Should you wash sheets and towels together? Does it matter if you do?
The simple answer is no, you should not wash your dirty sheets and towels together in the same load of laundry.
Previously I wrote a post on whether you should wash your regular dirty clothes with your sheets & towels.
Hint: Don’t do that either.
While you can wash them together and the world will not end, it is definitely not the best way to do things.
It’s best not to wash sheets and towels together, but why?
Here a couple of reasons to convince you!
Sheets and towels have very different weights of fabric.
Towels are a hearty, all-cotton terry cloth and sheets are a thinner percale cotton or blend.
Towels are sturdy and made to take abuse. Sheets are more delicate and are made to feel gentle on the skin.
Items that are such different fabric weights will not wash the same nor will they dry in the same length of time.
Sheets dry in 30 minutes or less while towels can take up to an hour, depending on how well your washer spins out the excess water.
Towels can get balled up inside the sheets.
The sheer design of sheets causes other items to ball up inside.
An item that is stuck inside a sheet is not going to be washed as well and is certainly not going to dry efficiently in the dryer.
Even when I dry only sheets in the dryer, I stop the dryer mid-way through and remove the pillow cases and pillow protectors from the balled up fitted sheet. I take everything out and fluff them, and then restart the dryer.
Towels only make this balling up problem worse!
The Nitty Gritty on Washing Sheets and Towels
So just to make sure we’re clear: Your dirty clothes, your sheets, and your towels should all be in separate loads.
After you’ve sorted your laundry, you should have a pile of dirty clothes, a pile of sheets, and a pile of towels.
If you take the time to make different loads, your clothes will be much cleaner and will dry much more efficiently in the dryer.
So make sure you sort your clothes before just throwing them all in the machine.
You’ll love your results.
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Should You Wash Clothes with Towels and Sheets?
Hi i work at a hotel ..and i do laundry ..my question is if the towrls and polelyester top sheets get washed together in a commercial washing machine ..can the towels cause the top sheets to tear ,shredd ,put holes in the top sheets ??
Hey Lisa, oh yes, it can definitely cause that. The weight of the towels when they’re weight (meaning: heavy) can pull on the sheets and certainly cause them to tear.
I would wash them separately for best results.
Best wishes! Lauren
I’m a college student. I dont have a lot of towels or sheet sets. I don’t want to wash one towel at a time, do you have any suggestions?
Hey Abby,
I totally understand. It almost seems harder to wash clothes for only one person (as opposed to my 7!) because there’s not enough for a particular load at times.
Even though they are different weights of fabric, I would wash the towels and sheets together on hot. You’ll have to un-wad them several times as they’re in the dryer, but that’s probably your best choice.
Hope that helps a little!
xo, Lauren