To get the bath mat wet

[LadyinRead]

Please help me settle this long running-dispute.

In my world, a bath mat is there for the purpose of dripping on after I step out of the shower/bath. So yes it gets wet. I then hang it up to dry after I'm finished standing on it.

Acoording to someone else, I am supposed to dry myself with a flannel before exiting the bath/shower so the bath mat remains dry.

My Mum has a bath mat for use and one for show. So the one for use hangs on a towel airer and you put that one over the one for show before you get in the shower/bath. When you’ve finished you put the used, wet mat back on the towel airer and all is as it should be with the dry show bath mat…

I’ve never realised before how weird that is.

@Yika

No, you're very unreasonable. You towel dry before stepping onto the bath mat which is there to absorb the last vestiges of damp. A soaking bath mat is an abomination and very very wrong.

I agree with you, my DS leaves his size 12 soggy prints on it and it gives me the rage!

@HikingforScenery

I agree with your DH. I defy myself as much as possible before exiting the bath onto the mat. I find it gross standing on a very wet mat. Thankfully only DS doesn’t do this so it doen’t get that wet.

I defy myself too. Use the flannel, I steely command myself, before thinking nah fuck it and stepping on the bath mat

This is DH and I.
Now we have underfloor heating so no more arguments (though I still dry my feet before stepping on it; I’m not a complete savage).

@SquirrelFan

Of course you dry your feet off before stepping out onto the mat, it's common courtesy (and a good exercise in balance). My DH and youngest child both neglect to do this resulting in an unpleasantly moist stepping out experience and, over time, a warping of the floor beneath the mat. No idea how a flannel would be involved, though, that's too complicated.

That would be expensive.

I haven't been able to do that since a neck fracture in the mid 1990s, so any attempt would lead to my falling through the glass every single time.

I dry my feet with a towel not a flannel though! Flannel is wet as I’ll have washed my face with it.

Who in the name of the bathroom gods uses a flannel to dry themselves!

I don't even understand that you spend time thinking about this. You simply do as you please, who cares what it was meant for. Personally I alternate according to how I feel that day

I don't mind bathmats being "a bit damp", I really hate them being totally drenched.

You don't need to dry off with a flannel to prevent the latter, but you do need to either squeeze your hair out or put it into a turban before you get out the bath/shower.

I often squeegee myself off with my hands before I get out too.

If you totally drench the mat all the time it will get mildewy and it's horrible for the next person to use. It's the same reason I refuse to have a fluffy bath mat: at least with a woven one it doesn't go almost slimy as soon as it's a bit wet. The feeling of a wet fluffy bath mat is like nails down a chalk board - it makes my toes curl just thinking about it.

@Hellocatshome

My DGM used to make us get dry with a flannel before wrapping a towel round us when we had a bath so as not to get the towels wet

Mine did this too! And my DM used to get really cross if there were wet footprints on the bath mat. Nutters, the pair of them.

You are quite right. He is a bit thick and probably an arsehole!

I'm 54 and know how to use a bathroom and a bath mat, as does my husband aged 55.

Has he always been this stupid??

@Curiosity101

I feel like there is a middle ground here... I've shared bathrooms with people who seemed to simultaneously step out of the shower and turn the shower off so the bath mat was soaked through.

So I do think people should give themselves a bit of a shake and remove obvious surface water by wiping it off with their hands but YANBU. The mat is to catch any additional drips, flanneling off before getting out to keep the may dry seems daft.

This totally. I do not understand how DH can get the mat so wet, I wish he wouldn’t, but flannel drying is taking this frustration too far!

@Gladioli23

I don't mind bathmats being "a bit damp", I really hate them being totally drenched.

You don't need to dry off with a flannel to prevent the latter, but you do need to either squeeze your hair out or put it into a turban before you get out the bath/shower.

I often squeegee myself off with my hands before I get out too.

If you totally drench the mat all the time it will get mildewy and it's horrible for the next person to use. It's the same reason I refuse to have a fluffy bath mat: at least with a woven one it doesn't go almost slimy as soon as it's a bit wet. The feeling of a wet fluffy bath mat is like nails down a chalk board - it makes my toes curl just thinking about it.

See, this is a pet peeve of mine; polyester bath mats. Fluffy polyester bath mats are even worse, like drying your feet on your cat.

WTF are the manufacturers thinking, making bath mats that are not even absorbent? Or bath mats with a grippy backing that means you can only wash them at 30 degrees and can't tumble dry them? Or bath mats that are so thick and fluffy they weigh a ton when wet, won't ever dry even if hung up and will destroy the bearings on your washing machine when washed? Who wants a non-functioning bath mat ffs?

Bath mats should be 100 % woven cotton which will never go mildewy, is nice and absorbent and dries quickly.

Hang it up where? As I said, my bathroom is tiny. The towels go on the radiator, I'm not going to give and hang my bathmat up to dry in a different room, that would be weird and inconvenient.

Drying myself in the place where I already am (bath), with something I'm going to use anyway (towel) is more convenient than getting a third item (bathmat) wet for no necessary reason.

@Curiosity101

I feel like there is a middle ground here... I've shared bathrooms with people who seemed to simultaneously step out of the shower and turn the shower off so the bath mat was soaked through.

So I do think people should give themselves a bit of a shake and remove obvious surface water by wiping it off with their hands but YANBU. The mat is to catch any additional drips, flanneling off before getting out to keep the may dry seems daft.

Mine never gets soaked. I think I already occupy the "middle ground" according to your definition.

People who dry themselves before they tread on the bath mat: where do you keep your towel that is in reach but doesn't let it get wet from the spray?

I'm firmly in the soggy bath mat camp.

@Squiffy01

My husband believes you should dry yourself with a flannel before getting out. How towel is never wet. Weirdo. Although he does acknowledge he is weird, he got it from his father who was in the navy, it’s now too ingrained to stamp out of him

The navy, you say? Now that may be an explanation for Someone Else's way of thinking.

@BuanoKubiamVej

Yanbu of course that's what the bath mat is for.

But I also hate getting out of the shower or bath onto a wet bath mat.

Which is why in our house there is a bath mat for each person plus a spare for guests so that we can each have the joy of stepping out onto a nice warm dry bath mat.

I think this might be the way forward. There must be some good bath mats in the January sales.

I've heard of this from some folk (dad) " dry yourself before you get out the shower " Bugger off it's to damn cold .

Not dripping wet. We dry off a bit before stepping on ours, wouldn't be nice for the next person if it was soaking wet after the last.

@thevassal

Hang it up where? As I said, my bathroom is tiny. The towels go on the radiator, I'm not going to give and hang my bathmat up to dry in a different room, that would be weird and inconvenient.

Drying myself in the place where I already am (bath), with something I'm going to use anyway (towel) is more convenient than getting a third item (bathmat) wet for no necessary reason.

Ours goes in the towel rail with the towels. It’s basically a thick towel.

My mum always dried herself down with a flannel ( I assume it was because she was one of lots of kids and there was no washing machine so her mum had to keep the towels going as long as possible!).

She tried to instil it in me which worked to a certain extent because I do dry my feet with a towel before stepping on the bath mat (I never really thought about it until reading this thread right now!).

I suppose it depends if people are soaking the mat so it's dripping or not whether I think your bu or not

@MrsDeaconClaybourne

I used to have this debate with my DM through my teenage years! It's one of my small joys as an adult that I can get the bath mat as wet as I like and just throw it over the washing line or radiator without getting any grief

It's the small things isn't it!!!

I'll add walking around in my white socks
The house looking like black pool illuminations from the outside & an operating theatre on the inside

I could go on....

@LadyinRead

My Aunty had a bath mat, it matches the loo surround (of course) and one must put the designated towel on it & also fry off in the bath/shower before standing on the towel that's on the bath mat... then put on the drying rail in the hallway in the airing cupboard after squeegeeing down the shower walls & door and opening the window. ... I'm knackered & ready for another shower by then. Love her to bits though!!

At home my bathroom tiles are a bit slippery when wet so I don't care what people do, as long as they do it carefully & don't slip. Bath mat hangs on the side of the bath & if it's too wet for the next person they can take another off the pile

Thanks to everyone for all the insight!

You are right op.