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This past weekend was the first day of Spring. Exciting times here in the south because our neighborhood pool opens up this weekend. Yes, it is March and our pool will be open! This means we will gather a million things in bags and trek up to the pool and get everyone slathered in sunscreen and then they will jump in the pool and completely freak out that the water is too cold and want to go home immediately. Ha! It happens every year.
A few years ago, throughout the summer, we were constantly leaving beach towels at the pool and losing them. I couldn’t figure out why we couldn’t keep up with the towels. I would replace 1 or 2 through out the summer if I found a couple on sale but it continued to be a problem. Then I finally came up with a solution.
I went to the store and bought 6 beach towels that were similar in color and were the same pattern. I bought striped towels, 2 blue, 2 green and 2 orange. These are similar and I like these too.
I figured out that we had all these random towels and when it was time to pack up to go home I would be grabbing our towels to put them in our pool bag and would forget which ones we brought or some of the towels would be around my kids shoulders. Plus, sometimes my kids had used a towel and went and sat with some friends and left it but I wouldn’t realize that the towel a few chairs away from us actually belonged to us.
Once I had all the same towels it just took a quick glance around the seating area to see if any of our towels were laying around. Be sure to pick towels with a distinct pattern like stripes or dots. This makes them super easy to spot.
We are really looking forward to this swim season. My boys are great swimmers and this is the year to get my daughter out of floats and swimming on her own. I bought a few new toys for the pool. Check out my post on our Top 5 Favorite Pool Toys.
What do you all do to keep track of towels?
Dana says
I add name tags on the beach towels for the boys during camp time. Other than that I literally hope they all come home from the beach or their friend’s pool party LOL. I can’t even tell you how many towels I’ve lost.
Joules (from Pocketful of Joules) says
Great tip! During the summer, we often visit our families beach house so I always make sure to bring our oddly colored old towels with us so that they are easy to identify to bring home! =)
Carolyn says
Yes, it really helps to keep everyone straight on which towels belong with which family. Thanks for commenting.
Leslie S. says
This is a great idea! I’ve never really thought of that. My parents have a pool so all the towels are community towels 😉 but when I ever do go somewhere public, i’ll keep this in mind! Thanks for sharing this simple but great tip!
Heather @ Simply Save says
That’s a great idea! And the different prints are so fun too!
Mayra Murillo says
I have more beach towels in my house that were left behind than are my own. Great tips!
Carolyn says
Me too. I finally got rid of some that were my husbands from college. Who knows where they actually came from. 🙂
Heather lawrence says
I can’t imagine what it would look like to live somewhere that had an outdoor pool! We are in Alberta so we see a lot of hot tubs (us included) but we don’t see a lot of in ground pools. *wistful sigh*. We ended up getting the kids hooded towels and they are all different so they know which on is theirs. Plus the other kids in the neighbourhood uses regular towels so it’s easy to spot ours.
Carolyn says
Thats a good idea too. My kids would also like hooded ones.
Kait says
This is a great tip! We live in Hawaii so pool and beach towels are part of our daily routine here. Trying to figure out which towel belongs to which person (especially if you’re in a big group) gets confusing.
Dani CC says
What great ideas, We joke about how beach towels are investments over at The Dollhouse. Literally feel like every summer season we are replacing them!
Dawn says
We always make sure to buy very distinct beach towels. It would not be fun to be charged for a towel you accidentally took home from the hotel!
Heather says
We don’t have a pool around here to go to, but we are at the ocean a lot! Of course, they are talking about snow next week here…so I’m not sure we are ready for the beach yet! That is really smart though, I’m sure it will be much easier to keep track of everything when it all looks the same!
Ana De- Jesus says
I feel like I run out of beach towels like there is no tomorrow and I have no idea why! I need to start adding name tags or something great tips x
jill conyers says
It’s kind of funny to get home and realize you packed away someone’s towel that isn’t yours. Fortunately it’s usually a friend’s towel to it’s not a big problem.
Toni says
Thank you for these tips! Even as a mom of teenagers, we still use towels. Now, I’m switching over to odd brightly colored ones!
Siniciliya says
I love beach towels, they can be so creative and stylish!
The more – the better, right?
http://www.siniciliya.com
Megan McCoig says
Great tip. I’ve never lost my towel as there has never been too many of us, but this would definetely help. Will use this next time I’m away!
HilLesha says
This is a truly wonderful tip! This is how my family and I usually keep track of our towels as well.
CourtneyLynne says
Omg what an awesome idea!!! I am notorious for losing my towels!!! Thankyou for this!
Paula says
I need to replace our towels; we were using a weird mix of old ones, and the dog ripped them up recently. 🙁 I’ll be looking for some crazy bright ones thanks to your awesome tips!