Straighten towels and wash cloths. Put out clean linen when needed (fresh linen for all on Wednesdays and Saturdays).
I think it's time to take stock of my bath linens. As I was folding my clean laundry last night, I found myself shaking my head at the condition of my towels and washcloths. And I don't even own any hand towels these days! In fact, it's high time that most of these unfortunate dregs of toweldom were recycled right on into my rag bag. (They'd still make great dusting cloths.) What kind of condition are your bath linens in? I think the problem with mine is quite simply that they were cheap. I didn't invest in bath towels and washcloths the way a woman of the '40s - who might even have monogrammed them - might have done. I didn't pay for the kind of quality that could be expected to be serviceable for a generation. But it is a shame to spend as much time and energy as I do on Saturdays cleaning my bathroom and not have beautiful linens for my guests --- and for me!
I'd better consult Lily Haxworth Wallace's New American Etiquette (1941) before making up my wish list...
Bath towels - There has been a trend toward solid color bath towels ranging from deep pastels to very dark colors. However, the demand for these is slowly decreasing and, today, the fastidious bride is choosing fine white towels with her monogram in color to match or harmonize with the bath.
How to know good, absorbent bath towels - There are many grades of bath towels, but there is only one grade to invest in - a soft, spongy towel that is absolutely absorbent. Look closely at the individual looped threads that go into the weaving. Be sure they are long, and firmly and closely woven. Crush the towel in your fingers. If it feels soft, then all these attributes mean that the towel is absorbent and will give long service. And most important of all - when buying bath towels, place yourself in the hands of a store that has rightly earned a reputation for integrity.
Size of bath towels - Sizes vary according to the preference of the individual. Most men, however, like a large, generous-size towel. Women prefer a smaller towel of the same absorbent quality.
Wash cloths -Should be as fine in quality as the bath towels. It is best to have each cloth match a bath towel for identification purposes. [The Manual recommends that each member of the family have a unique color for bath linens.]
Hand towels - Come in medium and large sizes. Irish huck of fine quality is still the most popular choice. [For those of you as mystified as me, Irish huck is a type of textured linen.] On white hand towels, colored monograms to match your bath towels are in good taste.
Bath mats - Should be absorbent, good quality to withstand hard and frequent washing.
Bath rugs - Many housewives use bath rugs that are not washable. Today, however, there are many extremely good-looking ones that have a heavy pile and wash like handkerchief. The colors, too, are lovely.
Following are the bath towels needed in every home:
Two dozen Irish huck hand towels.
Four dozen Irish huck face towels.
One dozen bath towels - medium size for women.
One dozen bath towels - large size for men.
One dozen wash cloths.
Two bath mats.
Two bath rugs.
14 comments:
I must keep this in mind as I prep the new nest. Love that photo.
I must say we do have great towels in my house. I live with my sister who is a towel person! Must be white and fluffy and the best quality.
When ours are replaced they don't go to the rag pile they go to the dogs. Towels we use when we give them a bath.
This is how sad it is...I can't tell which ones are for us and which ones are the dog towels. No kidding.
I can't get over how many towels it says to have though. Back then they didn't have the storage in the homes like we do now so where did they keep them?
Hugs,
Joanne
I learned the hard way about the bath towels when we moved into the house we live in just 2 years ago. I bought the cheaper ones and they had loose threads and fell about very early on. Great post!
Carey
It is easy to embroider a monogram on a towel, if you want. I live alone so for my own convenience I usually embroider the last two digits of the year I bought them in the very lowest corner! Makes it easier to recycle them to other uses if I know that I have had them for 3-5 years already. Also, fold a large towel in half, sew down the sides and put grommets across the open bottom. Put a sturdy string through the grommets. Place your washable, reusable towel "bag" over the end of a regular broom and use this to sweep ceilings, walls, the siding the house, etc.
Ooh, so I could make my broom apron out of an old towel! Prairieknitter, did you read my post on dusting walls? I discussed just this topic a few days ago.
Joanne, you have lucky dogs.
LandGirl, what fun to be decorating a new home!
Carey, I'm constantly cutting one loose string or another off my bath towels! My washcloths haven't fared quite as badly.
We had cannon towels that lasted 25 years! No kidding. I miss that kind of quality. We were in a home my grandparents built 1933. It had two built in linen closets! Our towels looked just as neat as the picture. I now have two different colors for my husband and myself. I was just thinking the other day about putting some crochet designs on them as my grandma use to, it was so pretty. We always had lovely guest towels.
I'm with Joanne about how many towels they recommend!! Yowza!
Jeanne, I remember Cannon towels. What a treat! Land's End towels used to be wonderfully thick but now they are the same as Target.
Just make sure your new towels are 100 percent cotton. I, personally, am not a fan of the really thick towels. Some of the new towels don't absorb well - even the 100 percent cotton ones. They must be treated with something???
I still have one towel from the 1960's and a few from the 1970's. The Cannon brand was better.
I do not recommend linen hand or dish towels. They're too hard to take care of. If you want to be "old-fashioned" make some out of cotton flannel.
A few years ago I purchased a big bundle of white "motel" hand towels from Costco. They are really nice. I like them because I can bleach them.
You do not need as many as the article recommends. Have two sets for yourself and then figure out how many people would ever stay at your house overnight and gradually add to your supply.
Jeanne and prairieknitter01, Cannon sheets are supposed to have had the same lasting quality.
I guess since there's just the one person in my household I can have just as many colors as I please! No color coding necessary. Oh, yes, and those crochet trims are beautiful --- and quite easy to make. They'd certainly dress up some beautiful Irish huck guest towels.
Hairball and Packrat, I suspect the etiquette book had a six-person (or so) family in mind in planning bath linens for the bride-to-be. So the 24 towels in total would have meant about four towels per person.
Packrat, I tried a velour-ish towel at somebody's house one and - while it felt nice - it just didn't absorb much water.
I wonder what the difference between "hand towels" and "face towels" are... And "bath mats" versus "bath rugs"... By bath mats, are they referring to a rug just for use next to the bathtub, while a bath rug would have lived near the sink or something?
we got new towels for our wedding... I have straw and hubby has chocolate... actually they aren't bath towels but bath sheets because we like the bigger size
I like a nice, generous bath towel, too! I was feeling badly for the poor women stuck with tiny towels like this etiquette book suggested. Then again, your '40s housewife probably didn't prance about the house in her towel - as I sometimes do! - so a smaller towel might have been okay if she only used it to dry off with.
I think white towels are only for those who use an electric clothes dryer and so can wash their towels every day. Because we dry all our washing outdoors, darker towels are better because they can be washed weekly, rather than daily.
Kate
Women of the era must have been using some really powerful laundry soaps - or maybe it was just all that elbow grease - because they seem to have been able to keep their white linens snowy white for years.
I've been looking at colored towels myself, partly because my bathroom is just that dreadful apartment beige. It needs some color! I wonder what kinds of color would have been hottest for bathrooms during the '40s?
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