How a Dry Towel Can Speed Up Your Laundry Day

The buzzer sounds, you open the dryer door, and your heart drops slightly. Your jeans are still heavy, the towels remain damp, and that strange warm, wet smell is beginning to appear. You take out the partly dried clothes, tell yourself you will choose shorter cycles next time, and work out in your head what a second run will add to this month’s costs. With energy prices steadily rising, and work, children and everyday life to manage, even the laundry can feel as though it needs a plan.

Then somebody casually suggests: “Why don’t you throw a dry towel in with your wet clothes? It goes faster.”

It sounds like the sort of household hack that belongs alongside putting toothpaste on the mirror.

Yet this particular trick genuinely works, quietly and simply.

Why a simple dry towel can speed up your laundry day

Imagine a packed mixed load tumbling around the drum: a thick hoodie wrapped around a pillowcase, with socks clinging to a bath towel. The dryer pumps in hot air and keeps turning, but the water seems to hold on to the fabric like an unwelcome guest who refuses to leave. The appliance is doing what it should, but it does so slowly and almost unwillingly.

Put a clean, dry towel into that load and the movement inside changes. During those important first minutes, the towel travels through the clothes and takes on excess moisture. The load becomes lighter and heat can reach the fibres more quickly. What felt like an endless programme can suddenly be much shorter.

One young couple I spoke to tried this “grandma tip” because they were desperate. They lived in a tiny city flat, had an ageing dryer and received energy bills that felt like a bad joke. Before trying the towel method, a heavy mixed load took nearly 80 minutes to dry. Adding one large dry towel brought their average drying time down to around 55–60 minutes, without changing the temperature setting.

They were unconvinced after the first attempt, so they monitored the results for a month, writing down cycle types and minutes on a notepad stuck to the wall. At the end of the month, they had cut several hours from their total drying time and saw a welcome reduction on their electricity bill.

The principle is straightforward. At the beginning of a cycle, a dry towel behaves like a thirsty sponge. When clothes are at their wettest, it absorbs some of that moisture, leaving less water for the dryer itself to evaporate. The appliance can get to its ideal temperature sooner, meaning it does not have to blow hot air for as long.

That means less time, lower energy use and reduced wear on your clothes. There is no magic involved; it is simply physics working in your favour. A minor adjustment to the way you load the dryer can alter the way the whole cycle performs.

How to use the dry towel trick without ruining your laundry

The method itself is easy. Put your wet laundry into the dryer as normal, but avoid filling the drum too tightly. Air needs room to circulate. Place one large, dry bath towel on top of the load, select your usual programme and start the dryer.

After roughly 15–20 minutes, stop the cycle. Open the door, remove the now-damp towel and either hang it up to dry or include it with the next wet load. Shut the door and restart the programme. The towel has its greatest effect during those opening minutes.

There are several understandable mistakes people make with this tip. Some add several dry towels because they assume that “more towels, more speed”, only to crowd the drum so heavily that the laundry dries less effectively. Others use a small hand towel that makes contact with barely half the load, then conclude that the method does not work. Some leave the towel in for the entire programme, until it is as wet as the rest of the washing.

Realistically, nobody will remember to do this every day. At times you will forget, or you will simply be too tired, and that is fine. Treat it as a useful option in your laundry toolkit, rather than another rule you have to follow.

“Once we started using a dry towel in the dryer, we cut about 20 minutes off every cycle,” says Carla, a mother of three who runs two or three loads a day. “It doesn’t sound huge, but when you’re doing that many loads, it feels like buying back time you didn’t know you had.”

To make the habit easier, many households keep one dedicated “drying helper towel” beside the appliance. On days with heavier loads, they can pick it up automatically.

• Choose one large, clean and absorbent bath towel for medium or heavy loads.
• Remove the towel after the first 15–20 minutes to get the best result.
• Do not pack the drum too full, even when using this method.
• Save the trick for heavy fabrics, including jeans, hoodies, towels and bedding.
• Do not use the towel with delicate or heat-sensitive garments.

Beyond the hack: what this tiny change says about our daily routines

Laundry is rarely high on anybody’s list of life priorities, but it still quietly influences evenings and weekends. The extra 20 or 30 minutes spent waiting for a stubborn load to dry is time not spent reading with your child, relaxing on the sofa or catching up with a friend. Adding a dry towel to the dryer is certainly an energy-saving tip, but it is also a small challenge to the idea that housework must always consume your day.

Once you have improved this small part of your routine, you may begin looking for other simple efficiencies that require no extra effort, only a little awareness.

There can be a psychological change, too, when you no longer feel entirely controlled by your appliances or energy costs. Your home starts to feel like something you can adjust rather than merely put up with. A dryer that finishes earlier creates less noise, gives off less heat in summer and can reduce arguments about who is doing the laundry and when. You might mention it to a neighbour, sister or flatmate.

All of a sudden, this slightly odd suggestion passed on in a comments section or over coffee becomes part of an especially practical, modern discussion: how can we live well without continually using up money and resources?

You will not change the world simply by putting a dry towel in the dryer. But it could improve the feel of a Tuesday evening, reduce a monthly bill or lessen the sense that everything is slightly beyond your control. These household actions may not seem impressive from the outside, but they gradually make a difference in the background.

Perhaps you will try it once and never return to drying without it. Perhaps you will adjust it to suit your own timetable and habits. Or you may simply tell somebody else: “Hey, there’s this weird thing that actually works,” and allow them to decide how it fits into their everyday routine.

Key point	Detail	Value for the reader
A dry towel speeds up drying	During the opening minutes of the cycle, the towel absorbs excess moisture	Less dryer time and lower energy use for each load
Use it strategically	It works best with heavy loads, one large towel and removal after 15–20 minutes	Improves efficiency without harming clothes or overcrowding the drum
A small habit, long-term impact	Regular use can save hours while reducing wear on fabrics and the appliance	Less laundry-related stress, potential bill savings and a longer appliance lifespan

FAQ:

• Does the dry towel trick work with every type of fabric? It is most effective for mixed loads and heavier items such as jeans, sweatshirts and towels. With delicate, lightweight fabrics, the time saved is smaller, and air-drying or using a low-heat programme without the towel is often kinder to the material.

• Can I use more than one dry towel to speed things up further? Adding two or three towels normally has the opposite effect because it overcrowds the drum and reduces airflow. For a standard household dryer, one large, absorbent towel is generally sufficient and gives the best balance of moisture absorption and circulation.

• Will this trick damage my dryer or clothes in the long term? When used properly, it is more likely to do the reverse: shorter programmes mean less exposure to heat and less mechanical strain. Difficulties only occur if the dryer is overloaded or if the towel is mixed with highly delicate items that should not be on a standard cycle in the first place.

• Is this still useful if I already have a modern, energy-efficient dryer? Yes, particularly for bulky loads. Modern dryers are more effective at detecting moisture, and the towel can help them reach the “dry enough” stage more quickly. The machine may complete the programme sooner, still saving both time and a portion of energy.

• What kind of towel should I use for the best result? Select a clean, dry cotton bath towel in a medium or large size. Microfibre can also work, but traditional cotton usually provides a more natural balance between absorbency and airflow. Keep one towel specifically for this purpose near the dryer, so you do not need to search for one each time.