Friday, August 14, 2009

A Towel A Day…

Had an interesting conversation this week. A friend’s adult child and his family were visiting the week before, and she noticed that every time they took a shower or bath, they threw the towels in the hamper. Since her son was taking two showers a day plus they live across the street from a beach (add in multiple beach towels), the washing machine was getting quite a workout.

She, on the other hand, confessed she often reuses her bath towel because, hey, you’re already clean, right? But then she thought maybe it was a I-live-alone-and-it’s-kind-of-weird habit she’d developed. So she asked us: do you reuse the same bath towel, or do you use a fresh towel each time you bathe?

In my house, each person hangs his or her towel up after using it, a habit I picked up in my parents’ home. Nowadays, I would spin it as trying to be environmentally conscious by conserving water. In reality, it cuts out at least one to two loads of laundry a week! My brother, on the other hand, having grown up in the same house, NEVER reuses a towel. When they visit, his entire family always uses new towels every time they bathe, causing my mother to hyperventilate at the amount of laundry they create and the strain it puts on her septic system. (Trying to point out to my mother that my adult brother and his wife are capable of helping out with their own laundry when visiting is another whole story…)

Would love to hear what others think…

1 comment:

Tricia said...

We reuse towels at our house. We hang them over the banister and usually they get two uses before I throw them in the washer. My 80 year old mother just confessed, that she would take the towels and just DRY them in the dryer and put them back. There were 7 in our family. WHO KNEW??