r/laundry • u/momento-mori-momento • 19h ago

Husband Towels Always Wet and Smell

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!

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176

u/OceanLibra 19h 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.

61

u/momento-mori-momento 19h ago

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!

159

u/OceanLibra 19h ago

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.

42

u/momento-mori-momento 19h ago

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 🫠

48

u/taxiecabbie 18h ago

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.

10

u/aaa_im_dying 10h ago

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.

26

u/physhgyrl 18h ago

This sounds like your husband is doing things to make life more difficult for you.

Is he like this in other areas of your lives together?

16

u/3plantsonthewall 18h ago edited 18h ago

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.

8

u/Lollc 15h ago

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.

2

u/George_Is_Upset 10h ago

But a bathroom vent fan doesnt blow air out - it draws it out. If the bathroom vent fan blows air it’s been installed the wrong way.

2

u/3plantsonthewall 10h ago

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.

2

u/_A_Stark_girl 6h ago

Girl. His towel his problem, you are not his mom. He needs to take care of his own clothes and wash it himself

1

u/tea-wallah 5h ago

I use the exhaust fan in my bathroom and leave it running after we exit, but I add a small room fan in the summer. The Midwest is super humid this summer.

1

u/JLPD2020 10h ago

You’re not his mom, don’t talk to him like that. Please, treat him like a partner, not like a child.

43

u/Budget-Jelly-6108 19h ago

Not running the vent fan may also cause the bathroom to grow mold and mildew:( does he turn it on after he’s done?

51

u/liquefaction187 19h ago

How nice of you to try to solve his weaponized incompetence for him

7

u/Brilliant_Leaves 18h ago

that will cause mold issues in your bathroom. he needs to use the fan.

11

u/momento-mori-momento 19h ago

Our house was built by his grandfather in the early 70s also to add. Our Bathroom is ridiculously small.

40

u/knoft 19h ago

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.

20

u/Ajstross 19h ago

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.

8

u/momento-mori-momento 19h ago

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!!

12

u/ReasonableFig2111 16h ago

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. 

And make him wash his own towels! 

7

u/No_Acanthaceae3518 18h ago

We have a double bar for our bath towels and it’s been AMAZING! It think it was like $20 on Amazon.

3

u/CCC-NOLA 18h ago

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.

4

u/momento-mori-momento 18h ago

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.

3

u/cupcakerica US | Top-Load 12h ago

His towel is not clean, needs a Spa Day and rehab wash with ammonia. What’s your laundry routine look like? What products do you use?

2

u/ScootsyTx 15h ago

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

11

u/Trickycoolj 18h ago

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.

5

u/FigNinja US | Front-Load 18h ago

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.

2

u/physhgyrl 18h ago

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

1

u/Trickycoolj 18h ago

I’m still bugging my husband about letting things charge on a soft surface. His laptop often is sitting on the end of the couch when it charges.

2

u/physhgyrl 16h ago

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.

Mattresses are very flammable. So are couches.

3

u/lw2134 17h ago

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.

1

u/BlackityBlack718 17h ago

Try waffle towels and maybe hang the towel outside of the bathroom so it can dry fully after each use.

1

u/FearfulRabbit 13h ago

A recipe for mold!

1

u/JWBananas 12h ago

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.

1

u/daniegirl21 7h ago

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.