To ask how old your bath towels are?

[nanbread]

Ours are a bit flat, rough and slightly greying. I'm wondering if they're reached the end of their time, or if there's a way to revive them? They're about 12 years old.

@eishetchayli YES!! Crispy towels are the best.

Still using towels family brought from India in 1956
Dyed various colours (regret the orange ones, the royal blue ones are good and the purple ones are just hilarious)
No fabric conditioner, line dried and ironed (sorry) but totally functional
Have some French linen towels, also ancient but really good and take minimal space in washing machine

Kids laughed at them but now realise we’re saving the planet😂😂😇

I think most are about 15 ish years old. But 1 in particular was issued to my dad when he was in the army and he left before I was born so it's at least 40 years old.

I’m amazed by posters who can date their towels. My towel collection is like a scrapbook of my life. First flat, wedding presents, holidays, gyms, swimming lessons. Inherited/ stolen. Big, small, all different colours… but no fabric softener, Jeez! Dry them outside, on a radiator and then into the dryer for 10 minutes to reduce the Weetabix effect. If you’re drying towels in a tumble dryer you must be millionaires! Just burn a pile of ten pound notes and hang them around that!

I had one that was 42 years old until I bit the bullet this year and threw it out.

Mine are probably 27 years old and still very soft. Good quality from John Lewis.

I have a set of hotel towels that I ‘acquired’ in 1997, they are still going strong!

One needs to hang onto a few old towels no longer regarded as good enough to use, for those catastrophes when the floor is flooded or something spilled. Also useful for drying a wet dog after its walk etc etc

25. I love them. They’re greying and bit frayed, but still soft when I tumble them. Enormous bath sheets to wrap yourself in. Won’t get rid until they become threadbare.

@HestersSamplerofCarrots

I’ve got some that are over 20 years old.

Same and they are still in quite good nick. Bought from Walmart for the Coachella festival in 2012. I don’t tumble dry which probably helps.

Not sure if this has been said, (only read the 1st and last page) but this thread reminds me of Gwen’s towels in Gavin and Stacey. they were a wedding present!

Just over a year, we bought new ones when we had our bathroom redone Dec 2020

@Cocopopsss

Not sure if this has been said, (only read the 1st and last page) but this thread reminds me of Gwen’s towels in Gavin and Stacey. they were a wedding present!

Yes me too!

Our "new towels" (I still think of them as new) were bought when we had our bathroom refitted, (which feels like only a couple of years ago but was actually in 2007). I can't remember how old the other towels are! I still have one that my mother bought us just after we were married. It's nearly 44 years old and a bit threadbare now.

Maybe around 15 years old? Could be even 20. Some are a bit frayed around the edges, but they're still thick and soft.

Ours are around 20 years old I've just bought new from joules and they are too pretty to use

4 years old. Bought them when we bought our house. Still in great condition. I think the tumble dryer helps keep them soft and fluffy. Planning to decorate the bathroom this year mind so will likely get new ones to match the colour.

I know someone who had towels off her Grandmother as a wedding gift..., they were new but owned a while before given as a gift !
The woman in question is now 86, been married 65 yrs!
we worked out the towels must be atleast 70 yrs old !

Another crispy towel lover here! A thick, fluffy towel would be awful for me.
When I moved into my house I treated myself to a set of lovely patterned towels. They were so soft and fluffy that I had to look up ways to make them scratchy. 2.5 years on and they’re just starting to crisp up a bit.

I don’t know how old it was but my bath towel from as long as I can remember up until about 15 had so little actual towel stuff left that it had probably become something that would now be appropriate in a Liz Earle way. Just a big bit of turquoise cloth. But I loved it.

Between 6 months and about 20 years.

Until a couple of years ago I still had a towel with my nametag sewn in for primary school swimming! It lasted very well.

Got some M&S towels that date back to about 1986. Still in use, looking fine and do the job, but compared to a set of new M&S towels I bought a year ago, they are much thinner. I wash towels at 60 degrees, no fabric condition and always tumble dry so that they're soft. They're still far too good to be relegated to dog towels

I love an old scratchy towel. Love.
My favourite bath towel is 20 years old. New towels give me the heebie jeebies.

My oldest towel is about 60+ years old, raggy round the edges now, I keep cutting it down but it's got sentimental value now! It's still the biggest towel I have ever seen, and I can remember being dried with it as a child!
I've also got a few John Lewis towels from the 80's, given to me by Mum when she upgraded her bathroom, and I needed extra because small children...still retaining their strong colours and thick pile. Most of the rest are 10-20 years old, and still looking good. I'm hoping some will wear out soon because I really want to buy some new ones!

I ended up using an old baby towel this morning -one of those with a hood in the corner. It just seems to hang about in the bathroom but it's such a great, really absorbent towel. I can't bear to get rid of it. My youngest is twenty.