We’ve all done it – thrown a couple of bath towels into the laundry with our clothes to save time. But this common habit might be doing more harm than good to your laundry routine. The truth is, towels and clothes have very different washing needs, and mixing them can lead to less-than-ideal results.
Towels are thick, absorbent fabrics that need a more vigorous wash than your everyday clothing. While your favorite shirt might do fine in a gentle cycle, towels require hotter water and more agitation to truly get clean. When washed together, your clothes get roughed up while your towels don’t get cleaned properly. It’s a lose-lose situation.
Then there’s the lint problem. Those fuzzy little fibers that towels shed love to cling to your dark jeans and synthetic fabrics. Suddenly your nice black t-shirt looks like it’s been dusted with snow. The heavier texture of towels can also cause pilling on delicate fabrics over time, shortening the life of your favorite garments.
From a hygiene perspective, towels collect more bacteria, dead skin cells, and body oils than clothes do. Washing them together means all those germs get distributed throughout your entire load. And when it comes time to dry, the bulky towels will leave your clothes either soaking wet or crispy dry from over-drying.