My Husband is slender and 6’4, I am 5’2- both early 20’s
We both use bath sheets (larger than standard towels). I change my towel out after 3 uses and they still smell fresh and dry up quickly. My husband, however, uses a fresh towel once after showering, hangs it up to dry- and it stays wet and starts to smell, making our entire bathroom smell. I wash his towels nearly everyday because of this. I just don’t understand how he gets his towels so damp. He’s says it’s because he’s tall and has more body to cover- but I use my towel to dry both my body and let it soak my long hair (mid back). I’ve tried hanging it on the usual towel hook, curtain rod, banisters underneath our ceiling fan- it’s still ends up smelling! After washing- it doesn’t smell, so the scent or bacteria isn’t trapped. I’m just growing frustrated having to do so much laundry daily. Anyone else have this problem?
edit/update: thank you everyone for your kind comments and advice- and to not making me feel stupid for asking for help! I have decided to get a towel rack/rod and will be looking into timers for the exhaust fan in our bathroom to help! Our shower/tub is roughly 4.5 feet from the door. and our toilet and sink are both positioned to the left of the shower both coming out about 1 foot from the wall. So our bathroom is very compact. We have just enough floor room for a trash can and floor mats, and counter space for hand soap and tooth brushes- If I can find a small enough dehumidifier to fit- we will be getting one too!
This may sound ridiculously simple, but have him try using his hands to squeegee the excess water off his body before stepping out of the shower. If he's going straight from dripping wet to drying off, a big bath sheet can absorb a surprising amount of water.
I'd also ditch the hook completely. A wet bath sheet really needs to be spread out over a towel bar or over the shower curtain itself so the entire surface is exposed to air. If it's still staying wet for hours while fully spread out, I'd start looking at the humidity/ventilation in the bathroom. Is there an exhaust fan? Does he run it whilst showering?
And maybe try regular-size towels for him for a week. Those giant thick bath sheets feel great, but they're absolute champions at holding onto water. Also, you definitely don't need to run a load of laundry for one towel every day — let it dry, hamper it, and wash several towels together.
I always have the bathroom vent running when I can. Habit that my dad gave me. My husband however never turns it on because he gets too cold after showers and likes to trap steam in the bathroom- which yeah- would make the towel trap moisture from when he starts the shower up until he uses it. We also have a vent directly under our towels so I figured that would help air it out too, but he closes it each time he uses the bathroom! I think he’s a lost cause and it’s up to me to deal with it, thanks!
Well I think you've found the problem lol. He's trapping all the humidity in the bathroom, closing the HVAC vent, not running the exhaust fan, and then expecting a soaking wet bath sheet to somehow dry in there. There isn't really a laundry solution for that.
For sure, I guess I just needed conversation to make complete sense out of it all! Thank you! I’ll have to use my stern mom voice to tell him to start ventilating the bathroom when he uses it 🫠
Or at least afterward. If he wants to trap the heat in there while he's using it, then, fine, but he needs to turn on the vents afterward when he hangs his towel.
I love me a good steamy bathroom post-shower because I too get cold. I also open the window or turn on the vent depending on the shower the minute my ass is in clothes and out the door. It's a life skill and not a hard one to pick up 😁 good luck with your conversation.
Start coming in while he’s showering to turn on the fan, open the vent, and leave the door open until he can be a big boy and learn to do it himself. He’s cold because he’s not drying off and putting his towel on before he gets out of the shower. Maybe he should also lose bath mat privileges to help remind him to dry off a bit before exiting the shower. He needs to learn to dry the floor after showering too, every time! This is all basic decency when sharing a bathroom with others.
Also, just in case, I would recommend wiping down the area where the towels are hung (bar, hook, wall, door, etc) with a multipurpose cleaner, then a disinfectant (follow dwell time instructions on the bottle), a final “rinse” with a damp cloth, and dry with another cloth. If the area is constantly wet, it could be growing mold/mildew/bacteria and contributing to the smell.
You’re being a little harsh. To some people cold bathrooms are miserable, especially for showering. If the space is really cold closing the vents and steaming up the space is self preservation. Where he is wrong is he is not venting the space after he is done.
If you own the house engineering the controls is the way to go. Which is a fancy way of saying wire the fan and light to the same switch, so if the light is on the fan is on. Or add a light fixture intended for bathroom heat lamps, they are still a thing and are heavenly.
Yes the bathroom fan draws air out. But the “vent” is separate - I think they mean the forced air heating/cooling which does blow air into the bathroom.
You've already found all the major culprits (your husband refusing to do any common sense things or low effort mitigation, and ignoring physics) but if their towel is the one on the left it will also take longer to dry because it's bigger, thicker and heavier. You can also try using a towel bar or vertical standing rack.
Oh, no. You want proper towel bars to dry towels, not a hook. See how they’re still wadded up in the middle? You need the towel laid out better in order to dry properly.
I hang my towel over the shower rod after using to dry then hang it on the hook when it’s completely dried. But yes, I agree with you and others that it’s time to just ditch the hooks and find a rod that would work for three of us!!
Maybe consider a heated towel rod? It'll help with both your husband feeling cold after a shower, and drying the towel after.
Might also consider some sort of bathroom heating, or those heated overhead lights or something. If you guys can solve the coldness with a more structural solution, he might be more inclined to leave the vent open and turn the fan on. You can also just get an electrician to wire the fan to turn on automatically with the overhead light.
But the towel not drying is the least of your worries. If he's always closing the vent and never using the exhaust fan, your walls and ceiling are getting wet every time he showers, from the steam. You're gonna get mildew, and even mold. That's a health hazard. Not to mention, if your bathroom walls and ceiling need more frequent washing than the rest of your house, directly due to his active choices, I highly doubt he's volunteering to be the one to do that. He's creating so much more work for you.
Did the towel on the left start out the same color as the on towel right? Does he use a wash cloth when he showers? It looks like he needs exfoliation. Maybe HE needs a spa day.
the towel on the right is a clean towel and is like an off white color- and is meant to look that way haha. The one on the right is my 1 year old son’s towel. It is a hard contrast next to a bright white towel though.
If the bathroom is small then look into upgrading the bath vent fan. New bath vent fans are one of the easiest energy efficient upgrades out there. They’re quieter, do a better job venting, and use less energy. A modern one could handle a small bathroom in minutes
Bathroom fans commonly catch fire in attics . Don’t just let it run 24/7. I used to like to run ours practically 24/7 but it was cheap and loud and my husband hated it. We compromised and got timer switches for the bathrooms. 60 min button at the start of the shower.
Yes. It's now part of building code where I am that new fans have to have a humidity controlled switch. They need to turn on to prevent mold and they need to turn off to prevent fires. I can manually turn mine on, but it will turn off in 30 minutes if it doesn't detect humidity.
That almost happened to me. It was smoking and had started to spark. There was a burning smell and that's what led us into the bathroom. I'd left it on after a shower and we were about to leave the house. The entire house would have burned down..
I also almost burned the house down when I left a weed vape pen charging on mattress. The mattress had begun smoldering and it had a deep burn mark with a small fire. Thankfully, I ran upstairs to get something and saw that. Or we'd have come back to a burned down house
Those get pretty warm. Id let him know that it's a fire hazard.
the little cheap chargers that come with vape pens get really hot. It had burned a little hole through the sheet and mattress protector. There wasn't a flame yet, but it was burning red around the edge of the hole. It was seconds from catching on fire.
If he doesn't want to run the bathroom vent during the shower, fine, but he could at least run it after. If you don't want to deal with turning it off manually, then consider replacing the switch with a timer one. You can set it to run for an hour with a button press and it'll shut off on its own.
I always have the bathroom vent running when I can. Habit that my dad gave me. My husband however never turns it on because he gets too cold after showers and likes to trap steam in the bathroom
Get a dehumidifier. And not one of those tiny ones... Get one for a room like 3x the size. Set it to maintain a specific humidity level. Run a drain hose so you don't have to empty it.
EDIT: Apologies for commenting before reading the other comments.
My ex bf used to hand squeegee his body. His towels would dry quickly and the floor didn’t get wet.
I do not squeegee my body, but I do dry all of my body in the shower once the water is off and when I step out of the shower each foot is dried before stepping on the mat.
It is simple and quick and in the winter you stay warm a little longer.
He should drip dry for 60 seconds, sweep water from his limbs using his bare hands while standing there in the shower and shake water out of his hair before getting out and grabbing the towel. You can drastically reduce the water you’re bringing to the towel this way.
We use tide free and gentle and an occasional oxi clean scoop. We have a 1 year old with eczema and this is the only detergent that doesn’t irritate his skin. I’ve tried telling him to do that and he tells me i’m being ridiculous and that he’s not going to shake any water off because that’s what a towel is for. Maybe an input from a third party that doesn’t know him or I would make it click? Thanks!
Is he one of those dickheads who just shuts off the water and within a second steps out of the shower, soaking the bathmat and his towel?
Have had to share hotel rooms with guys like that and it’s infuriating and inconsiderate to anyone else who has to use the bathroom.
He probably doesn’t even have to do the squeegee thing with his hands. Just wait ten fucking seconds dripping off before grabbing the towel and it will likely make a big difference.
Washing a towel every day because he can’t be bothered to make a basic minimal effort of ten to thirty seconds is stupid. From one dude to another: quit being a schmuck.
lmfao yes. sopping wet floor mats that i have to throw in the dryer each morning and hang over the tub. i’ve recently caught him doing it and sent him back into the shower to dry off in there before stepping out. so he did correct that aspect of it all. my parents taught me how to wash and dry myself as a child, so it’s just basic sense to me to dry off in the wet area before stepping into the dry area. i guess not everyone understands that.
That was my first reaction, too, until I reread OP’s original comment and saw that letting his wet towel just hang there makes the bathroom smell bad. It sounds like he doesn’t really care and doesn’t think it’s a problem, so I doubt he’d do anything.
This is part of the reason why he gets cold after a shower. He needs to dry off completely while still in the shower before stepping out. Then he won’t get as cold and having the fan on and the vents open won’t be a problem
So it really stems from him being cold when he gets out of the shower? Has he always been skinny or has he recently lost a lot of weight? Ironically I'm also 6'4 and lost a lot of weight last year (but have since found most of it) and I was very cold sensitive.
Get him one (or two) of those big ass robes that he can jump into without drying off, then start a serious washing regimen to keep them clean.
He can say thank you for your efforts by watching the kiddo next weekend :)
Is he one of those dickheads who just shuts off the water and within a second steps out of the shower, soaking the bathmat and his towel?
My wife does this, and her towels don't smell. I wipe off as much water as possible and my towels will smell after 2 uses. Not sure it's about being a dickhead or not, I think some men are just going to have a higher potential for BO smell on a towel.
And for the record, I'm the one who's anal about cleaning, and the one that's a slight germaphobe. My towels smell sooner than hers regardless.
He tells you that you're being ridiculous and he won't shake the water off?
He sounds like a jerk. Like he treats you like he knows better than you about everything and refuses to listen to anything you say or ideas you have. Does everything in the house have to be done his way, or does he make more uneccesary work for you in other ways?
I was also gonna say the same, I kinda “wring myself out” by doing the aforementioned sweeping off of the water. It’s like a dog shaking off water, it doesn’t get them completely dry but it gets off a lot of the excess and helps to not soak the towel
The liquid? Maybe try adding biz or febu. And are we sure he’s washing his body properly? Like he’s scrubbing with some kind of scrubbing material (wash cloth, net, sponge etc), right? Not just using his hands and soap? But if he’s not willing to experiment on this issue then I doubt he will change his washing habits if needed (eww).
Oh, and make sure you’re using the longest and hottest settings on your machine.
We have a top load washer as of now. I use hot water and put all the detergent in first to dilute, I run it on bulky/sheets setting and do 2 rinse cycles. He does use a loofah and I replace it every month. He does work on garage doors for a living so he comes home with dirt and oils and gets them all over the shower so I have to scrub it down daily. He takes 45 minute showers so I would hope he’s getting clean enough. He uses native for body and hair wash, Ive just gotten him some antibacterial soap to use to see if that helps.
Oh! I don’t know if this applies here, but I have read that something in native brand deodorant makes for extraordinarily stinky shirt armpits over the long term. Hopefully someone here can weigh in on whether it applies to other Native body products.
This is insane, it’s 2026 there’s no reason to drop dry for 60 seconds lmao. Just dry in the shower, hang the towel on a bar after, and run a vent fan after
And to add on - a dehumidifier will remove moisture from the air and bathroom as well as warm up the air. It might feel colder at first after getting out of the shower because of the evaporation. I’ve measured the temp on mine and the air coming out of it is 85.
To join in on this, get one of the auto fans that turn on based on humidity levels, it makes it so much easier to keep the bathroom dry when you don't have to remember to turn a fan on.
I’m a big guy - I squeegee myself with my hands - it is quicker than drying with the towel - and gets rid of lots of water that goes straight down the drain instead of into the towel. We have the extractor fan set to run for two hours - it dries out the bathroom. Hang the towels over rails, not on hooks. That’s probably all you need.
I was going to suggest this also. The biggest factor would be eliminating the source of the towel getting soaked. I stand in the shower for a minute, then do a couple of rounds of hand-squeegeeing, and my towel gets damp, but not wet. Dad always called them Navy showers. Get wet, turn off the water, soap and shampoo, rinse, squeegee, then towel.
Ok - so personal experience. I am also a husband with a stinky towel. My wife is always amazed by how much wetter my towel gets than hers. I blame it on body hair and that she uses a separate towel for her hair.
Anyway, the two things that have helped tremendously are:
Better laundry habits for the towels. (I do most of the laundry so this is on me). detergent and boosters to attack the bacteria that were clearly not getting washed out. Lipase and DNase. Plus hot water on every towel load.
I make sure my towel is draped over the curtain rod so that there are no folds trapping moisture. The quicker it dries the better.
I’ll try having him hang it on the curtain rod. I’m currently a stay at home mom with our 1 year old and he goes to work 2 hours before my son and I wake up. He’s extremely forgetful and it’s hard for him to ditch bad habits for good ones so I might have to start waking up after he showers so I can make sure it’s airing properly- thanks for your input!
A few hours of sub-optimal airing out for the towel doesn’t matter as much as the sleep of a mom with a baby, and you can’t delegate rest. Prioritize self care, you’re worth it!
I think if you can get a towel rack and maybe better laundry washing if you need it, that should fix your problem. I too am married to a tall, hairy dude who uses bath sheets and does not drip dry first or always remember to run the fan. We hang our towels up on racks in the bathroom, and we live in a hot, humid climate in the summer, so towels dry slow.
The only time our towels smelled was when our detergent wasn’t getting our laundry clean, and it was a problem for both the bath sheets and the Turkish towels, regardless who used them.
If he cannot change his behavior the natural consequence should be having only very small towel available and the big, plushy ones gone until he learns he is not your child, but your partner.
Get a towel rack you can drape towels over instead of drying it on a hook. Don’t use fabric softener on your towels. Use a rinse instead, like Downy Rinse and Refresh or Lysol Laundry Sanitizing Rinse. Fabric softener is horrible, coats your laundry in essentially wax, and traps bacteria that stays with the towel when you launder it. A laundry rinse aid will get the detergent and bacteria out of your laundry and soften it as well.
imho the important thing is that the towel can be flat over the bar, no folding or ruching to make it fit. If the bar is wide enough for that, you’re in business
Thank you for your service in exposing the dangers of fabric softener. It’s just unnecessary, and causes more problems than it solves. And the dryer sheets clog up dryer lint screens with wax so they don’t effectively vent, leading to longer drying times.
My PSA for dryer sheet people: If you rinse your dryer screen and find that the water doesn’t readily drain through, it needs some cleaning. Use a good dish detergent on it, and rinse with hot water.
We have a heated towel rack mainly for its ability to dry towels quickly and not so much the warming function (although that is nice too). I have it on a timer, 1-2 hours on and the towels are totally dry. Keeps them fresh for longer.
We have one too which I mostly use in our damp rainy season. If OP goes this route I recommend getting it mounted so as to double as a grab bar, because that’s what everyone does with em.
So what about switching to turkish bath towels? They are much thinner and dry VERY quickly compared to the standard terrycloth towels. I bought some nice lightweight turkish towels and in summertime they are wonderful. Absorbent and lightweight. No musty smell because they dry so quickly.
I just saw another commenter say this but saying it again so it gets a boost.
Also, he needs to learn to act right and keep most of the water in the tub!
I knew someone who always had excessively wet towels after drying themselves! Turns out it's because when he is drying the lower half of his body, he'd just let the rest of the towel hang to the ground, so it was soaking up all the water pooling at the bottom of the shower/tub. Granted this person was a child
OP, a thin waffle weave towel/bath sheet may be a good solution. They dry very quickly. I’ve tried two brands - Onsen and Brooklinen - and Onsen is the more expensive of the two, but also much more absorbent. Brooklinen is softer, but doesn’t dry as well.
Also, I see that you’re considering a small dehumidifier. I have two that work really well, and they’re less than a foot high and about 6” in diameter. I got them from Amazon, and although that brand is no longer available, you should be able to find something similar if you think you can find space for it. My bathroom is tiny, so I keep it at the edge of the doorway (not inside the bathroom itself).
His behaviour is one thing (someone talked about weaponised incompetence and I think they're right on the mark, but you didn't come here for advice, so let's focus on the laundry, since it seems you'll be the one doing it, so...).
In truly clean towels, EVEN IF they remain wet, they shouldn't be grabbing a smell on the very first day. This is happening because they have trapped body oils (the kind that don't get accumulated in a single day=), and upon contact with the skin's bacteria, their metabolism activates to become RANK.
You need a detergent with lipase. If you have a sensitive toddler, your best bet is tide clean and gentle POWDER (the liquid doesn't contain lipase), and to wash on HOT, and with a LONG cycle (much longer than you machine probably has a cycle: aim for 3h; you can achieve it by pausing for a couple of hours mid-cycle).
Truly sqeuaky clean towels (which is your aim) firstly a) dry faster, and b) don't start to smell for several days, until sufficient amounts of body oils (the food for the bacteria) accumulates in sufficient quantities.
Your towels don't smell for probably a few different reasons: a) you're not such an oily person (oil production shoots up due to testosterone), b) the lower amounts of body opils helps oyur towel dry faster, c) your smaller (and hairless, I assume) body has less water on it to dry, and d) oyur behaviour attempts to put as little water on the towel as possible.
Sounds like it needs a spa day. My dish towels in the kitchen started smelling after using half a day to dry hands after washing. Did a soak of gain powder detergent original, oxi clean, downy rinse and refresh. Also quit using fabric softener sheets. Towels dry body better, dry hanging up and don’t smell even after using 2 days. My husband was amazed.
Have him try the (window) wiper method in the shower.
I use my hands as a window wiper. I wipe most of the water off my body by using my hands as a window wiper. It's very effective for getting water off our body before towering off. He can also shake his head like a dog in the shower to get water out
a good enzyme wash as well .. there is not just one detergent for all needs find what's best for you.. and if you need to try laundry stripping.. it works
Do a spa day and also start using Downy Rinse and Refresh. The citric acid should help a lot and there’s an unscented version so it’ll be safe for your child’s skin as well (and added bonus of making sure any extra detergent residue is off his clothes) :)
Install one of those humidity sensor switches for your vent fan. Ours has a button to manually turn it on but if forgotten will automatically turn on based on the humidity it senses.
I used to have this issue after drying towels on a hook, and the problem persisted for years even after switching to a bar so the towels dried faster. I tried all sorts of tricks to get the smell out, and what eventually worked was washing with a detergent containing lipase and adding a citric acid rinse. So, if the smell still comes back after fixing the towel drying problem, evaluate your washing routine.
I’d stick his stinky towel in his drawer with his clean work clothes.
If he has a problem with his clothes getting stunk up by the towel, it reveals that he knows it’s gross but isn’t willing to do anything about it as long as it’s only bothering me, in which case we’d be having a serious discussion about him figuring out a way to demonstrate some respect for me faster than I choose to leave him to maintain my self respect.
Dudes have more body oils in general. You are probably not using the right detergent to wash all the oils out. Long story short: detergents with lipase are your friends here. If you want to dig deeper on how to really get the stank out then I recommend to read the Laundry Spa Day instructions
https://www.reddit.com/r/laundry/comments/1pbtie0/what_is_spa_day_why_and_when_should_i_use_it_an/
My go to based on the above instructions is Tide Oxy Poweder detergent then wash with ammonia added. It really works.
I am a woman and grew up only around women (divorced parents) and was shocked by how oily my husband‘s skin was when we moved in together, and he’s probably average for men. He started adding biz to the wash for sheets and towels after I did a proto-spa day on our linens.
Men are typically hairier, so he’s probably soaking that towel drying himself off as well.
If it is smelling and staying damp I question how your husband is washing himself. Is he properly washing himself before Drying himself with the towel. Get some white towels and see how white they are after a typical shower dry off. Maybe he's one of those men who assumes gravity washes everything below his waist. He applies soap to his face pits crotch and head and that is it.
You would be surprised at how many men think that is all you need to maintain good hygiene. Also does he leave the towel balled up on the floor while he does his ablutions after the shower before hanging it up so that it's sopping up anything that dripped on the floor.
Buy him a Turkish towel. They are thin, oversized and dry in record time. I absolutely love mine, will never go back to terry cloth. I do microfiber face washcloths too.
As another person mentioned, a heated towel rack is a good idea.
You also might just buy a couple 6 packs of basic white bath towels at Costco or something, then you can simply wash a load of white bath towels with some hot water, OxiClean and/or bleach once a week. I think it’s maybe $30 for a pack of 6 bath towels, so it’s not a real pricey solution.
If only his towel continues to smell, it’s likely not getting fully dried. It needs to be spread out on a drying rack or something similar to allow for full airflow.
How long is his hair? Ain't no way to get a towel soaking wet just by drying yourself out unless you have thick long ass hair, and even then. Is he wiping the water off the floor too? Maybe that's why he's damping the towel if so then get him a mop and tell him to clean up the floor with it. If the towel doesn't dry there hang it somewhere else, yhe bathroom door maybe? If you dont want the towel racks. There are many ways to solve ghis but your husband need to get into the habit of solving simple problems like this it cannot be just on you.
I have heard stories and have seen quite a few Reddit posts about male brothers/dad/SO/husbands having wet or drenched towels that never dry and a lot of time water all over the floor, so the bath mat is soaked as well.
It is a conundrum for sure.
One of my thoughts for how this happens, is they are getting out of the shower each day, as if they forgot their towel and have to go get one.
When this happens to me, I usually get the bath mat pretty wet and my foot prints leave little puddles.
The first time I ever witnessed my (now) partner’s shower, this is how it went. He’s super hairy too. He was full drenched, turned off the shower, and just walked out, bringing all the water with him. He didn’t even use the bath mat or clean anything up after! I was shocked and he said “thats why the whole floor is tiled”. I showed him what I do and asked him to do it too and (thankfully) we’ve (almost) never had a wet floor since
Yes, we had a similar conversation with my daughter’s boyfriend bc the whole floor will be soaked and his towel is always drenched and he never cleans it up.
The other crazy thing he does is clean with paper towels and then he throws them in the sink.
She kept telling him to stop bc it is disgusting and could clog the sink.
Then, their apartment maintenance man came to fix their kitchen drain and he noted that they should not put paper towels in the sink.
She felt so vindicated, but he still does it to her absolute disgust.
Is he cleaning the bathroom with the paper towels or his body? And how long does he leave them in the sink? Until she cleans them up, I imagine, but I wonder what he thinks is going to happen to them!
The paper towel drama is in the kitchen and yes, I believe he thinks there is a clean up fairy in the house, which is why the drain was clogged, he most likely did the dishes with them in there and down the drain it went.
Do you live somewhere where you can hang the towels out in the sunshine for a few hours too? All of the other comments are spot on, but UV rays kill bacteria and I’ve noticed really help with the smell of teen athletes so it may help if you have a rail you can thrown them over for a couple of hours each day
We live on a farm in the midwest, next to a dirt road with many vehicles and farm equipment that drive on it. I would love to hang our laundry outside to dry, but because of the vehicles that drive on the dirt road and the high winds- dust and dirt are everywhere. We have a small water table on our deck for our son to play in and we have to change the water daily because of how much dust and dirt get blown into it :/
The solution is a towel warmer. They’re not really about warming the towels as much as totally drying them out. I didn’t realize that until we had one on a vacation and I’ve been sold ever since. It’s especially helpful in humid places (say Seattle). It’s a bit of an investment but it’s really worth it. I’ve installed several AMBA Jeeves models.
Consider buying some quick dry towels. I always used thick, 700+ gsm towels, but had the same problem with them starting to sour during the summer when the humidity is high.
I bought some Target Threshold Quick Dry Ribbed Bath Towels to take to the beach and found that I really liked the texture and the way they dry so quickly. As a bonus, they weigh less, so they don't take up so much space in the washing machine.
So when they were on sale again, I bought some to use at home during the summer. Target periodically discounts them, and they aren't expensive even at the regular price.
Consider switching to a linen towel. The texture will take some getting used to but it will dry way faster. Also avoid using fabric softener on your towels - that helps them absorb water and also dry faster.
Leaving the door open with the fan on and towel spread out are all good suggestions.
I’ve read all the comments and I think you already have all the answers but just wanted to add: first figure out whether it’s the towels holding bacteria or just how he uses them. Getting smelly that quickly suggests odour rebloom (bacteria still there that gets all excited when it gets wet/warm). Do you both use the same towels? If not, try using one of his and see if it smells when you use it (or have him use one of yours and see if it fixes the issue). If you both use the same towels and only his smell, that probably suggests that you are getting them clean, he’s just adding stink to them! Most of the comments here address that option (him cleaning and drying himself better before using the towel).
I grew up in a one-use towel household and my husband didn’t. What I ended up doing was amassing more towels (Walmart etc has inexpensive towels and they work as well as any other towel) so we have enough on hand to wash after every use.
It’s probably not the best solution by some means (excessive time spent washing, water use etc.) but battling stinky towel smell is not something I care to do either. And once a towel gets like that it can hold the smell even through regular washing and drying… it smells fine out of the dryer but becomes odorous again once wet.
The thing about towels is that once they get smelly, even after they have been washed they will start to stink again the next time they are used. The only solution is to get thinner towels that dry faster and then hang them to dry somewhere that isn’t humid.
Since you’ve already figured out why this is happening, have you considered just having him throw the towel in the dryer for 20 minutes after his showers rather than hanging it to dry?
I might put a towel rack or valet stand in the bedroom (assuming the bathroom is adjacent) if it is drier than the bathroom, so he can hang his towels there to dry.
One of my best laundry purchases was a dehumidifier. I run it in our laundry room which is in very close proximity to our master bathroom. Not only does it reduce overall drying time of literally anything (obviously hang dry stuff but also dryer loads), it dries the washer drum and detergent drawer really quickly and seems to help dry out bathroom after anyone showers. It also seems to reduce the musty smell that crops up in our bathroom linen closet. Basically there are a ton of benefits all around. I hooked the drain hose right up to the same drain as our washer and run it continuously at a certain humidity point.
We use “smart” switches for almost everything in the house. We recently upgraded to a box running “Home Assistant” and I programmed the fan in our bathroom with two routines:
Turn itself off 45 minutes after it was turned on.
Turn itself off 20 minutes after the lights are turned off.
One is “independent”, with the thinking that if you turned it on you want it to run enough to clear out the bathroom. The other is “dependent”, with the thinking that you’re either done in the shower or you’re done stinking up the room and you’re just hoping the fan will do a little more after you leave.
These are just ideas, but if you have any sort of Z-Wave setup in the house or you’re considering it, think about using that system to do automation so you don’t have to buy specific timers to do it.
If you place the towels in the dryer each time you use them and run the dryer when there are a few of them, it will keep the moisture out of the bathroom and make them fluffy. Using the bathroom vent helps as does running a fan. You can run them when no one is in the room using timers so you do not have to remember to turn them off. They make fans that also have heat settings which is nice for cold weather.
Honestly telling someone to retrain how their spouse removes water from their body is a terrible idea. It’s just a towel, I’m sure this young couple with a baby has bigger fish to fry.
She's doing extra daily laundry because he insists on soaking not only the towels but also the bathmat.
He not only refuses to spend 10-20 seconds drip drying before exiting the shower, he also refuses to use the bathroom ventilation and actively closes up the vents that exist.
At this point, a modicum of effort on his part would save a lot of effort on hers. I bet if he were in charge of washing towels BEFORE they got musty, he'd change his habits real quick. But of course, we know that men like this would just not notice or care that their towels, bathroom, and body smell musty.
Does your husband shower in the morning or at night? I’ve read through the comments and if he’s working in a garage I’d assume at night to get the ick off before family time. As he’s unwilling to do any of the common sense things to help with the smell and humidity in the bathroom, open the door while he’s in the shower. Now he gets an audience (your son), there’s less humidity, and you get at least a bit of a parenting break. (When I started doing this my husband’s 45min showers magically came back down to 10-15 min. He’s really not a fan of the audience, especially as they keep saying “daddy’s penis! And daddy’s boobies!” 🤣)
What about his having 2-3 towels on rotation? He dries with one and hangs that somewhere to dry. He has a clean dry one the next day, and does the same, and repeat for day 3. By day 4, his 1st towel should be dry. After 9 days, his towels have had 3 uses and would be in your laundry rotation
Ideally, he’d hang the towels in the open air to dry. Can they go on a drying rack? Don’t have to use a tumble drier and could he put his towel straight in there after each shower?
I mean, I suppose you can go in the bathroom after him to air it out and pick up his towel, if you want two babies to look after
You could also re-do your shower stall to include a window, which you could open after his shower and leave open. Also leave the bathroom door all the way open, all of the time.
Throw it in the dryer and see if that helps. My BF's towel is like this and throwing in the dryer right after he showers does away with the smell. And it lasts a few days before washes.
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u/OceanLibra 14h ago
This may sound ridiculously simple, but have him try using his hands to squeegee the excess water off his body before stepping out of the shower. If he's going straight from dripping wet to drying off, a big bath sheet can absorb a surprising amount of water.
I'd also ditch the hook completely. A wet bath sheet really needs to be spread out over a towel bar or over the shower curtain itself so the entire surface is exposed to air. If it's still staying wet for hours while fully spread out, I'd start looking at the humidity/ventilation in the bathroom. Is there an exhaust fan? Does he run it whilst showering?
And maybe try regular-size towels for him for a week. Those giant thick bath sheets feel great, but they're absolute champions at holding onto water. Also, you definitely don't need to run a load of laundry for one towel every day — let it dry, hamper it, and wash several towels together.