The towel trap: Buying towels you love that will last

Tag : fancy fabrics
The towel trap: Buying towels you love that will last Story Discussion Font Size: Default font size Larger font size
BY MARNI JAMESON
Times Correspondent | Friday, July 11, 2008 | No comments posted.
My five houseguests are due any minute. The guest rooms are readyexcept for towels. I head confidently to the linen closet. One ofthe few things I pride myself on is that I tie sets of sheets andtowels in ribbons, precisely so I can easily retrieve full,coordinated packages for guests.

I open the closet. Call the police! The linen closet's beenransacked. Ribbons are unfastened. Once nicely folded towels areshoved in wads on shelves, frayed and faded, as if they've takenthe fast train to aging.

Apparently, my ribbon system didn't prevent CERTAIN MEMBERS OF MYFAMILY from having their way with these sets. These hoodlums havehelped themselves to a pillow case here, a face towel there. Theseitems go in gym bags, on sleepovers, or into the Black Hole ofCalcutta and never return. I try to patch together a few completesets. When I do find a bath towel, face towel and washcloth thatwere a family, no pieces match. Colors have taken detours,disavowing their relations, which I've been guilty of. Certaintowel family members look as if they've been living with a cheesegrater on the beach. I have relatives like that, too. I can't givethese towels to my friends.

Ding-dong. Aaach!

"I'm sorry about the towels," I say, when I hand my friend, who hasarrived with her husband and three children, a scrap pile ofterrycloth not fit to wash the car.

"Sorry?"

"I had no idea such degeneration had occurred in my linen closet."

"Same thing happened to me," she said, reminding me of why I lovegirlfriends.

"I got these lovely green towels for the whole house, but after afew washings they turned different shades. I have to get all newones."

I tell her how my teenager turned her towels into a tie-dye projectwith her skin products. (Heads up teen parents: Benzoyl peroxideand colored fabrics don't mix.) Her younger sister used her towelsto remove purple nail polish.

The towel talk made me feel better, not so alone. Then I startedinvestigating. A towel expert who did not want to be outed divulgedthat stores push colored towels because they sell more. Color is acheap, short-term design thrill for people seeking easy change. Butlike romance, dreams and skin tone, color fades, making towels looktired; color trends change, so consumers keep buying new ones,ushering out mauve for persimmon.

I call my friend, now back to her home and its faded towels. I'mbursting with news on the order of a permanent way around readingglasses: "We're victims of the color trap!" I exclaim. "The onlywinners are towel companies!"

"So what's the answer?"

"White!"

I tick off the virtues: White doesn't fade, never goes out of date,and goes with everything. White towels are the stuff of finehotels. They're likely more sanitary because you can bleach andscald them, which makes you wonder what colored towels are hiding.If you buy plain white towels, when the new puppy uses the handtowel as a teething toy, you can pull a piece from another set andit will go.

"So we need to throw in our towels," she says.

"And buy white," I say.

"The color of surrender."

"The color of smart."

One home design mantra I try -- not always successfully -- to liveby is this: Buy it once. Buy it right. That means not clogging mycupboards with towels that just keep looking worse. Here's a guideto buying towels you love that will last:

* Don't rely on towels to provide bathroom pizzazz: People often buy colored towels to jazz up a bathroom, but towelsshouldn't be the focal point any more than toilet paper should be.Add drama with wall color, fixtures, art, mirror frames andaccessories. Let the towels be white.

* Fabric is key to function: Look for high grade, combed cotton. Avoid synthetics. Higher gradecottons (Egyptian, Supima, Turkish) have a long staple, or fiber,so last longer and absorb more. Combed cotton has had the shorterthreads removed, so towels don't pill or cover you with lint. Edgesshould be double turned and double stitched to prevent fraying.

* Dense loops equal thirsty towels: Most towels are terry, meaning they have loops. Look for tightlywoven loops that stand up straight like grass. You shouldn't seethe base of the towel. Velour towels feel nice, but aren't asthirsty.

* Don't be a sucker for softness: Many people buy towels for how soft they feel.

Manufacturers know this and coat towels with sizing to achieve thatsilky feel. Sizing, however, repels water, so towels push wateraround. After several washings, sizing comes out -- a good thing --but towels feel coarser, leaving you feeling deceived. Addingvinegar to the rinse cycle helps cut through sizing. Never addfabric softener.

* Too much of a good thing: Thick towels feel luxurious, but towels can be too thick. Thicktowels get heavy, take longer to dry, and hog shelf space. Find ahappy medium. My criteria: A towel shouldn't be so thick that youcan't dry inside your ears.

* Cover your bottom line: When buying bath towels open them for size. They run from 27 by 50to 40 by 70 and many sizes in between. If you're taller or largerthan average, you may prefer a bath sheet. Select a size right foryour body, erring toward generous. It should wrap you and cover thebasics.

If you must display fancy towels, go ahead. Just don't use them.Some towels are just decorative. I have trophy towels -- spicecolored, satin embellished -- in my master bath, where my husbandis under strict orders not to touch them. For every day, we usewhite.

Syndicated columnist Marni Jameson is the author of "The HouseAlways Wins" (Da Capo), available through Amazon and Barnes &Noble. You may contact her through www.marnijameson.com .