How often do you wash your towels? And how often do you completely change them with brand new towels?
I wash them weekly and was just wondering recently if I should be buying new towels to replace my 8+ year old towels.
Edit to add: I wash towels by themselves so it’s a separate load to my regular laundry. I don’t know why but the different materials seem to clean better separately. But I also have a separate towels load for dirty/oily towels (kitchen towels, cleaning rags)
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I wash them after three uses and use them until they fall apart.
I also wash them weekly and I only buy new ones once they start to feel uncomfortable or get holes in them.
I wash my towel after ever use.
Like, you whip it off your shoulders and lash it out at a monster, and just like that, the towel is dirty‽
Did you just touch a towel on the shelf? Well, it’s used now, so in the washer it goes.
Nope. Once I dry myself off it goes in the hamper.
What a waste of water and energy.
Same, but I ensure it’s fully dry before putting it in the hamper. So usually a couple of hours later, or just before I next need a towel I replace it.
They start to build the funk if you throw them in there wet.
I wash mine about the same, but I only buy new if they start to fall apart or no longer dry properly. Even then, they go into the scrap towel drawer and are used for dirty jobs. Eventually they’ll get too dirty and I’ll get rid of them.
idk, after 4 or so uses. I have super dry skin so my towels never get stinky. I’m washing them long before I notice anything. Humidity being very low where I live also plays a part I"m sure.
Some of my towels may be older than me. I got a pile of hand-me-downs from my mother when I moved out and uh…I still use a few of them until they are dilapidated enough to become garage oil rags and then I buy a replacement. Nothing in my bathrooms matches!
Face towels are a different story. I replace them after a single real usage. Probably just as old though.
I wash my body towels (for stepping out of the shower) weekly. I wash hand towels, for drying hands after washing hands, whenever I feel like it, quite infrequently but they get washed.
I’d only replace a towel if it fell apart or something like that. If it’s unusable.
My bathroom faces a very sunny window so heats up every day… I wash myself dry my clean self with the towel, then it dries with the sun.
The result is it doesn’t get particularly dirty or left wet for particularly long.
I replace them as soon as they don’t feel “rough” anymore. I hate soft towels. That ends up being probably once a week. Never bought new ones.
Washing machines create rough towels. Rough towels create dry bodies. Dry bodies create soft towels. Soft towels go in washing machines.
Exactly, this is the way!
When the pile gets too large in the bathroom or on Sunday, whichever comes first.
I don’t have a satisfying answer to you. I think once a week wash is perfectly fine and it is roughly what I do.
It depends on how much you’re using them.
If you shower once a day 6 days a week (just as an example), a wash once a week is good. If you’re showering and using the towel multiple times a day it’s getting a lot more use and likely never totally drying out between washes. I’d recommend a second towel and/or more frequent washes of the towels.
If you use the towel for showering at home only 3 times a week (for example you shower at the gym and they provide towels there) then you could radially go multiple weeks without washing your towels just because they aren’t being used.
Finally replacing. I also don’t have a strong answer for that but I replace them when I notice they either stop absorbing water as well or when the threads are getting much thinner. Current set of towels is 3 years old and replaced a set of towels that were 8 years old. Also if the towels get significantly dirty or stained (blood usually in my case) I’ll replace them.
I wash weekly. My bathroom has a tendency towards dampness.
They stay around until they start fraying and then they go in the retired towels pile, for pets and spills and such, and once they are embarrassing to hang on my outside line i throw them out.
I’ll soak in vinegar water every so often to reduce the limescale that builds over time and that helps keep them fresher looking, but mostly that is a losing battle.
Pro tip: don’t use scent beads or softener products. They reduce absorbency (and they’re nasty chemicals that smell terrible but apparently I’m the only person who thinks that).
Citric acid as a softener works great. Also removes scents and does a much better job than vinegar.
Good tip. I know this as a fact but haven’t connected it.
My dishwasher suggests replacing the rinse aid with up to 2(?)% solution citric acid, which I haven’t tried but I’m going to give it a shot when I run low.
Yup. I also use citric acid for dishwasher rinse aid. 2 tablespoons of citric acid powder to 100 ml of warm water. Let mixture cool and pour into dispenser.
Woah, citric acid powder?
Yes.
citric acid is a dope cleaning agent against limescale. It reacts with limescale and turns it into water and CO2. Works wonders in kettles too
Yep, you shouldn’t use fabric softener on anything you WANT to be absorbent. Towels, workout clothes, undergarments, etc.
You are not the only person that hates those scents! But we are rare. I usually get deer in headlights look when I explain it to someone.
Same. Burns my nose and feels gross, like leaving conditioner in my hair.
Heck man, I use RIT dye on older towels so they look nice again. So 2-3 decades so far on my towels. was 1-2 times a week
Heh, I still have two towels from my British boarding school from 40 ,years ago. They don’t make 'em like that any more…
Swap everything on a Sunday for clean, thats towels sheets, teatowel etc. They live on a heated towel rail so dry out well between uses.
We have a few sets of nice towels, just got two more last year after a decade or so.
Animal shelters are always keen to take old towels.
Animal shelters are always keen to take old towels.
Oh that’s a good tip! I have old towels that I now use for cleaning towels, but I’ll check animal shelters near me as an alternative.
A kindred spirit, I too change all linen, towels, teatowels on a Sunday. I love the feeling of crisp linen and rough towels.
I have sets of “three” of everything. One set in use, one set in the laundry and one set in the closet. I only buy new things if visible frayed and no point trying to mend.
Once a week or two depending on how much other laundry I’ve got.
I’ll replace them when they fall apart.
I swap out my bath towel once every 3-4 days. When there’s 3 or more in the hamper, I wash them.
I’ll use these towels until they wear out.
