How often do you wash your towels?

[merryandmad]

That simple really. DP is really getting to me at the moment. He has a shower every morning-, uses two towels and a flannel and puts them straight into the wash.
I feel like I work in a laundry.
Myself i also use two towels- one to wrap around me and one for hair and use them two/three times before putting in the wash. DP says this is dirty.
Am i being dirty or is he just making extra washing?

Definitely think he's using too many.

Here we change them about twice a week / when they begin to smell / when I notice that they're actually dirty. That's for all towels.

It is not just towels though- he wears a work shift for work every day- 1 x washed and ironed by me, then when he gets home at 1700 he puts shift and trousers in wash, gets out t-shirt & jumper & jogging bottoms/jeans. He will then put t-shirt and jumper in wash every day at bedtime. He has stopped putting the jeans in the wash after I refused to wash them.
I have started to go the other way, because i have so much of his and two dd's washing to do

Jeepers creepers - how bad for the environment is that?? He doesn't live in a hotel, fgs! Even hotels ask you if you want your towels washing now. Once a week in this house, if I remember.

A bit excessive.... can you from now one give him the task of being charge of all the laundry for the towels... this will be fun for him!

Do you think he might have OCD? Washing clothes that often seems way excessive to me. Would he do it so often if he had to wash them?

Crikey again.

There is no way that clothes which have been worn only for a few hours in the evening need to go in the wash.

Does your husband have a 'thing' about dirt? Or has he just not thought about the volume of washing he's creating and the waste of your time, hot water and electricity and therefore money? Perhaps the folks over on 'ethical living' can supply some ecological arguments to persuade him!

I wash my own towel every 3 weeks-ish cos for some reason i come out of the shower a lot cleaner than dh and dc - i wash their towels every week.

I do not think it very environmentally friendly to wash two sets of clothes and 3 towels every day from one person

That would drive me crazy. I use two towels - big one that I can wrap round myself, smaller one for my hair - but I don't wash them every day. But then they're not getting that dirty as I would think I'm fairly clean at the time I use them. That's insane. And the space needed to dry all those towels. The hard part of washing stuff to me is finding space to dry everything.

My dh would do that but I have put foot down. Am willing to wash towels and bed linen once a week, a pair of socks, boxers, one shirt and one sports shirt (he gyms everyday) other than that tooo much!!!

Here, towels get washed when they need it. I have no idea how often but towels last at least a week and frequently more often.

This morning after my shower, i used a large towel to wrap around myself ana smaller towel for my hair. I put the larger one in the wash basket 9as DP was collecting the washing to take downstairs ) and told him i was keeping the smaller towel nad i had only used it to dry my hair. He pulled a fave and said it was disgusting to have dirty wet towels around and I used it for my dirty hair. i corrected him and said actually i had used it on my clean hair and will use it again for my next shower.
in answer to everyones questions i do tumble dry them and put them back as i haven't got enough time to wash & dry them all, and he doesn't do the laundry as he says I moan when he doesn't get it right. - I do as he actualluy only puts about three things in the machine and then leaves it in washing machine until I notice he has some some washing.

at your DP merryandmad. Tell him to think of the environment!

We have a towel for floor (foot mat) which is hung over bath to dry after use. My DH has ONE towel, I have two - one for my body and one for hair, DD has one towel.
All towels are used to dry CLEAN bodies, so don;t count that as being dirty. And are hung to dry on bathroom rail heater.

DD's towel is changed every other day and all other towels (including foot mat) are washed once a week.
None of our towels smell.

Indeed lfc - 2 sets of clothes and 7 towels with the dcs' towels as well. We wash two sets of clothes from ds every day but he's a toddler so clothes are small and fairly hassle free, and they dry quite fast in a small space, also I don't iron them.

merryandmad, I can imagine reasons why it's easier said than done but I think you need to at least transfer some of the workload involved in this to your dp. I'm a domestic slut generally but when I do things I have a way of doing them, and it took me years to train dp into keeping washing sorted by colour and not mixing black with red, red with white etc! Still working on the idea of getting things out of the washing machine and hanging them out to dry as soon as there's a good chance, not leaving them all evening and often overnight.

We have a huge bath sheet each - they all get washed once a week on a hot wash.

Kitchen hand towel, downstairs loo towel and tea towels get washed all the time.

we have an embarrassing amount of towels and we are guilty of using them once and then washing them...I like towels to be dry, fluffy and fresh.

OMG - I am not surprised now when I hear of people saying they do at least a load of washing a day, what with all these towels and bras, especially if you throw a load of kids clothes into the mix!

If my OH wanted clean towels every day he'd be doing a hell of a lot of laundry, because I wouldn't do it.

The only towels I wash that frequently is my face towels - and that's because I am not v. efficient at removing all my make up at night, so often leave my towels looking like the Turin Shroud because of make up residue!

I wash my towels when they smell musty.

It is a huge luxury to be able to wash yourself everyday, to do your towels too is obcene imo.

What does your oh think will happen to him if he uses a damp towel?

We only ever have 2 towels in use at any time, one airing and one in the bathroom, so if we all have a shower in the morning, then we will all use the same towel.

Oh and a hand towel as well.

Make him get one of these Bodyflick.

i used to have a towel on the floor one for my hair and one to dry myself with, ds has one at bathtime but my washing is really gettin the better of me so im using just one towel, i stand in the shower and dry hair and body, ( no water on floor plus its warmer) and i hang towels over banister to be used next day. but i really wouldnt use them more than twice. hand towels in bathroom changed every other day.

The 4 of us have a bath towel each - they are hung up to dry as soon as we get out of the bath or shower and so never get smelly. I wash them once a week, or sooner if I notice speck of blood (see below!) or something.

Am horrified at OP's DH - what a waste of effort, time, soap powder, electricity (and towels probably - imagine they get totally worn pretty quickly.) I think he must have some OCD type issues.

To be honest, WhereWolf, I can't imagine sharing bath towels with someone else, would NOT like the thought of my DC sharing my towel when it's my time of the month! The odd blood streak (sorry, TMI) appears on DH's towel occasionally too if he's cut himself shaving, or [gross emoticon] he's burst a spot on his back rubbing it dry!!!! (not that he's covered in 'em - just on the odd occasion, I meant). And just to gross everyone out even further, I've had thrush in the past, and the thought of someone sharing my towel after I've wiped down there makes ME heave, never mind what the other towel-user would think!

My DH was brought up in a household of 8 people, all sharing the same handtowel, and probably a couple of bathtowels between them. And same flannel for everyone. The thought of the flannel in particular makes me wretch - his nan probably used it to wash her armpits, his dad could have washed his crotch with it, then the next person washes their face. BOAK!!!!! I've had to stay overnight at their's in the past, and had to ask for a towel of my own, as the first time I tried to dry my face one morning on the one hand towel, it stank of tahini sauce from his brother who'd come in pissed the night before and obviously used it after eating a kebab. It's just totally, totally disgusting. Have had to re-educate DH since he moved in with me!

As for hand towels, we have 2 between the 4 of us. They get used for drying my hair after a morning shower, kids hair after evening bath, and all our hands when we wash them through the day. They get washed once a week, or more often if someone in the house is ill (tend to make ill person use a separate one of their own then, usually.) 2 DS's share a flannel, and it gets changed every couple of days (DH and I just splash water on our faces to rinse soap off so no flannel needed for us usually).