Tumble time, and what the heck is a peshtemal?

The weather here up until yesterday has been utterly perfect - sunny, clear, low humidity, not too hot. Then yesterday the clouds moved in, with the promise of rain all week.

Which is why I'm extra glad that we got our dryer repaired on Friday! Perfect timing! It was also our 5th anniversary on Friday, and we joked about what it says about us, that getting the dryer repaired was the best possible anniversary gift!  :) (Get the title now? Time to tumble the clothes?)

I still plan to line dry when it makes sense, but I'm so grateful to eliminate one step in my diaper laundry - I was washing them, hanging them to dry, then tumbling in the dryer (that would run but not heat up) to soften them. I know, with my flour sack towel flats, I could get away without tumbling them most of the time, but it really does make them feel feather soft. I like that for the diapers.

One thing that was a trial for my husband while I was line drying everything was the bath towels. He hated how stiff and scratchy they would get on the line, and I hated that they took twice as long as anything else to dry. So I was on the Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook page, and someone brought up how they don't mind line drying towels since they switched to peshtemals, or Turkish towels.

Huh?

Research was needed. I found out that peshtemals are something like soft, flat dish towels, but HUGE - 37" x 70", plenty big to wrap up with. They are the towels traditionally used in Turkish baths, where (as I hear) it's often steamy. I can imagine what would happen to terrycloth towels in air like that - they'd go sour in 24 hours! These towels are designed to wash clean and dry fast - just like flat diapers!

So I looked around on Amazon, found a package of them that didn't look too overpriced, and added them to my wish list. I figured that would be the last time I'd think about them for a while. But I didn't count on my mom - my 36th birthday just happened on the 13th, and she asked me what I wanted for my birthday. As usual, my mind went blank when she asked me that question, so she said "Never mind - I'll go to your Amazon wishlist!". She's so smart.  :)

I'm fairly impressed with these towels. They're as big as you could ask for in terms of coverage, but they fold up as small as a t-shirt. They dry me off exceptionally well, and two hours after my bath the towel is dry again. I mean, it's weird - I think they dry me off better than the terrycloth towels! And these won't get musty or sour smelling, since they dry so easily. Jake isn't quite sold on them yet, because drying off with these towels feels a little different - like using a bed sheet. I asked him to give them another try or two before giving his final verdict, though.


Most people who use these towels rave about how light and packable they are, and how sand falls right off of them at the beach. I haven't gotten to try it in those conditions yet, but I can see how great these would be going camping. I did put it to the big test - I gave the dog a bath and dried him with one of the towels. Usually a dog bath results in 2 - 3 sodden, hairy towels, which take so long to dry that I don't bother waiting around and usually just wash them right away. (I wouldn't reuse them anyway, but I would let them dry and then add them to the hamper.) This time it took ONE peshtemal towel to dry him (a shepherd lab mix) which dried in 4 hours, and the hair shook off when I flapped it outside before adding it to the hamper.

This is the seller I got my towels from, but I found them even cheaper on eBay if you want to try them out.

http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00J5KC6YY/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1LHU3U93X9TAA&coliid=IWTNSEJBXRCGL

Many places charge $20 each, but you can get them for $10 or less if you look hard enough.

Either way, whether I hang them or tumble them, they'll be the fastest drying towels I have!