Poll: How Often Do You Wash Your Towels?

[Jeremy Comans]

I lived in a area with water-controls (drought) for ages so the idea of washing a towel after one or two uses is just balmy to me. But, even from a good hygiene perspective, that level of washing is unnecessary and wasteful.

 

[PureChaos]

I use 2 towels per week and wash do a wash every 2 weeks but I have more towels than the 4 I'll use between each wash

 

[Cowabungaa]

Here's an even more interesting question; on what temperature do you wash your towels?

 

[Trunkage]

We have a healthy amount of towels. And currently three people in the house. There's enough towels for each of us to have our own towel for every day of the week.

So personally I use a new towel after every shower. I'm 90% sure my brother does to. The other member of the house I'm not sure about. At the end of the week we take all the used towels, put them in the wash and dryer, and repeat the process. Sometimes I even have to use two towels because my hair is so long and no one appreciates water dripping around the house, and I hate how wet hair feels when just freely hanging.

I have a 5kg washing machine. It can handle 3 towels. If I'm doing it you way, I'd be washing them every day of the week.

 

[Phasmal]

Can't tell if I'm weird or if you're all weird.
Towel gets used and then goes in the wash.

 

[Lufia Erim]

A lot more than six times.

My bathroom is really old and not that well ventilated. You need to dry it after showering to prevent mold. So, I use the towel first, then dry my bathroom with it and then it goes in the laundry basket.

Hotel towels, though, I use 2-3 times.

I liked the bathrooms I had in Germany. Every bathroom there had a window. Belgium too. In the, like, twenty American apartments I've lived in, only about two of them had a window. As a result, they always mix light switches with annoying ventilators. What the hell, America! Bathrooms should have windows! Probably has to do with their puritan crap.

All i know is, everytime i see a bathroom with a window, i can't help but look inside. GOD help you if someone is actually taking a shower. Doubly so if its a woman and the window is open.

OT: honestly, every couple of months. bit wait i have so many bath towels that i dont actually have to do laundry for towels all that often.and when i do its ONLY towels that get washed.However i usually throw it in the specified towel basket after about a month.

Now what you dont want to ask me is how often i change/ wash my bed sheets...

 

[Death Carr]

I have 2 towels, they get used separately but washed at the same time about once a month, which means, with showering in the morning and after work and such they each likely get used to dry myself about 20+ times.

I share the same mentality with a couple people here, id I'm out of the shower I'm clean. If a little care is taken to lay the towel out in a low humidity area where it can dry semi-quickly they shouldn't get moldy or develop any nasty stank before I wash them

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Every use of course. Even if you properly exfoliated and used plenty of soap, when you dry your skin you are rubbing plenty of dead skin cells and bacteria all over your towel. Even worse is when people leave towels to dry in a damp bathroom where they grow mildew in addition to the other stuff you just rubbed all over it. When you dry yourself again, you are rubbing that same bacteria, mildew, and dead skins cells all over your body/ face that you just cleaned.

If you must reuse a towel between washes, make sure you dry it outside of the damp bathroom in a well air circulated room and " beat it" (like a rug) and brush to help get some of the dried skin and bacteria off of it before you use it, and you really should not use it even if you completely dried it between uses more than 3 times due to how much bacteria you will be rubbing all over yourself when you do. It is also not a bad idea to clean your bath and kitchen areas with a black light so you can see what is really in there...

http://www.nbc12.com/story/19230339/12-investigates-towel-germs
http://www.medicaldaily.com/bath-towels-are-ideal-place-bacteria-thrive-and-chances-are-you-dont-wash-399989

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

A lot more than six times.

My bathroom is really old and not that well ventilated. You need to dry it after showering to prevent mold. So, I use the towel first, then dry my bathroom with it and then it goes in the laundry basket.

Hotel towels, though, I use 2-3 times.

I liked the bathrooms I had in Germany. Every bathroom there had a window. Belgium too. In the, like, twenty American apartments I've lived in, only about two of them had a window. As a result, they always mix light switches with annoying ventilators. What the hell, America! Bathrooms should have windows! Probably has to do with their puritan crap.

All i know is, everytime i see a bathroom with a window, i can't help but look inside. GOD help you if someone is actually taking a shower. Doubly so if its a woman and the window is open.

Bathroom windows are almost always textured. It's impossible to see nudity through a textured window. You can also get a curtain. It feels good to let fresh air into a bathroom. Americans are depriving themselves.

Personally, I kind of stopped caring about my nudity. I suppose it's because I've been alone for so long that I stopped caring about people. I seldom wear clothes when I'm home alone, even though my brother/roommate for some reason keeps all the blinds in our third floor living room pulled up. I don't go right up to the window, though.

Not all windows in Bathrooms are textured. Though this reminds me of that penthouse apartment I lived in with skylights over my Jacuzzi bathtub.. I was chillin in there, half asleep/half awake and I look up to see roofers staring at me through the skylight. I didn't even receive a notice they were going to have people on the roof that day. Needless to say it scared the crap out of me. LOL

 

[Jute88]

I wash mine once a week/two weeks. And I shower every day.

 

[-Xymox-]

I live alone so I usually wash it after using at least three times xDD And I feel ok with this, my towels don't become so dirty in such case

 

[Basement Cat]

In college I would was my towels...maybe three or four times a semester. I had three or four I think so I figure that was each getting washed after a week or two of use.

Once, later, while I was working a dead end job, hating life and spending every free moment getting drunk off of my ass I went maybe six months without washing my towels or linens. It was a dark period in my life. Very dark. <_<

Now? Every week or two. Like many others say it's for drying you off and I don't wipe my ass with it.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

It never occurred to me to count.

Every so often I look at the towel rack and think, "Those are probably due for a wash about now". And so it comes to pass.

I dry myself with them, not wipe my arse. They get damp, not dirty.

ding ding ding, perspective. It entirely depends on how dirty I am, but more then likely I got 99% of it off my body with soap/bodywash, so the only thing the towel is "drying" off is the bodywash, so if anything the towel ends up smelling great when I'm done.

I'll typically shower 3-4 times per towel, and I typically have 3 towels in rotation, so every 2 weeks when I do laundry they get mixed in and cleaned.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Here's an even more interesting question; on what temperature do you wash your towels?

depends on what load it's going in and what the colors are?

if they're all white/white towels, sure I'll crank it to warm, but otherwise it's usually colder since it's being mixed with other stuff as I can't be bothered to run an additional load just for that crap.

 

[McElroy]

Not often. I do dedicate one side to my upper body and the other for lower body.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I wash my towels after every shower/bath but hand drying towels can stay on the rack for a week before a clean.

Just my method.