this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2025
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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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[–] crimsonpoodle@pawb.social 1 points 1 hour 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.

[–] Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 hours ago

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

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

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

Most people call it a cumrag

[–] pyrinix@kbin.melroy.org 3 points 3 hours ago

For towels that are sized for hands, I change those once every 1 - 2 months.

For towels used on the body, about 2 - 3 months.

[–] knexcar@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours 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.

[–] swordgeek@lemmy.ca 11 points 6 hours ago (1 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.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] felbane@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Their mom is a part-time Terry Fairy™ and she would periodically use her magic to restore full towel integrity.

[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 7 hours ago (3 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).

[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 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.

[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 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.

[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 hours ago

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.

[–] Cort@lemmy.world 8 points 6 hours ago

Yep, you shouldn't use fabric softener on anything you WANT to be absorbent. Towels, workout clothes, undergarments, etc.

You are not the only person that hates those scents! But we are rare. I usually get deer in headlights look when I explain it to someone.

[–] AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today 34 points 8 hours 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.

[–] frog_brawler@lemmy.world 7 points 5 hours ago

I swap out my bath towel once every 3-4 days. When there’s 3 or more in the hamper, I wash them.

I’ll use these towels until they wear out.

[–] Paper_Phrog@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

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

[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 12 points 7 hours ago (2 children)
[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago

So that's where Nick learned it

[–] netvor@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Ah that's why he's small and bald: he cleans so hard he scrapes a layer of himself off every time.

[–] leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 5 hours ago

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

[–] darreninthenet@piefed.social 6 points 6 hours ago

When they start to bend and crack

[–] thatradomguy@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

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

[–] DeeBeeDouble@lemmy.world 12 points 7 hours ago (1 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.

[–] Worx@lemmynsfw.com 15 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Washing machines create rough towels. Rough towels create dry bodies. Dry bodies create soft towels. Soft towels go in washing machines.

[–] DeeBeeDouble@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

Exactly, this is the way!

[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 5 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

You guys have more than one towel???

[–] kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 6 hours ago

Gotta rotate between two in case you want to swap them and not do laundry just yet.

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[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 10 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

I wash my towel after ever use.

[–] tanisnikana@lemmy.world 8 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

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

[–] P1nkman@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Did you just touch a towel on the shelf? Well, it's used now, so in the washer it goes.

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

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

[–] Thorry@feddit.org 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Same, but I ensure it's fully dry before putting it in the hamper. So usually a couple of hours later, or just before I next need a towel I replace it.

[–] watson387@sopuli.xyz 3 points 4 hours ago

They start to build the funk if you throw them in there wet.

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[–] worhui@lemmy.world 7 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] zwerg@feddit.org 4 points 6 hours ago

Heh, I still have two towels from my British boarding school from 40 ,years ago. They don't make 'em like that any more...

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 8 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours 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.

[–] Munkisquisher@lemmy.nz 6 points 7 hours ago (1 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.

[–] thisisdee@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours 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.

[–] zxqwas@lemmy.world 7 points 7 hours ago

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

I'll replace them when they fall apart.

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.

[–] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

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

[–] communism@lemmy.ml 3 points 7 hours 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.

[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours 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.

[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 4 points 8 hours ago

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

[–] lemmylommy@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours 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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