How can I stop cat hair getting onto my bathroom towels?

Question

I have three cats which all have medium to long hair. They shed almost continuously, even after being brushed. "Their" room is the laundry, that's where they're fed and, if they choose to, sleep. The laundry is accessed either from the kitchen or the toilet, and the toilet has another door to the bathroom (it's a weirdly designed house!)

I don't let the cats into the kitchen because they might jump on the table or the bench when I'm not looking. (They would never do it when I am looking because they know I'll tell them off!) It's easier to have a rule that they're never allowed in there than sometimes (e.g. because I'm in there too and can supervise them). I don't believe cats are mentally capable of making that distinction.

So, this means that for them to be able to access the rest of the house they always have to go through the bathroom. The problem is, just walking through is enough for loose fur to come off them, which then floats around the bathroom, some of which eventually settles on the towels. I don't know how many people have wiped their face with a towel that had just a few cat hairs on it but I can tell you it's not pleasant! The fur immediately sticks to my wet skin. My cats' fur is very fine so I get a tickling sensation until I eventually manage to pluck the hairs off. (I'm not allergic to cats, it's a purely physical reaction).

Recently, I had the idea of keeping my bath-towel in my bedroom (where they're also not allowed to go for much the same reason, I don't like waking up with hard to remove cat hairs on my face and in my mouth). I then take the towel into the bathroom with me just before I wash and remove it again when I leave the room. However, after trying this I realised that I no longer have a towel to dry my hands on after washing them. I don't usually have a hand-towel hanging up in the bathroom but if I did it would have the same problem: after drying my hands they'd be covered in cat fur.

I don't have enough room for a free-standing cabinet and I'm renting so I can't make any modifications to the house. The kitchen, laundry, toilet, bathroom and hallway are the only non-carpeted areas of the house so moving their food bowls, water and toilet into another room isn't practical. Short of moving to a better designed house, what can I do to keep the cat hair off my towels so that it doesn't end up on me when I'm trying to dry myself?

Answer 1

Assuming you have a shower, rather than just a bathtub, you might be able to put a hook for your towel inside your shower itself. Most of the day & night, you could keep your towel on that hook, not touching any walls or wet surfaces, safely protected behind your shower curtain or shower door. When you needed to take a shower, you could take the towel out and hang it in the bathroom on a hook or bar (once you made sure the hook/bar didn't have cat hair on it).

Answer 2

You were part of the way there with keeping your towel in your bedroom. If this worked well but the only issue was that you didn't have a towel to dry your hands, consider buying some disposable paper hand towels of the kind you may find in a public rest room to use to dry your hands when your towel is in your bedroom.

A possible alternative would be to hang your towel on a coat hanger which was then covered with an inverted carrier bag with a small hole for the hook. This would effectively cover your towel up but still give you access from the bottom of the bag to dry your hands. The only drawback with this solution is that the towel, once wet, wouldn't dry well so would need laundered more frequently.

Answer 3

If your bathroom has a cabinet or vanity, you could put a hook on the inside of the door for a hand towel.

If you've got a towel bar, you could train yourself to always use the "inside" of the hand towel, and hang it up again so that the fur-free side is in contact with itself and thus stays fur-free.

I've got 4 cats, two with very fine fur, so I know exactly what you mean about having fur stuck to you.