Eric, I just leave the bath towels on the warmer all the time. It would be a bit of a hassle remembering to move them back and forth. Smaller hand towels and the bath mat hang on other towel bars or rings. I have the Runtal automatic controller. It allows you to program different on and off cycles for each day of the week, multiple on and off cycles per day, and to control the temperature setting. Since I'm a creature of habit, the week days are all programmed the same, but at the weekend, the warmer comes on later and goes off later, as I tend to get moving later on those days. If my schedule deviates from normal, I can easily override the programming. The warmers in my guest rooms are programmed to be on in the mornings and again in the evenings, but off during the middle of the day. When I don't have guests, I simply set the temperature to "0", and they don't come on at all. The controllers are hidden away in cupboards or closets, where they're out of sight, but easily accessible, so their appearance wasn't a consideration. If you choose to go with a Lutron timer, be sure it's one rated for a heating appliance, and be aware that it probably won't provide as much flexibility or allow you to control the temperature level. I usually don't operate my warmers at their highest setting, and I appreciate being able to lower the settings on them during the warmer seasons. I've been totally happy with Runtal and recommend them.

Joann fla, Do you leave your washer door open to dry out? I believe stiff towels is caused by using the liquid soap and it also sounds like you are getting a mold issue. I would do a couple clean washer cycles HOT water and 1/2 cup bleach. I have had both those issues and I ended up getting a new washer, that ended the smell, it was mold. In the new washer I would wash towels using sanatize cycle, but I ended up getting stiff towels too, it was due to using only 1/2 TBL Liquid Tide HE and not enough water to rinse. I had a brand new Whirlpool Duet FL washer and that is when I ended up with stiff towels, they ended up real stiff, I noticed they were full of soap after using the liquid HE. It took me well over 3 1/2 months using no soap and sanatize cycle in the new Duet, they were still soapy. I dont have the problem of stiff towels now after again buying a different washer. I do have another fl washer but it gives more water to rinse. I now use 1/2 - 1 Tbl powder non HE and no Problem clothes come out clean and towels are starting to be soft again, I thought I was going to have to replace them, but they are starting to be normal again after having a different washer for 1 month. I am starting to feel normal again after having problems as everyone here knows its been BAD. MY ISSUES RESOLVED !!! Good Luck! I hope that some of these ideas of all the posts help you.

lol, I picked her up from school yesterday and we went back to her class to get her backpack & binder. I asked, 'you have everything?' and she said yes. Later, after 5pm she tells me she forgot her spelling words in her desk. Well, Wednesday is the night they have to put spelling words in alphabetical order and write them three times each. She knew this but I wasn't thinking about it, we had been at the doctor's office & radiology all afternoon, but she brought it up. She said she guesses she can't do her spelling since school is out. My first thought was she did it on purpose and I wanted to call her on it. I didn't. I thought about it for a while and a couple miles down the road, I said that when we get home, she can call her friend that's in her class and ask for the spelling words. She claimed she didn't know her phone number but I told her I do. When we got home, I double checked her binder and the usual spelling list wasn't there but the spelling words were. I found a loophole... the teacher sends home an optional sheet on Fridays. It's an activity they can do over the weekend and at the bottom, it gives the next weeks spelling words so they can start practicing if they want. Well, of course she was bummed that I found that and proceeded to write them out three times each but not in ABC order. DH had her redo it in ABC order. Then we watched TV for a while. She had a great attitude. Her mom sent DH a text message an hour after she went to bed to have SD call her. He wrote back that she was in bed and if she wants, she can call in the morning before SD leaves for the bus. She called before any of us were up and wanted to talk to SD so I went and got her up. I heard SD telling her about going to the doctor and say her arm doesn't hurt anymore. She started to ask BM how she was doing and then abruptly says ok, I love you too. Bye. BM apparently didn't want to 'chat'. That is the FIRST time BM has called SD in a very long time, I can't remember the last time she called her. The doctor called me a few minutes ago to say the X ray shows no break. He said she probably pulled a muscle if she fell on her hands playing on the trampoline. There's not much to do for it, he said to apply heat and showed us how to stretch the muscle. It will resolve itself in a few days if she rests it. and I do agree that some lying... about school work or brushing teeth, etc. are common at her age. I don't know if it's normal or alarming, and I understand the lies she tells her mom to get mom's attention, but she is old enough to understand that there are consequences for those kinds of lies when mom gets CPS or the police involved. There could be great consequences for DH and me. I was more concerned with her lying about injuries, being hit, and things she complains to her mom about but doesn't tell us. We don't find out until BM calls DH to chew him out or now, until she calls CPS. SD never complained to us about having to eat foods she doesn't like and when she told DH about her arm, she only mentioned it once and he didn't see a reason to go to the doctor and she never complained to us about it again. And we don't know if SD complained to her mom or if her mom is the one that is asking her if she was seen by the doctor but I don't know why BM would put it on her daughter to get dad to take her to the doctor if SD isn't saying it hurts. I'm probably overly cynical of BM, but I'd say she knows SD fell on the trampoline and got hurt and didn't want to pay for a doctor visit so she told SD to tell dad her arm hurts so he can make sure it wasn't hurt too bad. SD told him a couple of days after coming back from BM's, after she got off the phone with her. BM might have reminded her to ask dad. DH looked at it, and didn't think it was broken and considering SD had gone to cross country and was swinging her arms around earlier, concluded it wasn't too serious. SD never told him she fell down on the trampoline. I'm sure she didn't want to get mom in trouble, although we don't know exactly what happened so it could be an innocent **stuff happens with kids** accident or it could be she was not being supervised and got hurt. We don't know that and we already know BM isn't going to tell us if she did anything wrong. But, when SD came home this last weekend, she did tell DH that she collided with her sister on the trampoline and cut her lip. She said her teeth went into her sister's leg. That was on Sunday and on Monday, she didn't call BM but she did call BM on Tuesday and after she got off the phone, she again told DH that her arm hurt. On Wednesday is when CPS went to the school so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how coincidental it all is. I'll admit that I am pessimistic when it comes to BM. But, I've never been wrong about her actions.. not yet anyways. I have been surprised that she has done some things I've predicted because I honestly was fooled at first and she presented herself as a GREAT mother. But, maybe because of my 'control freak'ness, I noticed little details that went unnoticed by my DH about her. I mean, she did things that I found odd being a mother myself. I went through custody issues with my son's father and we would fight over who gets him more, not who has to take him. She was always asking him to take SD on her weekends but if he ever offered to let her make up the time, she said she was busy. She never asked to makeup the time either. Then, when she refused to help her daughter do a school project, that pretty much sealed my opinion of her... she actually told my husband that if I want to do 'mom' things (like bake cookies, which I guess really upset her) that I can help her with her school project too. Hearing her say that shattered my image of her being a wonderful mom because I can't imagine saying or doing that to my own child. It's been downhill since then and she has aspired to new lows as a mother, in my opinion. The only one I did not see coming was her moving away and giving us custody, that blindsided me because we had just spent several months (and thousands in lawyers) to fight for custody and she fought it so fiercely, I never imagined anything would cause her to give up her daughter so easily. Maybe that is why SD was so affected too, she saw how fiercely her mom fought to keep her, only to be discarded two weeks later for a stranger. (so, yes I have had a hard time not resenting and hating BM for doing that and I need to learn how to let that go, but it's hard)

OK, I didn't read all the posts. I have Costco towels that are the large packs they offer at the store. Packs come in sets of 6 bath towels, 12 hand towels, 24 washcloths. They are a great towel IMO. Not too thick that it does not dry well between uses, and not too thin. These are not as thin as the gym towels that are at my gym. These are not the Charisma brand which are a little more luxurious. I must have white towels for esthetics and the washing routine I have. I never use fabric softener either. I have been washing my hand towels, my washcloths, and my bath towels for about 7 years. I wash them in 140 to 190 degree heat. I wash with a top shelf detergent. Like Persil powder, which unfortunately was taken off the US market some years ago (I am almost out of my stock pile). These towels are just starting to show some threads at the edges. Here are some picks taken today. these hand towels are used by my DH who farms and will have grease and barnyard rubbed in as he dries his hands. He apparently doesn't get them cleaned, lol. But with the high water temp and the top shelf detergent I have always had bright white towels. I assume there is an optical brightener in the detergent. I NEVER use chlorine bleach. I use STPP in every load. I am on a septic system and ours works just fine. Costco Hand towels that my DH wipes his grimy hands on all the time: Bath towels that do not get the abuse that the hand towels get. Thats the tag that I'm holding out, to show that this is not torn toweling: I want to buy more, but have no need as of yet. Maybe I. should buy some for the day I want to replace, because these might not be available in the future.