I’m in the middle of a move, and I think we have far too many towels. Specifically bath towels, but we probably have too many hand towels, kitchen towels and washcloths as well.
So, out of sheer curiosity, how many bath towels do you all think is reasonable per person?
I’ll try to make this into a poll, for ease of answering, but it’s my first poll, so let’s see how well that works. Also, I’d love to hear logic behind the numbers I get. Or “unofficial” votes on hand towels, washcloths and kitchen towels.
For the record, I voted for three, because it doesn’t seem like you need a lot per person, but you need enough for guests and for the times when laundry just gets away from you.
I found some chenille towels at J.C. Penney. They don’t feel stiff and scratchy after being used, so I don’t need a fresh towel for every shower. Four is enough for the two of us.
Two per person should be sufficient. That way one can get washed while the other is in use. Or if something happens to one, you’ve got a spare. I’d probably add one or two additional bath towels for guests, but any more than that is just excessive.
I voted for 4, because I need two on the bathroom rack (one for hair, one for body), one in my gym bag, and one spare.
I agree with **BlueKangaroo **that whatever number you come up with per person, you’ll need to multiply by the largest number of guests you can have at one time.
I live alone and I have about five. I don’t really need them all at one time but I guess it’s good to have them all in case of a guest. In the space of a week or a little more, I use about two to three.
I *totally *misunderstood the OP. I thought it was asking about per-post-shower use. I couldn’t fathom why anyone would need more than two towels (one for body, and maybe another for hair) to dry off.
So, my vote should actually be 4. That accounts for guests and laundry, plus everything else we use our bath towels for. After all, a towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.
I dunno that you can really have too many towels, unless storage space is a real problem. Beach towels can double as a light blanket for tv watching or reading. Guests will use towels…some in truly amazing numbers.
Our household of 2 adults and 1 tween, has about 8, plus several beach towels, plus I have two super absorbant hair towels. It would be enough if we did laundry regularly.
I voted for 8, because I don’t like doing laundry very often, and because I think I have about 8. I live alone, and I never have guests. Each towel gets about a week’s use.
I say 4 bath towels per person, but then I also need my hair towels, which are just different bath towels. So in reality, if you do the math in our home, we have 6 big towels per person. Not sure how many hand towels but since we just moved to a place with more bathrooms I think we’ll need more of those anyway.
A towel gets a few days use before getting tossed in the laundry, so I usually only have to do a load of towels every couple of weeks. There’s no rationale behind how many towels we have, by the way. My husband had a set of 4 big fluffy towels, and I also had a set of 4, plus a few big towels I used for my hair (they’re thinner towels, so I can wrap them into a decent “turban” that won’t fall apart - the fluffy ones suck for that). When we moved in together, the towels became a colorful fluffy stepfamily in the linen closet.
You can never have too many kitchen towels. Unless they’re the decorative crappy ones that don’t absorb a single drop of water, in which case one is too many and you should go shopping for good ones.
Maybe sex is a factor? I’m a guy so I hang the same towel after using it, then use it again later. After a week, that towel goes into the wash, and my 2nd towel goes up on the rack. Rotating them like this makes them last longer and I save about $3-5 a week on laundry cost (vs using a new towel daily.) My wife, on the other hand, needs like 5 towels every day. She has one for wiping her hands at the sink, one for her face, one for showers, one to stand on in front of the sink, etc.
Gender might be a factor, Superhal, but I don’t know. I only know the gender of one or two of the other posters!
Oakminster, there’s certainly a lack of storage, but it’s just a feeling of having too many towels (least for me). That said, I’m not ditching any of the beach towels! (I think we only have three.)
I voted more than 10, but not because I hate doing laundry – towels are the easiest thing in the world to wash. No ironing, nothing but folding. I just like having one available if I haven’t gotten around to laundry, and we have two bathrooms so I don’t want to have to mess around with making sure both are fully stocked. And when we bathe the dogs we use the older towels, which eventually become rags.
I give all my extra/ old towels to my son for his place. I am a one towel/ washcloth person and I use one towel for two or three days because I hang it up to air dry. My Mom taught me this trick. It saves on laundry and the life of a washer.
I came from a big family with four kids and each of us had one large towel for one week. We had a hanger in our room for our towel and we each had a different color towel. If we threw it on the floor and didn’t hang it up it was our problem. I did the same thing with my kids and taught them to towel off in the tub and hang up the towel to dry. I have about ten bath towels and never use them all. I rotate them so they wear evenly and for guests.
I have three soft pretty kitchen towels I rotate and wash as needed. It cuts back on paper towels.
Hope this is what you wanted to know. If you have too many towels the animal shelters always need them and would take them.