How many uses can a man find for a clean tea towel?

My late husband was very good but, like ExDancer, I have seen people (usually women!) who think the tea towel and hand towel are interchangeable and have just one for both purposes.

Cutlery was the thing with my husband. I ever found out why I kept finding dinner forks and teaspoons in the garden!

Hand it to a workman who was having trouble with some sealant. I still.have the cloth and occasionally pick off bits of sealant that that have come loose.

sandelf

Oops Yammy - I did nearly all these. Have put them aside and use micro cloths now - one box for 'clean' jobs and one for dirty and then hot wash.

Please give some thought to the environment.
These fibres wreak havoc on marine mammals ?

grandtanteJE65

I have no idea at all, being happily married to a man who asks me for a cloth for any of the purposes you describe, and who knows very well what and what not to use a tea-towel, dish-cloth, floor-cloth or towel for.

I return the compliment by asking him which saw or hammer I may use when I on rare occasions want such an item.

I wish mine would ask for a "cloth" !! He insists on using the word"rag" aaaaargh!!!! Conjure up a pair of Pater's old undies used by ma as floor lotus in the b&w days- or WORSE! "Can I have one of your rags to clean the bathroom?" Yuk!

#floor cloth!!! Edit tool pleeeeeease

Philippa111

I must be a man!! I do quite a few of those things..lol!

Definitely wouldn't be awarded a Domestic Goddess crown!!

Tea towels in my house quickly descend into other cloths. But in any case I never dry dishes !!

Exactly.
I boil wash mine so they are always clean but may be a bit stained from the other stuff I use them for. Of course not being DH, lol, if I use one for something like mopping up a spill on the floor it goes straight in the laundry bin. DH

We were recently in holiday and the cottage had two tea towels for us -one was pristine white so I hid it away!!

mine considered new clean tea-towels are for wiping paint brushes!

Drying the dogs.

My DH is an angler. He steals my tea towels and takes them with him to use for wiping the fish slime off his hands if he catches anything. I refuse to have them back, but he then steals another one if he can't find what he's done with the ones that he's already nicked!

Sadly my OH doesn’t know what a t-towel is.
Lovely man, useless at “womens” work, unless specifically asked and if it’s drying up, his answer will be; I’ll just leave it here to dry.

My DH is guilty of many of those 'tea towel crimes' Yammy, and so am I occasionally. But we're still alive and neither of us has ever suffered from food poisoning.

I always keep two tea towels in the kitchen, a fluffy towelling one for drying hands and a smooth linen/cotton one for drying dishes etc. Not that we hand-dry very often. Used cups or glasses are rinsed out and left to dry on the drainer, everything else goes in the dishwasher. All used tea towels, whatever they've been used for, are hot washed every week.

My ex used to tie a tea towel round his head like Rambo if he was cooking, as he got all agitated and sweaty.

Anrol

Sadly my OH doesn’t know what a t-towel is.
Lovely man, useless at “womens” work, unless specifically asked and if it’s drying up, his answer will be; I’ll just leave it here to dry.

Leaving it to dry is probably safer from a health point of view, Anrol, if the state of tea towels on this thread is anything to go by!

We don't have tea towels. Dishwasher - Eco programme - here....for now at least... Used to be drip dry after wash and rinse in boiling hot water. I've always been suspicious of tea towels....

The man In my house uses the tea towel to wipe excess oil of his bike , clean spills off the floor and wipe his face ! He seems to n e untrainable .

I dont think any of my tea towels actually get used to dry dishes, they are all just general purpose jack of all trades

Callistemon21

Anrol

Sadly my OH doesn’t know what a t-towel is.
Lovely man, useless at “womens” work, unless specifically asked and if it’s drying up, his answer will be; I’ll just leave it here to dry.

Leaving it to dry is probably safer from a health point of view, Anrol, if the state of tea towels on this thread is anything to go by!

Absolutely right! It was something our Control of Infection Dept in the hospital was pretty hot on. Tea towels were banned in ward kitchens

Not all at once, I hope!

Ours disappear!
But, now I have learned if there are no clean ones, none to be found in a clean wash pile just waiting to be put away......check behind his sofa!!
Yup. He'll be cooking or washing up, go to his sofa for a rest (COPD) & instead of just leaving them where you'd expect, like on the bench, over a unit door or over the back of a dining chair, he'll carry it to his sofa, put his arm across the back of the sofa while still holding the towel. Let go as he shuffles about or picks up th remote. Eventually go back to his task, without the towel which has somehow slipped behind the sofa and then get a fresh one out as he can't remember where the 1st one is....and the cycle continues!
I have tried and tried and tried to get him out of this habit. Hints will be very much appreciated!!

Blossoming - you seldom go into the kitchen? How have you wangled that?

MawtheMerrier

grumppa

Now that's what I call sexism!

Hear, hear!
Are people saying women never grab the nearest thing or do any of these things?
(I don’t think DH was ever guilty of the above while he was alive either )
But as an aside, I do dislike this jokey “men are so useless” type of generalisation. It’s like saying women can’t park, or Essex girls wear white stilettos and blondes are dim.

I don’t like this thread either

Nightsky2

MawtheMerrier

grumppa

Now that's what I call sexism!

Hear, hear!
Are people saying women never grab the nearest thing or do any of these things?
(I don’t think DH was ever guilty of the above while he was alive either )
But as an aside, I do dislike this jokey “men are so useless” type of generalisation. It’s like saying women can’t park, or Essex girls wear white stilettos and blondes are dim.

I don’t like this thread either

Well try and get it taken down then,I certainly did after what was said about it by grumpa and maw,unfortunately, they took no notice of me.
It also seems to ring a bell with a lot of people. It was meant light-hearted and thank you, everyone, who has taken it as it was meant to be. You seem to see it far more for what it was meant than a sexist attitude towards men in general.
Are we now going to have "Tea towel man ", instead of "Workington man", which in fact nearly hits the spot?

Dishwasher has a dry feature, I use far less water in the dishwasher than faffing around with dishes after meals. No tea towels, just a stack of kitchen terry towels for hands and spills. Domestos washed.

Yummy intended this as a light hearted thread and it is .

I'm not the only one who has found tea towels covered in mud , oil and paint .

And here's another mucous from nose blowing .

They all go in the wash with bleach and Dettol .
I hide my best ones .

Oops Yammy not Yummy !