How old is you oldest towel?

[VanTullek]

We tend not to throw towels away- they just get relegated from bath towels to swimming towels to outdoor swimming towels to dog towels etc.

Current oldest towel is one that DH (nearly 50) had as a child and not even as a best towel but as a swimming towel. We inherited it from MIL and I keep meaning to recycle it but it’s actually quite useful. It’s probably 60 years old.

Anyone else have very old towels lurking in their cupboards?

No idea about towels but my winter coat is the one I wore when pregnant with DD1. I now have grandchildren from her so it's way over 25 years old. I have tried to replace it, but it's like an old friend you just can't live without

15 years. I replace them every 5 years or so.

I use mine which I had for uni 33 years ago as dog towels! I love seeing them on the washing line after a dry off. They were in the sale from habitat

About 33 years

28 years old; white towels from Debenhams (got a store card when I moved into a house-share, treated myself to bedding and towels from Debenhams as it felt very posh).

still white, still fluffy

I guess that some of mine are about 60+ years (inherited). I've just looked at the labels - they're hanging in the bathroom. They just say made in England. When they get to 80, I'll relegate them to dog towels.

I'm not sure, because some are ones we inherited from the in-laws. Pretty sure they had them for as long as I've known DH (over 40 years) and they're still in good condition and not relegated from bath service.

I got rid of a dog towel a couple of years ago which must have been over 50 - one of a pair which were lovely when DM bought them when I was a child. (I'm 63). (A bit may still be in the cleaning cloths box).

We bought some nice guest towels when we lived in the US in 1990 - they're still in almost perfect condition

I have some that are from c. 1914...they were bought from Harrods by my great grandmother who bought everything by the gross ...they are monogrammed (I have the same initials as my uncle!) and are still beautiful, though not as fluffy as they would have been when new.

How is this possible????

How big a cupboard did she have to store a gross of towels? was that a gross each of bath, hand and facecloths? Were there similar quantities of sheets?

They had a pretty large country house...and everything was bought by the gross! So every grandchild has 12 beautiful crystal glasses, linen tablecloths, towels, etc. I think my grandfather worked out she was spending the equivalent of c. £1m a year at Harrods at the time 🤯

One from 1950s belonged to a friend of my MIL who sewed her name tape in to take it to teacher training college! Not quite sure how it ended up with my MIL but we now use it for spills/floods leaking windows etc

Nearly 64 years . My Mum was given it as a wedding present. She kept it wrapped up for years and then I had it about twenty five years ago. It’s starting to look a bit thin now, but gets washed three times a week.

I have 1 at home that was a DAunt's for years, so probably almost 50 years old (I got it asa as a hand down in my teens so have had it 35 years).

DH has one for his teen years also.

With me where I am currently, I have 2 from our wedding (24 years ago), and 2 sets (1 hand, 1 bath) from DSis wedding 11 years ago.

Same OP - at least 60 years old = probably nearer 70. Inherited. Super for drying - not too fluffy, strong and effective - but a horrible colour, (50's pink)

When we inherited our house the airing cupboard was still full and filled with mainly towels. There were dozens of towels some of them still in the packaging and the oldest ones around 40 years old. We gave almost all of them away to a dogs home for bedding and kept a few of the nice ones.

I have one beach towel of late DMIL's that probably dates back to the late 1950s. I begged for it, just because I love the colour combination.

We have 'the big brown towel'. It's still very thick and nice, despite being at least 50 years old and having been passed from my granny to my mum and then to me. As a child I had nightmares about a fox living at the bottom of my bed, and this is the towel I used to get out of the airing cupboard, curl up in and sleep on the landing (having shut the fox in my bedroom of course). It came with me to Uni, and is now in use in my own home. As it doesn't match any others and is very absorbent it tends to be used for plumbing emergencies,. although it would be very nice still to use as a 'proper' towel.

My oldest towel was traded with my Nan ( who owned a corner shop) when she was expecting my Dad in 1944 in WW2

40 years old! It’s a beach towel that I bought in 1984 for my first holiday away with my then boyfriend ( now ex husband).

My oldest towels were bought by grandmother in law in Pakistan in the 1960s, they are green & yellow swirls, quite amazing.

I also have pillowcases that I got from my grandmother that are marked with my great grandmothers name - she died in 1958 so they are at least that old!

I still have my swimming towel (with most of the badges intact) which I started using in 1990, aged five.

Yep! Can get so crispy they argue when I'm trying to fold them to put them away

I have some that are probably 20 years old and still good. My Dad still has a couple that I remember as a kid. In the 70s!

One I can date - 55years old.
Others inherited so maybe 80+ years old.