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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Wash once a week, replace as needed which is probably 10 years or so. Then they become dog towels.
I am a bit perplexed no one is writing about washing in 60*C or above.
Guys, this is common knowledge, innit?
Huh, I never thought about replacing them ….
- used to wash towels when they stink, and I was good about hanging them to dry so I didn’t have to wash them
- now I wash towels weekly, religiously
- beach towels never get replaced. They tend to be cheap scratchy towels anyway, rarely used and easily get lost, so keep them until I no longer have them. Actually these days they’re more likely used to dry my dogs feet
- bath towels … huh. Still on my first “real” family set and my kids are in college. They still work, but new ones are probably fluffier. The benefits of buying in bulk from Costco
Depends. I have an accuute sense of smell. Before it smells bad, it stops “smelling nice” usually a 3-4 day grace period. In that range, I wash them. It varies because in winter, the heat register dries them pretty fast, in summer, less so, but the HVAC fan constantly circulates so since they dry fast, they keep longer.
In the summer, I’ll do less than a week sometimes because I’ll shower more than once a day because sweat. They stay wet longer and get “unfresh” faster.
We do exactly the same as you, with one difference. For bath towels we have 2 sets and alternate them, so as we wash one set, we put out the others and put away the washed ones when done. Only replace if they fall apart, I don’t know how long that takes, maybe 15-20 years? So maybe yes with one set 8-10 years sounds about right?
Kitchen towels wear out faster, harder use and hot water wash with bleach. Bath towels last a long time, cold water wash then dryer.
I change my towel when it starts making me stink again right after a shower.
“too late”
Lol
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.
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. Also neutralizes any detergent that was not rinsed out.
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.
Use bath towel, then that bath towel becomes bath mat for next shower, when I have no more towels wash them while impatiently waiting to shower.
There are three of us in the house, and I wash them weekly, more or less.
As for replacing them, I don’t know what to say. We destroy towels in about ten years. My mom had towels that were 20-30 years old and as good as new.
Did your mum have more towels to rotate through, or higher gsm?
Their mom is a part-time Terry Fairy™ and she would periodically use her magic to restore full towel integrity.
I change my towels once a week. I have a special hand towel to dry my nether regions.
Most people call it a cumrag
Or a sock
Who uses a sock? Cumrag or GTFO.
So that’s where Nick learned it
Ah that’s why he’s small and bald: he cleans so hard he scrapes a layer of himself off every time.
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!
For towels that are sized for hands, I change those once every 1 - 2 months.
For towels used on the body, about 2 - 3 months.
Yikes
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.
