Wash Your Towels.

[jerrod6]

I can't use Chlorine bleach in my washer.  The manual says so, I don't use it.  All of my bath towels are dark colored.  Dark Green, Dark Purple.  They get washed at 120F.  My kitchen towels are lighter.  They get washed at 120F in oxygen bleach. My sheets get washed at 120F because they are gold or green, or dark green or navy blue.   I can't use chlorine bleach on my counters the manual says so.  It says to use windex non ammonia on it.  That is what gets used. This has been the normal since 2002.  No one in this house has  had any flu or communicable disease since 1985.

 

Not changing anything.  

 

[appnut]

paper towels

To quote my mom when she caught me numerous times using paper towels and throwing them away after washing hands--"cloth towels can be washed and reused over and over.  Using paper towels to dry hands is a waste of money."  I'm the one that cured her of using sponges and going with dish cloths. 

 

[gusherb]

I'm not one to consider myself a germaphobe but when it comes to bath towels, they get washed after each use (I have lots of them so this isn't very frequent) and I wash my hands before handling anything food related or after being out in public. My standards for cleanliness are more driven by my nose then by bacteria, if it even remotely stinks then it needs to be changed/washed/etc.
I dry my hands with a hand towel in the bathroom and paper towels in the kitchen. The hand towel gets changed about once a week when it's just me around.

Towels and bedsheets get washed on hot, and clothing washed on warm. I tried cold for my clothes not long ago and couldn't figure out how ANYONE's clothes get cleaned in doing so!! Without extending wash time past what I normally do they still came out stinky and without removing any stains. I dread the day we have to replace our washer with one that uses dumbed down temps.

 

[askolover]

Hubby and I are both nurses so we do things the way the hospital does. Towels and washcloths are all white. Kitchen towels and dishrags are bleachable...if it's not bleachable we don't buy it. Underwear and socks are all white also. Everything gets Cloroxed in hot water ALWAYS! Asko doesn't recommend using bleach, but I have used it religiously for 17 years and have not had a single problem yet...and no mold smells emanating from the washer either. I also read dishwasher detergent labels and prefer the kind that still has chlorine in it.

 

[frigilux]

Everything's white in my house, too: All kitchen towels/wash rags; all bath linens; all undergarments; all bed linens. Hot water and a splash of Clorox. Nice thing about white is that no stains can hide.

Now you know why the 105-110 degree "hot" water setting on the Frigidaire Immersion Care top-loader was a deal-breaker for me. That and no full-speed spin between wash and rinse.

 

[roscoe62]

interesting thread

I'm wondering what,if anything for that matter,will happen over time when these new washers on the market don't supply a traditional hot or warm water wash anymore?

 

[mrboilwash]

I use a towel for the shower only once, this might sound wasteful, but it isn`t because I only need the size of a handtowel from head to toe, that`s how I was brought up. There is another towel for hands and face in the bathroom, I use this up to a few days if I don`t have company, guess I should better change it more frequently. I also have the impression that most Europeans prefer much thinner towels than what is the norm in the States.

Washcloths are widely considered a thing form the past when there was no running hot water, and people used them for touch up cleaning between their weekly bath.
Seems like everybody still have them but prefer to lather up with their bare hands on this side of the pond. Very unusual to have one offered in a hotel for example.

In the kitchen I use a clean dishcloth every time I unload the DW, then it gets used as a handtowel, then it gets even further downgraded to wipe the counter dry.

I don`t use any antibacterial wipes, sprays, dishsoap, handsoap and stuff like that. If I really have to deodorize something like the bathroom tiles I think a splash of chlorine bleach does a great job and there is no risk of growing multiresistant germs.

All towels and kitchen linen go in the same load at 95°C. It`s only about 3-4 loads a month so it doesn`t break the bank. If I had to wash for a whole family or if I preferred thick and heavy bathsheets, I guess I would have to reconsider my laundry habits.

 

[mattl]

You are about as clean as you'll ever be when you get out of the shower, so I use my towels several times.  I used to be a once and done kind of guy but after years of piles of towels I changed my ways.  I'm much less concerned about germs than I used to be, and I'm none the worse for it.

 

I think we over do it with germicidal this and that.  My dad made it to 95 and he would easily cross contaminate stuff when ever he was in the kitchen, and my aunt made it to 88 and she did not like to refrigerate left overs, she would leave them on the counter for the next day.  Her kids rolled their eyes at that but she was healthy and never had a problem with what she ate.  I know that there are some nasty bacteria in meat these days so I do take care with that but otherwise I'm much more relaxed about towels and such.

 

[NYCWriter]

Agreed, Matt!

Couldn't have said it better myself.

The "big" towel in the bathroom lasts a week. Washcloths once per use (I can't imagine showering without one; you don't get as clean simply lathering with bare hands, as you need the friction from a good terry washcloth -- not too plush and soft, mind you, or you're defeating the purpose! -- to properly exfoliate the dead skin cells). Dishtowels once per week for both dishes and hands (and I don't use a dishwasher -- everything is hand washed -- but I see no "germ" issue here since the dishtowel is only ever coming into contact with wet but clean hands and dishes).

As I do not have my own washer and dryer and have to lug my laundry down and back up six stories (by stairs, no elevator), and have to share just four washers and four dryers with 50 other apartments, doing laundry for me is a much-hated major production that, depending on how many other people I encounter waiting for the machines, can easily stretch into an 8-hour ordeal if I have multiple loads. Which of course I always do. So I also don't have the luxury of tossing a dozen or so extra towels into the laundry each week. Perhaps if I had my own laundry room I might be more inclined to indulge.

That being said, since I rarely get sick (in a germ-infested city of nearly 9 million people crammed into small spaces), I assume I must be doing something right.

 

[iej]

I find that because my shower is very high pressure facecloths / wash cloths are a bit unnecessary.

 

[arbilab]

Big spectrum here. Mostly within the realm of reason. A few in the OCD domain, not that there's anything wrong with that. I've got some myself.

I wash hands when I come in from outside. I'm obviously immune to everything INside as I never get 'sick'. There's also nothing in my clothes I'm not immune to so I wash at 115F, just enough to soften and dislodge sebum with a good dose of surfactants. Cooking, I rigidly sequester raw from cooked, including utensils and what I touch.

Chlorine bleach goes in the drains; ANYthing might be growing in there. Oxy goes in the wash. I use a twintub and reuse 'suds'. Towels and bedding first, then socks, then underware. I mean really, they didn't make me sick the day before. And bacteria multiply over a span of MINUTES so 'clean' in the sterile sense is fleetingly transitory. IOW no, I don't bleach my hands before I fold my socks.

It's fun in a way, imagining what's septic and imagining defensive countermeasures. But let's face it, almost ALL of our genepools survived the plague. Give your body some credit.

I know one thing: The sickest I've ever been (flu) was shortly after an antibiotic regimen. Which I needed, but which destroyed my gut flora and left me vulnerable. Cogitate amongst yourselves as to how that sorts.

 

[washer111]

In this household, towels are weekly and the bathroom floor rugs are usually included, along with the kitchen towels. Otherwise, the machine wouldn't even make 1/4 full (this load is typically 1/2 full), and because there isn't a lot of space for "dirty laundry" the way our house is setup (and/or it wouldn't be pleasant to see).

This wash gets run in the Miele on the standard Cottons cycle, with Water Plus selected (More water/extra rinse, for 3 rinses) and sometimes a Pre-Wash. Main-Wash is at 60ºC (140ºF). Prewash will typically run at about 40ºC (104ºF).
Machine is presently running the "Euro Programming" mode - so the cottons cycle can/will tip 3hrs on this load.

No-one here has been sick, and towels don't smell musty in between washes. If they do, they go onto the clotheslines outside, and then either into the wash hamper (and replaced), or are used again - I mean seriously, if UV kills bacteria and they're dry, what do I have to worry about?
Usually, the weather here is dry enough for towels to dry completely between uses. So there usually isn't any need to replace them often. In all fairness, if you are "clean" coming out the shower, why replace the towels daily?*

*Alright, I'll admit I'm more OCD about my own laundry - and do go to the extent of separating darks/lights and underwear/socks, but that is more for the sake of the different temperatures I use (and "caring" for fabrics in this manner).