How often should you wash towels?

A towel only touches clean skin, so it can feel like it stays clean. It doesn’t: every use leaves dead skin cells and moisture behind, and a damp towel is a comfortable home for microbes. Here is what health sources recommend.

The short version

Bath towels: at least weekly

Cleveland Clinic recommends washing bath towels at least once a week and washcloths at least twice a week. Wash them more often if your skin barrier is damaged, for example with eczema, or if your bathroom is humid and towels never fully dry. As their dermatologist puts it, the longer a towel stays damp, the longer yeasts, bacteria, moulds and viruses stay alive in it.

You will also see “every three uses” as a rule of thumb, or three to five uses in American Cleaning Institute advice reported by Medical News Today. That fits the weekly advice for most people and works as a ceiling if you shower more than once a day.

Help towels dry

• Hang towels spread out, not bunched on a hook.
• Don’t leave them on the floor or in a gym bag.
• Use your own towel. Sharing spreads whatever is living on it.

Kitchen sponges: replace, don’t rescue

A 2017 study in Scientific Reports analysed 14 used kitchen sponges and found bacteria at densities of up to 54 billion cells per cubic centimetre. Sponges their owners regularly cleaned weren’t better off: two of the bacteria types linked to possible infections made up a larger share in “cleaned” sponges. The authors suggest replacing sponges regularly rather than trying to sanitise them, and weekly is a common interval.

The study was small and looked at sponges from one region, so take the exact numbers lightly. The practical advice is easy to follow either way.

Make the week visible

“Once a week” is easy to agree with and hard to keep, because nobody remembers when the towels last went in the wash. Oncelet counts the days since you last did it, learns your usual rhythm after a few entries, and can remind you when it is time. There is more on bedding, filters and other household intervals in How often should you replace it?

Sources

1. Cleveland Clinic. How often should you wash your bath towel?
2. Medical News Today. How often should you wash your towels?
3. Cardinale M, Kaiser D, Lueders T, Schnell S, Egert M. Microbiome analysis and confocal microscopy of used kitchen sponges reveal massive colonization by Acinetobacter, Moraxella and Chryseobacterium species. Scientific Reports 2017;7:5791. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-06055-9.
4. Sleep Foundation. How Often Should You Wash Your Sheets?