# Do you use bath towels more than once before washing?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 3, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663 "2012-03-03T19:28:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/1 "2012-03-03T19:28:16Z")
We don’t have many bath towels because they’re overpriced unless you get the thin ones. We have about 5 per bathroom, (2).
I barely get one damp, patting myself dry after a bath/shower. My husband’s towel gets damp, and he’ll use it a couple of times before tossing into the hamper.
My 6’4" son can’t dry himself without soaking the towel. I sometimes have to let it dry outside, ( I can’t stand damp towels in the hamper,) so he uses them once.
The only towels I use once are the thin ones, I wrap my hair in and washcloths.
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### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/2 "2012-03-03T19:31:46Z")
I could easilt go two weeks with one towel. My wife, however, swoops them up and washes them much more often.
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### Author:  [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/3 "2012-03-03T19:52:43Z")
I wash ours once a week. My husband and I have enough to have a dedicated towel each plus one for my hair and one as a bathmat. (So, four. Seems anticlimactic.) I have a ton of washcloths, though, and use a fresh one each time.
Edit: It was the same when we had kids at home. Everybody gets a towel, and if they want it washed they turn it in on washday.
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### Author:  [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/4 "2012-03-03T19:54:11Z")
about 1 per week.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/5 "2012-03-03T19:54:21Z")
You need something between “a few times” and “funky.” I wash mine every two weeks, which is a whole bunch of showers, but they’re far from funky at the end of that two weeks, since I used them on a clean body/hair and they are then hung up to dry.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/6 "2012-03-03T19:55:24Z")
[Are towels supposed to bend?](http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1995-11-24/)
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### Author:  [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/7 "2012-03-03T20:02:00Z")
We use ours for about a week, unless there’s some cleaning “crisis.” (Grabbed to clean a spill, that sort of thing.) Towels are hung to dry between showers, so they generally aren’t funky even after a week, but I wash them anyway. The big kids do their own laundry, so I sometimes have to remind them to wash their sheets and towels along with their clothes, but that’s expected at their ages.
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### Author:  [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/8 "2012-03-03T20:05:26Z")
I use three towels to dry off, for a total of three weeks each. A clean towel is used for a week for upper body, and then another week for lower body, then another week just for feet. IMO if you do a good job showering, there should be very little dirt or oil on a towel. Skin flakes, maybe, but you can just flip the towel to get rid of those.
Also, I hang my towels over two bars (each), so there is plenty of air circulating around them, and they are dry in an hour.
And I frankly don’t understand how anyone can take a shower without a hand-held showerhead, or one that lasts less than twenty minutes. Mine are typically half an hour.
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### Author:  [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/9 "2012-03-03T20:09:58Z")
I change towels twice a week.
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### Author:  [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/10 "2012-03-03T21:35:45Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#):
>
> And I frankly don’t understand how anyone can take a shower without a hand-held showerhead, or one that lasts less than twenty minutes. Mine are typically half an hour.
Half an hour?
* * *
HALF AN HOUR IN THE SHOWER??\*\*\* :eek:
I can shower, wash my hair AND do a perfunctory shave of my legs in just on five minutes. After that time, I’m not going to get any cleaner. It’s just water running down the drain.
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### Author:  [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/11 "2012-03-03T21:52:09Z")
Towels generally work on the same schedule as bed linens - they’re good for about a week between washing. It may be purely psychological but my brain tells me they need washing at that point.
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### Author:  [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/12 "2012-03-03T21:54:25Z")
> [@Batsinma\_Belfry](#):
>
> We don’t have many bath towels because they’re overpriced unless you get the thin ones. We have about 5 per bathroom, (2).
> I barely get one damp, patting myself dry after a bath/shower. My husband’s towel gets damp, and he’ll use it a couple of times before tossing into the hamper.
> My 6’4" son can’t dry himself without soaking the towel. I sometimes have to let it dry outside, ( I can’t stand damp towels in the hamper,) so he uses them once.
>
> The only towels I use once are the thin ones, I wrap my hair in and washcloths.
Yeah, mine generally get used for a week, sometimes a bit less, sometimes a bit more.
I too don’t get my towels as damp as most people. When I’m done showering, I sort of kick my legs and swing my arms to fling off the water, then use my hands to sort of squeegee a lot of the water off my body and hair, THEN I use the towel to dry off completely. That way, towels tend to stay perfectly fresh for around a week.
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### Author:  [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/13 "2012-03-03T22:23:14Z")
We wash our bath linens once a week, usually along with about a week’s worth of clothes during a laundry frenzy on the weekend.
I can tell they’re not freshly washed after a week of use, but they’re hardly “funky” or in any way unusable. If things get particularly hectic and they get skipped for some reason (meaning they’re used for two weeks), I don’t fret.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/14 "2012-03-03T22:24:11Z")
We did this thread about 2-3 months ago. You should get a bunch of data from that one to add to this. As I said in that thread, usually 1-2 weeks between washes.
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### Author:  [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/15 "2012-03-03T22:28:41Z")
Towels, clothes, and sheets all get washed once a week. I use the same towel all week; my husband is a dirty boy and sometimes uses two, especially in summer when he’s doing a lot of yard work.
I try to replace the kitchen towels every day, though.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/16 "2012-03-03T22:51:00Z")
Towels?
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### Author:  [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/17 "2012-03-03T23:03:56Z")
One of my non-frugal indulgences is using a clean towel every time I shower. I just prefer a perfectly clean, nice-smelling towel. Everyone else in this house tends to go multiple uses with their towel, but that’s their business.
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### Author:  [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/18 "2012-03-03T23:31:02Z")
I don’t see why some people would use a towel only once; consider how much more laundry you would have to do. That said, I wash them every couple weeks and while they don’t smell fresh after a few days they don’t stink (hung up to dry, plus there is a HVAC vent right under them so there is good air flow most of the year). Also, before I get out of the shower I use a wrung-out washcloth to partially dry myself off before finishing with the towel, so it doesn’t get that wet.
About five minute showers, I take about twice as long but then I actually spend time cleaning myself (as for water wastage, I run the water for a short time to wet myself then turn it off, then on again to rinse; hard to use soap if it is just washed off).
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/19 "2012-03-03T23:35:21Z")
1. Wash self.
2. Dry self with towel.
3. Hang up towel.
4. Next day, towel is dry. Go to #1.
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### Author:  [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2012, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-bath-towels-more-than-once-before-washing/614663/20 "2012-03-03T23:39:27Z")
> [@Musicat](#):
>
> 1. Wash self.
>
> 2. Dry self with towel.
>
> 3. Hang up towel.
>
> 4. Next day, towel is dry. Go to #1.
So your answer is never?
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