Why put a towel in the dirty clothes basket if when you get out of the shower you are clean?

Mildew forms after a while. Towels need to be washed frequently.

If I have to, I only re-use a towel once. You may be clean after a shower, but who knows what you missed.

I re-use my towel once or twice. I hang it over a heat vent so it dries quickly and no mildew forms. But after a few uses I just feel gross re-using it. I’m sure even though I’m clean, there are plenty of dead skin cells on it. Yuck.

This has been asked a few times. :)

@jmah Yeah, Fluther needs to have some function where they show you similar questions before you submit yours.

@erichw1504 That’s a good idea.

I agree!

Sorry to bring you down this road again.
:-)

The mildew smell is probably the biggest reason to launder your bathing towels because once the smell happens, you’ll never get it out, might as well throw the towel away and go buy new ones because each time they get damp or wet again, your skin will smell awful. The other reason is when you towel off after bathing, there is still residue of dead skin that rolls off mixed with soap/shampoo and whatever else. Once a week should be good for towels as long as they’re able to air dry during that time. Wadding up the towel or even folding it up while still damp invites the mildew to set in.

Well, I’ve never answered it on here before so I don’t think it’s a big deal.

I don’t. I hang it up to dry after my shower and reuse it a couple of times before before it goes in the hamper.

I use it like 3 times. Surely I missed something in the scrub down, but not that much. Three days worth of microbes is enough.

I wash it every week or so, sometimes two. People actually only use a towel once, twice or three times?

I’m with @gussnarp, I think a week is fine.

I only keep a body towel out for a couple of uses (our bathroom stays relatively dry) and a hand towel out for the day.

And I wash ‘em in hot with bleach

@SpatzieLover Good god, the ecological horror!

@gussnarp I know. I’m killing fish or something ;D

The mere fact that you have to dust your house should tip you off that direct contact with your skin is not the only source of grime.

I dry my body. Then my NO NO place and the crack of my butt .

There is no way I will dry my face or my body again after the towel has been to the land that time forgot.

@ChazMaz: maybe you shouldn’t forget such places, they must be sad :(
What I don’t get is we put our faces in other people’s ‘parts’ and then squirm to touch a towel that’s dried our own freshly bathed bits?

I’m so surprised to learn this. I really had no idea so many people were so picky about their towels. What about your soap?

@ChazMaz I sit with my towel wrapped around me…I let my naughty bits air dry before I put on powder & lotion. I never use my body towel for my hair or face. I use a micro-fiber hair towel (washed weekly) and face washcloth (tossed into wash after each use…I have TONS of white washcloths for this purpose).

@gussnarp I only use liquid soap to save my skin and my plumbing from getting clogged!

@hungryhungryhortence – I just knew that was going to come up. :-)

I guess if my towel was a good lover, I would never clean it.
Besides, I prefer to receive from others not myself. :-)

@SpatzieLover Wow. This is just fascinating.

I for one even hang my towel up in a hotel if it means they won’t wash it until I throw it on the floor.

@gussnarp I hang mine up in hotels, too. But, I ask for more at the beginning so I have one for each purpose ;) I also take off the bedspread and put it on chair…And, I make the bed look pretty when I wake up in the AM (with the germy spread left off).

I just use a towel twice. Then it’s to the laundry. I use a face towel to dry my face.

42. That’s why.

As I said, I use a towel for a week, but I’m not sure when my wife would wash them if left to her own devices. Maybe a month?

Your towel is covered with exfoliated skin cells, hair, and other debris loosened by the soap and water. then, since it is damp, and the bathroom is warm and humid, it is a perfect medium for culturing bacteria. Now aren’t you glad you wash them every time?

@gussnarp YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Interesting. A face towel.

Why not dry the face first. Avoiding the use of another towel?

@ChazMaz Are you spying on me? ;-) I DO do that in the tub while drying off. I guess I was thinking of when I wash & moistureize my face before I put my make-up on. That’s when I use the face towel.

One solution to this is the Butt/Face Towel. It will let you know what parts have touched the towel and where, so you can get more than one use out of it.

@jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities LOLLLLLL..that’s fine & dandy as long as you don’t get the two mixed up!

@jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities: I guess that’s a plus of keeping the tags on towels

Stupid has Butt/Face soap: one side is white, the other is brown.

i do! maybe i’m too lazy to do too much laundry. especially the dry your hair towel.

I don’t wash my towels very often. Partly this is because I use those huge ones that make up a wash load all by themselves, and partly it is because I don’t leave my towels in the bathroom but hang them up in my bedroom instead, where they dry out quickly. This is because if I leave them in the bathroom, my kids will use them and leave them in a damp heap on the floor.

I do wash the kids’ towels about once a week.