How often do you wash your towels? And how often do you completely change them with brand new towels?

I wash them weekly and was just wondering recently if I should be buying new towels to replace my 8+ year old towels.

Edit to add: I wash towels by themselves so it's a separate load to my regular laundry. I don't know why but the different materials seem to clean better separately. But I also have a separate towels load for dirty/oily towels (kitchen towels, cleaning rags)

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[–] 53 points 10 months ago

I wash mine about the same, but I only buy new if they start to fall apart or no longer dry properly. Even then, they go into the scrap towel drawer and are used for dirty jobs. Eventually they'll get too dirty and I'll get rid of them.

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  • [–] 36 points 10 months ago (9 children)

    I wash weekly. My bathroom has a tendency towards dampness.

    They stay around until they start fraying and then they go in the retired towels pile, for pets and spills and such, and once they are embarrassing to hang on my outside line i throw them out.

    I’ll soak in vinegar water every so often to reduce the limescale that builds over time and that helps keep them fresher looking, but mostly that is a losing battle.

    Pro tip: don’t use scent beads or softener products. They reduce absorbency (and they’re nasty chemicals that smell terrible but apparently I’m the only person who thinks that).

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  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

    Citric acid as a softener works great. Also removes scents and does a much better job than vinegar. Also neutralizes any detergent that was not rinsed out.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago* (4 children)

    Good tip. I know this as a fact but haven’t connected it.

    My dishwasher suggests replacing the rinse aid with up to 2(?)% solution citric acid, which I haven’t tried but I’m going to give it a shot when I run low.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Yup. I also use citric acid for dishwasher rinse aid. 2 tablespoons of citric acid powder to 100 ml of warm water. Let mixture cool and pour into dispenser.

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  • [–] 18 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I change my towel when it starts making me stink again right after a shower.

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  • [–] 17 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    There are three of us in the house, and I wash them weekly, more or less.

    As for replacing them, I don't know what to say. We destroy towels in about ten years. My mom had towels that were 20-30 years old and as good as new.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Did your mum have more towels to rotate through, or higher gsm?

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  • [–] 16 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I replace them as soon as they don't feel "rough" anymore. I hate soft towels. That ends up being probably once a week. Never bought new ones.

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  • [–] 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago*

    idk, after 4 or so uses. I have super dry skin so my towels never get stinky. I'm washing them long before I notice anything. Humidity being very low where I live also plays a part I"m sure.

    Some of my towels may be older than me. I got a pile of hand-me-downs from my mother when I moved out and uh....I still use a few of them until they are dilapidated enough to become garage oil rags and then I buy a replacement. Nothing in my bathrooms matches!

    Face towels are a different story. I replace them after a single real usage. Probably just as old though.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago

    Once a week or two depending on how much other laundry I've got.

    I'll replace them when they fall apart.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Swap everything on a Sunday for clean, thats towels sheets, teatowel etc. They live on a heated towel rail so dry out well between uses.

    We have a few sets of nice towels, just got two more last year after a decade or so.

    Animal shelters are always keen to take old towels.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 10 months ago

    Animal shelters are always keen to take old towels.

    Oh that's a good tip! I have old towels that I now use for cleaning towels, but I'll check animal shelters near me as an alternative.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    A kindred spirit, I too change all linen, towels, teatowels on a Sunday. I love the feeling of crisp linen and rough towels.

    I have sets of "three" of everything. One set in use, one set in the laundry and one set in the closet. I only buy new things if visible frayed and no point trying to mend.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago

    Heck man, I use RIT dye on older towels so they look nice again. So 2-3 decades so far on my towels. was 1-2 times a week

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago

    When they start to bend and crack

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    I change my towels once a week. I have a special hand towel to dry my nether regions.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    You guys have more than one towel???

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    Im a hirsute guy, I use 2 just to dry off from my shower in the morning. Big fluffy one gets me 90% dry, then the second one gets me the rest of the way. Ive got those 2, one that lives in my work bag, and a full sized microfiber beach towel that does double duty for yoga mat during the winter.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago

    Wash once a week, replace as needed which is probably 10 years or so. Then they become dog towels.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    Whenever I can hold them flat and horizontal without bending when grabbed by a corner.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    Use bath towel, then that bath towel becomes bath mat for next shower, when I have no more towels wash them while impatiently waiting to shower.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    I wash them after three uses and use them until they fall apart.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    I am a bit perplexed no one is writing about washing in 60*C or above.

    Guys, this is common knowledge, innit?

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  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago* (6 children)

    I wash my towel after ever use.

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  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    Like, you whip it off your shoulders and lash it out at a monster, and just like that, the towel is dirty‽

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Nope. Once I dry myself off it goes in the hamper.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    My bathroom faces a very sunny window so heats up every day... I wash myself dry my clean self with the towel, then it dries with the sun.

    The result is it doesn't get particularly dirty or left wet for particularly long.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    I wash my body towels (for stepping out of the shower) weekly. I wash hand towels, for drying hands after washing hands, whenever I feel like it, quite infrequently but they get washed.

    I'd only replace a towel if it fell apart or something like that. If it's unusable.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    When the pile gets too large in the bathroom or on Sunday, whichever comes first.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    Depends. I have an accuute sense of smell. Before it smells bad, it stops "smelling nice" usually a 3-4 day grace period. In that range, I wash them. It varies because in winter, the heat register dries them pretty fast, in summer, less so, but the HVAC fan constantly circulates so since they dry fast, they keep longer.

    In the summer, I'll do less than a week sometimes because I'll shower more than once a day because sweat. They stay wet longer and get "unfresh" faster.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    Usually wash them about once every 3-6 months. I don’t think I’ve ever replaced a towel in my adult life, had my absorbent bath robe for 9 years so far.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    I loathe newly purchased towels, they always feel like they don't dry well for a while. I typically wash/swap every 4 or so days. We also "strip" our towells with a deep clean like every couple months.

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  • [+] 5 points 10 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    almost never because towels are self-cleaning

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    I wash them on saturdays, usually each week but sometimes every other week. The ones for showering get dried quickly after use on the upstairs handrail (bathroom is kinda small). The hand towels have a small heated holder in the bathroom, so they don’t get a chance to ripen as well. Face towels after each use.

    Replacement only if they get thin or holey. And then they become cleaning rags.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    We wash them after using them. Replace when broken after years.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    I don’t have a satisfying answer to you. I think once a week wash is perfectly fine and it is roughly what I do.

    It depends on how much you’re using them.

    If you shower once a day 6 days a week (just as an example), a wash once a week is good. If you’re showering and using the towel multiple times a day it’s getting a lot more use and likely never totally drying out between washes. I’d recommend a second towel and/or more frequent washes of the towels.

    If you use the towel for showering at home only 3 times a week (for example you shower at the gym and they provide towels there) then you could radially go multiple weeks without washing your towels just because they aren’t being used.

    Finally replacing. I also don’t have a strong answer for that but I replace them when I notice they either stop absorbing water as well or when the threads are getting much thinner. Current set of towels is 3 years old and replaced a set of towels that were 8 years old. Also if the towels get significantly dirty or stained (blood usually in my case) I’ll replace them.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    I also wash them weekly and I only buy new ones once they start to feel uncomfortable or get holes in them.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    I change out my towels every day... they are washed weekly.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 child)

    We do exactly the same as you, with one difference. For bath towels we have 2 sets and alternate them, so as we wash one set, we put out the others and put away the washed ones when done. Only replace if they fall apart, I don't know how long that takes, maybe 15-20 years? So maybe yes with one set 8-10 years sounds about right?

    Kitchen towels wear out faster, harder use and hot water wash with bleach. Bath towels last a long time, cold water wash then dryer.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    Wash each use, I know it's wasteful, but I just can't stand the idea of using a 'dirty' towel

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    I wash them whenever I've dirtied enough for a full load, and if I don't, I'll often throw the bathroom mats in there with them. Frankly though, still nowhere near often enough. If they pass the sniff and squint tests (smell and look fine), I'm usually OK using them again. And again.

    There was already a towel wash pencilled in for this week or next, oddly enough, before this question showed up, or else it might have shamed me into considering it. Other laundry is first in the queue though.

    As for throwing them out? Never had need in the 20+ years I've had my own towels, and some of those were hand-me-downs.

    I remember one particularly large brown bath towel starting to fall apart at my parents' house long before I moved out, and I still kind of miss it, which is kind of funny.

    Now, washcloths made of towelling material - I've ruined a fair few of those with careless wringing. PSA: Don't fold them diagonally before wringing them out.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago*

    Huh, I never thought about replacing them ….

    • used to wash towels when they stink, and I was good about hanging them to dry so I didn’t have to wash them
    • now I wash towels weekly, religiously
    • beach towels never get replaced. They tend to be cheap scratchy towels anyway, rarely used and easily get lost, so keep them until I no longer have them. Actually these days they’re more likely used to dry my dogs feet
    • bath towels … huh. Still on my first “real” family set and my kids are in college. They still work, but new ones are probably fluffier. The benefits of buying in bulk from Costco
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