The dirty truth - 3 ways to get kids to reuse their bath towels



Photo courtesy:  www.snapsandbits.com

Have you ever experienced a time where it felt like you had mounds of laundry, especially towels to clean and put away? In my house I feel like there needs to be a towel rationing system.

When I walked into my teen sons’ room it looked like a towel parade. There were towels in varying sizes and colors. Some in a heap on the floor. Others thrown over the back of the head board of his bed.

On any given day my son can be seen strutting to his room with one towel around his waist and another around his neck. When I look in the bathroom, none of the towels have made it back to the towel bar. However there is a towel on the bathroom floor. When I asked why the towel was on the floor, my son responded with, “I needed to put my wet feet on something.”

What’s a parent to do? Do you put a limit on the number of towels your child uses each week?

The dirty truth…you may have to trick become very creative to get kids to reuse their towels. So where do you start? Below are a few suggestions to get you started:

1.      Teach the kids to do laundry - Assign one child to wash all of the family towels for two weeks. Remind him that it’s not a punishment, just a learning experience.

2.      Use a little ingenuity – One mom decided to hang her kids used towels across a laundry basket to dry. Once the towels dried, she refolded them and placed them back in the closet. The kids never caught on.

3.      Set house rules for towel usage – identify a set number of towels each child can use each week. Have consequences for over usage – child would have to complete one additional chore during the week. By the same token you can offer rewards for compliance - Child can choose the dinner menu for one night.

What do you do when you feel like you’re ready to “throw in the towel”? What are your suggestions for controlling the over usage of towels?