How old is your eldest towel?

[fairyfluf]

Mine is 20 years! Is that really bad? I'm wondering if it's actually really unhygienic but I wash towels regularly.

about 51 years old (!) I inherited it from my mum when I moved out and it was a wedding gift for her in 1972

I have a beach towel that's in a Polaroid photo of me on holiday with my grandmother in 1969. It's very bright and stripy, classic 60s and flat woven rather than with a soft pile. I keep it for grubby jobs rather than drying myself but it cheers me up every time!

Over 50 years, I think. Was my Mum's, and she gave it to me. It's a cat towel now (for wiping muddy paws, before she crashes back out into the garden again 😂).

It's purple, quite a 70s colour. There's nothing wrong with it.

My oldest bath towel is 26, I bought it with some John Lewis vouchers just after my wedding. It's a yellow Christy one with a nice little bear on. I've used it as a baby towel & it's been on a few Brownie holidays. It's still in good condition!

My eldest is a beach towel from when I was a kid. That's about 40 years old. I also have another beach towel that is 26 years old.

DH's favourite towel is in excellent condition; I brought it back from my uncle's house after he died in 1992. It definitely wasn't new, but was clearly built to last. Out wedding present towels have been in pretty much continuous use for 27 years, but I make sure one is always clean , as they are the "good towels" we give to guests .

Some are definitely 27. I remember buying them in Woolworths for our first flat. DH has a beach towel though which I'm pretty sure predates this. He brought it from his parents house when we moved in together & it seemed quite old fashioned then! I also have a beach towel from teenage holidays (I'm 48).

At least 45 years old. At least because I coveted it as a child and pinched it off my aunt. Knowing my aunt, it wasn’t new then 😂 and I pinched it 44 years ago…

Just retired my eldest- was 24. It had a big hole in it so I cut it up for facecloths-so semi retired 😅

30 years, I think.

My mum unearthed my school swimming towel while we were camping, complete with my name tape still stitched on, from 34 years ago.

in general use I have the towels I bought for uni, 20-odd years ago, they’re only just broken in

I wish I'd asked "and how old is your youngest" so I could get a sense of the age gap haha

All my towels were ancient and it got embarrassing, As towels are inexpensive I buy them when needed, So my oldest is 20 years.
My oldest bedlinen is 1981. Glow in the dark New York skyline pillows and duvet.
My mattress is over 60 years old.
All about the environment me.😁

Well my mum gave me her least nice towels when I started university 12 years ago, so I’m guessing 20 years at a minimum. They’ve held up fine, I think they’re John Lewis originally.

Actually now I think of it we also have some beach towels that I used as a small child as well.

My oldest towel dates back to 1988. I still use it , it's nice and big, but it is starting to go a bit thin now. It says " Made in England" on the label, which is something you very rarely see nowadays.

I have one from my grandfather with a cursive Cash's name tape, so I presume that pre dates WW2 as he was navy then. It has holes and is only used for mopping up floods and hair dying

My oldest towel is around 85 years old.

It was a wedding present to my gran who died in around 2000. After she died, we found a cupboard full of wedding presents she'd kept for best. Two of the towels were unused, and I now have them.

They're lovely towels, really absorbent but very thin, so we use them for swimming and things like that, not every day. I wish she'd used them though; she had the most horrible scratchy ones and it would have been nice for her to use them.

Older than me and I'm 48. Took it with me when I left home 30 years ago but it's always been in my life. It's actually two of them and they're my hair towels, used and washed every week and still going strong.

28yrs old. It's a Lion King swimming towel that I was given as a present by my grandparents in 1995. I can't kill it- it's been everywhere I've lived, in the wars and it's now my hair dyeing towel, but it never even holds onto stains. I feel like it might be an immortal towel.

29 years old Beach towel bought for our first holiday together from the linen shop in The Bridges, Sunderland. It's still really nice, thick, colourful and has been all over the world.

Ohhhhhh. This thread is genuinely exciting for me! Ive just been to visit my 75 year old aunt, who is doing some kind of Swedish death cleaning and clearing out her house. Anyway, years ago she inherited her house from one of her aunts, and used it as her holiday home so never properly got round to clearing it out properly.

The drawers were full of random things including towels that had never been used (still in the gift boxes they were sold in), as well as bedding, bits of lace, etc.

And I'm thinking they must be at least 1970s, if not 1960s. Going by their patterns.

I have added a picture of the pattern on my favourite one, sadly it a very very small towel (about the size of 2 flannels)

I have one that went to university with me. I'm 44 now, so it must be at least 26 years old (possibly older - it came from my mum's house).

Still looking good for its age and doing its job!

40 - it was a gift for my first holy communion. Some of our bed sheets are from my mother’s dowry, so about 50 years old. I tie dyed them when I was a teen and my children now use them.