Laundry Dispute- Lax Euro Attitude or Gross?

I wash towels (2 sets) once a week, and change bed linens every two weeks unless they need it before then. We shower in the evening, so they don't get all sweaty from dirty bodies.

I would go stark raving mad washing towels and bed linens daily. I do not run a hotel.

Body towels - every five days or so. Hey, I'm cleanest when I use it. Hand towels - everyday.

Sheets - I'd love to change them weekly but, ugh, it's such a chore. So it's every other week. When the housekeeper comes.

Even hotels don't change sheets everyday. They change when you leave - or its too much of a waste.

Weekly or bi-weekly depending on freshness. Washing daily is unbelievably wasteful, both in water, chemicals, and wear & tear on the material.

I think once a week for bed linens would be nice but I change ours about once every two weeks, and the kids about once a month. I guess that sounds gross but it doesn't seem to be (maybe because we all bathe/shower in the evening so our bodies are clean when we get into bed.)
We use our towels three or four times before they get washed.
I think daily washing would be very excessive and a huge waste of water and energy!

Every day? What a waste of water, soap, resources, etc.

We change towels whenever they need it - I probably toss mine in the laundry one day before it needs it, and my husband's probably goes in one day after : ) So on average once per week. Our sheets get changed every week, week and a half, and the kids sheets every two-three weeks.

Unless you are going to bed or coming out of the shower particularly disgusting, I can't imagine needing to wash either more often than every 4 days at the shortest.

Are you kidding about "most Americans would want bed linens done daily?" Maybe in a hotel and motel, but not in someone's home unless there's an illness or lice to worry about. Anything more than once a week is excessive in a typical family situation. Linens are changed once a week but if they happen to go a little longer it doesn't upset me.

Towels are used twice. After the first time, they're spread out to air dry on a clean rack. After the second use they're washed. Otherwise too much water and detergent are being wasted and that's just ridiculously expensive and not good for the environment. It's also not any "cleaner" either.

in our house we are really bad...our bath towels get done maybe once a month. our thought on that is we are clean and just drying off the water(hence the towel is not dirty..just wet and can air dry)
Our sheets I do every other week but I dont keep track...I could be on a rotation of 2.5 weeks...its usually when I think of it or have time (or energy) to pull off the old and remake once its clean.

Bath towels - once per week
Hand towel - changed every 1-2 days.
Bed linens - once per month.

Daily?!?! Every two weeks is what I grew up with. If you shower every day, that is plenty imho.

We use the same bath towels for 2-3 days, unless we, or the kids are super dirty. I would like to change the sheets once a week, but sometimes it ends up being two weeks.

Oh good gracious, daily? We don't even shower daily, here.

As a rule, everyone in my house has A Towel That Is Theirs. We have eight hooks on the bathroom wall and each person's towel hangs on it. Showers happen roughly every other day/every third for the kids and hubby showers every other day. I've learned that, if I want a shower every other day, I just shower with the two youngest. They get clean, I get clean, it's a bonus. Bath towels are only used to dry off clean bodies, so I wash them bi-weekly.

Hand towels, washcloths and dishtowels get washed weekly.

Sheets? The older kids' sheets get changed once every three weeks. The two youngest still sleep with hubby and I, and our sheets get changed bi-weekly (or more often one we're 'in the mood' :).

All sheets get changed with more frequency in the hot, humid months (July and August, mostly). At that point the kids are changed bi-weekly and ours are changed weekly. When someone is sick, their sheets get washed every other day.

Pillowcases get washed weekly, no matter what (well, more often, again, if sick).

lines are definitely once a week. Towels are couple of days especially in the summer time.

lax euro attitude?
thanks for the dig there, but anyways
bedding once a week. bath and hand towels every night.

I'm enjoying reading these answers! In our house, I put out fresh towels weekly or more frequently if needed (i.e. they are left on the floor and the cat sleeps on them ;). Bed linens are changed weekly.

HOWEVER, my SIL is Italian, and she does WAY more laundry than I do. They don't use dryers, so the process she goes through weekly is:
1) washes the linens
2) bleaches them
3) line-dries them
4) irons them (YES! Even the towels! Obsess much?! ;)

They don't even have fitted sheets - can you even imagine? She is American but her husband's Italian family set her straight right after she moved over there - apparently that's how Italians roll, with their linens. Yikes. Not so lax with the laundry!!

all the bedding is changed one a week all the towels are washed on the weekend but I have a ton of towels and a ton of sheets so I dont have to wash them just change them then they get washed and put away when the laundry gets done during the week.

wow, it's really interesting to see the answers for this! I would say about 1x per week for both. I wish I had time to change the sheets 2x a week since our three dogs sleep with us. . . but hey, it hasn't killed us yet!

Not daily, but towels get changed 2-3 times per week.

Bed sheets are once a week.

I do laundry (several loads) once a week. But have enough sheets/towels to do that.

I get a new towel about every 3-4 days and TRY to change the sheets every week.

If I could afford to pay someone to do it, I'd love fresh sheets about every 3 days--that's what Oprah does because after 3 days, they're "wilted" and "nor crisp"!

The european side of my family wash their clothes, linnens, and sheets FAR more frequently than my american side of the family (can't speak for all of the EU... but I've never noticed the trend you mention).

I wash sheets once a week, towels twice, wash cloths daily.

Bed linens are done weekly and towels are done twice a week. Think about it for a second- you're "clean" when you dry off, so what's the issue? Wash clothes are in the hamper after each use and hand towels are weekly (same reason as the shower towels). I also do the bath mats weekly.

I am American and I don't have a compelling need to wash my towels every day- wastes water and gas when it's not really necessary.

Towels are every few days. Linens a little longer. Whenever I can on the weekends.

"Lax Euro attitude." LOL.

I would want them done daily -- if I had a maid to do it. Fresh sheets are the best. But I'm nowhere near that.

Weekly on towels - try to...

Bi-weekly on bed linens - try to....

And that's coming from a medical family with lots of nurses and doctors...I think b/c sheets are changed so often in the hospital, MDs and RNs just ignore it at home.

I wash towels when they need it, when they don't smell fresh, about a week or maybe two. Bed sheets, again, when they don't smell fresh, each week or two. I live in a condo building where I need to put quarters in the machines each time, so I think before I wash things.

The fact of the matter Americans are obsessed with washing but my mother aways said if your bathing u should be clean when u get out of the shower so your drying a clean body. Once a week is good even hotels now suggest that u hang up your towels and reuse them to save water. Sheets once a month or more. The regular laundry is enough to do in my house.

I don't know how often the "norm" is, but I wash towels daily and bed linens 1-2/week.

Daily? My goodness! Who has the time - or could afford the water bill?

Weekly here. I so laundry as things are needed to try and conserve resources. We don't use all of our stuff all the time, so to wash absolutely everything weekly isn't necessary, imo.

While I would love to have clean sheets every night, I don't live in a hotel!! So we do the sheets once a week. Towels we do every 3 or 4 days (those are easier than changing the whole bed!!)

My family uses bath towels for 2 baths before they get washed. washclothes after each bath. bed linens (sheets and pillowcases about every 2 weeks. the comforters more like every other month. unless someone has an accident of any kind on them then they get changed right away. no one I know does the sheets each day.

I agree, but since my kids pee thru their diapers thier linens get done more often. In an ideal world I would like towels to be changed 2x a week but its more like once.

We have several cats and a og that sleep in the bed with us. I wash the sheets when they get hairy - every couple of weeks or so.
Dish rags and dish towels in the kitchen, and hand towels in the bathrooms get changed when they start to smell funky.
Bath towels get hung on the shower rod and re-used until they start to smell funky.

The sheets are changed each week. I'd have new ones everyday if it were practical or affordable. Clean sheets feel so nice. :-) Towels are replaced about every other day...more often in humid weather.

I know of no one (without a medical condition) American, European or otherwise who has any desire to launder their bed linen daily (and I know a lot of people of different nationalities). We get a fresh towel out of the closet every three to four days and I try to change the sheets weekly but if I dont' get them done and change them every two weeks it isn't a big deal. I change kitchen towels and hand towels daily or every other day.

sheets once a week towels daily

My inlaws never used a towel twice - but they kept their bed linens on for weeks!

I change out bath towels at the very least one weekly - but more often if we've taken more showers than suual (yard work, sports, etc.). I'd liek to do bed linens every week - that was my mom's standard when I was growing up - but it's every 2 weeks in my house. As someone else wrote I'd prefer clean crisp bedsheets every 3-4 dyas....

If I could change my sheets daily - I would! especially my pillow cases. But since I can not, I do it once a week.

Towels are changed out daily in my house though, including hand towles used to dry hands in the bathroom.

Bedding once a week and towels we let go for a couple of days (you're clean when you are drying off therefore its more eco friendly to wait a few showers). I will say that I know some households do sheets like every 3 weeks, and growing up my parents did towels every night.. our sheets just start to feel yucky after a week!

Well I am a Lax European (British) and even though I am irked at that comment, I launder my towels when my kids leave them on the floor and they get stepped on, which is almost every use.
My bed linen about every other week, to every 3 weeks, depending on the season

Towels in my house are commodity! If you don't get one it's because they're all in the laundry and with teen boys showering twice a day, we run out fast. I launder towels and washcloths every other day as I run out if I don't wash them that often. Usually, I get one hot from the dryer the night before to ensure I have one for the morning! I actually counted the towels we have and was astonished to find I had 22 bath towels and yet I run out!

As for linens, I change them weekly in the summer and bi-weekly in the winter. In our clime, the summers are hot and sticky so they need to be washed more frequently but in the winter, the flannel sheets come out and with jammies and socks on, they don't get "dirty" as quickly. I certainly make sure the bi-weekly is done so they don't start to smell.

It's a 'I have boys' thing.

I personally think daily is excessive. They get washed once a week in my house.

I do the towels 2-3x a week and the sheets EVERY week!

Daily? That is not only excessive and expensive, but not practical...unless you are wealthy.

I wash the bed linens weekly, which includes sheets, mattress pad, blanket, pillow cases and pillow case covers. I have allergies so it's important for me to wash EVERYTHING on the bed weekly. You could probably get by with washing the blanket less frequent but sheets, without a doubt, weekly!

Other linens like towels, they get thrown in a laundry basket after 3-4 uses. The way I see it, if you washed your body well, the towels are just drying off the water and they are clean. Think about it: clean body = clean towel. Wash cloths get tossed in the laundry basket daily, one use per shower.

daily! I dont have time for that! mine get washed once every two weeks or sooner if we have sex. my son drools alot so his are at least once a week. towels once or twice a week.

i think it depends on habits. if you bathe at night then you aren't going to be getting into bed dirty. if you are bathing in the morning, then i would definitely do linens once a week or less. towels are being used after a shower, bath, etc. and shouldn't be getting dirty perse, so i would do those weekly

Once a week, for towels and sheets. Unless it's particularly muggy (or I'm going through my night sweats scenarios (oh joy), in which case "as needed." Personally, I think it's a colossal waste of water to launder towels every day, etc. They are just drying off your clean body!

Bath towels weekly, unless they start smelling moldy.
Hand towels - every 3 days
Sheets - My toddler - every week (she seems to get sick if I let it go)
Mine - every week
My 9y every 2 weeks unless he's been sick.

We do laundry once every two weeks. I change my and hubby's sheets at least 1st a week. While we do shower every night there are other things that grown married folks do that requires sheets to be changed more frequently. ;-) As for the towels those get changed every week too. Personally I like sleeping on clean sheets. I seem to get a better sleep.

Thank you for asking this question! It was fun to read the answers and to know that I'm not alone with washing towels weekly and changing sheets monthly!

Sheets & towels - once per week. Special circumstances require a greater frequency, including sickness, or really warm or humid weather.

Everyone has their own priorities - daily does seem a little wasteful to me personally, but monthly just seems way too long. For towels I'd say the optimum is every 3 or 4 days, sheets about a week. I never iron sheets - try to fold them fresh from the dryer if at all possible to reduce wrinkling.

My son is allergic to dust mites, so we wash his pillow case (and allergy cover) twice a week in his more vulnerable (seasonal allergy) periods.

We do once per week for both towels and bed linens.

Daily?! Towels get washed about every two weeks here (you use them to dry your CLEAN self, after all). Kitchen dishtowels are changed every day to two, depending on what's going on. Sheets are changed maybe once a month. I'd like to do it weekly, but I just can't be bothered. The duvet gets changed and laundered a couple times a year.
ETA: anything is changed more frequently if it's soiled.

Towels - I allow 2 towels to get used a day and washed. 5 people share those towels. It used to be everyone would use one towel and then throw it in the wash. I'm trying to cut down on that.
Sheets - the kids sheets get done once a week or before and after a sleep over. Our sheets get cleaned after hanky panky. Sometimes that's daily, a couple times a week or weekly. I don't have a bunch of fancy stuff on the bed though. Two sheets and two pillow cases. The pillow cases only get washed once a week.

I wash sheets and towels weekly. Sometimes the sheets go two weeks. I don't think that is excessive. Daily to me is excessive. One interesting thing I heard one day is that we should change our PJ's twice as often as you change your sheets.

Weekly???? DAILY???? That's plain wasteful. Maybe I err on the gross side but our bedding gets the full scrub a little more than quarterly. Taking off a duvet cover, fitted sheet, three sets of pillow-casery, washing stuff, ironing the sheets if they are wrinkly... it's like a whole DAY! I just can't be arsed.

Towels are different. I don't like using the same one more than three times because I am convinced they take on a mildew smell / aren't as absorbent / I can't trust what trouble they get in to when I'm not around.

bedding is every week & towels every other day