Average Jane Thinks About Towels

This month, a home furnishings store called Design Public is running an online feature called Baby Blog-A-Palooza that allows parenting bloggers such as finslippy and Mrs. Kennedy to blog about child-oriented design (mostly) for everyone’s entertainment.

I heartily agree with Mrs. Kennedy’s assessment that white towels do not belong in anyone’s household.  However, if I think about my own towel collection I realize I am in no position to advise anyone on towel purchases.

I actually have a set of white towels that are not only miraculously stain-free but really, really old.  I’m pretty sure I was in elementary school when I received them as a Christmas gift from my great-aunt.  They have Chessie, the sleeping kitten symbol of the Chesapeake Railroad embroidered on them.  (Awww.)  I don’t use them much, mainly because they would look weird hanging in my bathroom, so they’ll probably last forever.

The first towels I ever purchased were from the Sears catalog.  I worked at Sears all through college and I’m pretty sure these towels were a catalog return that I bought at a huge discount.  They’re brown.  I say that in the present tense because I still have them, even though they are thin and cheap and, well, poop-brown.  They’re great for mopping up kitchen disasters, though.

I have a set of pink towels that were given to me when I moved into my first apartment.  They go nicely with the pink silk chrysanthemum that skulks dustily in the corner over our toilet.  At least I think the chrysanthemum’s still up there – maybe I came to my senses and threw it away the last time we did a big spring cleaning.  Anyway, the pink towels are getting pretty thin and scratchy, so I really only use the washcloths.  The towels are good for drying my car after I wash it, though.

A couple of years ago I bought a couple of nice, thick, sage green towels that complement what I loosely refer to as our bathroom decor.  Somehow, my good bath towel always ends up being paired with a random, lesser towel that I use for my hair.  I have several of these orphan bath towels that don’t match any of the other towels and whose origins have long been forgotten.

Will I someday rid myself of all the old, crummy towels and purchase good towels for both bathrooms?  Nah, I’m too cheap and it really doesn’t matter that much.  Now if you hear about a good deal on nice cotton sheets, maybe we’ll talk…