Keep using them until they are no longer usable or donate them to the Salvation Army or Red Cross.

I might have about 20+ towels. I never counted. I replace them when they need replacing then throw the old ones in a bin for spills, problems or just whatever. If you have too many give them to goodwill or someplace like that. If they are still nice ask your friends or family if they would like some.

I have a dog. When towels start to get old, faded or worn, I recycle them for dog use purposes....in the car, wiping wet or muddy feet, dog baths, etc.

We only have about 8 that we use after bathing. They are only a few years old. I have a few others in decent condition that I use when blanching produce to dry it off before flash freezing.

I'll cut up old ragged bath towels to use as shop towels. When we had a dog the older bath towels would be used to clean muddy feet or to dry him off after bathing.

I have a lot of towels too. Too many for the linen closet so I never wash them all up at once. They're all in great shape. A couple that I bought from Walmart frayed along the side hem so I donated them.

We have a cabinet in the laundry room for the old ones that we use for the dogs or other cleanups. We've donated some to our animal shelter and I send some to work with hubby for cleanup rags.

I second the "donate to your local Humane Society". They are always in need of

them. Especially the bigger ones.

My first towels are still in use, they were made in the USA and look great even thought they're well over thirty years old.

Hubbies old towels become garage towels. They are used for drying wet boots, cleaning yard tools, etc...

Any dog rescue or cat rescue for that matter, would love to have them. Do you like big fluffy towels? I have to say that I do not care for big fluffy towels and am always on the lookout for old towels in good shape at garage sales or in the off chance that I can find new towels that are thin, I will buy those too.

I absolutely recommend that you donate your old towels to an animal shelter. They are always welcome. (If you donate to a thrift shop and they are not in great shape, they may end up in a rag bale.)

We have a dozen very good bath towels, separate towels for my DH to take to the gym (in case they don't come home & he likes thinner ones for that use), and we use 'exhausted' towels for drying our dog after a bath or on a rainy day.

I have 5 new fluffy towels, 2 large beach towels that accidentally got bleach stains on them that I use for dog towels.

And a big basket of new washcloths rolled up and put into napkin rings right by the bathroom sink, my grand daughter for some reason loves to use these so it encourages her to wash her hands.

She likes absolutely immaculate linens and towels so there are no grade b washcloths any more.

I have too many towels. We don't go through them fast enough so when they sit piled up - they smell musty when we go to use them.

I too have a dog and need some for rags/wipe ups (that sometimes I don't even want to handle again and can toss). I regularly bring sorry looking ones to the animal shelters around here. They are always asking for them.

Another vote for the animal shelter.

Hubby likes to use them to dry the cars on car wash day.

Drying wet dogs after a bath or an outing in the rain/snow.

I keep a couple of them in our vehicles for various purposes.

Mopping up unexpected spills or other messes (big ones).

I mostly use old kitchen towels for cleaning rags, but old bath towels can be cut up for this purpose. Same for garage/shop towels.

TG, if you're tired of the towels you have, want new ones, and can afford to replace them, go for it. I personally dislike hand-me-down towels anyway. Over the years we've periodically replaced such things - bedding, towels, etc. - just to freshen up what we have and how it looks. As all have said, animal shelters can make good use of old towels. It's a guilt-free act.

My in-laws have enough towels for 3 or more households. Years ago they offered "would you like to take home some of our towels" and thinking "why would I want to make your clutter into my clutter", I said "no thanks, we have enough". The towels are still there, decades later, still mostly unused.

Use them on your own dogs or donate them to animal rescue groups.

I also donated unwanted towels, and bedding to my local animal shelter.

And yet another vote for the animal shelter!

And all the other uses others have suggested.

I remember my mother making potholders from worn out bath towels. She'd cut them into the size she wanted, layer 2 or 3 and baste them together. Then she'd cut some medium weight material to the same size to cover both sides, and use bias tape around the edges. Then she'd machine quilt them so the layers stayed in place. Of course, she used only 100% cotton (there may not have been any other kind back then). The number of layers used probably depended on the thickness of the towel used. This was way back in the 'lean' years, one of her favorite sayings was "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." Plus, all the choices of materials available now for potholders was unheard of then. At least to my knowledge.

Rusty

If good enough, donate to a "people" charity. If not good enough for a person, then donate to an animal shelter (is my opinion).

I've never bought a towel in my life! My mom bought enough sale-price towels when I was in high school to equip six or seven families. I still have a couple in my closet that haven't been used yet. More recently, we also got a bunch of thick fluffy towels when closing up my in-law's household. Never really thought of it before but both my mom and my mil were towel-horders - lol.

Rusty, I like the idea of making pot holders from towels.

SO has a habit of stealing the hand towels to use as rags while he is fiddling with his cars,so those never get worn out enough to pose a conundrum.

As for big towels, I have MAYBE a dozen. All but 4 are still unused. For as little as he thinks about snagging brand new hand towels for oil rags,he insists on not using the new towels at all. His favorite bath towel really needs to be turned into rags. Its falling apart. I don't know what his attachment to it is. When and if he ever let's it go, it will be cut into rags for his car or for me to clean with. It's at least ten years old,and if he has his way, he will use it for the rest of his life.

Oh, and he got a beach towel as part of the birthday package on our cruise this past summer. Its tucked away safely in the hall closet, again probably never to be used. He likes to "save" things.

I have 6 in current use, which is 3 more than I need now that I am empty nesting. These are fairly new -- 2 years: I got them just because I wanted fluffier and a change of color.. My previous towels were 14 years old, and I still have a few hanging around in the basement for utility use that are older.

I actually took the 4 old towels and made 2 sleeping pillows out of them. I have a neck injury that calls for fairly firm support of a certain thickness and wasn't able to find a commercial pillow that suited.

My local shelters (for people) always need decent towels and washcloths, so that is where any extras would go. My mother was a linen hoarder also and when I cleared her condo, all of the linens and pillows (after washing) went to the various shelters.

I use them to clean with, cut them up into smaller sections or leave them whole. Say the dogs come in and the floor is soaking wet, they soak up water instead of using tons of paper towels. I have a bucket in my laundry closet for dirty rags and they go in there after using until I have enough for a load of laundry.

When I buy new towels the old towels become car drying towels.

I have more towels than a much younger person'd need ...

... and my landlord, with a lot of machinery and a shop better equipped than some machine shops, is happy to snag any decrepit towels that I'm willing to part with. And when I'm willing to part with 'em - they're pretty decrepit.

In the interim, they get used to clean up the floor, do various cleaning jobs around the house and garden and other of odd jobs. I'm more inclined to use old towels and wash 'em than to use paper towels: a roll of paper towels lasts a long time in my house.

ole joyful

I take my old towels to my vet.

Yes to what everyone else said...take the old ones you don’t need to an animal shelter or vet. I also keep a couple of hand towels in each car. When I run in town I have been caught in the rain and it’s nice to have a dry towel to sit on and to dry off with before going home. DH gets some for the garage and I keep a stash in the utility room for various uses (cleaning up spills, cleaning in general). The nicer ones went to the lake condo a few years back and I go through those now and then and replace them as needed.

edited because I didn’t answer all your questions: I have 6 large bath towels and 6 hand towels and several wash cloths we use in our bathroom. We have around 8 or so bath towels in our spare bath linen closet and several hand towels in the half bath. Plus I use inexpensive white wash cloths on the vanity for guests to use to dry hands. Or I sometimes put out decorative paper towels.

I launder all towels with about a quarter cup of Borax which freshens laundry, and i wash in warm water with an extra rinse and I don’t have to replace due to musty smells as often.

And I gave some decent towels to our grandson and granddaughter for them to use at college. Kids don’t really need but 1-2 really nice towels to take to college. YMMV, but boys don’t usually pay a lot of attention to laundry.

Tired washcloths may become dish cloths.

I just put a towel along the bottom of the door to our garage to seal out the cold -- the door needs a new 'sealer' at the bottom. I pointed out to my DH that the towel a monogrammed Royal Velvet towel. It's from a wedding shower 54 years ago. I must have saved just one; it was in with newer towels now used for cleaning rags.

Last year I gave a lot of old towels to our window-washer. The others went into those boxes where they recycle them. I'd just replaced the towels for our MBA with thick Turkish towels on sale at Macy's. (They haven't been that cheap since.) I bought three bath towels, six hand towels and 16 wash cloths. They are holding up beautifully -- but take ages to dry. A daily luxury.

We had 10 staying here at Thanksgiving. All my old towels were put to use.

My “personal towels” become “dog towels” when they start to look tired and frayed. Guest towels aren’t used as often, so they last much longer. Guest bath has a totally different color scheme than Master, so towels are not interchangeabe. Something to consider for the future! I keep a basket of “dog towels” by the back door. I also donate towels and bedding to animal shelters and wildlife rescue/rehab.

We have about 4 bath and hand towels each for 4 adults. I have about ten facecloths personally. The men don't really use them though I supply them in all 3 bathrooms.

The towels etc. are a mix of over 20 years old to 1 year old. The oldest ones are from Eaton's in the 90s and are in perfect condition. The are Egyptian cotton according to the label. The newest are from Superstore. They are fine but tend to shrink more than I'd like.

Any frayed towels are used for dogs and dirty jobs. We never have any to give to pet places but I would if I did.

Thank you everyone! It looks like I will be calling a few animal rescues and shelters to get rid of my excess linens.

I keep some for cleaning jobs and donate the rest to an animal rescue.

amylou, I couldn't figure out my hubby's attachment to his old towels which had definitely seen better days. Turns out, he likes plain towels as in just a piece of material hemmed on all four sides. He hates towels with bands on the ends, because they shrink faster than the rest of the towel and start to bunch up after a while. But, it's really hard to find plain old towels anymore these days, so I finally convinced him that when his new towels starts to bunch up, we can retire them and replace with new towels. He grumbled but agreed.

I have a lot. As they fade or get thin I put them in a large wire basket in the garage. Some get ripped into smaller rags for cleaning. Others stay in one piece for various tasks.