what do you do with wet towels after your shower?

[SlightlyItchyBraStrap]

I don't want to wash them after only one use. If there's room on the bathroom rail I hang mine there, or over a door, or outside in good weather.... No real system, and I usually forget to fetch it and then we have several "in use" towels floating around the house!

Does anyone have a system that is easy for the whole family to use and actually works??

Mine and dh's are hung on the towel rad in our ensuite. Dc's all have their own towels, colour coordinated to match their bedrooms and are hung on their radiators

IwishIwasmoreorganised, glad I am not the only one to think like this . I seem to have mountains of washing as it is, can't imagine adding towels to it.

We hang towels on towel rails to dry in our bedrooms as the bathroom has no storage or rails. In previous homes with an airing cupboard, I used that for drying bath towels which were in use.

We stick to certain colours so it's easy to remember who is using which towel. We each have a bath towel and a hand towel in use. There's also a hand towel in the bathroom hung over the bath side for hand washing and one in the kitchen for the same. I have a couple of hand towels that we use as bath mats as I find them easier to wash. The whole lot goes in the wash once a month. TBH they don't usually seem dirty.

mine and DH's hang on the bannisters, DD's goes on a radiator. Hand towel on the bathroom radiator. All washed once a week. I would not find it impressive to wash towels after every use, I would find it mad.

After reading this I've now realised where I have been going wrong, there is 2 adults, a teenager, 10 year old and a baby.......everytime we shower or bath the towels go in the washing basket! no wonder my basket is always full

6 of us in our family, and everyone has a colour-coded bath towel. Everyone knows whose is whose, no mistakes. (One of the pleasures of early pregnancy for me - selecting new bath towel set in the sales!!) After each use they are hung on heated towel rail, or over a radiator, and towel wash day is Friday. Dealing with towels I find easy, dealing with the 5 other people in my family, and managing the rest of the house, bit more tricky!

I wash towels, flannels and bath mats after every use. They start to stink really quickly, and once they smell, it means bacteria. Plus I hate wet towels and flannels hanging around.

Use them then wash them.

if I washed after every use I'd never have room for the millions of towels we would need (I shower twice a day most days - once in the morning and then again after an exercise class). Ours get washed when they are no longer dry before the next shower is due (every few days to a week)

Do they not smell musty?

no, they are hung up to dry/air after use so dont smell

Likewise. Mine do not smell even by the time I wash them. I just feel like, "ok, they haven't been washed for a while..." but it's not like they smell whatsoever and I am VERY sensitive to damp towel smell.

I fling mine over the shower cubicle with the door open, hang them on the bedknobs, the banister, kitchen chair, anywhere really. I was mine about once a week if the weather is good. If the weather is crap I wash and dry them over a clothes horse. I don't understand people who wash their towels after each use. You should be clean from a bath/shower when you use them. I remember my BF's mate saying he washed his towels after every use because they were covered in dead skin. I asked him if he washed is bedding daily and he said he did not. He was a bit when I pointed out that his bedding had twice the amount of dead skin and sweat on it after a night sleeping with his wife than his towel would after drying a clean body.

Snap Marigold. They never smell or get dirty really as we all wash well so washing them any more than I do ATM would seem pointless.

Our housekeeping efforts sound of a very similar standard

We put ours on the line, as 5 of us each having shower everyday.
Then bring in when dry.
if wet outside either heated towel rail in bathroom, radiator or drier.

We have big hooks in the bathroom and they get washed once a week-ish or if I have a quiet day and the airers are empty. Quite like washing.

wow thanks for all the responses! Sorry it's taken me so long to come back.

I love the idea of a heated towel rail. Will look into getting one. There is not room in our bathroom for everyone's towels at once though.

It sounds like color-coding might solve our problem. I guess it doesn't matter so much WHERE the towels go (we don't have the space for a central towel-drying area anyway) as long as we stop using new towels unnecessarily. So I think I will get DH and me 2 bath sheets each and pack away/get rid of all the other random towels. Then it will be up to each adult to hang and locate their towel-in-use as necessary! DS only has a blue hooded towel and that's probably enough for him as long as we remember to hang it rather than chucking it on the bedroom floor.

As a towel lover I feel i need to tell somebody that jay Ellison was shocked when she came into my house because I hung my towels over the door to dry... I am not towel shy I have 20+ Towels because I was them every time I use them because my fella uses them as floss for his ass and I don't want to be wiping my face with his cling ons

Washed after every use

katythecleaninglady

then the toilet top, lid, seat, then rim. Then it's ready to wash and my bathroom looks good

Sorry, but that's just minging.

Heated towel rail in the bathroom, everyone has their own towel colour. The heating isn't on right now, the bathroom doesn't have a window (just sky lights) and they still dry quickly. Washed about every 3 days.

Huge heated towel rail. And we share - 2 towels out at a time, which adults use in the mornings and DC in the evenings, on the rare occasions we bath them :).

I think if we didn't hang them up to air properly they would start to smell pillow. They don't go smelly from being used IMO, not after one use anyway. What make them smell is hanging around staying damp, such as if you put them in the washing basket!

Several people have mentioned sharing towels on here, isn't that unhygienic?!

We have a towel rail in the bathroom: one towel each (ewwww at sharing towels!), washed once a week. They never smell but we hang them up properly so they dry/air between uses.

Hang them over the bannister or door to air all day.
They get washed around every week.