Tissues v handkerchiefs

Any rags in our house were used on my hair to make ringlets!

When I was a little girl in the 50s we took “rags” to school- squares cut from old sheets etc that we used for hankies. We had proper hankies for taking to church and parties and any visiting we did. I can remember spitting on my rag to clean my blackboard. (My children think it’s hilarious: they ask me if I met Charles Dickens.) I remember a little Scots girl joining our class. Her name was Morag and I’m ashamed to say we teased her unmercifully because of her name.

Tissues for a cold or other emergencies [like lack of loo roll in a public toilets] but otherwise hankies preferred. However with umpteen children around I rarely carry a hanky at the moment.

harrigran maybe try this manufacturer..we do. Use toilet roll for tissues too uk.whogivesacrap.org

Both, wouldn’t go out without a handkerchief .

Paper tissues, like disposable nappies, are making some manufacturers very wealthy. Advertising convinces us that we can't live without the convenience of disposable items.
DH always uses cotton handkerchiefs and we never had tissues in the house until DC were adults, exceptions being when someone had a heavy cold.
I have a drawer full of fine cotton hankies.

Cloth hankies are gross . I remember my mum spitting in one and wiping my face with it when I was a child . Bits of snot stuck to them like glue . Disgusting .

Paper tissues every time .

No cloth hankies here! DH has a few flamboyant pocket 'kerchiefs just for show! My MiL used to have a special handkerchief pan and boil once a week! They must have lived somewhere with the germs until washed! We use tissues/ toilet roll..if someone has a cold they are thrown into a plastic carrier bag then tipped straight into the outside bin. In winter they might go on the fire.

Either suits me, better than 'cuffing it' which i remember children doing when i was at school!!

Grumpa you sound like DH with your handkerchief use.apart from the sputum (yuk) . The nose blowing doesn't bother me but the occasional oil or blood are difficult to get out.

Thanks everyone - fascinating that we have such differing views. No one is right or wrong - it’s a matter of preference I guess.

The noise wasn't the worst part MissA; not by a long chalk! I could have coped with the noise. It was the "outcome of the noise" that was the disgusting worst bit. ?

Ah, a trumpeter, chewy
Its amazing, the noises mens noses make!

Tissues only, here!

Ughh!

My ex H always used "proper" hankies. He always seemed to be full of a cold or hayfever and when he blew his nose, half the street would hear him. I used to dread finding one of his scrunched up, hard as concrete hankies in the washing pile. They were gross and I'm delighted I no longer have to touch them! Bleurgh!

Tissues for us.

And I can definitely say that if anyone here chose to use a hanky, they can blooming well wash it themselves!

You can't beat a gentleman's handkerchief for dabbing away the tears of a weeping lady, absorbing spilt liquids (of all sorts), wiping a dipstick, mopping a fevered brow, intercepting coughed sputum, and, er, blowing one's nose. Who needs tissues?

We’re like you, Jalimal. Cloth hankies, washed with the towels at 60 degrees. I always put disinfectant in the fabric softener compartment, to be certain no germs survive and to keep the washing machine sweet. I hate bins full of dirty tissues.

Balsam tissues (normal ones peel the skin off the end of my nose if I have a bad cold) - I blow once then throw away. A certain person I know uses the same tissue repeatedly until it's a sopping mess - that to me is as germy as carrying round a germy handkerchief and makes me cringe a bit ?

Put them in with the towels on a hot wash!

There is little difference to putting hankies in the wash to pants as far as bacteria are concerned.

I’m not going to iron hankies, thank you. Tissues will do me.

Agree Rubysong. Glad Kitty agrees too!

Hankies, washed at 60 degrees and ironed with a hot iron, so perfectly sterile and germ free. I'm trying to minimise anything disposable on eco grounds. I do resort to tissues for a heavy cold.