shudder
You’ve guessed the exact reason why I eventually caved in after six months, and bought a washer and dryer as an early Christmas present to myself. A gym membership would have been nicer, but I’m becoming horribly practical as I get older :D.
After three days, it gets the boot!
Beelzebubba, you almost killed me there from trying to not laugh out loud and make my family think I’d finally cracked for good. I couldn’t breathe. 
Um, 'bout weekly for me.
Now that we have a washer and dryer, we don’t reuse. I am far from finiky, but I break out in hives at just about anything, and right after a hot, steamy shower a used towel will give me hives.
When it meant a trip to the landrymat, I lived with the hives. Now that we have the facilities on the premises and I have shifted the laundry burden to my husband, clean towels! (also, I have a Real Job and can’t go in looking like a speckled freak).
Even with 20 years of not having a washer and dryer, (FINALLY got a pair about five years ago) and sometimes not even having a car to get to the laundry mat, I have still always laundered my towels after each use, except the towel I use to wash my hair, which next day is used for body and then tossed in the laundry.
(Slight TMI)
I guess it’s becuase there is a certain part of the female anatomy that, well, I have never been convinced is really ever clean.
I have about 30 towels. I don’t know why. It is something that just happens. I give them to the animal shelter, and new ones just appear. Be this as it may, I use a towel for about a week unless I’m sick or I’ve used it to wipe out the sink or something. I mean, Jesus, every time the cat walks on you, you get dirtier than you would re-using a towel that’s been hung up to dry. And don’t get me started on people who change their *pants.[/]
my towels go unwashed until my roomate feels like doing the laundry. I’m very lazy.
I bought my kids those microfibre towels that the Olympic swimmers use. They are soft like a chamois and absorb enormous amounts of water but roll up and fit in a little foot long tube. Originally they were for use at the pool but the kids took them on holidays and used them everywhere. The only recommended washing is with soap and water. Because they dry so quickly the kids would sometimes use it as a wash cloth in the shower, rinse and wring it and then dry themself. This was enough to keep the towel really clean.
If I was inclined to want a towel washed after every use I’d look at these things.
Generally the rule in our house is we use it twice in a row. So I usually put it in the dirty towel basket after two showers.
I used to use two every day, until I started doing my own laundry. Now my husband and I (and my son if he’s around) will use the same two towels for a couple weeks. No problem with it.
My husband and I also share bath water. We don’t get in at the same time (we don’t fit so well) but I go first and then he gets in. I won’t follow him (I bathe daily and he doesn’t). Otherwise, someone doesn’t get a hot bath. And it ain’t gonna be me.
Ok, sharing a bath is disgusting.
I use the same towel for a week or so. In fact, my kid uses it too. I guess that might not be the most sanitary thing, but we’re pretty clean.
I’m wearing a sweater from the very back of the closet that hasn’t seen the light of day in over two years, because I’ve been putting off Laundry Day for 2 weeks, and have nothing else to wear =p
Towels are especially loathesome, because they ALWAYS take longer to dry, which inevitably prolongs my stay in the Fiery Pits of Hell, otherwise known as the Laundromat.
/slight rant
Why is it every time I go to the laundry there has to be someone there with at LEAST one little half-feral hellion? Oh, the times I’ve fantasized about stuffing the sticky little cretins in the dryer after the little bastards have run into my ankle a FIFTH time in a row.
Sadly, I just end up glaring ineffectually and sighing exasperatedly at the mother, who could apparently care less since she hasn’t done a single thing to control them since they walked in.
]
/slight rant off
All I want for Xmas is my tubes tied and a washer/dryer set. Put me in the “wash em once a week unless I had to clean something up with it” pile.
The rest of that sentence should read “with the wheelie cart as they play Demolition Derby all around me.”
Yeah, that sounds about right for me too. It sounds awfully anal retentive, not to mention wasteful, to use a towel only once. I even get frustrated at hotel staff that replace my towels every day over a multi-day stay.
As an aside, I’m surprised I haven’t seen mention of the theory that Wally from Dilbert has about towels (someone else may have mentioned it, but I haven’t seen it): “The way I see it, I’m the cleanest thing in my house when I get out of the shower. So the towel I use to dry myself gets cleaner with each use.” Something like that anyway. Although there is an implication in the last frame of the strip that Wally’s towel has gained a permanent fold to it from being draped over the towel bar.
I have a heated towel rack. After drying me, the towel goes back on the nice warm towel bar. I use it for about a week, or until the next time I’m doing a light load. It never gets stiff or (eewww) crusty. I like big towels that can almost go around me twice and covers me from armpits to mid-calf.
StG
We use our towels about 2-3 days but there is something about a newly cleaned towel. It absorbs more moisture the first around and I have always wondered about why that is. Anyone have thoughts on that?
I now use a fresh towel a day. But I have little laundry to do, so it’s not a big deal.
I have a fresh towel every Saturday.
A few germs aren’t going to hurt me! Plus there’s no point in wasting water by doing laundry everyday… that or I’m just a lazy bum 