How on earth are you drying bath towels if heating not on much??

[GlomOfNit]

Just that, really. Our heating used to be on, but low, all day (I KNOW), on the basis that it was more economical to keep things at a baseline ok temp than have to reheat a cold house twice a day. So we were pretty cosy. Those days are gone now obviously and we currently have thermostat set to come on at 17 or so, twice a day. We have a horrible cold bathroom anyway (ground floor, built in what was once the house tool cupboard apparently, 1920's ex-council house dating from the days when you'd have a bath in front of kitchen range). We used to sling towels over radiator after baths to dry off. But now radiators aren't on, or not on for long enough. I sling them over bannisters to air (none of this is helping the damp in the house either ) but they don't fully dry like that.

Obviously in good weather we put them outside but it's getting cold enough that they don't really dry. They start stinking pretty quickly if they don't dry properly.

Are there any clever tips I'm missing? (no, we don't have a functioning tumbledrier any longer and I'm not looking to buy one at the moment, for obvious reasons. We do have a heated Lakeland airer thing but it's really awkward to have out all the time. I also have a decent dehumidifier.)

clothes rack, non heated. Awkward or not it’s better to have it out than have wet stuff imo.
Drying racks that hook over the radiator so they aren’t flat agains a cold radiator.
Occasional use of Dehumidifier.

Ours are generally dry the next evening if we put them out first thing.

Trouser hangers from b and m - the metal ones. Fold towel once long ways and pin at the top and hang in a doorway. Takes a day to dry and then if I really must I whizz them in the dryer for 5 mins just to soften them but that’s the best way I’ve found so far. No other trouser hangers are strong enough to manage it though, has to be the specific b and m metal ones with the little clips. I got some for dd when she went back to university and she uses them for bedding and all sorts.

These -

www.bmstores.co.uk/products/metal-soft-grip-clip-hangers-4pk-383689

I am planning to use our quick dry travel/swimming towels through the winter. Dry in minutes.

You could try using thinner towels. I look at the weather forecast and try to choose the best day for drying outside for towels and bedding and then put them on as soon as I get up and put them straight out. Then I put them over the backs of the chairs after we've had dinner and they are usually dry by morning.

We use the microfibre camping towels.

We have a long bannister rail that runs along one side of the upstairs landing, I hang them over there and they dry really quickly!

Sorry, just seen that doesn't work for you. I do try and turn them over a few times so they don't stay damp in some places

Could you replace some of your towels with hammam ones, these are extremely quick drying. They don’t look like they would dry you but do, very effectively.

Line dry where possible then airing cupboard.

One of my friends has a lovely and very practical mother. She dries herself very quickly for a few seconds with a flannel (which I imagine gets quite wet) then wraps self up in a big bath towel which hardly gets wet. Much easier to wash flannels daily (with other laundry - hang them up till you put the washer on)
I know it’s not as cosy as wrapping up immediately in a towel but worth a try?
I think they used to do this on holidays to save having lots of wet towels hanging about.

Also I find that some zones in the house (perhaps somewhere that catches the sun) are more effective for drying. In my old house it was the landing - air seemed to circulate better. Worth moving the airer and dehumidifier about to try?

Primark towels. Just thick enough to dry you, but will dry back out in under a day over the banister.

I have never had more than an hour a day of heating and never had wet towels. Your issue is that your towels are too nice... 😆.

I give them a quick blast in the tumble drier but if we didn't have one then I would whack the heating on for half an hour and dry towels on the radiators or at least enough to stop them being really damp. I don't think that would impact bills too much and it's better than your towels going musty from being wet for too and having to replace them which would work out more expensive in the long run.

Our bathroom has heated towel rails that warm up when the hot water does. So towels are dried and toasty.

If I left them to dry anywhere else they would start to stink, like my towels alway did at Uni. Shudder.

Ahh, that was something I was going to ask about. I'd always assumed the heated rails in bathrooms were just tall, bar-y radiators so would only come on with the rads but you say they're filled by the hot water being on? That might be a longer-term solution, I'll look into that.

Buy a couple of those microfiber travel towels. They come up small, use one to dry off your skin in the bathroom and chuck a bathrobe on. For hair, Wilkos do a towel turban for a pound. Both the microfiber and the turban are small and can be used multiple times, then dry quick too.

Just because no one has suggested the obvious - wash less! If you only wash every other day they would be dry in time.

Yep, heat up with the water boiler not the central heating. And warm the bathroom up nicely too, obviously.

lol at having 'too naice' towels to dry fast! They're all ancient but started out life as large fluffy bath sheets. God knows when we last got a new towel though - most of these date back to pre-marriage (17 yrs) and a couple I had as a student. In the early 90's.

We do have one hammam towel, that's a very good idea. I can use that one, at least. Not sure I can convince the rest of the family to switch to horrible camping towels for winter though - they're nylon-y and tug at rough skin and never really feel like they dry you. I DO like the 'use tiny flannel' idea though! We have loads of hand knitted cotton flannels (from DM) which are very absorbent.

Overall, it's 'good' to know I'm not the only one with damp towels flung over bannisters/chairs etc.

We have this issue in summer too, if it's a run of chilly, dank days with no sun, but obviously the heating isn't on either. Towels that would have dried quickly on radiators go stinky in summer horribly fast.

God I miss having the heating on.

um, no. Really, REALLY not an option. Well for DH it might just be, he smells like angels and strawberries and doesn't seem to have BO at all, damn it. I'm cursed with fairly stinky pits and I absolutely have to wash daily. Plus I can't imagine not washing crotch areas every day. YUCK

DS1 is 14 and has to be pushed into the shower with a pointy stick but dear god, he needs it. DS2 is autistic and has his nightly bath as part of his routine (and gives us a good half hour to 'relax').

We recently switched our ratty old towels for thin Turkish cotton waffle ones, and upgraded to bath sheet size at the same time. They dry in a flash.

Alternatively if you’ve got cash for an upgrade, a dual fuel radiator in the bathroom is good: you can switch it on with the electricity setting just to dry the towels, then off again, without having to turn the central heating on.

Yy to using thinner towels if you have any. Tried to persuade my kids to take the thin ones to uni for exactly this reason. Is there any way they can be hung outside?
Otherwise I'd hang them over the banisters/airer but with the dehumidifier running nearby for a bit too, which will help the house as well (they also give off a small amount of warmth)

@GlomOfNit Fair enough 😁 We are a manky household.

My suggestion would be finding the sunniest spot in your house to place an airer and dry them, then. Weirdly our front porch is a suntrap and great for drying things.

I dry everything on an airer in the dining room for about 2 days. I do have the heating on in the evening though. My gas bill is better than the electricity so instead of buying a new tumble dryer to replace the old one that died back in the summer, I mentally add the money I would have spent and include it in paying my energy bills.

Once it is dry towels are folded and put on a flat airer over the radiator then put away.

Having the heating on keeps me warm, dries out the clothes on the airer and stops the bathroom getting condensation when I have a shower at night.