Towels to wash hands

[mickyc]

I am so excited - my daycare space is finally renovated and we are officially back downstairs today. I love my new space and so do the kids!!

My question to everyone - what do you do when the kids wash their hands. I have always just had 1 towel that the whole group uses to dry their hands on but I realize that I should have one for everyone. I know licenced daycare's use a new towel for every time they wash their hands and then the dirty laundry goes in a basket but good grief that is a lot of laundry!! I wanted to have a designated towel for each child and change it every day to a new one. I am having a hard time finding something that I can hang them on though. I was even considering making my own out of a piece of wood and clothes pins and then I could color code each child's pin.

What do all you ladies do?

[Fun&care]

I highly recommend the Command line of products. I use them ALL.THE.TIME and they are awesome! They have strips for hanging pictures and hooks too! They do not damage walls but you do have to remove them correctly. I still just use the one hand towel and change it everyday. Not ideal but having that many towels in my tiny bathroom isn't either!

[Rachael]

My children are colour-coded. LOL

I have something like this but mine have 6 double hooks http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/presto-universal-5-hooks/6000095238297

I have one set by the front door so they each have a hook for their outdoor clothes but I have a set in the bathroom too. In the bathroom, they each have a towel and a facecloth which match but all 6 children have a different colour.

I just bought two stacks of 12 facecloths from Walmart which had three different colours in the stack. Then I bought two matching hand towels. That way, even if one set are still in the laundry, I still have an extra set. I don't change mine daily. I have fresh ones on Monday and then switch them out at naptime on Wednesday so it averages 2.5 days but since they have their own, it seems to work. I suppose if you were really worried about germs and didn't have time to do a load of laundry, you could put them in the dryer on high for a while. That would likely kill any germs anyway.

[5 Little Monkeys]

I also just use one hand towel per day. I know licensed have to use paper towel or one per child but that just doesn't seem practical to me when I only have 4 and only 2 wash their hands (the other 2 I still use wet wipes on) I think of it like guests towels lol...I don't give each of my guests a hand towel to use for the evening! If they've washed properly than it shouldn't be a big deal....not much worse than them licking all the toys and passing those germs around anyways lol

The command stuff works great though!! We use them all the time too

Just saw Rachael's link...I have that too and it would work in the bathroom!

[mickyc]

Thanks everyone. I just don't want to always be picking up the towels off the floor. I was hoping for one with clips or something.

Hmmmm.....I am still so undecided lol.

[Rachael]

I sewed loops of ribbon on the corner of my towels and face clothes. The kids soon learn to hang them up just like when they hang their jackets at the door and put their shoes on the mat. Make the loop nice and big though for the smaller ones just learning. :-)

[5 Little Monkeys]

Giant Tigef sells the ones with clips to hang up art but I can't remember how many clips there are....would work if you didn't want to make your own.

Lots of talented people on our local fb swap shop too that could probably make you something!

[AmandaKDT]

I bought metal hooks at Ikea and hang them on the towel bar in my bathroom. I marked them with the first letter of each child's name (I have older kids that wash hands independently, so they find their letter). But you could also mark them with coloured stickers or some other type of label. My system works, I like that I can just remove the hooks during non-daycare hours and put it all away in a basket out of sight.

Ikea's hand clothes all come with loops so you can hang them.

[mickyc]

Thanks 5LM - might have to make a trip to Tiger. Thanks Amanda - might have to put those hand towels on my list of things to look at next time I head to Ikea.

[5 Little Monkeys]

I think they say "look what I made today" lol but they'd do the job! I'm sorta thinking they are smaller though like 3-4 hooks? I have to return some things there later today so I'll try to remember to look!

[mickyc]

that's ok as long as I could paint them they would work. I would paint them to match my wall. I could always buy 2.

[playfelt]

I just use the one towel for all of them and change it daily but they are little enough that I am the one washing their hands so I know by the time we get to use the towel that the hands are clean. When I had older kids using the bathroom on their own they had their own towel and I had a row of hooks on the back of the bathroom door to clip them to. That way they were out of sight but available to the child.

[mickyc]

Thanks everyone. I will likely just use the 1 towel like I always do. It is good to know that everyone else uses one towel too! lol.

[Rachael]

Hmmm. Now I'm thinking that maybe mine don't need one each after all.

[5 Little Monkeys]

I'm not a huge clean freak at all but I'd rather make sure the toys are clean than do an extra load of towels every week. I think a towel per person is a nice idea but for me, not needed.

Parents ask a lot of silly questions sometimes but this has never come up, so I'm sure most parents are okay with one towel :)

[Sully12]

My children are colour-coded. LOL

I have something like this but mine have 6 double hooks http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/presto-universal-5-hooks/ (http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/presto-universal-5-hooks/6000095238297)hand-towels (http://www.toweltrade.com/Hand-Towels-c419.html)/6000095238297 (http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/presto-universal-5-hooks/6000095238297)

I have one set by the front door so they each have a hook for their outdoor clothes but I have a set in the bathroom too. In the bathroom, they each have a towel and a facecloth which match but all 6 children have a different colour.

I just bought two stacks of 12 facecloths from Walmart which had three different colours in the stack. Then I bought two matching hand towels. That way, even if one set are still in the laundry, I still have an extra set. I don't change mine daily. I have fresh ones on Monday and then switch them out at naptime on Wednesday so it averages 2.5 days but since they have their own, it seems to work. I suppose if you were really worried about germs and didn't have time to do a load of laundry, you could put them in the dryer on high for a while. That would likely kill any germs anyway.

I wash my towel about every three days I would think, but the hand towel get changed daily.

[33 Daiseys]

I buy 2 sets of the ones from ikea with the colored hook loops. Each child is assigned a color, and i just used the c shower hooks to so the hang off a regular towel bar. for the wet cloths i hve them hanging on the shower door in the daycare bathroom:)