The bathroom should be like any other room in the house - a place where you can exist in relative comfort. Unfortunately, that’s not always that way it goes. Drafts and cold tiles can make your bathroom feel positively frigid, leaving you shivering and dreading taking a shower. Being hypothermic is never a lot of fun. And even if you can quickly wrap yourself in a nice warm towel after a soak in the bath, you’d prefer to escape those moments of suffering as you desperately fumble for something to dry yourself with. Things are especially bad in the colder months of the year. Winter bathrooms are a nightmare to navigate and rarely cosy. They can make you want to give up on showering altogether. You often ask yourself whether it’s really worth it. The good news is that you don’t need to give up on personal hygiene on account of the cold. It turns out that you can do plenty of things to keep things warm and toasty in your bathroom year-round. 

Heat should remain in the bathroom, just like other rooms in your home. If it doesn’t, then it indicates a problem with the insulation. Roof insulation in older properties tends to degrade over time. Eventually, it is unable to prevent heat from escaping, so bathrooms get very cold, very fast. Fortunately, fixing it is surprisingly easy. You can either pump it through a giant foam-spewing hose or get someone to lay it above your plasterboard. Whichever route you choose, it quickly makes a big difference. 

Go up to your bathroom windows and take a closer look. Do you notice anything? The chances are that there are cracks and gaps around the window frame, allowing cold air to rush in. The good news is that you can put a stop to this pretty quickly. Either grab some caulk and fill it yourself. Or get a professional to fit a new window, preferably double-glazed. 

If your bathroom is still too cold after getting out of the shower, you can use electric wall heaters. Don’t bother ripping out your plumbing and starting again. Instead, get an electric unit, fit it to the wall, and then set the timer, so it turns on 30 minutes before your regular bath time. By the time you eventually start washing, the room will feel toasty, and you’ll no longer dread engaging in personal hygiene.

Nothing is worse than picking a soggy towel off the rack and trying to dry yourself with it. It feels awful, especially if your bathroom is cold already. Heated towel rails are a godsend because they do two things. First, they help water evaporate from your towels, preventing them from going moldy. And secondly, they keep them warm all the time. This way, you can avoid putting cold surfaces on your skin, again encouraging you to use your bathroom more.