Let's Talk Towels | Imamother

zaq

Tue, Aug 30 2011, 9:50 am

Of course you can buy separates, and you should. No point paying for washcloths you don't use. I have a few cheap thin ones for the occasional "spa treatment" or to use as a hot or cold compress. Thin washcloths and towels are preferable to thick ones if you're bathing a baby because they can get in between little toesies and fingerlach. Thick ones can't.

Get more hand towels than bath because they get grungier faster, need to be changed more often, and wear out sooner. Also you will need more than one at a time for netilat yadayim if you have a lot of guests and want to a. speed up the process and b. ensure that the last person isn't wiping his hands on a wet towel. That's if you're not using your kitchen towels for netilat yadayim before meals. I personally don't like kitchen towels for drying hands because they don't absorb much, plus they're usually light colored and get grungy very fast. I use kitchen towels solely for drying dishes, and I have to hide them before netilat yadayim because guests will inevitably use them for drying their hands even when there is a thirsty hand towel right there beside the sink next to the washing cup.

Good rule of thumb is two bath towels per household member plus one each for the maximum number of guests you're likely to have. If that's only 1 or 2 people, then get one or two extra in case of emergency (like somebody dropped his towel into the tub as it was filling up. It happens!) This is assuming you change bath towels once a week.

Get all-cotton. Cotton with even a drop of polyester is less absorbent. Avoid velvet-textured because they don't absorb well. Hold the towel up to the light--the less light shining thru, the higher the quality and the longer it will last. Look for even loops like an evenly-mowed lawn. Towels with strings sticking out like a lawn with taller weeds means the loops are broken or not well-anchored and the strings will continue unraveling and breaking.

Personally I can't imagine why anyone would need a hand towel if he has a bath towel unless the bath towel is a pale color, in which case using a dark hand towel will postpone the inevitable dingy cow tracks on the pale towel. (OK, maybe if they have some sort of skin condition on their body that can infect their face or vice versa if they use the same towel for both. But how often does that happen?) However, you will need a few hand towels for company because you don't want them drying their hands on **your ** bath towels. You shouldn't need more than 4, 2 per week if you change the hand towels twice a week. More if your kids do things like wipe their mouths on the communal hand towel.

I like Cannon Royal Family or Fieldcrest because that's what I happen to have gotten as wedding gifts.

I keep two full sets consisting of bath, hand, washcloth set aside for company. (We don't use washcloths ourselves.) In practice, I find our guests seldom if ever use washcloths, and unless they take a shower here, they usually use just the hand towel. It's pretty much only people who come for longer than a Shabbos who use the bath towels, since most people arrive already showered for Shabbos.

Color philosophy: there are two basic shittot: a specific color assigned to each family member, or all matching towels or at most two or three coordinated colors (e.g., Ivory, cranberry, navy; navy, sky blue, powder blue; Hunter green, mint green and pink). Shittah #1 makes it easy to finger the culprit who left his wet towel on the floor, but makes for a somewhat chaotic look in the bathroom if you have a family of 4 or more. Shittah #2 looks more coordinated but you can mix up each other's towels if ppl aren't good about putting them back in their assigned places.

Happy shopping!