Have you ever noticed that the people who design bathrooms expect only one or two people to use a towel? Sometimes they even place the towel rack above the toilet. What are they thinking? 🙂 With six kids sharing a bathroom I needed a big solution. I tried over the door racks but my kids were too short to reach the rack. This led to wet towels on the floor and the racks getting pulled off the door by kids trying to reach their towels.
A few years ago I got smart and did something about this dilemma. I found a five hook coat rack and hung it at kid’s eye level. Now my kids can hang up their own towels and there is a space for every towel. I paid ten dollars for the rack at IKEA, but have seen them at every home improvement store as well as Target and Walmart.
This also works well in a guest bathroom. I never know what to do when we are visiting someone and there is no obvious place to put my towel. This solution takes up little space and solves a big problem.
Whitney @ Baby Tunnel Exodus says
LOVE this. We have 2 places to hang towels in our bathroom 1) a 2 pronged hook next to the shower and 2) a teeny tiny rack Over The Toilet. Mmm-hmmm. (oh, did I mention, there’s FIVE of us in this house?) This is a fantastic tip, I’ll be at Ikea by lunch. Blessings, Whitney
Lauren says
Oh. My. Goodness. You may have just solved a major towel problem in our household. True, there are only three of us, but the towel rack can get a little crowded (ESPECIALLY when guests come).
Happy Housewife, you always amaze me. How do you sleep at night with all this information in your brain?
Rebecca says
When we moved into our new house, there were just two twelve-inch towel racks in the bathroom. How did they survive? I really like the coat hook idea! It looks good and accomodates more than one hand towel at a time.
Dddiva says
What a great idea – the girls usually end up yelling for a towel since someone knocked theirs down. Definitely an ingenious solution to a common problem. Thanks.
Alissa says
Such a great tip. We live in an apartment now with the dreaded ring that you are describing. Between the three of us it is just not cutting it. I am going to try this. Any excuse to drive 45 minutes to IKEA I will take!
Traci says
I do that also!!! It is sooooo much easier and eye pleasing to me. I think regular towel racks promote mildewing of the towels….the way they hang…they don’t really ever dry. Great post!!!
Amy Cloud says
Great idea! Sounds like it would work for me too. Blessings.
Kayren says
I did the same thing for my four kids in our last military quarters. I bought a four-hook rack at Target and hung it up in the main hall outside the bathroom. There was no room inside the bathroom, and it was the only one that had a shower or a tub…and that was for six people!
Kristy says
That’s a great idea but my boys just prefer to leave their wet towels on the bedroom floor. Any suggestions for that??
Luci Sheriff says
If you do not wash the towels that they leave on the floor, and only allow them to use their towel, they will eventually learn to pick up the towel. No clean towel, no dry kid. But also depends on the age of the. Hope this helps. A mother of 5 boys used this idea
Mikki says
This is a reminder to me. I have two girls who just can’t seem to use a towel more then once.
I saw a DOUBLE rung towel rack the other day on clearance at Lowes and my DH said not to bother because that would mean they would actually have to hang them up.
I have a hook thing out in my garage I got a yard sale that I need to paint and get up. I think they could manage that ;-).
Sarah W. says
You are never going to believe this…..but I planned to post this EXACT post this week. I even took pictures. Unfortunately, Wednesday snuck up on me, and it did not get done. Well, actually it did, just not be me. So fun!!!
Kristi says
Wow, I thought I was weird…I found hooks at Pier 1 years ago, and have been using those! They came in packs of 3…so you could do more or less, and wouldn’t be limited to what the hook racks have. Also works great for robes!
Jennie C. says
We custom made something similar…two of them, actually. One for the little hall by the front door for our coats and bags and one in the kids bath for all their towels. They look great and they’re just we needed!
Somebody's Mimi says
We lease a (new) home that has 4 bathrooms. There was one towel rack in three of the bathrooms. Instead of screwing something into the walls I bought inexpensive coat trees (?) one even has a place that you would normally put umbrellas but that is where I put books and extra toilet tissue. I just hate going to someone else’s bathroom and run out of toilet tissue!
We don’t have any children at home BUT we live near Mickey and Minnie so our bathrooms see a lot of guests.
Julie {Angry Julie Monday} says
We have the exact same rack in our son’s bathroom. I love it! Great minds think alike!
Cheryl@SomewhatCrunchy says
That’s a great idea, I like how it gives each towel it’s own space to dry too. I’ve found the over the door racks end up with stacked towels and everything stays wet and funky. I’ll have to try that for my four boys.
Angela O says
Great idea! I used colorful Command Hooks in the kids’ bathroom at their level and hardly ever have towels on the floor. I also separated them so there’s plenty of room between each child’s “space.” I even hung a few extras for guests.
Tammy says
I put this same rack in my 3 daughters’ bedrooms ~ behind their door. With only 2 showers, we all keep our bath/hair towels in our own rooms ~ where we wore the towels after the shower anyway! This way, no one uses anyone else’s towels or wipes their hands on someone else’s towel, etc. ~ Love Ikea ~ and all of your helpful tips and great ideas you share! Thanks!!
Phoebe @ GettingFreedom says
That’s exactly what we’ve done! I didn’t want to pay an outrageous price for a towel bar, that they wouldn’t put their towels on nicely anyway, so we opted for the hooks, instead. No wrong way to hang them, then! In our Master Bath, I wanted something a bit more substantial, and we only needed 2 hooks, so we just bought individual hooks for $2/ea in Oil Rubbed Bronze. Love it! Now I don’t have to go back behind everyone and properly hang their towels. 🙂
Lori C says
Yep we do this too.. I have a 4 hook towel rack in my hallway right outside the bathroom door for all 4 of my daughters towels. All 3 of my oldest kids can hang their own towels up and it works really nicely (ages 3 to 7).
Cathy says
Good idea. Our wet towels seem to get flung over the shower curtain bar as the rickety towel rack fell down and needs fixing. I like your idea. Seems so simple and easy to do.
Carmen at Old House Kitchen says
That’s what we did in our bathroom. Saves so much on laundry!
Katie says
I felt the same way about our towel racks and the over the door hanger never got our towels dry, so I used similar hooks that I bought individually at Lowe’s for a dollar or 2, and just put them straight on the wall. That way our hooks are spread evenly across the wall, far enough that the towels don’t overlap and they look nice (Plus I don’t have to find decor to cover the empty wall next to the old towel rack). They hang just high enough that the bottom of my kid’s hooded towels don’t touch the floor, and they look ellegant too! I cut Vinyl names to put on the wall above each hook and I LOVE it!
Twisted Cinderella says
Oh this is a fabulous idea!