Submitted 21 hours ago by thisisdee@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
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.
I am a bit perplexed no one is writing about washing in 60*C or above.
Guys, this is common knowledge, innit?
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.
Good tip. I know this and yet haven’t done that.
My dishwasher suggests replacing the rinse aid with up to 2(?)% solution citric acid.
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.
Yep, you shouldn’t use fabric softener on anything you WANT to be absorbent. Towels, workout clothes, undergarments, etc.
I change my towel when it starts making me stink again right after a shower.
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 liking 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.
Huh, I never thought about replacing them ….
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.
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!
Ah that’s why he’s small and bald: he cleans so hard he scrapes a layer of himself off every time.
I wash my towel are 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 I’m the washer it goes.
Nope. Once I dry myself off it goes in the hamper.
I change my towels once a week. I have a special hand towel to dry my nether regions.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Once a week or two depending on how much other laundry I’ve got.
I’ll replace them when they fall apart.
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
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…
When they start to bend and crack
Whenever I can hold them flat and horizontal without bending when grabbed by a corner.
You guys have more than one towel???
Gotta rotate between two in case you want to swap them and not do laundry just yet.
Im a hirsute guy, I use 2 just to dry off from my shower in the morning. Big fluffy one gets me 90% dry, then the second one gets me the rest of the way. Ive got those 2, one that lives in my work bag, and a full sized microfiber beach towel that does double duty for yoga mat during the winter.
Might try to squeegee yourself in the shower (just using your hands… not an actual squeegee), before toweling the first time.
Usually wash them about once every 3-6 months. I don’t think I’ve ever replaced a towel in my adult life, had my absorbent bath robe for 9 years so far.
I wash them after three uses and use them until they fall apart.
I loathe newly purchased towels, they always feel like they don’t dry well for a while. I typically wash/swap every 4 or so days. We also “strip” our towells with a deep clean like every couple months.
When the pile gets too large in the bathroom or on Sunday, whichever comes first.
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.
We wash them after using them. Replace when broken after years.
hardcoreufo@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Wash once a week, replace as needed which is probably 10 years or so. Then they become dog towels.