images from marthastewartliving.comDear Alisha,
I am curious how often you recommend changing bed sheets, bath towels, and kitchen/bathroom hand towels. And I'm REALLY curious how often your readers ACTUALLY change them in their home.
Sincerely,
Quite Curious
Dear Throwing in the Towel,
I love your question. I am curious myself. Men, if you were drawn here by the title, prepare to be disappointed.
Everyone else, first let us establish some ground rules. I know this can be a touchy subject. Some of you may turn defensive. No attacking each other. No getting your feelings hurt if you feel that general washing comments are directed towards you.
Let's proceed. I have looked online to see what is recommended. Here's a brief summary:
Bed sheets: should be changed every week to once a month. If you employ a house keeper, they change them once a week. (Tell that to Oprah, she mentioned on one show that she has them changed every other day. Because she can.) If you have allergies, possibly more often.
Bath towels: The most popular answer was once to twice in a week if you hang them up after wards and they fully dry out. The explanation is that you are drying off your clean body, it's just water. True story: I have a friend who asked me if she needed to install towel racks in her bathroom she was remodeling, because "we never reuse a towel after we dry off". I was floored. But she really loves doing laundry, so we'll just let her.
If you are curious when to replace bath towels, the answer is simple: when they first start to look a little worn or discolored. Tell that to the pioneers.
*Note to readers: there is no household task more frustrating than changing crib sheets. I love clean sheets for my baby, but need to take anger management classes in order to change them weekly.
Kitchen towels: the most popular answer is every other day.
Kitchen dish drying towel: should be changed daily. May be transferred to hand drying towel.
Kitchen dish rag/wash cloth: daily.
Bathroom hand towels: every day in a frequently used bathroom to every other day if the bathroom is used less often.
Here are my answers, I'll promise not to judge you (snort!) if you promise not to judge me.
Bed sheets: I've tried to changed them every week but I'm not good at always remembering. Here's my new routine: I change them on the same day my cleaning lady comes, which is every two weeks. I wish it was every week but I just can't seem to get it done. I might replace pillow covers on the one week mark.
Bath towels: 2 to 3 times a week, I can reused a towel twice. And I hate it when my spouse dries off with my towel. He couldn't care less.
Kitchen towels: I'm not entirely sure. I have so many hand towels going on at one time. I'd say every other day I make a clean sweep of them, which I love doing. Or if something dirty has been wiped on it, than it's tossed right away.
Bathroom hand towels: every day in a frequently used bathroom to every other day if the bathroom is used less often.
Here are my answers, I'll promise not to judge you (snort!) if you promise not to judge me.
Bed sheets: I've tried to changed them every week but I'm not good at always remembering. Here's my new routine: I change them on the same day my cleaning lady comes, which is every two weeks. I wish it was every week but I just can't seem to get it done. I might replace pillow covers on the one week mark.
Bath towels: 2 to 3 times a week, I can reused a towel twice. And I hate it when my spouse dries off with my towel. He couldn't care less.
Kitchen towels: I'm not entirely sure. I have so many hand towels going on at one time. I'd say every other day I make a clean sweep of them, which I love doing. Or if something dirty has been wiped on it, than it's tossed right away.
Kitchen dish drying towel: I usually air dry my dishes overnight. But only a clean, never been used towel is allowed to dry dishes. After it's been used for drying it might be used as a hand towel.
Kitchen dish rag: Every day for sure. 2 to 3 a day in fact. In Oregon they always stink after one day. So gross. I've caught myself sniffing dish rags at friends' houses, just to be safe. Then I felt rude.
Bathroom hand towels: I aim for every day. With little kids, and some adults, who knows if they wash their hands well or if they just wipe them? I've heard that hand towels are one of the most common ways for germs to be spread. I have an otherwise respectable friend who doesn't even keep soap in her bathroom. I do not use her hand towels. I said aim to change them every day because I forget on a lot of days. I think I'm going to have to make it a daily chore for one of my kids.
Please dear Readers, tell us how often you change your sheets and towels. Keep in mind we want the truth. If you feel more comfortable telling us anonymously, we all understand.
Please dear Readers, tell us how often you change your sheets and towels. Keep in mind we want the truth. If you feel more comfortable telling us anonymously, we all understand.
22 comments:
In our house, we have different opinions on bath towels. I will reuse a towel (two uses), but my husband uses a new one each day. As for hand towels, we need to change it every day or two.
I also air dry my dishes, so the towels are changed about 3-4 times a week. With kids, they tend to get changed more often as they get used for spills and pulled onto the floor.
I hate to admit that our sheets don't get changed often enough. It can be anywhere from a few times a week (if kids cause issues) to once every 3-4 weeks. I just forget until something happens that makes me change them. It helps if I remember to pull off the corners when I first think that it needs to be changed, because you know I never have time to do it when I actually think about it. If I have pulled off a corner or two, I have to change it all before I can use the bed, and I don't forget. This is especially true with the baby's crib.
It seems that the suggested wash times are the times I use. The only thing is my sheets. I probably change my sheets more like once a month unless the kids has an accident or there is obvious dirt or something. If something stinks I wash it, even if it isn't my usual washing time. My husband has a very sensitive nose so he smells everything.
I'm a once a month sheet changer unless circumstances necessitate change. I change sheets on 5 beds, two of them being top bunks. I. hate. it.
Once a month is all I can stand. And I'm pretty sure the kids are almost old enough to adequately change their own. Almost.
pillowcases more often, because...drool/snot/bloody noses abound. tmi?
I'm with you on the crib sheets! Makes me so mad.
Here's the usual laundry schedule at our house. Granted I'm not always consistent.
Bed sheets - 2 weeks, sometimes 3 if I'm not on top of it.
bath towels - 1 week, always
kitchen towels - switched every other day
wash rag - I use a sponge b/c I can't stand the smell of rags. And it goes in the dishwasher almost everytime it's run
And I always airdry dishes overnight, so no drying towel.
Sheets: about every 1-2 weeks
Bath towels: whoa I guess I'm behind on this one! I normally use a bath towel for about 1.5-2 weeks. My husband refuses to use the same towel for more than a week.
Hand towel: every other day or so. And IMMEDIATELY after I caught my husband using in a way so despicable alisha would be shocked!
Kitchen towels: again every other day or so. I think this will change when we have kids, but that's the going trend right now.
Solution for stinky kitchen towels and the like: wash them with vinegar! It bugged me for the longest time and I can't stand stinky ones, so one day I googled home remedies for stinky towels and it actually works!
I like where you snorted.
I also like that you told people not to attack one another. Towel changing IS a sensitive subject... tempers run high!
I change my sheets when they don't smell like my lavender fabric softener. so, yeah, about a week.
Lucy's new endearing trait is to pull off her crib sheet and mattress pad when she wakes up... so lately I do that once or twice a day and it's absolutely maddening.
Good thing Alisha doesn't know I use her toothbrush.
could care less or couldn't care less?
You only say crib sheets are the worst because your boys don't have a bunk bed. Our dog sleeps on Brighton's bed, meaning the sheets need changing even more than usual. More times than I'd like to admit, I've told Brighton to sleep on the top bunk until I get around to the painful-but-necessary task of washing his bottom bunk sheets.
You guys are averting the question!!
Sheets: once a week.
Bath towels: once a week (I should be doing it twice a week, I just don't always get to it.)
Hand towels: 2 or 3 times a week.
Yes, the kitchen "wipe down" rag can be the smelliest. I have been spraying my counter with 1 part water to 1 part vinegar and then wiping them down and then I toss the rag after a full day. (And no, the vinegar smell doesn't linger.)
I remember having this conversation with a group of very respectable and clean friends. One friend said, "I change the sheets three days a week" and the other friend said something to the effect of, "We're supposed to change the sheets?"
As for bath towels, I will tell you this, and it won't come as a shock either. I love a ratty bath towel. It absorbs better than a new one, I can't explain it. That said, you should see the state my dishtowels are in. Ratty as anything. But I did buy new dishrags at Target this weekend and threw out my gray gross looking ones. I felt rich.
I replace the kitchen towels and rags daily, or every two days. I'm glad to know other people's dishrag's stink. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one. You know? "She thanks her dishrag don't stank?"
Sheets are on an as-needed basis. This could be anything from weekly to monthly, depending on whose sheets and accident rates. Accidents include being scribbled on all over with brown marker - that happened last week. It washed out.
And are you sure your friend doesn't keep soap in her bathroom? It could've just been that once when you were there. Or maybe it fell off the counter and was in the garbage - that happens all the time here. I'd ask and say, 'You're out of soap in here - where do you keep it?' just to get the real story.
Changing crib sheets are a breeze compared to a top bunk. Actually when my babies were in cribs, I always kept blankets over the crib sheet, just tucked them in on the sides and changed out those instead. It was easier and gave a little padding. "But that's so dangerous!!!" It is?
Sheets and baths towels- once a week.
The smell/feel of nice clean sheets is too great to pass up.
I'll put the dishrag in the microwave for 2 min. after each use to help prevent stinkage. That smell just totally grosses me out, and then your hands smell like nasty dishtowel after. I change them every 1-2 days. The kitchen hand towel gets changed 1-4 times a day, because my girls think they are napkins or something. Ugh.
I can proudly say I change all of our sheets every week, even the dreaded top bunk, although at least my kids are old enough to have to put their sheets back on. Before they could do that themselves, I'll admit the top bunk could go a long time between changes.
Dishcloths are about once a day. Towels, who knows how many times they actually get used, but I round them all up on the same day as the sheets every week. But don't ask how often I vacuum.
You know what? No one here is shocking so far. Doesn't anyone completely forget all about changing sheets? I was like that in H.S. and maybe my first couple years of college.
No body is that gross you're right. But if you asked how clean the area behind the fridge and washing machines are and how often we clean behind those I think you'd have completely different answers!
I washed my sheets literally once a year in college.
I wash out sheets every 3 weeks or so. Bath towels we use about 2-3 times before washing. Crib sheets... I probably need to work on that one. Poor Benton
Well I think it's safe to assume that all your usual readers/commenters wash yearly if that..
I have a house keeper who comes every 2 weeks, and she cleans the sheets. I would like to think I clean them between, but never get myself to lift our heavy king size foam matress! We have a guest bedroom which is not frequently used (open for visitors) and we wash between uses.
As for the towel situations: shower towels get used about 2 times. There is no hard and fast but we also have a towel dryer which keeps them nice and toasty on the rack (and clean). Bathroom hand towels get it about once a week and more frequently if obviously dirty. I didn't know it was supoosed to be more frequent. Its just me and my husband and I think I am the only one who actually uses these towels (he prefers his pants or air dry).
I don't use washcloths, they always smell funny to me. I use a sponge which must dry (hardened), gets tossed in the dishwasher and then gets tossed in the trash. I buy these in bulk.
When my brother was a bachelor, he never put sheets on his bed. Just slept on the mattress. I saw the mattress one day after a few years of doing this.... Totally brown. Yuck!
In my younger years the sheets got changed once a week. Now I go about 2-3 weeks between changes. Bunkbeds are such a pain.
Towels go as needed. Kids bathroom towels get washed more frequently than my bathroom.
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