Doing Less Laundry

By Laura (Guest Post)

One bath towel per person per week.
Fresh washcloth (1 in morning/1 at night)
Small towel for hair & face.

Works great here for each of us. We go through a lot of washcloths and handtowels are changed at least daily.

By Sarah Burns (Guest Post)

Reusing a towel just once can reduce your laundry by at least one load a week. To save time, money and energy - you could use Tag a Towels - this way everyone knows which towel is theirs, so they don't share germs or "cooties" and yet your family is still doing their part in conserving...and making mom happy ;)

www.tagatowel.com

By bill from belfast NI (Guest Post)

I use a face cloth to do a quick dry before I use a towel so that the towel is really dry and does me the week.

By Jenn (Guest Post)

Reusing a towel is gross to me! I cant stand to go into a bathroom and see a towel that someone has dried their germs and bacteria on....I use a clean towel for my hair and my body everyday.....

By Helen from MI (Guest Post)

I use a fresh towel(s) and wash cloth(s) daily, but my daughter will use her towels over and over, unless I take them away.
A cousin's family used the same towel and washcloth for the entire family, (oy! I was so shocked when I heard that). Well, someone got a boil (surprise) and since everyone used the same items, everyone in the family became contaminated because the germs spread on the towels. How hard is it to throw in a small load of towels daily and always have fresh laundry to use in the bath...I think it makes bathing a better experience.

By

gator10tx

Bath towels are reused here. There is one just for my body, one just for my hair, and a tissue is used for my face. They're hung up in front of the window plus dried by and shelter the room from the sun's heat. As an aside, there is one used just for drying washed hands.

By

Debbie52

We get more than one wearing out of our clothes, unless stained. I will wear a pr of jeans a few days and tops perhaps less just because I am bad about slopping on myself :-( The children's clothes usually are dirty ea day after school but I inspect them and if they didn't get food or art supplies on themselves, then I lay out for another day or atleast to wear for play at home. I think it's foolish to throw something in the dirty clothes that doesn't look or smell dirty! I've got enough work to do!

By

Debbie52

We use our towels more than once but I would never use a towel another family member used. Actually I had seen something on TV about the germs/bacteria that starts to grow in a used towel....dead skin is shed, etc and the towel is moist so perfect breeding ground for bacteria to grow. Probably replacing towels after a few days is better than after a week! I would never re-use a dirty washcloth but I have heard that some people do! I like the idea of the hair towel. I've seen special ones for sale on QVC. They look nice; however I wear my hair short and I really probably do fine to just use my towel.

By suzi homemaker (Guest Post)

I do re-use towels after a shower because you are clean after a shower. If you are concerned about which end dried what, always use the end with the tag for your face and then you don't ever have to wonder! I personally use a towel for my hair, bath towel for the body and my hand towel for my face. Growing up, my brother was a year and a half younger, and I always took my towel to my room with me to make sure he wouldn't use it. Boys had cooties then, especially little brothers.

By

kidsNclutter

About the teens not catching on to reusing towels, etc. because they do not do the laundry...who not? They should be taught how those machines work so they will know when they get into the 'real' world. My 12-y/o son asked to learn, now he actually enjoys doing laundry, his of course, but that's ok. So many kids get out on their own w/out a clue as to the proper way to 'keep house'. Not saying they should be solely responsible for these chores, but they should have the experience often enough to learn. You might be surprised to speak to 'young people' in age from 20-30 (yes, 30!) that don't truly know how household appliances work.

By

Sew Sew Mitch

I invested in a hair towel for myself. I actually have 2- one for home and one for traveling. They are highly absorbent and save on having to use 2 towels at a time. They also stay on your hair better than a regular towel. Growing up we used a towel or two per shower. With 7 people in the household, we didn't have space for drying towels between showers. I did the laundry at a laundrymat for our family of 7 and that was alot of towels to wash after one week! Now, I use the same towel for about 1 week.

By (Guest Post)

we reuse towels...and use girls re-wear our bras for a couple days, unless it's a really hot day and we sweat alot

By

ThriftyFun

To save on the amount of laundry, I have I just realized that I should be making my kids wear their pajamas for more than one day. I don't know why but I always had my daughter wear a new pair of pajamas, but I wear my pj's for several days, and it just hit me that she should be wearing hers more than once before I wash them too.

By Crystal

By

ThriftyFun

We reuse the towel we dry our hair on by hanging it over the shower rod to dry. After all, our hair is clean and this saves wear and tear on the towels and expense laundering them.

By Linda

By Sonya (Guest Post)

I use 2 towels when I bathe. A large bath towel and a smaller hand towel. I dry my body on the large one and my face and hair ( which i wrap up in the hand towel) with the smaller one and I use my towels for a week before I feel that I have to wash them

By owenmohrbucks (Guest Post)

I am guilty of the one use towel. I know that I am clean after my bath but there are parts of my body that I dry off and I don't want that part of my towel to touch my face again. I just don't think it is very sanitary to reuse towels. If it is okay to reuse the same towel would you reuse one that another member of your family used? Just curious to find out what others think.

By Cheryl from Missouri (Guest Post)

I agree with re-using bath towels. You're drying off a CLEAN body. My teenage children have not gotten into this habit, but then again they probably don't see the need since they don't do the laundry! I'm sure once they're on their own and doing the laundry the light bulb will come on for them just as it did for me.