frugal towels?

 OK, here's an actual non-spam, real question about frugal living.

Where's a good place to buy frugal towels?  And what kind (brands, styles)
are good?

I've noticed that if you buy cheap towels, you end up with ones that don't
actually absorb water, aren't comfortable, and have problems with pilling
and shedding.  These things are no good.  I want to save money, but
too-cheap towels are essentially totally useless and worthless, and it's
a form of false frugality to spend even a single dime on something you
can't really ever use.

At the same time, you can way overspend.  So where's the middle road?
For that matter, how do you tell a cheaply-made towel from a quality one,
other than that the cheap one usually costs less?

   - Logan

 
This is one type of purchase I don't skimp on.  If you buy at a
reputable store, wait for 'white' sales and buy the top of the line,
they should last for decades.  Do NOT use fabric softener in a towel
load.  Also, I wouldn't buy the dark colors, like navy, maroon etc -
they tend to show lint from the lighter towels you might be washing.
Green also seems to be door which fades easily.

 
You can tell they're good quality when they're heavy and soft. The advice to
wait for sales is good, but you can also find good buys at stores like T J
Maxx, Tuesday Morning and Steinmart which sell "past season" merchandise.
And even those stores sometimes mark towels down. You may not always be able
to find matching sets, but I've never had a problem with using towels in
differing coordinating colors: in fact, I kind of like the look.

You also might want to avoid white because it's hard to keep it fresh
looking without using a lot of bleach--which can be hard on the fibers over
time.

Just a side tip about lint: I don't sort my laundry into whites and colors,
but I do sort it by light and dark. That seems to be sufficient to avoid
most of the lint problems.

 
No you cant. I used that for the last one I bought, and got a brand name as
well, but
while it drys better than the worst of the cheapest towels, it still doesnt dry
well enough.

 


Next time you're in the neighborhood, stop by and I'll show you my 20 year
old dark green towels.