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.
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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).
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.
Yep, you shouldn't use fabric softener on anything you WANT to be absorbent. Towels, workout clothes, undergarments, etc.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 make fun of you a bit, but it’s sensible. Beats using the same towel too often.
Ah that's why he's small and bald: he cleans so hard he scrapes a layer of himself off every time.
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...
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.
When they start to bend and crack
Whenever I can hold them flat and horizontal without bending when grabbed by a corner.
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.
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.
I wash them after three uses and use them until they fall apart.
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 change my towel when it starts making me stink again right after a shower.
Pfft you can't trick me everyone knows towels are single use
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 also wash them weekly and I only buy new ones once they start to feel uncomfortable or get holes in them.
I change out my towels every day... they are washed weekly.
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.
I change my towels once a week. I have a special hand towel to dry my nether regions.
almost never because towels are self-cleaning
I wash them on saturdays, usually each week but sometimes every other week. The ones for showering get dried quickly after use on the upstairs handrail (bathroom is kinda small). The hand towels have a small heated holder in the bathroom, so they don’t get a chance to ripen as well. Face towels after each use.
Replacement only if they get thin or holey. And then they become cleaning rags.
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.
We wash them after using them. Replace when broken after years.
I wash them whenever I've dirtied enough for a full load, and if I don't, I'll often throw the bathroom mats in there with them. Frankly though, still nowhere near often enough. If they pass the sniff and squint tests (smell and look fine), I'm usually OK using them again. And again.
There was already a towel wash pencilled in for this week or next, oddly enough, before this question showed up, or else it might have shamed me into considering it. Other laundry is first in the queue though.
As for throwing them out? Never had need in the 20+ years I've had my own towels, and some of those were hand-me-downs.
I remember one particularly large brown bath towel starting to fall apart at my parents' house long before I moved out, and I still kind of miss it, which is kind of funny.
Now, washcloths made of towelling material - I've ruined a fair few of those with careless wringing. PSA: Don't fold them diagonally before wringing them out.
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.

