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Post by crazy4scraps on May 5, 2015 15:25:33 GMT
As mentioned in the other thread, I use the smaller square Norwex microfiber antibacterial kitchen cloths for wiping up the counters, table and sink. They are self purifying with micro silver fibers. So as long as they are washed out with dish soap, wrung out well and hung up to dry daily, per their own website, they don't necessarily need to be changed out every day. I have a bunch of these. They're not used on dishes. They're changed out as needed. I use a scrub sponge to wash the few dishes that are hand washed, toss it into the dishwasher to sanitize and set it on end to dry out.
I also have a bunch of rectangular terry cloth kitchen towels that are mostly for drying hands and waffle weave kitchen towels that are for occasionally drying dishes, but in reality they are used interchangeably. Most dishes go in the dishwasher, but anything hand washed is usually left in the drainer to air dry. On the rare occasion when I have to do it myself, I'll pull a clean one out of the drawer. When I'm done with that task, I'll hang it on the oven door to dry out and someone might then later use it to dry their clean hands but it won't be used again on dishes until it's washed. I change those towels out as needed, anywhere from once a day to every couple days, depending on what's going on.
Anything really nasty gets cleaned up with paper towels. I get the select a size kind so I'm not pulling off a foot of paper when I only need half that much. We go through maybe a roll every two weeks or so, but we also have a messy kid and three messy dogs that we're cleaning up after.
The only things I won't do are wash microfiber cloths with a load of regular linty laundry (it collects in the microfiber and makes it less effective), or wash my kitchen towels with loads of socks. My DD and DH like to walk around the house in their socks (I don't, I always wear shoes or slippers) and their socks always collect dog hair, so I never throw any kitchen towels in with that load.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2015 15:29:18 GMT
I missed the paper towels thread. I'm not a germaphobe either. I get sick of washing loads and loads of laundry so I do use paper towels more than I should. My son can be quite disgusting, so I do switch out dish cloths (or I call them dish rags too) often. At least 3-4 a day are used.
I don't use tea towels. I use dish towels (or kitchen towels, I use the word interchangeably). I probably go through 1-2 a day.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2015 15:40:36 GMT
I have to add I'm surprised by the number of peas who dry their dishes. I have space on my counter for a dish drainer and there it stays under the kitchen cabinet! I'm okay with it taking up counter space. I prefer the air dry method. One less thing to do.  Most dishes go in dishwasher. Big pots, pans, and cookie sheets dry in the dish drainer. |
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Post by gar on May 5, 2015 16:13:41 GMT
I have to add I'm surprised by the number of peas who dry their dishes. I have space on my counter for a dish drainer and there it stays under the kitchen cabinet! I'm okay with it taking up counter space. I prefer the air dry method. One less thing to do. Most dishes go in dishwasher. Big pots, pans, and cookie sheets dry in the dish drainer. I only dry something if I need it instantly and I've hand washed it. I don't put good knives, some glassware, roasting tins in the dishwasher so then if I need a particular knife/glass I'll dry it. Not often though. |
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Post by gar on May 5, 2015 16:15:27 GMT
I missed the paper towels thread. I'm not a germaphobe either. I get sick of washing loads and loads of laundry so I do use paper towels more than I should. My son can be quite disgusting, so I do switch out dish cloths (or I call them dish rags too) often. At least 3-4 a day are used. I don't use tea towels. I use dish towels (or kitchen towels, I use the word interchangeably). I probably go through 1-2 a day. I can't get over the amount of washing people do and how often you change cloths/towels etc? What's so dirty that requires towels or cloths to be changed so often? |
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Post by rumplesnat on May 5, 2015 16:22:55 GMT
In my kitchen: Dish rag = small square one that is used to wash the counters and wipe up spills Dish towel = larger rectangular towel used to dry hands Finally someone got it right!  Dish rag is swapped out every 2 days. Dish towels a couple times a week. They both get bleached. I only use paper towels when cooking things in oil (which is a rare occasion) to blot off excess and for bacon. A roll can last me months. |
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2015 16:25:44 GMT
I missed the paper towels thread. I'm not a germaphobe either. I get sick of washing loads and loads of laundry so I do use paper towels more than I should. My son can be quite disgusting, so I do switch out dish cloths (or I call them dish rags too) often. At least 3-4 a day are used. I don't use tea towels. I use dish towels (or kitchen towels, I use the word interchangeably). I probably go through 1-2 a day. I can't get over the amount of washing people do and how often you change cloths/towels etc? What's so dirty that requires towels or cloths to be changed so often? I have to wipe my son down after every single meal. I usually have him wash his hands in the kitchen sink (he needs help) and then I grab a paper towel and wet it quickly and wipe his face while he's distracted because he hates his face being touched. Sometimes I will use dish rags/cloths for wiping off his face and hands. I don't want to reuse crusty peanut butter rags for wiping the counters. If he spills something liquid on the floor, I use a wet dish rag and a dish towel for wiping it dry. I don't like to use the same ones for washing dishes or drying hands; hence a new one. Anyway, guess I should have said dish rags/cloths frequently double as wash cloths in my kitchen. |
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twinsmomfla99
Pearl Clutcher
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Post by twinsmomfla99 on May 5, 2015 16:33:59 GMT
Dish rags and dish towels (usually only one per day)--hung up to dry in the laundry room after dinner dishes are done. When dry, it goes into the "kitchen basket" in the laundry room to wait until I have enough for a load. I don't wash them with all my other towels--too much lint--but as long as they get a chance to air dry before going in the basket, there is no problem with odor. I have a large Longaberger basket with a lid in the corner of my kitchen (the corn basket for anyone who collects/collected Longaberger). I keep all the extra dishrags and towels in there that won't fit in the way-too-small drawer under my dish drainer. I have quite the collection of holiday-themed kitchen linens that get used on an everyday basis. Nothing matches either. So I have no "pretty" towels to hang up in my kitchen. You are just as likely to be washing the pots with a Christmas dish cloth and drying it with a Halloween towel. I scored a nice after Christmas clearance deal on a set of two hand towels, two waffle weave, two pot holders, and two dish cloths at Walmart--a whopping $2.50 for the set. I think I ended up with four sets, so I'm good for another year. |
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Post by Sassenach on May 5, 2015 16:37:19 GMT
A few years ago I saw a news show that went into several kitchens that all "appeared" to be clean and showed how germs are spread all over the kitchen. The biggest spreader of germs were the dish rags that "looked clean" but really had billions of germs on them. That is the reason I switch out dish rags frequently and bleach them when I wash them. Oh, another fun fact. They said kitchen sinks (specifically the drains) often have more bacteria than toilets.  |
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Post by winogirl on May 5, 2015 16:48:26 GMT
I have to add I'm surprised by the number of peas who dry their dishes. Me too. I hated that time sucking chore as a child. My dishes air dry. i have separate scrubby sponges for dishes and stove/counter. Dish towel for my hands. I also use paper towels, but a roll will last a couple weeks or more. I don't cook every day though and I don't have kids so that makes a difference. |
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2015 16:50:15 GMT
I air dry dishes when they are hand washed by the sinkful, but surely sometimes you need something clean and have to wash it and dry it right away??
I probably need to handwash something at least once a day. We run our dishwasher daily, and the dishes that come out usually aren't 100% fully dry, so I dry them as I pull them out and put them away.
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Post by gar on May 5, 2015 16:51:19 GMT
A few years ago I saw a news show that went into several kitchens that all "appeared" to be clean and showed how germs are spread all over the kitchen. The biggest spreader of germs were the dish rags that "looked clean" but really had billions of germs on them. That is the reason I switch out dish rags frequently and bleach them when I wash them. Oh, another fun fact. They said kitchen sinks (specifically the drains) often have more bacteria than toilets. Virtually everything we touch in every day life has billions of germs on it. As long as you (general you) use plenty of hot water, detergent and sensible rules such as not using a cloth to clean a board which has had raw chicken on it to then clean your child's face most of this changing cloths etc multiple times a day is unnecessary. I'm not surprised that drains have high levels of bacteria but since I don't stick my fingers or utensils down there - so what? |
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Post by crazy4scraps on May 5, 2015 16:53:12 GMT
I can't get over the amount of washing people do and how often you change cloths/towels etc? What's so dirty that requires towels or cloths to be changed so often? That's kind of what I was thinking too. Laundry is not my favorite task to begin with and I can't imagine having to wash an extra 2-3 loads of towels a week on top of what I'm already doing. We use bath and hair towels more than once, and hand towels for more than one day usually unless they get something gross on them. As long as what's being dried was washed with soap, it's just water on the towels and I'm not grossed out by that. On kind of a tangent of this, if someone is using a lot of kitchen towels and cloths to avoid using paper towels in an effort to be less wasteful/greener, is it really greener to be doing all that extra laundry every week over the course of a year? I'm not trying to be snarky. I'm truly just curious if it would actually be less wasteful, kind of along the same lines of the cloth/disposable diaper debate. At least paper towels are biodegradable, don't have plastic in them and aren't (typically!) full of human waste! |
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2015 16:55:28 GMT
I air dry dishes when they are hand washed by the sinkful, but surely sometimes you need something clean and have to wash it and dry it right away?? I probably need to handwash something at least once a day. We run our dishwasher daily, and the dishes that come out usually aren't 100% fully dry, so I dry them as I pull them out and put them away. Same with mine, so I put them in the dish drainer to fully dry and put them away later. Yes, I'm that lazy.  |
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2015 16:56:52 GMT
I air dry dishes when they are hand washed by the sinkful, but surely sometimes you need something clean and have to wash it and dry it right away?? I probably need to handwash something at least once a day. We run our dishwasher daily, and the dishes that come out usually aren't 100% fully dry, so I dry them as I pull them out and put them away. Same with mine, so I put them in the dish drainer to fully dry and put them away later. Yes, I'm that lazy. Our dish rack is usually full of other drying things that I've already been too lazy to put away.  (We're having a stinky dish problem again, after it being gone all winter long, and have to bleach all of our clean, washed dishes, so our drying rack is full of drying dishes all day long). |
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2015 16:57:09 GMT
I can't get over the amount of washing people do and how often you change cloths/towels etc? What's so dirty that requires towels or cloths to be changed so often? That's kind of what I was thinking too. Laundry is not my favorite task to begin with and I can't imagine having to wash an extra 2-3 loads of towels a week on top of what I'm already doing. We use bath and hair towels more than once, and hand towels for more than one day usually unless they get something gross on them. As long as what's being dried was washed with soap, it's just water on the towels and I'm not grossed out by that. On kind of a tangent of this, if someone is using a lot of kitchen towels and cloths to avoid using paper towels in an effort to be less wasteful/greener, is it really greener to be doing all that extra laundry every week over the course of a year? I'm not trying to be snarky. I'm truly just curious if it would actually be less wasteful, kind of along the same lines of the cloth/disposable diaper debate. At least paper towels are biodegradable, don't have plastic in them and aren't (typically!) full of human waste! I don't do it to be green.  I'm a waster of both. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on May 5, 2015 17:00:31 GMT
I air dry dishes when they are hand washed by the sinkful, but surely sometimes you need something clean and have to wash it and dry it right away?? I probably need to handwash something at least once a day. We run our dishwasher daily, and the dishes that come out usually aren't 100% fully dry, so I dry them as I pull them out and put them away. I run mine almost daily, usually after dinner, and as soon as it's done with the cycle I prop the door open so the dishwasher itself can act as a huge dish drainer, LOL. Usually by the next morning, the dishes are completely dry and I can just put them away. If anything, there are a couple of cups or mugs with a pool of water on the bottom, and those I just tip the water off into the sink with a quick flick of the wrist and set those in the dish drainer on the countertop until they too have air dried and can just be put away. Yeah, I'm lazy like that! |
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2015 17:05:07 GMT
I air dry dishes when they are hand washed by the sinkful, but surely sometimes you need something clean and have to wash it and dry it right away?? I probably need to handwash something at least once a day. We run our dishwasher daily, and the dishes that come out usually aren't 100% fully dry, so I dry them as I pull them out and put them away. I run mine almost daily, usually after dinner, and as soon as it's done with the cycle I prop the door open so the dishwasher itself can act as a huge dish drainer, LOL. Usually by the next morning, the dishes are completely dry and I can just put them away. If anything, there are a couple of cups or mugs with a pool of water on the bottom, and those I just tip the water off into the sink with a quick flick of the wrist and set those in the dish drainer on the countertop until they too have air dried and can just be put away. Yeah, I'm lazy like that! I try to do that as well except I run the dishwasher whenever it's full or I'm low on items. I recently bought more dessert plates and plates so I would stop that bad habit.  |
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Post by Sassenach on May 5, 2015 17:06:11 GMT
gar I don't change them multiple times a day either, but do get a get fresh ones each day and kill the germs when I wash them with bleach. I just prefer to keep the bacteria count down.
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Post by myshelly on May 5, 2015 17:11:12 GMT
We don't have a dish rack.
I don't want a dish rack or drying dishes on my counters.
I need my counters clear except while I am in the act of cooking.
So everything gets dried and put away immediately. I need to be sure the towel I'm using is clean so it doesn't dirty the dishes that I just cleaned so I pull out a new one each time I dry dishes.
I wash all of our towels after one use (I just think it's gross not to) so since I'm already doing a load of towels a day, kitchen towels don't add extra loads. When washing hands or taking showers I tend to see the act of drying off with a towel as part of the cleaning process rather than thinking the cleaning process is complete and I am drying my clean self off with a clean towel therefore the towel is still clean when I'm done. No. When you are done with the whole process you are clean, but the towel is dirty (after you dry off the towel now has your exfoliated skin cells, bodily secretions, traces of makeup, and oil all over it).
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Post by crazy4scraps on May 5, 2015 17:11:45 GMT
I run mine almost daily, usually after dinner, and as soon as it's done with the cycle I prop the door open so the dishwasher itself can act as a huge dish drainer, LOL. Usually by the next morning, the dishes are completely dry and I can just put them away. If anything, there are a couple of cups or mugs with a pool of water on the bottom, and those I just tip the water off into the sink with a quick flick of the wrist and set those in the dish drainer on the countertop until they too have air dried and can just be put away. Yeah, I'm lazy like that! I try to do that as well except I run the dishwasher whenever it's full or I'm low on items. I recently bought more dessert plates and plates so I would stop that bad habit. We did that too. We bought extra dinner plates, cereal bowls and silverware and we try to only run it when it's full. Great minds think alike!  |
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Post by Sassenach on May 5, 2015 17:14:27 GMT
A few years ago I saw a news show that went into several kitchens that all "appeared" to be clean and showed how germs are spread all over the kitchen. The biggest spreader of germs were the dish rags that "looked clean" but really had billions of germs on them. That is the reason I switch out dish rags frequently and bleach them when I wash them. Oh, another fun fact. They said kitchen sinks (specifically the drains) often have more bacteria than toilets. Virtually everything we touch in every day life has billions of germs on it. As long as you (general you) use plenty of hot water, detergent and sensible rules such as not using a cloth to clean a board which has had raw chicken on it to then clean your child's face most of this changing cloths etc multiple times a day is unnecessary. I'm not surprised that drains have high levels of bacteria but since I don't stick my fingers or utensils down there - so what?It was just a random fact |
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Post by melanell on May 5, 2015 17:16:46 GMT
I grew up with dish towels and hand towels in the kitchen. Dish towels were only for drying dishes. Hand towels were only for drying hands. It made sense, because with a mess of little kids in the house, those hand towels dried many hands that weren't likely as clean as you would like them to be. Or not rinsed well enough. Or both. So my mom switched out the hand towels often and kept special towels for the dishes. A dish cloth was the wash rage to wash dishes, but my mom didn't use those. She used sponges. Plural. There was one for the dishes. One for the counters & sink. One for appliances. And one for the table. You need a cheat sheet to help out in the kitchen there. |
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Post by padresfan619 on May 5, 2015 17:22:41 GMT
I don't use dish rags. I prefer a sponge. I pop it in the dishwasher every night to make sure it stays as clean as possible.
I can't justify only using a bath towel once and washing it, we can't have that luxury in California with the drought. And now they are proposing large fines (in the tens of thousands of dollars) for residences and businesses who waste water. A brand new clean towel every day isn't worth it. And really how dirty can a bath towel be if you're drying off after being freshly showered?
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Post by padresfan619 on May 5, 2015 17:24:14 GMT
Oh and I have a dish rack but it never sits on the counter. Water would leak out of the bottom. It is meant to stay in the sink on the side that doesn't have the garbage disposal. It folds up so I can store it when we have a party, but 90% of the time it is in the sink so stuff can air dry. But I find myself hand washig dishes less and less.
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Post by gar on May 5, 2015 17:40:30 GMT
I don't use dish rags. I prefer a sponge. I pop it in the dishwasher every night to make sure it stays as clean as possible. I can't justify only using a bath towel once and washing it, we can't have that luxury in California with the drought. And now they are proposing large fines (in the tens of thousands of dollars) for residences and businesses who waste water. A brand new clean towel every day isn't worth it. And really how dirty can a bath towel be if you're drying off after being freshly showered? Filthy apparently! |
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Post by myshelly on May 5, 2015 18:05:28 GMT
I don't use dish rags. I prefer a sponge. I pop it in the dishwasher every night to make sure it stays as clean as possible. I can't justify only using a bath towel once and washing it, we can't have that luxury in California with the drought. And now they are proposing large fines (in the tens of thousands of dollars) for residences and businesses who waste water. A brand new clean towel every day isn't worth it. And really how dirty can a bath towel be if you're drying off after being freshly showered? Filthy apparently! Just as an example, right now I'm on my period. When I get done drying off there's definitely blood on the towel. Even when I'm not on my period, drying that area off and then reusing the towel would basically be like reusing toilet paper. Nope. Clean towel every time for me. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on May 5, 2015 18:11:59 GMT
Just as an example, right now I'm on my period. When I get done drying off there's definitely blood on the towel. Even when I'm not on my period, drying that area off and then reusing the towel would basically be like reusing toilet paper. Nope. Clean towel every time for me. Ha ha, I guess I just let that air dry, too.  Cause I'm lazy like that. LOL. Just kidding. But I had to say it. I don't think I've ever gotten blood on a towel mostly because it's hard to get blood stains out. And again, I'm lazy like that. |
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Post by anxiousmom on May 5, 2015 18:19:25 GMT
On kind of a tangent of this, if someone is using a lot of kitchen towels and cloths to avoid using paper towels in an effort to be less wasteful/greener, is it really greener to be doing all that extra laundry every week over the course of a year? I'm not trying to be snarky. I'm truly just curious if it would actually be less wasteful, kind of along the same lines of the cloth/disposable diaper debate. At least paper towels are biodegradable, don't have plastic in them and aren't (typically!) full of human waste! I'll answer...because I am one who has switched out using paper towels for dish towels/dish cloths. Typically, I just throw them in the washing machine to wait for whatever the next load of clothes to be washed. We do at least one load a day (the boy's uniforms, his stinking running clothes, and whatever else is laying around that needs to be washed-for most things, I don't really separate out things like towels from uniforms unless it is some of my delicate stuff.) The dish towels/dish cloths are not very big and hardly take up any space at all. They don't get their own wash. I don't bleach them (unless there is chicken ooze and I spray it with a bleach solution before hand) and they are washed in a hot water cycle. So for me at least, they get incorporated into what is already happening. |
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2015 18:28:23 GMT
I hate dish cloths. I use super sturdy paper towels. I don't care.
I do other Eco-responsible things but I hate dishrags.
Dishes that have been thru the dishwasher come out dry. No cloth drying.
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Most dishes go in dishwasher. Big pots, pans, and cookie sheets dry in the dish drainer. 
I'm a waster of both. 
Cause I'm lazy like that.