Where to Store Your Wet Towels in a Dorm Room

One of the many things that I didn’t consider before I went to college was that I’d need a place to dry my towels. Luckily, I figured out a couple ways to effectively dry it to keep it from growing bacteria. 

As a general rule, store your wet towels on the towel rack in the dorm bathroom,  on a store bought towel rack, on the bed frame in your dorm room, on the side of your hamper, over your desk chair, from a clothes hanger or on a foldable drying rack.

I’ll also tell you how to dry towels quickly and where you should never store your wet towels. If you store them incorrectly, they could grow mold and mildew.

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Where Do You Store Wet Towels In A Dorm Room?

1. On The Towel Rack In The Bathroom

The quickest and easiest place to put your towel to dry after you’ve used it is on the towel rack located inside the bathroom. If you have a private or suite-style bathroom, then there is probably a towel rack or two that’s been installed specifically for that purpose.

If you only share that room with your roommate, then you can probably both use it without having to take turns depending on how long the rack is. However, If it’s a small one, then do your best to coordinate who has dibs on it and when. Try not to hog it for yourself. If you have a suite-style bathroom with multiple people, then you can either try to coordinate with them, or rely on chance and use it whenever it happens to become available. In the meantime, when using a towel rack isn’t an option, try these other storage methods. 

2. On A Store Bought Towel Rack

Some of you may share a suite or private bathroom with multiple people and just can’t find the chance to hang your towel on the rack before they do. Maybe some of you have a bathroom that doesn’t even come with a towel rack. The rest of you might live in a dorm hall that has shared, hall-style bathrooms. Whatever the dilemma, it can be fixed by buying a standing towel rack at the store. These are available at Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Walmart or, if you like to shop online, Amazon:

There are a lot of different versions of these too. You could get one that comes with additional storage, one that lets you dry multiple towels at once (which your roommate would appreciate), or the classic version, like the one in the picture, that gets the job done one towel at a time. 

3. On Your Bed Frame

If you’re not looking to spend money on a standing towel rack, but still need a place to dry them, try using your bed frame as a rack. If you can hang a wet towel on either end of your bed frame:

Without getting the actual bed sheets wet, then this will work just fine in place of a drying rack. I used mine to dry a few pieces of clothes that weren’t fit for the drying machine. Not all dorm room beds have frames that are tall enough to do this though. This works best with loft style beds that have very tall frames, such as this one, that way it has plenty of space to properly dry.

4. On The Side Of Your Hamper

If you have a sturdy, standing hamper such as a wooden one:

Then you have the option of draping your towel over the side of it and letting it dry right there. Make sure not to let it fall into the hamper completely though. This works best if you don’t have a lot of clothes in there yet so that one half of the towel isn’t resting on some clothes. Go for this option if you don’t want to buy a standing rack and your bed frame isn’t built to let a towel hang from it. Don’t try to use this drying method if you have a hamper that folds in on itself such as a pop up one. These aren’t sturdy enough to hold a wet towel.

5. Over Your Desk Chair (With A Plastic Bag)

Everyone has a chair in their dorm room, therefore everyone has the option to dry their towels. If you have a chair that doesn’t come with a back cushion, then you can just hang the towel over the back of it and call it a day. If your chair does come with a back cushion, then you’ll need one more item to make this work: a large garbage bag.

Yes, it has to be a large plastic bag, not one of the tiny ones that you get at a grocery store. This is because a small one won’t completely cover the chair cushion to make sure that it doesn’t get wet. You don’t want to risk a moldy chair cushion by keeping it damp. You’ll get in trouble for that and may have to pay for a new one. If you place a plastic bag over the cushion and then hang the towel over the plastic bag, then everything works out well. 

6. Use a Clothes Hanger

This method only really works if you have something to put the hanger on. For example, take a door rack like this and put a hanger on it:

After that, take your wet towel and put it on the hanger like this:

Then, as you leave it to dry, remember to take it off of the hanger, flip it over and put it back every 15 minutes or so to make sure all sides of it get dry. This works best if you have a door to hang it from, but if the back of your desk is tall enough, you can use this same method by hanging the rack from the desk’s back. 

7. A Foldable Drying Rack

If none of the previous options sound like the solution for you, then here is the one that you’re probably looking for. Have you ever been in a hotel room, looked in the closet and came across something that looked like this? When I was a kid, I didn’t know what these were. That is, until I saw my mom dry one of my beach towels on it. You should take a page out of your local hotel’s book and get yourself one of these: 

Not only will this efficiently dry your towel, but since it’s foldable, it’ll take up minimal storage space in the room. That’s an organization hack right there.

How Do You Dry Towels Quickly At College?

1. Use The Dryer In The Laundry Room

Some of you don’t have the time to just wait around for the towels to naturally air dry. You have places to be and your towel needs to come with you. In that case, take a quick stroll to your dorm’s laundry room and toss it in the dryer. If your school’s machine has a ‘quick dry’ setting, then hopefully that will dry the towel fast enough for you to grab it and be on your way.

However, If all of the dryers on your floor are taken, try going to a laundry room on a different floor. If, for some reason, you’re not allowed to use another floor’s dryers, then you may have to take a trip to your local laundromat. Some of them are deliberately placed near college campuses to capitalize on college students. If that’s too out of the way for you, try using the other methods listed below. 

2. Use A Mini Fan

If you look on your school’s website, they usually give you a bare bones packing list for your dorm room. On this list, you’ll usually see a mini fan as a recommended item. If you packed one of these, then now is the perfect time to use it. Hang your towel on one of the places recommended in the “Where Do You Store Wet Towels In A Dorm Room?”section of this blog post, then point that fan at it and leave them there for a while. If needed, use something sturdy to sit the mini fan on top of so that it can properly blow air onto the towel. 

Just so you know, when it comes to your university’s packing list, they’re really just a starting point. They have fundamental and recommended items to bring to college, but they’re very impersonal and not detailed. Also, they expect you to bring more than what they listed. 

3. Use The Ceiling Fan If You Have One

These are a lot less common to see in dorm rooms. Usually, they pop up in campus apartments instead. However, if your room happens to have one, then now is a good time to use it. Just make sure your roommate doesn’t mind. Set your towel in one of the locations mentioned in the “Where Do You Store Wet Towels In A Dorm Room?”section of this post.

After that, you’ll want to pump up the fan speed to the maximum setting (if you don’t mind strong winds indoors). You could also wait until neither you nor your roommate are home and leave it on to dry your towel while you’re away. Otherwise, you could turn the fan’s speed down to a comfortable setting and let it dry your towel a little slower.

4. Take It Outside On A Sunny Day

If none of the previous options sound like a good fit for you, then you may have to go with this option. It’s true that letting the sun dry your towel might not be the fastest method, but the hotter the day, the faster it will dry. If you go to school in the hotter states, like Arizona, California, Texas, etc. then now is the perfect time to use that unreasonably hot sun to your advantage.

You’ll want to have something to hang it on as it dries though, so grab a drying rack to take outside with you. I suggest drying the towel somewhere close by so that you can keep an eye on it. Somewhere like your balcony, right outside of your dorm hall entrance or exit, etc. 

Where Should You Not Store Wet Towels In A Dorm Room?

1. Laying Inside Of The Hamper

One of the places that you never want to store a towel while it’s still wet is in your hamper. This is because the towel won’t be exposed to any airflow that it needs for the wetness to dry. Instead, the towel will stay wet or damp for an extended period of time in the small space of a hamper. This creates the perfect recipe for mold and mildew to grow. According to an article called “Humidity Requirements for Mold Growth”, these fungi are most likely to grow in moist environments, which would be your wet bath towel in this case. Avoid letting this happen by drying it properly. 

2. Scrunched Up On The Floor/Carpet

Another place that you should never leave your wet towel for a long period of time is on your dorm floor or carpet. While on the floor, the towel will probably be scrunched up in a way that doesn’t allow for air to breeze by it. This will just leave it to grow mold and mildew since it won’t get the chance to dry out. After that, it’ll start to stink and make your dorm room all musty. Who wants to deal with that, right? If your room already has a bit of a stink problem, find out the 12 ways that you can eliminate that stench. 

3. Tucked Inside Your Drawers

A third place that you absolutely won’t want to leave your wet towel is in a drawer. This dark, enclosed space is both mold and mildew’s dream spot to grow. If you did this, then I’m also betting that the wet towel isn’t the only thing in that drawer.

Universities barely give students enough space to put their stuff, so there might be some clothes, other towels, blankets, bed sheets, etc. in there with the wet towel. Guess what’ll happen to them? If the moisture spreads to them, they might start to grow mold too. They also might start to stink. Now you have a big, stinky mold problem. To avoid this completely gross situation, never put your wet towel in a drawer.

4. Folded In Your Closet

Even though a closet is built to hold your clothes, blankets, towels and other fabrics, it is a terrible spot to leave a wet towel. Like a hamper, the floor and a drawer, it’s not a space with a lot of airflow. It’ll stay wet for too long and start to become very unsanitary. Not to mention, that a closet is where you keep a lot of your clothes. This presents the same problem that you would find if you put the towel in a drawer. The mold that the fabric grows would possibly spread to whatever else is capable of growing mold.

5. In A Bag

Putting the wet towel in a bag is one of the worst places you can store it. There is minimal airflow, it’s dark, the towel and the inside of the bag stays damp, it’s just an all around bad idea. Definitely be wary of this if you like to bring towels to the gym, or if you go swimming regularly. It might be easy to forget the towel inside of the bag after an intense workout session. 

6. In The Washing Machine

When we think of places that can grow mold, we usually don’t suspect the place where clothes get cleaned. However, it’s true. If you forget to take the wet towel out of the washing machine when the cycle is over, then the dark damp environment could still make your towel a prime place for mold growth. Set a timer to know when your laundry is done and double check the machine to make sure you didn’t leave anything behind.