There are some laundry habits you can follow without giving them a second thought. Socks go with socks, sheets go with sheets, and towels go in a load of their own.
But what about different kinds of towels?
For years, I treated every towel in my house the same way. Kitchen towels, hand towels, bath towels, washcloths—they all went into whichever load happened to be ready. It was convenient, saved water, and meant fewer loads of laundry.
Then one day, while folding a freshly washed load, I stopped.
I had just picked up a kitchen towel that had been used around the sink and countertops. A few minutes earlier, I had been folding a bath towel that I use after showering. Suddenly, I started wondering whether putting the two together was actually a good idea.
Kitchen towels can come into contact with raw meat, eggs, vegetables, food spills, dirty countertops, and all kinds of kitchen messes. Bath towels, meanwhile, touch your skin, face, and body.
So, does washing them together transfer all those germs from the kitchen to the bathroom?
The answer is more nuanced than a simple yes or no.
In many ordinary households, kitchen and bath towels can be washed together if they are not heavily contaminated and the towels are properly laundered. However, separating them is a sensible extra precaution—especially when kitchen towels have been used to clean up raw meat or other potentially contaminated food.
The important thing isn’t simply whether two towels share the same washing machine. It’s how heavily they’re soiled, what wash cycle you use, how much detergent you use, and whether the towels are dried thoroughly afterward.
Let’s take a closer look.
