Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Aibu to do laundry in the sauna

32 replies

SoShinySoChrome · 29/07/2018 09:21

So. I’m away for the weekend with friends. I grabbed a dress from the laundry pile and stuffed it in my weekend bag with pants bra, toothbrush.

This morning after my shower at 8 I go to put on the dress and it has the horrible smell of something that didn’t dry. That mildewed smell.

Shit.

I go to my car where I usually have some febreeze but there’s none.

So I go to the spa and get my swimming costume and take the dress into the showers . I wash it with a load of body wash.

I put it inside the towel and wrung it out with the sausage trick. Then I left it in the sauna for 10 minutes while I had a swim.

It’s polyester so no ironing needed. I’m wearing it now and it’s a bit damp but not noticeably so.

Aibu?

OP posts:
WinnieTheW0rm · 29/07/2018 09:24

Well, yes you were silly, because if a proper sauna it'll be humid. Why do you leave something that you want to dry in an inherently damp room?

Better to blast under an air hand-dryer, or leave in fresh air.

Mrsemcgregor · 29/07/2018 09:25

I would be surprised that a hotel with spa and gym doesn’t have a laundry room? Also you could use a hair dryer/hand dryer to dry it off?

Ohyesiam · 29/07/2018 09:25

no

Fatbelliedgirl · 29/07/2018 09:27

If you are even asking AYBU for this then IMO yes you are. I would be disgusted if I were to use the sauna and found a dress drying in there. Ick. I would probably put it outside.
Sorry if my thread is pearl clutchy but I wouldn't have done it.

Secretlifeofme · 29/07/2018 09:28

Intrigued - what's the sausage trick? You sound very resourceful OP, good on you if nobody else was inconvenienced.

Fatbelliedgirl · 29/07/2018 09:28

Well, yes you were silly, because if a proper sauna it'll be humid. Why do you leave something that you want to dry in an inherently damp room?

Better to blast under an air hand-dryer, or leave in fresh air.

This.

JustGettingStarted · 29/07/2018 09:29

I hate when people leave things to dry in the sauna. It's so rude.

AgathaRaisonDetra · 29/07/2018 09:29

No wonder your clothes smell if you wear them when they're damp Hmm

SaucyJack · 29/07/2018 09:29

Did anyone complain? If not, I don't really understand what could possibly have been unreasonable (or worthy of posting) about you freshening up an item of clothing.

BetterEatCheese · 29/07/2018 09:32

Don't see the problem at all. You solved an issue in a resourceful way.

JustGettingStarted · 29/07/2018 09:43

I never "complain" when people spread their clothes around the sauna. I just tut and think ill of them.

Loonoon · 29/07/2018 09:45

It sounds unpleasant to me. A sauna is meant to be a relaxing treat, I wouldn’t relax very much with someone’s laundry hanging beside me.

In similar emergencies (baby sick down the only top I had with me or red wine spilt on me) I’ve washed the item in the sink as you describe and then dried it off with a hairdryer/under the hand dryer.

EmeraldVillage · 29/07/2018 09:47

Ewww. I don’t want other people’s laundry in the sauna. You should have just dried it naturally or with a hairdryer in your room.

Joey7t8 · 29/07/2018 09:52

Sounds like a very resourceful solution to me!

GazeboLantern · 29/07/2018 09:55

YABU. And very antisocial. Fine for one person to do this as a one-off, but just think how unpleasant the sauna would be if everyone behaved this way.

(Though no doubt effective, because saunas are not steamy, they are very dry.)

Oblomov18 · 29/07/2018 09:56

Yes, this is not ok. But then you do really know this.

AnxiousPeg · 29/07/2018 10:02

I can see why people wouldn't want laundry lying round the sauna in the sense that it would be an inconvenience. But 'ick'?? Really fatbelliedgirl ?? I never get it when people find perfectly normal items 'disgusting'. A sauna would normally contain a number of hot, sweaty humans. But you find a washed item of outerwear "ick". Just how??

thousandpapercranes · 29/07/2018 10:02

As an aside saunas are not damp, they’re dry and hot. Good for you although I’d be Confused to find someone’s washing hanging up in one. Just get the hotel to launder your dirty clothing.

WipsGlitter · 29/07/2018 10:05

Wearing it damp will make it smell Confused

VioletCharlotte · 29/07/2018 10:10

Why is a newly washed dress antisocial and unpleasant?! I'd much prefer that to the unwashed, sweaty blokes that take over the sauna at my gym!

EdWinchester · 29/07/2018 10:12

I wouldn't be impressed as a fellow guest.

cloudyweewee · 29/07/2018 10:15

Speaking as someone who once had to dry a pair of pants in the staffroom microwave, I salute you.

Original poster
SoShinySoChrome · 29/07/2018 10:42
  1. The sauna is a hot dry heat.
  2. At 8.30 there was only one other person in the gym and no one in the sauna.
  3. The dress was laid out for 15 mins.
  4. The sausage trick is putting something inside a towel and then twisting it round like a sausage to wring out the water.
OP posts:
AgathaRaisonDetra · 29/07/2018 10:44

People sweat in saunas.

🤮

Notevilstepmother · 29/07/2018 10:46

I think it would probably be more polite to wash it in your own shower and blast it with a hairdryer then a quick iron to get it dry.