Confession: Dirty Handtowels

 I was over at my sister in laws house this weekend. She had a party the night before for her son, and 13 of his friends and family. I passed by the bathroom and couldn’t help and stare at the hand towels in the children’s bathroom. There was no visable dirt. This made me a little uneasy. Because mine are stained after spending only a day in the bathroom. And I usually put out the DI towels when I have a children’s party. It bothered me for most of the visit. After a couple of hours, I couldn’t take it any longer I had to ask….”Why are your towels clean in the children’s bathroom.” Shocked she replied, “I do have more than a couple matching towels, Bianca.” Hmmmm, how could I tell her that mine are all stained without looking like a complete loser? “I mean I’m sure your children rinse really well before drying their hands but how did you get all the other children and some of the more messy adults to do it?” Puzzled, she said, “I use dishsoap on my towels. There is a lot of grease on your hands and it gets it out of the towels.” There it was…the answer I was looking for my entire life. Later she told me that was the secret to all her laundry problems. Wow. I have soaked my towels in Tide, Biz and even treated them with stain remover. Most of them have lost their color due to bleach and right before I resorted to not having any hand towels in my bathroom, (Couldn’t decide which was more embarrassing dirty hand towels or no hand towels)  I am lucky enough to meet a Molly who knows how to wash towels! So here is the 411 on hand towels in the children’s bathroom:
1. Buy in bulk – get plenty of those pretty hand towels that match your decor when you purchase it so that in case the design gets discontinued you still have matching towels.
2. Change your Towels often
3. Rub dishsoap on the towel before putting them into the wash.
4. Teach your children to rinse their hands thoroughly before drying them on the towels
5. Confidenly hang up towels in your bathroom. There is nothing worse than washing your hands and not having a towel to dry them on unless maybe it’s a dirty towel.

Or just get yourelf some black hand towels and save yourself the trouble.