Towel Bar vs. Towel Hooks

Whenever we move into a new house, a mysterious thing seems to happen within the first month:

All the towel bars break.

Argghh!  It's so aggravating.  Nice new house, trashy truck-stop style bathroom.

They don't all break in the same way, but they do all break.  Some bend in half at the middle.  Some rip out of the brackets.  And some have their brackets ripped completely out of the wall.  One way or another, they all break.

At first I assumed that my kids had some sort of strange vendetta against towel bars.  Perhaps they had been wronged by towel bars in the past, and were seeking their revenge.  Or maybe they were just rambunctious and rowdy and using towel bars as their own personal monkey bars.  Then I observed them in everyday life and made a remarkable discovery.  Towel bars are not designed for little kids.

If you are a big person (which I assume most of our readers are), you grab a towel off the towel bar by grabbing the towel and pulling it up toward you.  However, if you are a small person (as I assume most of your children are), you grab a towel by yanking down.  And if the towel doesn't come right off, you pull harder.  It is difficult to explain in words the physics involved here so I've provided you with a beautiful illustration.  When you pull up on a towel there is no pressure on the towel bar.  When you pull down on a towel there can be extreme pressure on the towel bar.  An adult is likely to never pull a towel bar out of the wall, but a child can not help it.

Once I discovered this sad reality, the solution was simple: Towel Hooks.

This is my favorite style of towel hook. I bought it at Walmart for about $10. The best thing about it is the brackets are spaced exactly the same width apart as my wall studs, so I can screw them straight into the studs and not worry about them ripping free from the drywall.

Towel hooks are made to be used in one way, and one way only.  You must lift up.  You must!  Whether you are big or small, it is the only way.  So one by one, I replaced all my towel bars with towel hooks, and guess what?  They work.

But my towels always fall off of hooks!

I know some of you are thinking this.  And I have a solution for that too.  On all of my towels, I have sewn a tiny little strip of fabric to serve as a loop for hanging on a hook.  It is so easy even a non-sewer can sew it.  You can do it by hand, you can do it with a machine.  You can sew it in a boat, you can sew it with a goat.  All it takes is a little scrap of fabric, and a quick stitch back and forth on each side.  Voila!

A standard towel bar only holds two towels, but a set of towel hooks can easily hold a half dozen.  Once you see how awesome they are, you'll be putting up towel hooks all over your house!

Swim suits hang better on hooks too!

Hooks in my laundry room, for clothes straight from the dryer!

Not only have you just solved the problem of broken towel bars, but you've also solved an additional problem.  Towels on the floor!  It is hard for a child (or a man) to use a towel bar.  But a hook is nature's way.  It is simple enough for a child, and easy enough for a husband.

Your life is about to get a whole lot better.

Marcia