TLDR: Don’t cheap out on towel racks. Invest in a heated towel rack for your main bathroom. Hooks are not always better than bars (and vice-versa). — I should note before we begin that I’m not normally a bathroom hardware aficionado.
I’m a software engineer – my interior design philosophy for most of my adult life has been “whatever’s cheapest at Home Depot.” Yet here I was, naked and shivering on my bathroom floor at 6: 47 on a Tuesday morning because my towel had fallen from its hook and onto the floor… again. That sad excuse for a towel hook that I’d thrown above my bathtub shower during my one-week renovation blitz when I first moved into my new condo? Useless.
It looked great in the hardware store. Hooked onto the wall of my bathroom with plenty of stability.
Couldn’t hold the weight of an actual towel after it absorbed any measurable amount of water before bending beyond repair.
Each morning became a ritual of walking into the bathroom, surveying the real estate where my towel mount should’ve been to ensure it hadn’t fallen victim to gravity overnight before stepping into the shower. It took that chilly Tuesday morning wake-up splash for me to start thinking about my towels in a way I hadn’t previously. Sure, I’d thought about where to hang them before.
But not how towels used while damp actually react to various types of hanging bars. Not how different people might use towels in a bathroom differently. Not how some towel storage looks put together while others look… well, slapped together.
I started scrutinizing towel storage options wherever I went. Hotels, friends’ homes, restaurants I dined at – you name it. There was a science to towel storage that most people got wrong.
I was determined to figure it out. Here’s what I discovered. TLDR Finale: Hangers Matter, But So Does Setup First: upgrade your towel hooks.
To towel bars. They’re obviously taller than your average towel hook, making them far more difficult for toddlers to reach (if that’s a concern) and able to accommodate thicker, bulkier towels. But more importantly, most towel bars are longer than towel hooks, which is key.
After measuring the space next to my shower, I ordered a 24-inch brushed nickel towel bar from Amazon. Installed it about 45 inches above the floor (I’ll explain my height choice later) and hung my towel on it that night feeling like Jeff from The Nest-Industrial Complex. Except, hang wasn’t the right word.
Draped might’ve been more appropriate. Bath towels love to cuddle up when placed on towel bars. Two bath towels, especially thicker ones, will pretty much inseminate when placed on a standard towel bar.
Not good if you’re sharing a bathroom with another person who will also use that towel bar. Case in point: my girlfriend stays over a few times a week. We’d step in to take our showers only to have our towels bunched up against one another while still damp after finishing.
The hotel industry has solved this issue by using longer bars with more spacing between them. Back to Amazon I went. This time to return that useless 24-inch towel bar and replace it with a 36-inch version.
Reinstalled it 48 inches from the ground after hitting my head on the bathroom ceiling (don’t do that, just trust me when I say 48 inches is the magic number here) and found that two bath towels can comfortably sit on the bar without touching one another. Also learned that you should mount towel bars at least six inches away from the corner of your bathroom for proper air circulation on both sides. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.
I opted for towel hooks above my small powder room because the bars looked bulky and out of proportion with the space. Swapped out those disgusting plastic hooks that came with the house for three brushed brass hooks mounted about eight inches apart in a vertical line. Each towel hook can comfortably hold a single hand towel.
And because they’re grouped together, guests can easily deduce where to hang their towels instead of tossing them over the toilet tank like before. Spacing out those towel hooks also taught me about ventilation. Towels on hooks or towel bars that are too close together don’t allow for enough air circulation to fully dry your towel before your next use.
Wet towels beget musty smelling towels, and there’s no smell in the world I hate more than that stagnant humidity that accumulates in bathrooms. But towel hooks and towel bars that are spaced too far apart waste precious real estate in small bathrooms like my own. I ultimately found that eight inches was the perfect distance for my hand towel hooks.
Which brings me to height. My first installations of towel hooks were pretty arbitrary, to be honest. Eye-ball level felt too high to some friends while being too low to reach my newest bath towels.
I finally settled on drilling all my towel hooks 52 inches from the ground for hand towels and 54 inches for full-length bath towels. High enough to clear your toilet and sink countertops, but low enough for every height of person to reach. There’s one final towel-changing game changer I made to my master bath that I didn’t mention above: towel warmers.
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I debated installing one for months. Towel warmers seemed like such a “grossly privileged engineer” thing to do. Like, don’t get me wrong – I’ve certainly stayed in my fair share of hotels that feature them and love coming across them when I travel.
But do I really need my towels warmed for me after taking a shower? Yes. Yes, you do.
Especially if you live in a humid climate and your bathroom refuses to ever stay dry for more than five minutes after you’ve towel dried yourself. I researched both vented and non-vented options, towel heating racks versus mounted towels warmers, copper versus digital… you name it. Ended up going with an inexpensive ladder-style electric towel warmer that simply plugs into your existing wall outlet.
No need to rewire your home here. I mounted mine on the wall opposite my shower about a foot from the corner. Far enough away from the spray of my shower that no electrified freak-outs would occur, but close enough that I can grab my hand towel immediately after drying off.
Because it has a timer, I haven’t noticed a crazy jump in my electricity bill either. As for guest bathrooms, I found towel rings work far better than I would’ve ever anticipated. They take up less space than towel bars but give you the stability of a towel hook.
Installed a single towel ring next to my guest bathroom sink at the same height as my other towel hooks. Within minutes of guests stepping into my home, they’ll know where their hand towel goes. Bye bye tossed over-the-sink taps, hello organised towels.
Size does matter with towel rings. The first towel ring I installed was too small, making my hand towels look swollen and silly. Too big, and thinhand towels will slip right through without any support.
Towel ring sizes are typically determined by diameter, and I found eight inches to be the sweet spot for most standard hand towels. Height-wise, I stuck with the same 48 inches from the ground I did my hand towel hooks. Enough to clear your sink basin and reachable for all heights of people.
The one area I struggled with at first was actual towel storage. Hanging towels is great, but you’ll still need a stack of clean towels laying around somewhere. Don’t make the mistake I did and stuff them all in your bathroom linen closet.
Adds to the clutter. Instead, I mounted a bamboo ladder towel storage shelf in my bedroom closet solely for towels: The towel shelves aren’t anything special. Towels folded and stacked on each level of the shelf.
But it looks intentional, keeps my towels separated from my bedroom clutter, and allows me to grab an extra towel without having to dig through a pile to find it. In my main bathroom, I installed three floating shelves above my toilet that I’m calling decorative towel storage. Folded towels stacked on each shelf, but in colours that actually match my bathroom decor: Much better than stuffing them all in that tiny bathroom closet.
A quick note on hardware finishes. I made the mistake of buying a few towel racks in different finishes to see which would match my bathroom best. Mixed nickel with oil-rubbed bronze with shiny chrome and ended up with a bathroom that looked like it raided a Home Depot sample closet.
I recommend sticking to one finish per bathroom. If you do use two finishes, make sure they complement each other. Your bathroom will feel higher-end instantly.
My friend with kids taught me all about child-friendly towel hang height. His toddlers can easily reach the hooks he installed for them at 36 inches from the floor, encouraging them to hang their own towels rather than throw them on the floor. Nice idea in theory.
Until you have kids and realise that’s where 95% of your towels will end up no matter where you put them.
Lastly, maintain your towel bars and hooks. I wipe down all of mine with a microfiber cloth and my typical bathroom cleaner once a week when I’m deep cleaning the bathroom.
Hard water tends to leave spots on towel bars and hooks, as do bars with dark finishes like oil-rubbed bronze. A little Windex and elbow grease once a week goes a long way. The moral of the story?
Think about your routine when remodeling. If you’re right-handed, you’re likely going to grab your towel with your right hand each time you enter the bathroom. Don’t put your towel bar on the left side of your bathroom because it looks aesthetically pleasing to do so.
If you share a bathroom with someone, make sure your towel storage is spaced far enough apart that you both have adequate space and won’t sit your towels on top of one another creating a humid mess. What started as one leap onto my bathroom floor one summer morning turned into a full-on bath linen organisation regimen. Not only do I have warm towels waiting for me whenever I want them, but my bathroom actually looks like I thought about how I wanted my towels hung and stored.
And that, friends, is something I can get naked and comfortable waking up to.
