I have four old towels. Two of them are more than a decade old. The edges are frayed, and they are shedding fibres. Every time I do laundry, I have to spend half my time brushing towel lint off my clothes. Every time I shower, I leave towel lint on my bosdy. But the towels still work at drying me off, so I've been putting up with them.
My grandmother gave me a new towel from Christmas. Normally I would save it until my other towels disintegrated, and only then start using it.
But today, I'm dropping the old towels into the donation bin on my way to visit Sandy, and will only use good, non-shedding towels from now on.