So - I was doing laundry the other day and got to wondering:
How often do you change your sheets and towels?
When I was young, my mom would change them every week on Saturdays. Of course, there were 6 of us in the house - and we each had one set of towels and maybe two sets of sheets tops - so it was just a matter of necessity.
I have some friends who use new towels every day and would never think to dry with the same set of towels twice without washing them first. I also know others who often went way too long between changings - weeks or months . . . .
Now, I’m in a position where I’m not home every night every week only maybe 3-4 out of 7 - and so my sheets and towels don’t get as much use. I feel guilty if I don’t change them at least every week - but I also feel wasteful since they are hardly getting used between washings.
What about you? I know it’s just a little thing - but I’m just curious.
I treat sheets and towels like litmus paper. When they change color, they need to be changed.
My wife feels this is wrong, and so changes linens much more regularly (every week) than I do.
I will use a towel roughly 3 times before it gets sent to the laundry bin. Sheets I change twice a month, but that’s mostly a function of me having to pay to do laundry and sleeping on a King sized bed means that the sheets take up an entire machine by themselves. We have two sets of sheets, one to sleep on and one to wash, the two week system means that we can wash the dirty set of sheets when it’s convinient rather than on a specified laundry day.
If we had our own washer and drier though I would change them once a week.
My husband told me that in college, his linens were changed when he went home for breaks. Thanksgiving, Winter Break, and Spring Break he would get clean sheets. They probably could have walked out of the dorm on their own…
We’ve done this towel thing before, actually. It’s not quite as lively as shoes on or off in the house, but rarely does someone change sides on it.
We use towels once, as even though we’ve just showered there’s still dead skin and bacteria being rubbed off into the terrycloth and with the moisture it’s absorbing that makes a perfect breeding environment. Many dermatologists advise single usage with a bleaching in between to kill the nasties that aggravate recurrent skin conditions.
Sheets are about once a week or whenever I notice they need changing.
Bed linens are more time and effort, so they only get changed once a week, but I would looove to have fresh sheets every night. It’s the little things in life, you know? If I was getting laid frequently, I’d change them more often than just once a week, but that’s sadly a moot point, thanks for asking.
I also have to pay for laundry, and while there’s a laundry room in the basement it’s generally a big production since it’s three flights of stairs, outside (so weather is an issue), plus “fighting” with the other residents for 4 washers and 4 dryers, at least one of which is broken at any given time. So, much as I’d like it, I can’t just toss a load in, run off to do an errand, and switch when I get back or anything like that, which means it’s a three hour deal (at least) regardless if I have one load or three.
All that said, since I have two hand towels and about 4? bath towels, they get changed weekly, since I can toss them in the laundry basket and still have another towel to use until such time as I have a three-hour block of time to deal with the wash. I only have one good set of sheets, though, so I do my best to get washing done every two weeks, at least, and it usually happens, but not always. Longer than two weeks, I’ll dig out the spare pillowcases, at least, but the sheets themselves were worn threadbare in some places so I don’t use them anymore.
Someday I really want a place with in-unit laundry.
Pillow cases go in whenever I’m doing laundry. Sheets? About once a month. My bed is currently surrounded on three sides by walls or bookcases, so it’s a real PITA to change the sheets. Also, I’m not getting a lot of action right now, and I don’t sleep nekkid, so I’m not um, secreting a lot onto them.
Towels? Whenever they start to smell off. I leave my towel over the radiator in my bathroom, so it dries super fast and doesn’t really become a breeding ground so much. I wash everything more often in the summer.
Sheets are once a week. I wouldn’t mind having the luxury of twice.
Towels are twice a week; I’d do 3 if I didn’t feel sort of guiltily decadent about it. A fresh towel is a great and wonderful thing. In more humid climates, every day isn’t unreasonable, since they don’t dry properly and get smelly (=bacteria/mold growth).
Sheets, about every other week. Towels, about the same, unless they start to smell funky. Being currently unemployed, I only shower every 2nd or third day. Hmmm, maybe I should be changing those sheets more often, huh?
Sheets, every week. It doesn’t kill me if I get off schedule and it ends up being two weeks, but the goal is every week.
Towels I rotate through – a clean towel is used on the hair once or twice, then gets used for the body once, then washed. For some reason, a towel that has only touched my just-washed hair seems cleaner than a towel that has touched my just-washed armpits and other personal areas. I am also fortunate that my bathroom is very well ventilated and it’s easy to hang the towels so they dry very thoroughly between uses.
They all get washed once a week on laundry day (usually Thursday). At the risk of offending the one-a-day’ers, I think using a towel only once or twice is terribly wasteful.
In college I only did my sheets when they started to smelll like peanut butter. No, I didn’t eat it in bed, I think they would just get funky after a while and the funk came out with a peanut buttery smell to it. Yeah, I know. Gross.
