There are mixed opinions on the best color of towels for college students to take with them to school. My daughter and I looked at lots of towels, weighed the pros and cons of different colors and finally chose navy blue towels and white wash cloths.
Best Color of Towels for College
In choosing the color of towels to take to college consider:
1. Pick a slightly unusual color so you can easily distinguish your towels from your roommate’s towels. (Navy blue towels would be more common for boys than girls and navy blue is not one of my daughter’s school colors.)
2. Choose a color that won’t bleed on your clothes when you wash one large load of clothes. (I’ll explain why we choose a dark color in a minute.)
3. Choose a color that won’t show stains too readily (realistically, no college student will be bleaching towels while away at college).
4. Choose a color that you like and will coordinate with your bedding (if that’s important to you).
My daughter chose to go with navy blue towels. Although it challenges item 2 above, she plans on washing her navy blue towels with her jeans. This way the jeans and towels won’t be mixed with the rest of her laundry. This is important to her because much of her wardrobe is delicate enough that washing with jeans or towels would “rough” the clothing items up. Now her clothes are safe from being mixed with those more abrasive towels and jeans. Just as importantly to my daughter, the navy blue compliments the teal, grey and white colors of her bedding. And mom will wash these towels several times at home before she leaves just in case the color does bleed.
She chose to go with white wash cloths because somehow white wash cloths seem more sterile than dark-colored ones (call us crazy). Because stains will show on the white cloth, she’ll be able to clearly see if a wash cloth has gotten stained or needs to be replaced.
I had to take a moment to cut the tags off the towels and wash cloths. Is it just me, but those tags bug me flapping around.
What color or towels would you take to college with you?
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I’m a mom of 3, a veteran and military spouse. I’ve moved into 20+ homes all around the world. My passion is helping busy people make the space and time for what’s really important to them.
Krista @ While He Was Napping says
I always preferred red and brown when I was in college… but I didn’t have any logical reasoning really. I just liked those colors. I like the reasoning behind the choices you made, makes sense to me.
susan says
Krista, red and brown sound pretty. I had purple towels in college (it was the 80’s after all 🙂
Cynthia L says
My daughter had light green towels when she went to school. We were not intelligent enough to think about the color choice. They didn’t do very well during her college time. They held up, but don’t look so pretty! Great article.
Ann says
The colored towels get bleached out from Benzoyl Peroxide products and other acne medications.
White really is best. My son chose gray, and not they are our car washing towels. Oh well.
susan says
Ann, very good point to consider. Thanks for sharing.
Sweet says
How an intelligent choice you made !! I think brown also is a good choice. Thank you Susan for sharing these tips
Holly @ Coconutheadsurvivalguide says
Hi Susan – I love how you really think of everything! I think the towels I took to college were the thread-bare ones hiding in the depths of my parent’s linen closet. Hugs, Holly
susan says
lol, Holly. Those towels were full of love and good wishes for your future.
Sandy says
Acne products bleach colored towels. I found that out when my granddaughter visited!
When I went to college my mother bought me Brown Towels! She didn’t ask me what color I wanted. To this day I will not buy Brown Towels! I hated those Brown Towels!
If you are sending a kid off to college, let him or her choose the colors of towels to buy!
susan says
Buying brown towels sounds like a practical mom thing. Good tip about the acne products, Sandy. Thanks.