liable to escape on a heavy day.

I use biological washing powder so all on at 30 (which is hot). If your towels have 'poo crumbs' on them then you are not washing or wiping yourself well enough.

Bathroom towels with kitchen towels and out on the line to dry. The sun's action on clothes drying is anti bacterial. Wind also does this too.

Other than that into the tumble dryer which kills any residual bacteria, if needed.

(I've put my duvets out in the sun and then a short spell in the tumble dryer if needed - usually during winter)

Someone point me to any evidence of ill health causes by doing mixed loads of washing at low temperature?

Thought not.

Next:toilet brushes. Anyone been harmed by using one?

Bedding and towels and bath mats on at 60.
Clothes on at 40 with steam hygiene switch pressed. I separate darks|brights|reds and pinks|whites and lights; colour catchers are ime not good enough to bung them all in together. I also only wash full loads.
PJs and my other Saltrock stuff is 30 delicates but always line dried so I figure any nasties die in the sun.
Nappies are done as per instructions so they last as long as possible.
Dishcloths, cleaning cloths and tea towels go on at 90 because they can take it and it gives my washing machine a good clean too - kills off any residual nasties that might lurk.
Everything is either line dried in the sun or tumble dried (except delicates).
I hate this new anti bacterial additive for your washing machine schtick, it's bloody ridiculous! Unless you or a member of your household is immune compromised you're just wasting money and potentially damaging the environment too.

Towels and the bath mat are always washed together on either a 40 or a 60 wash. I don't know if my machine even goes up to 95!

Clothes go in on a 30 once a week, sometimes I do a second wash for my bras depending on how much washing we've got.

We're still alive!

I wash kitchen and bathroom towels together. Bath and door mats go on a separate wash (just because I have a half-hour express programme on the machine, so can use it a couple of times a week.

DP and I are almost pensioners, we have adult DC and we are all still alive, kicking and in particularly rude health, despite this apparently disgusting habit of washing the towels together. How weird.

Mummyoflittledragon blood is best 'digested' by the enzymes in Bio washing detergents so would be best washed at 40. At higher temperatures the blood 'cooks' and fixes in the towels.

kitchen towels get shoved in a bucket with a stain remover / anti-bac while darks etc are on then shoved in with the rest of the towels at 40. I figure the pre-soak will shift anything nasty