Bath Towel Hygiene
How much you use a towel is always subject to personal preference, but many people use their towels more than once. If you wash your face every morning and night, you can use the washcloth several times. But, your washcloth may get dirtier than a bath towel because it may pick up makeup, lotion, oil, etc., so it should not be used over two days before being washed.
How often you wash your hand towels is dependent upon on how often the towel is used. If it is in the guest bathroom and not used often, you can go weeks without washing it. However, the hand towel in the most frequently used bathrooms will see a lot of use and because our hands often get dirtier than other parts of our body, you will want to switch it out frequently. Also, hand towels are more likely to be used to wipe toothpaste, soap, creams, etc. off hands or to wipe up spills in the bathroom, which means they will require more washing.
Allowing your bath towels to dry on the rack then use them again is a great way to practice being green. By air drying the bath towels, you use the washer and dryer less and save energy. Of course, after letting towels air dry, you may want to smell them before use to make sure they have not mildewed. If towels do begin to smell, even after washing, you can add one or two cups of vinegar or one cup of ammonia to the wash to remove the smell. Using the air-dry method, some people will use the same towel up to four or five times.
How dirty you are when you bath isn’t really an issue because when you dry off, you should already be clean. However, every time you use the bath towel, it will collect dust and skin cells, so it should be washed after a week’s use and certainly on more than two weeks.
Typical bath towel hygiene may change a bit when someone in the household is ill. This person should have their own set of towels to use to prevent spreading germs to others in the household. Regardless of illness, bath towels should always be washed in very high heat to kill germs.
