Kitchen towels.

I have a small towel in the kitchen which was given to me as a housewarming gift, otherwise I wouldn't have any. My daughter has never had towels in her kitchen. I'm not that it is normal to have kitchen towels these days

How do you dry your hands?

Dare I admit it I use paper towels from the roll. Not very environmentally friendly but certainly hygienic. I wouldn't go near our teatowel goodness knows what DH will have used it for.

Same at DS2 and family's. There is a clean tea towel but no hand towel. I use kitchen roll to dry my hands when I'm there.

What do people dry their hands on if they don't have a hand towel in the kitchen?
I have a hand towel, tea towel (mostly used for holding hot pans, I don't dry stuff with it because airdrying is more hygienic) and an oven glovey thing which Mr M likes to use. I couldn't work without the towels.

I keep hand towels and dish towels, and wash them daily. There's one of each always hanging on the oven handle.

I did notice at my DD's that she keeps only one hand towel, and doesn't have many replacements. I think because they use their dishwasher, but I am always reaching for a towel!

I haven't noticed at both son's houses, but then I am not in their kitchens as often.

I have a small hand towel and a tea towel in my kitchen but only one of my children uses a kitchen towel.

Hand towel and tea towel in my kitchen - I seem to wash my hands 5 or 6 times while cooking. Both AC have towels and tea towels too.

I am always wary of a kitchen without a hand towel, it says to me that hands are not washed.

Kitchen towel only works if it is the thick expensive one which I would consider a waste, environmentally and financially.

I’ve never had a towel in the kitchen and don’t know anyone who does. I dry my hands on kitchen paper - far more hygienic than a damp towel being reused.
Linen tea towel only used to dry ‘good’ glasses on special occasions, everything else goes into the dishwasher.
Draining and air drying dishes is more hygienic than tea towels, but dishwashing is best.

*dishwasher not dish washing.

I have a towel and a teatowel and change them frequently. Teatowel daily, towel once or twice a week.

DS1 and 2 have teatowels and DS1 has a separate towel, but I don't think they're changed often nor do they look terribly clean and are usually damp. No one seems to have come from any harm from it, though.

I don't like people washing their hands in the sink. It's unhygienic - and not allowed in commercial kitchens. Use a wash hand basin - please. Therefore, I don't provide towels in the kitchen. Wet hands from using taps can be dried on kitchen roll.

I have tea towels & hand towels, both changed frequently plus a dishwasher. Hetty58 How on earth do you prepare food if you don't allow hand washing? I wash my hands frequently while cooking and certainly could not be going out of the kitchen to the cloakroom to do so as this would entail touching the door handles, light switches or whatever which I would consider very unhygienic.

My DS doesn’t have a towel in the kitchen either and my SIL has a towel in her kitchen that’s been there, same one, for as long as I can remember.
I have at least 2 a day, towels and tea towels.

If you don’t wash your hands with soap or have towels in your kitchen what happens when you’re preparing food, chicken, vegetables etc. Do you drip through to the bathroom? I suppose you could always wipe them on your clothes!

toscalily

I have tea towels & hand towels, both changed frequently plus a dishwasher. Hetty58 How on earth do you prepare food if you don't allow hand washing? I wash my hands frequently while cooking and certainly could not be going out of the kitchen to the cloakroom to do so as this would entail touching the door handles, light switches or whatever which I would consider very unhygienic.

This.
I have at least one clean hand towel and tea towel every day. I always wash my hands before food preparation. If I touch raw meat then I need to wash my hands thoroughly before touching any surface or other food. How does that fit with no hand washing in the kitchen?
I agree commercial kitchens don't allow for hand washing at the same sink as food preparation, insisting on a separate dedicated hand washing sink, but not many domestic kitchens adhere to the strict rules of commercial kitchens in all other areas.

I've been in kitchens were there is no towel and it bothers me. How do they dry their hands? I always have them in my kitchen plus tea cloths for dishes . Call me old fashioned maybe.

I couldn’t imagine not having a towel, I always have a towel that fixes on my range for hands and an old fashioned torchon and a couple of linen tea towels, I have a huge drawer in my linen press full of these.
I love to pull them out all beautifully ironed.
The torchons I bought in France many years ago, they get better and better with every wash.
My little dog used to pull all the tea towels off the radiator when they were warm and put them in her bed!

If you don’t wash your hands with soap or have towels in your kitchen what happens when you’re preparing food, chicken, vegetables etc. Do you drip through to the bathroom? I suppose you could always wipe them on your clothes!
I wash my hands at the sink more than once when preparing food.
My friend made some half-size towels with loops for use in the kitchen and it gets changed frequently.
I don't use a tea towel to dry my hands, in fact I don't use a tea towel.

I have always had towels in my kitchen, and always will. A hand towel, a tea towel for drying dishes and a thicker one for lifting hot trays etc. from the oven. Changed as needed.

Speaking of hand washing and food preparation I’m shocked at the hygiene standards of some well known tv chefs. On Saturday Kitchen Live I often see Matt Tebutt handling raw meat then make a point of saying “I’ll just wash my hands” His hand washing consists of a couple of seconds under running water, no soap and hands dried in the tea towel. Then he goes back to preparing and serving up food with his bare hands.

Also his method of separating egg whites and yolks. He cracks the egg open onto his hand and holds the yolk and lets the white filter through his fingers 🤢

I have small kitchen towels for drying hands and plenty of clean ironed tea towels - all of which go through regular hottest washes (and the ironing is a cleaning act too).- used to be a boil wash years ago. I also use a dishcloth for wiping surfaces etc. all frequently hot washed. I use the dishwasher most evenings for that days dishes. At times I boil the dishcloths in a saucepan on the stove. I have clean hot washed aprons too.
Young mothers are very fond of wet wipes - the scourge of the drainage/sewer systems - what is wrong with a pile of clean folded flannels? For years I never left the house without a clean wet flannel in a plastic bag in my handbag - great for sticky faces and hands.
Sheets and towels are also items I put through the hottest of washes. Hopefully doing all that kills many of the bugs around.

I have a hand towel and tea towel always in the kitchen, laundered frequently, plus oven gloves. Nonsense to say you shouldn’t wash your hands in the sink! Why ever not?

When DH was at work, he would come in with dirty hands and give them a thorough wash at the sink. Would certainly have not expected him to go through to the bathroom to do it.

We both wash our hands frequently as we are preparing food or after touching things.

DIL has a couple of towels hanging up, never know which is which, they always look a bit in need of a wash, suspect they are interchangeable.

Also not a fan of ‘air drying’ crockery. I like to dry stuff and put it away. Don’t possess a dishwasher. Should add as far as I am aware, my household has never succumbed to food poisoning or similar, unlike so many nowadays, probably caused by insufficient hand washing before food prep.

I have a pile of face flannels which I use in the kitchen for drying hands etc. I can get through several in a day and just chuck them into the washer to wait for the next load. I started to do this during lockdown, as it seemed more hygienic than re-using the same towel. I don't have a dish washer but drain my washing up, again more hygieni.