How a simple towel rekindled my love for Twitter

The social media platform is best for silly but surprisingly instructive debate, writes Will Gore. This week, how often do you wash your towels?

As my wife slumbers beside me, I stare at my phone screen, reloading and reloading, desperate to recover that sense of connection (PA)

Once upon a time I loved Twitter. Now, thanks to the change of management, it’s plainly a bit of a mess. But I’ve not fully changed my behaviour. I still scroll through, waiting to see something relevant or someone recognisable (other than Elon). At night, as my wife slumbers beside me, I stare at my phone screen, reloading and reloading, desperate to recover that sense of connection.

I should give it up, I know. But then every once in a while, there is a nugget of something golden. This week, it was towels. Roman Kemp, broadcaster and son of 1980s icons Martin and Shirlie, had posted a seemingly innocuous question about how often a towel should be reused before it was washed. In response came a stream of impassioned replies, which snowballed as it became clear views on this critical subject diverge dramatically.

Startlingly, a very common position seemed to be that towels ought to be washed daily, or even more than that. Other people, outraged at such profligacy, argued for a weekly change. This is the kind of insight I want from Twitter: silly but surprisingly instructive debate about an issue of universal experience but questionable importance. It made me chuckle, but it also left me wondering about my own and other people’s behaviour.

First my own. I use my bath towel, as I assume most people do, when I am at my very cleanest. Fundamentally, therefore, I consider it to require less washing than my clothes, which are liable to get faintly grubby on the outside, and sometimes sweaty on the inside. And let me be clear: I try to wash my clothes (underwear and socks aside) as little as possible. All other things being equal, I don’t see why a shirt or a pair of trousers needs to be chucked into the dirty clothes basket more than once a week. And jumpers can go on and on; especially the wool ones which are handwash only. I’m pretty sure I’ve got a couple that I haven’t washed for a year or more, despite fairly regular use.

Towels, therefore, ought to do for at least a fortnight, I reckon. In the summer, when they dry quickly after being used, I will almost certainly give mine a month. My wife might take a different view. As for the kids, I doubt they’d even consider the question.

Please don’t imagine that I am somehow averse to a nice fluffy towel. But in a household of four, the idea of washing everyone’s towel daily is impossible: for one thing, my son’s school uniform – muddied day in, day out from playground football – has to take precedence.

Even putting practicalities to one side, however, are people not thinking of the environment?! I rather thought that reducing the amount of washing we all do is one of those eco messages that had broadly cut through – even to the hospitality sector, which is no longer so desperate to grab a towel out of your hand as soon as you step out of your hotel shower.

Yet if people are in fact merrily tumble-drying their towels every couple of hours, what hope is there for the planet? Greenwashing, in this context, would actually be a good thing.

As it happens, I do a lot of my Twitter scrolling while in the bath, trying to catch up on things I might have missed during the day, and mostly failing to find out anything of use before I hop out to get dry. And yet thanks to Roman Kemp’s intervention the other day, I’ll probably keep searching for the next gem. The only question is whether I’ll discover an interesting or enlightening tweet before I decide to treat myself to a fresh towel.