I have a towel fetish I guess, b/c I keep fairly new towels going here. The older ones I give to GSs to wash cars with. I just bought 2 new hand towels yest. at Steinmart and today I'm going back for more. Heck no! I put them in the dryer at full force! I'm not coddling some towels! I know what you mean about the strip at the bottom and I avoid those. At least try the dryer on perma-press.

As a high school/college student I worked in a linen store. I'm 57 now, and still using many of the towels I bought back then. Most were Fieldcrest brand, and have held up well over the years. Of course, everytime I redo my bathroom, I buy several new sets of towels to match (I'm a towel person, too).

A couple of suggestions for saving$$$. Do you have a Christmas Tree Shops store near you? If so, check them out--I bought some beautiful towels there this year for 4.99 each (and they had the hand towels and wc's to match)--when I got home, I discovered a tag inside the towels that said, "Kohl's $19.99" They're really nice towels, too. What a bargain!

Another way to save when buying towels, buy one more bath towel than you need, and skip the hand towels. You can cut a bath towel into 4 hand towels and hem the edges.

As to those directions, well, there's no way. I want my bath towels washed in hot water and/or dried at a high temp to be sure they've been sanitized. I was all my towels that way (refer to paragraph 1, as to how it affects them--LOL)

gazania I have some of those towels that shrink at the stripe... but so far, I have thwarted them. Every time I wash them, I stretch the stripe before the towel goes in the dryer, and again when it comes out.

So far, so good. Thankfully I was alerted to this problem by a friend. My towels are Egypten Cotton (or something like that) from JC Penny's.

I would wash them regular, and run through an extra spin cycle... which is what I do. I also hang my towels on the line, to almost dry and then put in the dryer for adding fluff and softness. This cuts down the dryer time tremendously.

Moni

Can any even be found anymore that are made in the USA? I went towel shopping with a friend some time back, and everything we found was all foreign made.

I did however find some at a flea market. They were from a motel that changes all their stuff out every so often, whether it needs it or not.
They were big, soft, fluffy, and so bright white, and were were made in the USA. For the regular price of some towels ($15)I got 6 bath and 6 hand towels for her. Being on a very fixed income, she was very thrilled with them.

Sue

When my kids moved out, I decided to simplify my towels so I went to Sam's and bought several packages of 6 plain white towels. I love them. I add bleach when washing towels and these don't fade. No weird decorative stripe, no velour, not too thick and they were cheaper than buying towels individually (I think they were $20 for the pkg.) I bought handtowels and washcloths too so the bathroom looks simple and elegant. All for very little money. They seem to be holding up well but I won't be sad when it's time for them to live in the ragbag.

I must be poor white trash...I buy mine at WalMart...I don't like a huge towel either, but I don't want it to be a skimpy one. I go for a nice med. towel....WalMart has some really nice larger towels that are fluffy and nice..for 3.99 and they last a long time...They have some for about 7.99 that have more color selection and matching pieces. But I just want towels that match the color in my bathroom.

patti

What gripes me is whatever they put in the towels when you first get them home and washed and they wont dry you...I have been adding a squirt of DAWN dish soap to my towel loads and it cuts whatever is in the new towels..I rinse them twice and the first rinse has white vinegar in it...That makes them super absorbant!

I have a few that shrunk at the stripe, but not all of them. I'm gonna try Moni's suggetion for now on. I'm a towel freak but have never looked at the washing instructions LOL. But, if you want to follow the label instructions, maybe wash on the gentle cycle but set the machine on regular spin. I wouldn't worry about it at all since I imagine the instructions are to prevent shrinking. Actually, I wouldn't worry about that either since I wash them in hot water. I guess I'm hardheaded.

speaking of big thick towels....
Years ago, DBF was having an out of state friend come and stay for an overnight visit. All of DBF's towels should have been in a rag bag.
I went and bought him a few new towels b4 his guest came to visit. He washed them up, put them in the cabinet, and put all of the raggedy ones in the rag basket.
Later he said to me, "I hope you don't mind, and I don't want to hurt your feelings, but those towels are just too big, and I have gotten my old ones out to use again."

He has since had to finally retire those rags, and is now getting the new ones broken in. They were the $3.99 from WM and really were quite big, nice, and thirsty.

i just replaced dd1's with walmrt..$3.99! and they wern't small (54") at that price you can wash, and dry to your heart's content...

i did find some nice bath sheets at costco...(about $8) the only fault they have are "stringing" for a lack of a better term? havn't a clue what causes that! but i don't care...

I guess I'm white trash along with Patti, mine are all the $3.99 ones from Walmart too. And they wash and dry normally along with all my other clothes. I don't wash them seperately. Actually, I copied off of Stephanie in Georgia, and I now wash all my clothes together without seperating into colors. She's right, nothing has faded or gotten dingy looking. One of the best tips I ever got here at the KT.

Thanks for all your thoughts and input. Moni, the stretching solution is what I have been using on my towels that are headed for the garage for car washing. It helped some, but I don't think we should have to do that. I have some towels from the dollar store and and some from Walmart that are headed for the rag bag. Good enough towels in the beginning, but they didn't stay good enough for long. Still at 3 or 4 bucks you can replace them every year, so not such a bad deal. I looked in every posible place within 30 miles for towels without that decorative stripe plus checking all lables for where they were made. I did find a couple places had very pricey towels without that stripe, but they were always in a multicolor stripe or other pattern. I found none that were made in the U.S.A. Color selection was a problem for me also. The current trend is to earthy colors. I want pastels for my bathroom. DH's bath can use the earthy tones.

liz_ga, I will have to try your solution about the Dawn or the white vinegar. I am going to throw all caution to the wind and wash and dry DH's towels on the regular cycles. I will use the vinegar and run them through twice before use. If something terrible happens to them, at least I can return the blue ones.

About the only problem I'm having is getting the color I want...I have a very Irish bathroom, stenciled shamrocks, green curtains and throw rugs and my towels really need replaced and I can't find dark green any where.....The last ones I bought were Martha Stewart's, got them at K Mart and they did shrink at the stripe but now they don't even have my green....

LOL Me too Patti. I bought a nice set of rose pink towels, face cloth and a bath sheet with the gift card you all sent me. I love my new pink towels and they are holding up very well and they were on sale and not expensive at all. They are holding up better than the one expensive set I bought when I was in St. Louis a couple of years ago. Those ones had pulls all over them after just one wash.

When my niece first got married she had beautiful sets of matching towels for her bathroom, some with satin on them, etc. After having 3 kids and a husband that works as a skilled tradesman in a factory she has since replaced all those beautiful towels with all white towels and faceclothes from Costco. This way she can toss them all in the wash and bleach them and not have to worry about them.

Most of my towels, with the exceptions of my new ones are more than 25 years old and there is nothing wrong with them except they have bold coloured flowers on them. LOL I bleach them too and the colours never fade.

Anne

I guess I'm in Patti's group too cause I get my towels at wal-mart.Never had any problems with them and they have lots of colors to choose from.
When we were at DS's in Albuquerque last summer we were in the dollar store.DH has a thing about the color lime green.Anything lime green he has to have.Anyway he found a set of towels that color and just had to have them.Lime green doesn't match anything in my house but,Oh Well! There was a bath towel,hand towel and wash cloth for $5. so we got a set.Best towels I have ever used.Went back to get the other set and it was gone and haven't been able to find them anywhere,in any color since.
A little hint.If you use liquid fabric softener in your towels it will build up on the fibers and prevent them from absorbing moisture.My cousin does that and you cannot dry off with her towels!LOL I never use softener of any kind in my towels,but I do dry them in the dryer.