this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2025
78 points (98.8% liked)

No Stupid Questions

44929 readers
1215 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here. This includes using AI responses and summaries.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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)

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca 12 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] I_Clean_Here@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago
[–] crimsonpoodle@pawb.social 4 points 6 hours 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.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] MutilationWave@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 hours ago

Most people call it a cumrag

[–] AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today 44 points 13 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.

[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 24 points 12 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 7 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 7 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 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 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 7 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] fizzle@quokk.au 1 points 54 minutes ago (1 children)
[–] CucumberFetish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 22 minutes ago

citric acid is a dope cleaning agent against limescale. It reacts with limescale and turns it into water and CO2. Works wonders in kettles too

[–] Cort@lemmy.world 10 points 11 hours ago

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

[–] CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 10 points 12 hours ago

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.

[–] pyrinix@kbin.melroy.org 5 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] swordgeek@lemmy.ca 15 points 12 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 7 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] felbane@lemmy.world 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] frog_brawler@lemmy.world 8 points 11 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.

[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 12 points 12 hours ago (2 children)
[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago

So that's where Nick learned it

[–] netvor@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

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

[–] DeeBeeDouble@lemmy.world 14 points 13 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 16 points 13 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.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] darreninthenet@piefed.social 6 points 11 hours ago

When they start to bend and crack

[–] leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 11 hours ago

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

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 10 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

I wash my towel after ever use.

[–] tanisnikana@lemmy.world 10 points 13 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 9 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 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 4 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

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

[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

What a waste of water and energy.

[–] Thorry@feddit.org 5 points 11 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 4 points 9 hours ago

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

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Munkisquisher@lemmy.nz 7 points 12 hours ago (2 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.

[–] Kitchel@sopuli.xyz 2 points 5 hours ago

A kindred spirit, I too change all linen, towels, teatowels on a Sunday. I love the feeling of crisp linen and rough towels.

I have sets of "three" of everything. One set in use, one set in the laundry and one set in the closet. I only buy new things if visible frayed and no point trying to mend.

[–] thisisdee@lemmy.world 4 points 11 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.

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 9 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 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.

[–] worhui@lemmy.world 8 points 13 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 5 points 12 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...

[–] knexcar@lemmy.world 2 points 9 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.

[–] zxqwas@lemmy.world 8 points 13 hours ago

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

I'll replace them when they fall apart.

[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 5 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

You guys have more than one towel???

[–] kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 11 hours ago

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

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Paper_Phrog@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

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

[–] thatradomguy@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

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

[–] Know_not_Scotty_does@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago

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.

load more comments
view more: next ›