Several years ago, it became rather obvious that the standard two-towel towel racks were not going to be enough for our family’s needs. We switched the towel racks out to some hooks that my husband found on eBay. We added a piece of molding to the wall first, painted it, and then added the hooks.
I then had a place for each child to hang his or her bath towel.
Of course, it was very easy for each child to say that a towel left on the floor in the bathroom or in their room wasn’t their towel, so I decided that personalizing the towels would be the simplest way to remedy that situation.
I replaced the towels several years ago with embroidered cotton names that also serve as hooks for the towels, making it easier to keep the towels on the hooks (and off the floor!). Those towels have since worn out and it’s time for new ones.
This time, I chose darker towels from Sam’s Club. They have limited color choices there (about 5 options) but the prices are low, which is great!
I bought new cotton webbing from Hobby Lobby (using a 40% of coupons) and cut eight pieces.
I zigzagged the edges of the cotton webbing to keep it from unraveling.
I wrote each name on the webbing with a blue marking pen (this washes out with water). I can see it clearly while I’m embroidering.
I embroidered each name by hand using a stem stitch with two strands of embroidery floss using the stem stitch (outline stitch) and chose a different color for each name, to make it even easier for the children to identify their personal towel when they step out of the shower.
I then sewed them to the towels along the center side of each towel, going over the seam a couple of times to make it strong.
What an amazing idea! A project I shall add to my list. 🙂
Oh my goodness, we sell those same hooks in our museum gift shop! Too funny. Love the idea too, Brandy. Thanks for sharing!
At last, a fellow frugalista who likes Sam’s Club towels as much as I do!! They are really good quality for the price, and by zig-zagging the side edges if they start to fray, I’ve had mine quite a long time with little signs of wear. We only use two each, one in use and one in the laundry, although I do have a couple extra sets for guests. I am not fond of terribly thick towels which take forever to dry, and are generally not very absorbent. Sam’s are just about perfect in my opinion. Under $6 each last time I looked–might have gone up some by now.
This is a great idea, especially for large families. Do you have any clever ideas for socks? 😀
This is a wonderful idea for children. I found that the more towels we owned , the more that they tossed onto the floor. We hung each child’s special towel on a hook too. Now that my children are older, each child has a special colored towel to manage. Hang it up to dry out or have a towel with a funky smell . I wash and hang towels out once a week. We actually own 4 towels. The days of drying 20 towels a week is over. I wish I had been a more disciplined mother earlier in life.
Having three boys, each boy had picked a color and I would use embroidery floss and on the toe of each sock I would sew a quick little whip stitch or two and knotted it off and snip short little ends. When laundry was done and they were required to sort and put their laundry away it was easy for them to spot their color and pull them out and put them away. This worked great during fun activities when they would play a game and remove their shoes and socks and toss into a pile, the boys could easily find their own socks. I did this with their underwear(whip stitch near the tag) their towels, toothbrushes, combs, backpacks and lunch boxes. Oldest son was blue, middle son was red and youngest was green.
You are brilliant!
I love this idea! To simplify our life, I wash towels once a week and hang them back directly on their hook, no folding necessary (and my wash machine is in our bathroom wich makes it even easier). Of course I keep some towels in the cabinet for guests or “accidents” but they are rarely touched.
Back when there were 5 pair of feet in our house, I would put the first initial on the bottom with a permanent marker. When it fades, it’s simple to re darken it. I also put a separate hamper in the rooms for each person, and tried to wash their things together I( although about once a month, I found I needed to do whites separately in hot water with an oxyclean boost).
Wonderful idea! Thank you Brandy and dabel 😀
I love your creative solution to one of life’s little challenges!
works well with drinking cups for the entire day or even a plate and bowl each too in the kitchen for snacks.
I love this idea. First, you keep your bathroom looking coordinated with matching towels, second, the embroidered names are discreet and third, they can all be washed and dried at the same time in one load saving money on water and electricity! Brilliant!
Although I’m the only one doing dishes in my house – I have a similar idea with my tea towels. They’re all blue and white and hang off the hooks at the bottom of my plate rack that holds my blue and white plates and bowls. No folding needed on laundry day for those either.
Thanks for the ideas, ladies!
This is a brilliant idea!
Love this idea! Also, this post serves as another reminder of how great your kids names are! (Your Naming Day post was my favorite of all time.)
My kids had their own towels (picked their own color) and hung the towels in their rooms where there was hooks. There was not enough room to have everyone’s towels in the bathrooms since all of us females had almost waist length hair and needed 2. None of the girls were the same size and the boys nor Hubby wore the same style sock. BUT elder daughter had 4 boys that did wear the same style sock and had hand me downs so we put x on the clothes with laundry marker…. one x was eldest boy down to xxxx for youngest. When she passed them to her sisters kids the x’s was changed to one block on an x for each kids. Youngest of the sisters complained of having only one x at a family meal and the oldest that was the very first mentioned he always had one x since he was the oldest… the youngest was happy to have Tay’s hand me downs but not his brothers LOL:D
Maybe it is because there are no children and only 2 adults in our house (I’m 57 and my mom is 80) but we never ever re-use a towel or wash cloth. Use it once and throw it in dirty clothes basket. I guess that is also the reason we wash a load of towels every other day. One day we wash clothes, the next we wash towels/washcloths, the next clothes again etc. Wash sheets once a week. We live in rural MS and don’t have any sort of water restrictions like some of you do. I don’t think I have ever re-used a towel or wash cloth in my entire life. My mother once counted her wash cloths and gave up at 300+. I hate all things domestic but some reason do not mind doing laundry at all.
Such a clever solution!
My husband was like that – getting a fresh towel after every shower. But since we live in a desert area, that was a no-no to me. You can reuse a bath towel about 3 times without it smelling musty! It might be different for you since the towels dry quickly in our dry weather.
Sorry for the belated response but just wanted to say I like the look of this.
Amazing
Can I ask why you don’t reuse your bath towels? In our house, we’re using the towels after we get out of the shower–when we’re clean. I can totally understand only using a washcloth once, though.
A couple of reasons but the main one being that even though I’m using it while i ‘m clean the next time the towel isn’t clean To me. Don’t want to accidentally dry my face with a towell I used to dry my rear end yesterday. Plus I don’t like damp towels hanging around. I grew up using a towel only once and never had any reason to change.