There was this guy I used to work with who lived with his mom and he said she changed the towels and washclothes everytime they were used. This seemed excessive to me. She must really love to do laundry.
Whenever stay over a particular friends house, she would hand me a towel but not a washcloth. You are expected to use one of the many washclothes or puffies or sponges already in the bathroom. This is the exact opposite than the way I do it. We have our own personal washclothes (me and my daughter actually use two-- an extra one is used for the nether regions) while there are usually 5 or so towels hanging around in the bathroom. You use the driest one.
Still we wash about 10 to 15 towels and washclothes a week.
How does it go in your house? How much of your laundry consists of towels and washclothes? The nosy really wanna know.
I definitely get multiple uses out of a towel. I use one until it develops any kind of an odor, or until I happen to wrap it around my hair and walk out of the bathroom with it and discard it somewhere else in the house. Most days, though, I shower at the gym, which has a towel service, so I don’t go through towels at home very fast.
I trim my husband’s hair every couple of weeks, and he wraps his dirty towel around his shoulders for this operation, and then it goes into the hamper, so his get rotated on a regular basis.
We each have a personal poofie in the shower, and don’t often use washrags.
Guests in our home are directed to help themselves from the clean towels and washrags found on the shelf in the bathroom. I think it’s totally gross to expect a guest to use a poofie or a sponge that has been used to scrub somebody else’s heaven-knows-what. I’m even a little grossed out by the thought of using my husband’s poofie!
I definitely prefer a clean towel each time. Even after a single use, towels become breeding grounds for bacteria. All that moisture and dead skin cells, you know. It’s an especially fertile field for all those E. Coli species which reside in the general area of the groinal region. Rubbing that mix on my face and hair is sub-optimal, frankly.
Do I use a new towel each time? No. But I prefer to.
Question, Q. In the matter of personal bodily bacteria, is ignorance bliss? It’s your bacteria, or your loved one’s, right? It’s not going to make you sick, right? Your system must be pretty used to it by now, right? So, the sub-optimalness of it all is strictly in your mind, right?
It’s unlikely to make one sick, but the idea of rubbing my face in a medium rich in coliform bacteria is not one I embrace. Even if it’s my own coliform bacteria.
Besides, those towels begin to smell nasty at a variable rate. Mostly after 2 or 3 uses, but sometimes sooner.
Oh, and there are cases of causing a nasty E. Coli conjunctivitis (eye infection) by transferring E. Coli from the groin to the face via inadequate hand-washing. Gene studies showed the E. Coli in the individual’s eye to be the exact same variety as in the rectum.
Qadgop, may I be the first to say “thanks for sharing that information?”
I change my towel about twice a week. Washcloths are used once, then into the laundry they go. Poofies go into the laundry at least once a week. However it may be material to know that no one shares my bathroom with me so there is no unauthorized towel usage. When there were kids at home, I just gathered towels daily from all over the house and did at least three loads of towels a week. I always use bleach for the E. coli nasties and their friends.
I never reuse towels. The fact that it was on my butt and is now on my face grosses me out. We have like 40 towels, so running out of them is never an issue for my family. I don’t use a washcloth a lot, i feel it is usless. Now that I have read these posts, im put off reusing towels and touching my eye area forever.
I call it a scrubbie but I love 'em! Haven’t used a washcloth in the shower in years. They feel better to use, dry much faster and the bacteria nasties have a harder time growing on the plastic. They’re the best thing since sliced bread…though I don’t recommend bathing with bread anyway.
My thinner towels only last a week to a week and a half before that smell sets in, ugh! But my thicker towels can last a month before getting tossed into the hamper. Logic would suggest that the thinner ones, since they dry quicker, would last longer but I guess mildew has its own ideas.
Oh, and I don’t use my towel “down there.” That’s just one more thing you can use a paper towel for. Again, I would stear clear of the bread for that purpose.
Naw. It goes shampoo hair, wash face, wash pits, wash rest of body, then nether regions. Rinse off the soap to make sure no pubies are stuck, then back on the shower shelf.
We each have personal towels, which always go on the same space on the drying rack. I change the grownup towels on Mondays and Thursdays, and the kid towels after two uses. Kid washcloths get one bathtub use, a couple more for face-washing. Grownups don’t use washcloths, and I’m the only one with a poofie.
Guests get clean towels set out for them.
I would feel awfully luxurious, not to mention decadent and wasteful, if I changed towels 3x per week, but after QtM’s posts, maybe I’ll start. :eek: I love a clean new towel, but doing it every day just feels selfish. Yes, I’m a little weird.
I wash my bath towel about once a week. I don’t use a wash cloth, I just soap up my hands. But I use a BufPuf on my face.
As for nether region washing, I have a hand held shower thing. Gets you amazingly clean. Just soap up the area in question really well and you can rinse completely. I never feel as clean when I travel and have to use a fixed shower head…
I am a bit beffuddled over this one…cuz when I am drying myself off with a towell it is immediately after stepping out of a shower in which i have hopefully done a very thorough job of washing said bacteria off. (and for that I use a “poofie” too, nice term )
Seems to me the highly chlorinated city water clinging to my body is enough to have squelched the worrisome bacteria for the short time it might take to wipe the wetness off my skin. But hey, there really is no reality in perfect cleanliness…and touches of OCD come to mind with the use of a clean towel each and everytime. Seems to me the odor on the towel not washed comes more from mildew than bodily bacteria.
Sorry, no. It takes generally 5 to 10 minutes of concentrated scrubbing with truly bacteriocidal soaps to get anywhere near sterile. Even then, many bacteria remain. Many excellent studies on pre-op surgical scrubbing have demonstrated this.
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Lotsa things contribute. The mildew is usually from the skin surface, too. Fungi love skin. Most of the time they don’t cause clinical skin infections, but still enjoy life on the body’s surface.
Thanks for the info QtM My question remains then, how much do we really need to be concerning ourselves over the amount of bacteria we transfer to a towel used after showering if that stuff is on us all the time anyhow?
I do shower for at least 10 minutes, but I am sure that I dont concentrate on any particular area for that amount of time
FWIW I change the towels once a week and we each have our own.
We each have our own towel and poofie. Towels are washed once a week and poofies replaced every month or so.
I would feel very very uncomfortable if I weren’t provided my own towel/washcloth/poofie at a host’s house. The idea of using someone else’s towel is really really gross. I wouldn’t even use my boyfriend’s towel.
My question remains then, how much do we really need to be concerning ourselves over the amount of bacteria we transfer to a towel used after showering if that stuff is on us all the time anyhow?