Towels – How Much is Enough?

The number of towels you should have is dictated by several factors:

• The number of people in the household. (Each person should have their own bath towel.)
• The number of bathrooms in the household. (Each bathroom should have its own towel for drying washed hands. It could even be one person’s bath towel.)
• The number of times each person feels comfortable using their bath towel before laundering it. (If everyone can tolerate using one towel a week, then the amount of laundry will be decreased.)
• The frequency of laundering loads of towels.
  

If you can restrict everyone in the house to using one bath towel for the whole week, then that will save someone (probably you) from having to do so much laundry in the form of towels.

While all the towels are in the laundry, there must be clean towels to put in their place. That means the number of bath towels should be at least double the number of people in the household. Two people, four towels minimum.

How about towels for guests? If you take the maximum number of people you have ever had stay overnight as guests at your house, that is probably the number of extra towels you need beyond the minimum. If you’ve never had overnight guests, then you probably don’t really need to have extra towels. In a pinch, an unexpected crasher can use a secondary towel.

There may be additional factors to consider. Add an extra set of towels for everybody if your family often goes swimming, or dances in the rain, or periodically bathes your pets.

The number of towels your household should have doesn’t have to be guesswork. It should be calculated based upon your family’s needs. Doing this ensures that your precious space will not be wasted on what is unnecessary.