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?

My oldest one is just a baby compared to some in here at just 24 years old!

My dogs towel for when he gets wet and muddy on walks belonged to my ex from over a decade ago. It was his Beach towel that somehow ended up in my possession during a holiday very shortly before we split and just seemed to morph into the dog one 🤣That's genuinely the oldest one! The rest DH and I bought brand new in 2017 when we bought our house.

I think the oldest is about 40 years old and the newest are hand towels for the downstairs loo. I like visitors to think we have nice towels, they don't need to see DH's Cyprus towel that he bought on a boys holiday thirty years ago!

My oldest towel is about 25 years old. I got it as a freebie from Debenhams when buying perfume with my student loan. They gave me two bright orange towels (can't remember the brand or what's happened to them) and a dark grey Burberry towel. The Burberry is beginning to get a bit threadbare in places but is much better quality than most of the towels I've bought since.

My uni ones from 20 years ago. They look at good as new and are so soft.

I think the oldest towels we have are a Barbie beach towel - AND a Little Mermaid beach towel - that my 2 DDs had around 21-22 years ago when they were very young. Still got them, and still use them for the beach!

I thought my old ones were very old until I read this 😂 my oldest ones must be when we bought our first house so 16yrs old. I think we only have 1 or 2 of those towels. They actually are still quite decent condition. Bought some beautiful ones from tk maxx maybe about 8 years ago but recently binned some of them as we got some lovely new ones at Costco.

I have one that I had in 6th Form. I'm 50 this year. dS uses it for swimming lessons, complete with both of our name tapes.

We still use three of dh's towels that were bought when he was sent to boarding school at 8 (a whole other thread, literally). They are doing well, as is he, aged 42 and a half

I've got two bathroom hand towels which I alternate and are about 22 years old. They are getting pretty tatty I admit.
My mum has a few still useable towels which have been present all my lifetime (I'm 50). Can't beat 1970s M&S quality!

I have one of my grandparents towels from the 1950s.

Over thirty years old. I have some that I inherited from MIL which are much older.

I have the towels I bought for going to university 37 years ago. The wedding present towels still in regular use are 25 years old.

Over 35 years!!!

I haven’t bought a towel as an adult. I was given lots from my first boyfriends mum who worked for Ashton Bros & I still have them all nearly 30 years on. I’m also still v good friends with my first bf’s mum!

I've got a couple of towels I bought when I did Camp America in the mid 90s - from Old Navy with American flags. They just get used for holidays but they're still in perfect nick!

My husband has a 37 year-old towel that he's had since his bar mitzvah.... it's seen better days. 😵

Our 1950s one is pink too!

I don't think I've ever thrown out a towel!
They move down the line from bath/shower, to hair, to swimming, to caravan, to under the sink, to dog. Oldest we have is a beach one from pre wedding,so 20 + years old. It belongs to the dog now

Possibly 30 years old

I have a hand towel from 1983/4 ish that makes it 40 years old and it was a cheap thing then, maybe because of that it was shoved at the back of a cupboard and not used much. Currently a dog towel.

Okay…. I have in the linen cupboard a bath towel my mother bought in Bentall’s blue cross in I963. It’s really thick and is woven in a sort of ‘Persian’ arabesque design.

It was in daily use for about 20 years then used regularly but occasionally when she changed the bathroom colour scheme. Still taken on holiday because it was ‘ such a good drier’. It moved with them until my father died in 2003, and it was given to me . I have used it sporadically since then, I had it out yesterday when I was having a home spa day.

it appears to be totally untouched by the years (unlike its current owner).

Also an inherited one of indeterminate age but much better quality. Also dog or general mopping up

I bought mine about a year ago, if that, and chucked the old one away. Manky towels look horrible hanging in the bathroom, and I can't stand hoarding

I've got one of grandmother's and she died almost 30 years ago!