Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Rose Lounsbury.
How many towels do you need? This was the surprisingly life-changing question I faced on a Saturday afternoon in early 2012, as I scrutinized my linen cupboard.
I had just started on a minimalist journey, inspired by my 1,500 square foot house that could no longer comfortably contain the possessions of me, my husband, and our three 2-year-olds (yes, you read that right… triplets).
A few weeks earlier, we’d returned from visiting out-of-state relatives for Christmas with a van absolutely packed full of presents. As I walked into my house and assessed our already stuffed surroundings, a slow, frightening realization came upon me:
We didn’t have room for the things we already owned. Where was I going to put this new stuff?
I felt defeated and overwhelmed. I knew the gifts had been given in love. I knew they were supposed to make me and my children happy. But more than anything, they added stress to my already stressful full-time-working-mom-of-triplets life.
Luckily, though, a change was coming.
About a week after Christmas I had lunch with a good friend, and I explained my problem. I thought the solution was to either buy a bigger house or allow no one to buy my kids Christmas presents again, ever.
But my friend looked at me between bites of soup and casually suggested another idea, “Or… you could just become a minimalist.”
I immediately thought of monks living in a cave or college students traversing Europe with all their possessions on their backs or black-clad hipsters lounging on white couches in apartments that doubled as art galleries. None of that sounded like my real life in the Ohio suburbs with three kids, two cars, and a mortgage.
But my friend reassured me that minimalism was just a philosophy, a less-is-more approach to living, and that any modern American could adopt it. Skeptical but intrigued, I went home and started reading. I was hooked.
Which brought me, a few weeks later, to January of 2012, when I went to put away some towels in my linen cupboard and asked myself the aforementioned life-changing question:
How many towels do you need?
Now I want you to realize, this wasn’t the first time I’d asked myself questions about my stuff. Unbeknownst to me, I’d been asking myself questions about my stuff my entire life (and you probably have, too).
But those questions sounded different. They sounded more like this…
“Rose, how much stuff could you AFFORD to buy?” I was a dedicated closeout, clearance, and coupon shopper, always scouring the racks for the best “deal” I could find.
Another favorite: “Rose, how much stuff could you FIT in here?” I used every spare inch in my snug home to cram in as much as possible, often resorting to space saver bags and bins stacked precariously high in my attic.
And, finally, the Big Daddy of them all, the question I continually asked every night as I spent hours putting away toys, shoes, sippy cups, and errant paper: “Rose, how could you better ORGANIZE this stuff?”
I thought organizing was the answer, the Holy Grail, the thing that—if I could just master it and buy the right bins with the right labels—would solve my problem. I’d finally have the home in the magazines. I’d finally stop feeling like every day was a continual battle between me and the chaos.
But that Saturday afternoon, I wasn’t asking myself any of those questions. That day, fresh in my nascent minimalist awakening, I was asking myself a very different question:
Rose, how many towels do you NEED?
That’s the kind of question that just might change your life.
The answer was surprisingly clear: two per person.
Which immediately felt wrong. Because if you passed third grade math you know that’s only 10 towels for a family of five, which certainly wasn’t the number of towels I’d registered for on my Bed, Bath, and Beyond wedding gift registry. It wasn’t the number of towels in my friend’s homes. And it certainly wasn’t the towel message I received from Better Homes and Gardens magazine. They were telling me I needed pink towels for spring and yellow towels for summer and towels with festive reindeer prancing across them for Christmas! Ten towels just didn’t feel right.
So, I did something I rarely do. I entered the sanctum of my husband’s man cave on a Saturday afternoon (aka prime sports-watching time) to ask him a very serious question, “Honey, is it okay if we have just 10 towels?”
Josh paused. He looked at me for a long time. I’m certain that during this time he was deeply pondering the critical issue of the towel supply. He eventually responded with a somewhat confused, “Yeah, I guess. I mean, that sounds about right.”
That settled it. Ten towels.
Now remember… that was EIGHT YEARS ago. In that time, I have not increased our number of towels and everyone in our family has been dry when they needed to be dry.
This early venture into minimalism taught me two very clear things:
- I can live with a lot less than I think I can.
- I can definitely live with a lot less than society tells me I should.
In my closet right now, you would see five bath towels—because the other five are in use. You would also find 5 pool towels on the bottom shelf. So yes, technically we have three towels per person: 2 bath towels + 1 pool towel. The surprising thing about this is that my kids are on a swim team every summer and we’ve gotten by on this number of towels.
The most interesting thing about minimalism is how it changes my mindset.
Every June when I see the pool towels on sale at big box stores, I think, “Maybe I should just buy a couple more.” But then we get through the swim season just fine and I’m reminded again of lessons #1 and #2.
My towels are just one example of minimalist thinking. After I decluttered my towel cupboard, I went through the rest of my house, asking myself different variations of that original question:
Rose, how many coffee cups do you need?
Rose, how many pairs of shoes do you need?
Rose, how many boxes of holiday decorations do you really need?
And slowly, over a period of almost one year, my home physically transformed. My cluttered corners turned into open spaces. My formerly crammed cupboards had room to breathe. My now unstuffed drawers opened and closed easily.
So yes, my home looked neat and tidy, but that wasn’t the point. That wasn’t why I kept doing what I was doing. The reason I kept doing it was because of how I felt. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, I felt free. I felt at peace. I started to find myself, at the ends of my long working + parenting days, relaxing on my couch instead of frantically picking up my stuff.
So today I want to encourage you: ask yourself a life-changing question.
Insert any word you like (towels, sweaters, hammers, wine glasses, email subscriptions, volunteer commitments, etc.) into the blank space:
How many _______________ do you need?
My wish is that this simple question starts you on a journey toward a more peaceful life, full of the possibilities of open spaces.
Cheers to less stuff and more you!
***
Rose Lounsbury is a minimalism and simplicity coach, speaker, and author of the Amazon bestselling Less: Minimalism for Real. Rose spends her days speaking, writing, coaching her clients and online students to stuff-free freedom. Rose’s advice has been featured in USA Today, and she’s been a guest on Good Day Columbus, NPR, Good Morning Cincinnati, and Living Dayton. You can find her online at RoseLounsbury.com.
Jess says
I love the simplicity of this question: “How many ____ do you NEED?” It’s not the same answer for everyone, but the point is this question can easily be applied to any area you are tackling in your quest for minimizing. Thanks for giving me additional motivation to revisit some areas of my house (clothes closet & some of my cabinets)!
Steph Smith says
I find it extremely interesting how so many people are interpreting this literally as towels and thus missing the point. The point is to put thought and intention into determining what YOU need in every area of your life/home… not what others need, or what society attempts to dictate you need. Less is more, but ‘less’ looks different for every one of us.
Isabel Cascante says
Great point!
Karen T. says
Absolutely right, Steph! Jess’s point (right above yours) is also right on… the point is “How many ____ do YOU need?” This can be applied in every area. If you think you can dismiss this author’s advice because for her minimalism started with towels, you’re missing the point.
Great post.
Ronda says
As a single person two towels would not work for me. Towels are washed in warm to hot water, so are not washed with other items.
I’d be wasting money on water (my washer has preset load sizes) and electricity if I had to wash 2 towels and wash cloths every other day. I have approximately ten towels for one person and I’ll stick with that probably. You can’t make a blanket statement like the above and expect it to fit every person / situation.
Marie says
She doesn’t say everyone needs 2 towels per person, but the idea is to determine what you need for each. But more importantly, why do you wash 2 towels every other day? I wash my towels 1x per week since they always hung up to dry and only used to dry off clean bodies.
linda says
FINALLY someone acknowledged the fact that you don’t need a clean towel every day! In other countries they use the same towel for a month. We are so spoiled thinking we have to have a clean towel every day when we are drying off a clean body. I only wash towels about once a month & I am clean & healthy plus I save money on laundry; same with jeans, in the winter we wear the same pair all week but change our underclothes. They are fine & last a lot longer this way. I’ve never understood people that think they have to launder clothes after wearing them for a few hours……….why wash them if they aren’t dirty?
Megan says
I agree. My towel hangs up for weeks in the bathroom and smells just fine. I am clean out of the shower when I use it. What a waste of water to wash a towel when it is not dirty. And I wash that towel in cold and hang it to dry. I live alone with a frequently visiting 19 year old daughter. I have two bath towels and a beach towel. I do have a few old dog towels. Muddy dog towels do get washed more often, especially when it is rainy!
Marilyn says
Soooooo agree!
Kay m says
Some women are missing the point
For good feminine hygiene you shouldn’t be reusing your towels ..
Mary says
I use just one towel pet week . After shower your drying off a cow a n body .Then hang this towel to dry .
I wash all my clothes including towels in cold water and this works well !To top it off I try to dry clothes on drying rack as much as possible ….less expensive than using a drier , better on environment and clothes last longer ?
Steph Crandall says
I only have 4 towels, but that’s because before I moved into my current apartment with a washer/dryer in house, I was having to spend money at the complex laundry room and having 4 towels lets me go longer before I have to do laundry again.
However, I’ve had those towels since college, and that was far too long ago to admit. lol!
XO Steph
Heather says
We also count two per guest.
We have two per family member, which means 20 towels, and the most guests we ever have overnight at one time are two families of eight, so we have 16 guest towels we keep stored near the guest bathroom.
We have a pool, so guests don’t necessarily have to spend the night in order to need towels.
That means I keep 36 towels using the two per person rule.
Jane S. says
In Theory this sounds great … but we just had 4 people stay for 4 days (doubling up in the spare room, one in a tiny office, and another sleeping on the living room sofa). The 4 towels we need for my husband and me on a regular basis would not have been enough (6 people altogether). Like another poster, we also need dog towels. My take home from this is to put the extra towels in a storage box/bag and put them somewhere dry for those times when the extras are necessary.
Anna C says
Great article. I was starting to ponder the same thing as I put clean laundry away and stack towel upon towels that have not been used for a while. I’ve downsized the number of bed sheets I have, but I have to go through the towels. This article made me realize that indeed, I can get by with less towels. Thank you!
MelD says
Yep, sheets also downsized! Although I have two sets for our bed, I find I usually have the set I’ve washed dry in time for bed… so really I could get rid of one. But keeping two won’t kill me.
I then have four single sets for guests because that is the number of guests I could accomodate, max. and those sets are in a small chest.
Deanna says
The same could be said for sheets. We wash our sheets on the weekend and put them back on the bed. Sheets take up a lot of room in the linen closet.
Toni says
Wear out to fast. Too expensive to be buying that often.
Dean says
You may laugh, but I buy my sheets at the thrift store. They are clean and in good shape – also soft and broken in. No to mention I can get a set for $5 or $10.
Phyllis says
I also feel good about buying the “broken in, softer”sheet sets second hand. Extending the life of a product, as opposed to buying new?
Marilyn says
In my journey towards minimalism I reduced first, then re-evaluated my need. Helps me. With towels I have 2 each for hubby and me, but have 4 each for 2 kids. I figure I can reduce theirs when I get the same color as ours for washing.
Rob Lippert says
I went to all “pool” or beach towels. Supplemented with a few plain hand towels and wash clothes.
Buy them when the sale price is ridiculous, they are big enough, and I just replace as needed.
I do have more than two each, but not the multiple huge stacks of big towels, normal towels, hand towels and wash clothes I used to have.
Sharon says
This is perfect! I just might do this!!