this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2024
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[–] grue 57 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

People in this thread, unironically:

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Why would I change either?

I mean, I'm a hoopy frood, So I know where my towel is, and it's full of all kinds of nutrients due to the competing microbes that compose its flora. You don't just waste that kind of ecosystem by changing towels every decade.

And sheets? What about the memories? Every stain is a mark of something wonderful that happened. Except the ones that are marks of something horrific that happened. Or the ones that are just spilled beverages. But, you know, that's still plenty of good memories you want washed down the drain, you animal you.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Best be careful when changing sheets anyway. It'd be a shame if your mattress wasn't properly killed before being shipped from Sqornshellous Zeta and it went on a flollop rampage after being exposed to too much sunlight.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I guess you don't know where your towel is.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Douglas Adams / Hitchhikers guide references.

HIGHLY recommended.

Edit: you might also be having a stroke, but that's just a coincidence. Coincidences can be frightening things.

[–] obinice 5 points 3 months ago

I like you.

Let's go somewhere, fall, and forget to hit the ground together.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

bath towels: weekly

bedding: every 2 or 3 weeks, depending on the season

[–] cobysev 13 points 3 months ago

Reverse this for me. I shower first thing in the morning every day and my bath towels are just drying clean skin. They only touch me for maybe a minute or two before being hung to dry.

However, I go to sleep at night, after a full day of developing natural body oils on my skin. And I lie in bed for 8+ hours at a time.

My bed sheets are far more gross after a week of use than my towel will get in a month, more or less a couple weeks.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Assuming im not in the midst of creating a depression fort out of garbage and laundry its 1-2 weeks for bedding and towels are roughly every week. Look like I'm average itt at least. So one less thing to feel bad about yay!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

I momentarily misread that as "depression fart" and was expecting a different reason for changing sheets.

[–] thefatfrog 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

We usually change the bedding weekly, I.e. every Sunday and the towels usually as soon as they start to develop this old wet umbrella stench, which takes about 3-4 days.

[–] Warl0k3 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Oh my god, that smell is mildew. If your towels are kept so humid that they're mildewing the colliform bacteria in your bathroom is having an entire festival on there. Please, before you get a horrible infection, please start swapping them out more frequently. I'm begging you, rubbing that on even a small open wound could be legitimately life threatening (for example if you're the lucky winner of E.Coli roulette, which is also absolutely growing on your towels).

[–] thefatfrog 5 points 3 months ago

Unfortunately the towels don’t dry very well on the towel rack. But don’t worry. We don’t use stinky towels. They get thrown on 90Β°C washing immediately πŸ˜…

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Maybe they've been developing immunity...

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Mattress, about five years. Towels, every decade or so.

Just keep the ones you have clean with regular washing, and they don't wear out that fast.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Thank you, seeing all those "weeks", "months" replies are making me feel like a neathandal.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

Weekly, both. Mostly

[–] RBWells 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Weekly for both. We live in the tropics, love sex so wash sheets often; shower daily but use same towel all week.

[–] just_ducky_in_NH 2 points 3 months ago

Clean sheets are an aphrodisiac!

[–] lazycouchpotato 6 points 3 months ago

Once a week.

[–] d00phy 6 points 3 months ago

Towels and sheets weekly. Comforter and mattress topper alternating weeks.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

When I can smell them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

bath towels every couple of showers. I use a separate towel for my head/hair though.
bed sheets, varies, depends on temperature and sweatiness.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Sheets weekly. Towels twice a week, but I shower twice a day.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

yes?

no?

sometimes...

[–] foggy 3 points 3 months ago

I just do it when I do laundry which is when I run out of shirts for work.

Somewhere between 2 and 6 weeks.

[–] Coherence 3 points 3 months ago

Towels - 3 days Sheets - every week

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

New towel every shower. Bed sheets about every other week

[–] bran_buckler 3 points 3 months ago

I’d also be interesting in knowing if people have in-unit laundry. Being in an apartment complex where there’s 3 washers for around 50 people, it’s not feasible to wash towels after every use. That also sounds very wasteful!

I shower every other day, and change the towels after a couple of weeks. The schedule is based on when they can get washed (laundry gets done every two weeks for clothes, and so it’s based on the availability of doing extra loads), or at the first sign of a smell or stain.

Bedding gets changed on a monthly basis for the same reasons, again, unless there’s a smell or stain.

[–] BonesOfTheMoon 3 points 3 months ago

Once a week. I hate feeling like the sheets are dirty and rumpled.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

In summer roughly weekly sometimes less for both. In winter all the bedding but the duvet cover monthly (we wrap the duvet around us like a burrito and thus change it more often). Towel biweekly in winter.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Towels one week. Bedding and pillow cases every two weeks. Pillows every 3 to 6 months, or if they start to smell kinda musty, whichever comes first. A little bleach helps keeps my bedding and towels super clean.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Almost exactly the same except for pillow. Within the past year I switched to a buckwheat pillow and I am in trial phase to see how it handles use.

I think I'm going to empty the buckwheat hulls out soon to wash the case and then replace the hulls. IDK, I'm just guessing at the point.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Bath towel, washglove and dishcloth : every sunday.

Bedsheets : every two weeks (weekly during summer when it's really hot).

I live in a very dry region, so I rarely have to worry about mold as long as I let everything dry properly after use (aka, not in a ball). If something start to smell moldy I bath it in baking soda for a day or two then wash it. All clean.

[–] esc27 1 points 3 months ago

Washcloths are used once then go in the hamper. Towels 3-5 days. Sheets 1-2 times per month (showering at night and wearing pajamas..., plus keeping the house colder at night)

[–] Warl0k3 -1 points 3 months ago (5 children)

... you people use towels more than once?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

By definition you're clean when you use it. If you hang it to dry it's perfectly fine to use more than once

[–] Warl0k3 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

I was always taught that the towel's final role is to abrade and collect the dirt/grime/skin that has been loosened by showering, but that wasn't washed away (which iirc is mostly just the skin and oily grime, not dirt or other large particulates).

If it works for you then you do you! It's just odd to discover that people think towels are somehow clean after being rubbed all over your body. It's probably fine, the literature I've just dug up seems to indicate that it's not ideal but safe to use the same towel for 1-3 days so long as you're not sharing it, (depending on environment, it seems that they get a "disconcertingly large bacteriological load" (heh) if left in a humid bathroom) but still. ew.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I was always taught that the towel's final role is to abrade and collect the dirt/grime/skin that has been loosened by showering, but that wasn't washed away (which iirc is mostly just the skin and oily grime, not dirt or other large particulates).

This is nasty to me. Do you not scrub yourself in the shower? Like, if you have dirty hands, and wash them in the sink, you can dry your hands on a white towel and it should not get dirty. Same for your body except you usually have more scrubbing tools to exfoliate your skin and remove the dirt so you should be even cleaner come dry time.

I don’t know that I’d call my used towel β€œclean” per se, but it’s certainly not dirty. It’s not doing any cleaning or removal of anything, just patting up water.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

You gotta use washcloths or scrubbers on your body! In conjuction with soap, that will help remove dead skin, dirt, sweat, etc.

[–] SpaceNoodle 3 points 3 months ago

... you soil your towels?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I am terrified

[–] Dagamant 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

And I’m pretty clean each time too so it’s not exactly collecting a ton of dirty. If it’s used for something other than me fresh out of the shower then it goes straight in the wash. Otherwise it gets washed when I do laundry each week.

[–] Warl0k3 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

You're not clean, though. You're really, really not. You're cleaner, but humans are disgusting and a residential shower is in no way getting you anything close to actually 'clean'. You don't have to be insane like I am and swap them out every shower, all the literature I can find says 1-3 days is probably fine, but please please get a couple more towels and swap out for a clean one every few days at least, right now you're just culturing some very nasty bacteria and then rubbing it all over yourself.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Do you change your hand towels every time you use them?

[–] Warl0k3 1 points 3 months ago

Errr... yes. But only the kitchen towels, other hand-drying towels just get swapped out in the mornings or if they're particularly damp/soiled.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 months ago

Change to what? Money?