OT - Do you recycle your towels?

[labdogs42]

The only thing that we will re-wear around here are jackets. Even those I don't like the kids to wear more than a few days without washing. It seems like once they wear a jacket to school, they come home smelling like someone else's kid! My son sat next to a little girl whose family smoked and every day, he smelled like smoke too. (He was in Kindergarten so I am pretty sure it wasn't my 5 year old sneaking ciggies!)

Yikes. You wash jackets every few days??? I tend to wash them by season!

 

[carj]

Yikes. You wash jackets every few days??? I tend to wash them by season!

Yes, at least once a week, more often if it is cold all week. Maybe my kids are just messy!

We are in Texas, so we only really wear a jacket for 4-5 months of the year. A lot of times at school, the kids wear their jackets on the playground once it gets cooler. After about 30 seconds, they take them off and they end up hung up on the fence. Another 30 seconds later, the jackets blow down off the fence where they land on the ground. The jackets are definitely pretty grubby after a day or two.

My jacket only gets washed once or twice during the winter.

I am totally NOT a neat freak, I promise!

 

[matthew&haleysmom]

No way do we reuse towels. I am with the OP that I do not want something that touched certain (albeit clean) areas then touching my face. It takes about 10 minutes total to wash, dry, and fold a load of towels. No need to be stingy on towels except for the environmental factor..for that I do feel bad, but not bad enough to start reusing towels!

BTW, there are 5 of us, 3 girls, 2 boys. All the girls have long hair (mid back!) I would get annoyed by some of the stories where girls use two towels, one for body, one for hair. That isn't necessary for us..our towels are plusher so they can absorb that water no problem!

I take it so far I don't even reuse washcloths. I make up for it by not buying paper towels, but I use kitchen rags like paper towels- use it for a few minutes and then toss it in the laundry so mildew/mold/bacteria can't grow. I go through probably 15 washcloths a day. I figure for as much as I am cleaning, doing an extra load of laundry/towels a day is still better than going through a roll of paper towels a day and helping to kill a tree. I do FULL loads of laundry, not half loads like some people- <cough> MIL- so I think that helps.

This is just what I thought when reading this! There are 4 of us. None of us even think about reusing towels or wash clothes. We do end up doing a lot of laundry!

 

[NotUrsula]

It does wierd me out when I'm at someone's house and they don't have a hand towel...I thought everyone used hand towels for after washing hands, but I guess not. I'm not nuts about using somebody's body towel to dry my hands... Now hand towels I'll change mid-week, so two per week on those but one per week on the body towels, which get hung on the towel bars in our designated spots (which come to think of it, always coincide with our sides of the bed for DH and me!)

I don't own any hand towels, they're pretty useless IMO and I don't have the linen closet space for them.

However, I put out fresh bath towels on the rods any time we have visitors over, so you're using a clean one to wash your hands at my house.

As to towel recycling, we recycle for about a week, and we use them communally. Wash cloths, too (unless they get really grubby for some reason) though we normally change those every two days.

 

[dismom2]

My DH and I reuse, but I only reuse my own. If someone else uses mine, I throw it in the hamper and get a new one. My DH will use any towel he see's if he has not remembered to get a new one before he gets in the shower. The kids throw theirs all over the place, so they go straight into the hamper. I usually hang mine on my shower rod to dry, then use it again. I usually only use it twice. I use a seperate bathroom than everyone else, so I can be pretty sure that only I am using my things. I do not use a different towel to wrap or dry my hair. I just towel dry it and start letting it air dry while I apply my make-up, then it is party dry when I go to blow dry it.

 

[Crystal824]

I'm the opposite, my family always used a fresh towel, and when I got to college, I didn't see a need for it. During college and now (I live alone), I use the same towel for about 5 days on average.

This is me too. My family always used a fresh towel. I did too until I got to college and had to pay to wash my clothes. I never could go more than 2 showers per towel. I really don't like doing that but....it does save money and time.

My DH's family reuses towels for a week. We have had this discussion multiple times as DH thinks we should reuse towels for a week. So, I currently reuse my towel once, and DH will reuse his until I throw it in the hamper, which is usually every other day unless I fall behind.

 

[1rockinmamato2]

I'm slowly getting through the replies, but I just wanted to add that me and the children do not reuse towels. DH does.

I cannot bear to think that I wiped my privates with my towel and then for a week afterwards, I'm going to be rubbing my face with it. Uhhhnothankyou!!!

 

[Nie0214]

A lot of people seem to think reusing a body towel is the same towel you use on your face, uh no, at least not for me. Hehe.

You can't reuse the towels at Disney, they are so thin they don't even dry you when they are fresh.

 

[sha_lyn]

A lot of people seem to think reusing a body towel is the same towel you use on your face, uh no, at least not for me. Hehe.
You can't reuse the towels at Disney, they are so thin they don't even dry you when they are fresh.

Not for me either. I dry my face and ears with my hair towel.
The last couple of times I've showered I've tried ot pay attention to what parts of the towel I use where LOL. Of course trying to think about it might have affected it, but I dry my body with the middle of the towel and my privates and feet with the ends. The end with the tag I dry my feet with.

 

[Nie0214]

We could all just air dry to save the environment even more.

 

[crisi]

I reuse body towels (but I really prefer to air dry since it's better for your skin, so I only use the towel for wrapping around me). I only use washcloths once. We have hand towels that stay up for a few days at a time before they get washed.

That may be a big difference. My bath towel doesn't get wiped across my privates or across my face. I wrap it around my body, then start working on blowdrying my hair, by the time that's done, I'm ready to get dressed - all dry.

And I never use a washcloth - I soap my hands for both my face and in the shower.

 

[tzolkin]

That may be a big difference. My bath towel doesn't get wiped across my privates or across my face. I wrap it around my body, then start working on blowdrying my hair, by the time that's done, I'm ready to get dressed - all dry.

That's what I was going to say. It seems most of the people that don't reuse think it's nasty to dry your face with a towel that's dried "other areas". I was honestly wondering how much drying and rubbing everyone else is doing. Maybe I'm just weird, but I just sort of pat the towel over my legs, arms, and body and then wrap my hair up in it. I don't dry my feet-- I just step out onto a bath rug for that and I dry my face with my hand towel after I wash it in the sink.

 

[Nie0214]

That may be a big difference. My bath towel doesn't get wiped across my privates or across my face. I wrap it around my body, then start working on blowdrying my hair, by the time that's done, I'm ready to get dressed - all dry.

^^

I spend more time wrapped in the towel than I do in the shower. I guess some people just rub dry and go!

 

[bookgirl]

That may be a big difference. My bath towel doesn't get wiped across my privates or across my face. I wrap it around my body, then start working on blowdrying my hair, by the time that's done, I'm ready to get dressed - all dry.

And I never use a washcloth - I soap my hands for both my face and in the shower.

Yep big difference, I don't use my body towel on my face and I don't dry any place private...if I do for some reason (like I'm in a hurry and don't have time to air dry) then I don't reuse the towel. But with winter coming on I hate dry skin and I get little patches from the dry air so I do not rub dry, in fact I try to moisturize while I'm still wet then put on my robe and go fix my lunch and spritz my hair and brush it out and putz around till I dry on my own.

I also throw all this out the window on vacation,,,,the best part of hotels is I don't have to make my bed and someone else picks up my towels....

 

[Mommy2cody]

Growing up we used a fresh towel everyday. My mom would get mad at me though because I HAD to use two towels, one for my body and one for my hair. (My mom has short hair and never wrapped her hair) So I started using my body towel from the day before as my hair towel the next day, so I was only using one fresh towel a day. I still do this. My husbands family always use the same towel for about a week. It grosses me out but that is what he does. My son gets a new towel everyday!!

 

[mjkacmom]

Family of 7 here, and we reuse towels a couple of times. We have our names stitched on them, and about 4 spare towels. Our house is almost 100 years old, small closets, not a single linen closet, small bathrooms. I do so much laundry everyday as it is!

 

[Nettaboo]

We reuse towels but not wash clothes..I can't bear to think about the last place and washed touching the first thing I wash!!!LOL

 

[PatsMom]

We re-use towels for about a week. There are three of us and we each have our own. I have a bath towel, a hand towel and a face cloth, DH has just a bath towel, DD has three bath towels, a hand towel and a facecloth (sometimes two facecloths). I grew up in a household where you got one towel a week so it is what I am used to. Even if my mother had the time or money to do enough laundry to give all four of us kids new towels every day, she wouldn't have. She was an environmentalist long before it was popular. I just cannot imagine the waste of water involved in fresh towels every day. Not to mention the electricity to wash and dry them.

 

[sha_lyn]

We have 2 hands towels in each bathroom. Also DD and I each have a separate face scrubby. As for washcloths. I just wash them out well with soap and water after using.

 

[cheerforchelsea]

We only use towels once. I like a nice, soft, fluffy clean towel every time!!! I don't ask for much...not into designer clothing, or brand name grocery products....but I want a nice, soft, fluffy clean towel every time!!!