Kitchen towels.

I have lots of tea towels - not everything can go in the dishwasher. They’re also useful for mopping up spills on the floor - and straight in the washing machine.

I don’t have an actual towel in the kitchen - I just use a tea towel. ‘ Kitchen’ towel to me means kitchen roll, i.e. paper - we use a lot of that.

I don't know which is more ecologically friendly either GSM washing towels or using paper. I use hand towels changed daily and teatowels for utensils which don't go in the dish washer.
I do have a horror of cloths being used to wipe up spillages from the floor always paper for that.

My best friend and I often have this conversation about our respective offspring and their lack of kitchen & tea towels. She and I both get through loads of towels, at least one of each a day and more if it’s a busy time in the kitchen. Our children - not so much. One or two grey offerings is about it.

My friend frequently comes back from caring for her grandchildren with a stomach bug 🤢 - maybe it’s the lack of clean towels? Though my mum used to use a teatowel for everything from wiping the outside of a raw chicken to drying the dishes. Amazing we survived!

I rarely use paper towels on my hands as it makes them sore and red, I prefer a proper towel.

I put kitchen paper that has only been used for drying hands or mopping up water in the recycling. If it’s been used to mop up food or grease or has cleaning products on it it can’t be recycled so goes in the black bin.

I have a small collection of gym towels from the days when I forgot to take my sweat towel and had to buy one! These are used for hand drying and tea towels for drying dishes. Simple, you'd think. But in my families' homes I have seen only rather manky tea towels used for both, but have held my tongue so far. No-one seems to have contracted nasty bacteria, so I guess they have all built up immunity.

Apologies to gsm, btw. I expressed what I meant badly. My point is that saying kitchen towel is more hygienic than a cloth towel (or vice versa) is a con. It's not what is used that makes a system hygienic but how it is used. Ergo, kitchen paper is not intrinsically more hygienic than a cloth towel (or vice versa).

AreWeThereYet

We have a hand towel and a tea towel for dishes. They get changed as and when we feel we need to.

For 30 years we never used paper towels but for some reason we now use them to mop up fats and oils before washing dishes (air fryer, frying pan, etc) so they don't go down the drain and I can't for the life of me remember what I used to use. Maybe newspaper, back when we had newspaper?

We use paper towels here for the same reasons you do, AWTY. They go in the food recycling caddy.

We have a hand towel and a tea towel for dishes. They get changed as and when we feel we need to.

For 30 years we never used paper towels but for some reason we now use them to mop up fats and oils before washing dishes (air fryer, frying pan, etc) so they don't go down the drain and I can't for the life of me remember what I used to use. Maybe newspaper, back when we had newspaper?

Hand towel for hands, tea towel for dishes etc if needed and I still have to nag remind Mr. S. not to use a tea towel for hands.

Baggs same here.

I couldn’t manage without a towel in the kitchen. I rinse my hands so many times when cooking I would get through a whole jumbo kitchen roll a day if I used just that.

We currently use old bath towels as kitchen towels for drying hands. They are hung spread out on a rail and there's always a dry bit somewhere 😉. We don't seem to have caught anything unhygienic off them even when there are several people using them.

Changing the towel when it gets wet is quite easy, I find, especially if one keeps spares handy in a drawer.

Just out of curiosity, do people who use paper towels put them in their recycling bin?

I used to keep a towel in the kitchen but didn’t like that if we had visitors it was being used by several people and got damp very quickly and needed replacing. Didn’t seem very hygienic. Nobody has conned me into using kitchen roll.

How do people know that kitchen paper is more hygienic than a kitchen towel? I suggest that people don't know this at all but have been conned by paper roll sellers.

Some people's kitchen towels may be unhygienic because they don't wash them often enough but if you are using a clean towel it is not unhygienic.

I have to dry everything that’s been washed in the dishwasher. Is it just me that has to do that?

Galaxy

The competitive hygiene threads are being edged out by the competitive 'think of the environment' threads.

Add a third.

I'm frugal, don't want to buy endless paper roll for little children's messes. Cotton squares washed are far less amusing than big rolls with "swords" in the middle. "Let me see how fast I can unroll and get to the sword"

🤣🤣🤣

The competitive hygiene threads are being edged out by the competitive 'think of the environment' threads.

My ex mother in law had one of those. I always wondered but didn’t like to ask. I’m not sure I’d have liked the answer …

That reminds me of something. Does anyone remember in the old days when the toilet was separate from the bathroom?There was often a small towel hung behind the door .I still don't know what it's purpose was.

I use small guest towels to dry my hands in the kitchen.

I wonder that I survived childhood when I look back at my mother's hygiene habits. She had one towel and one tea towel in the kitchen which were used for everything from drying her hands to wiping the baby's face to getting hot dishes out of the oven.
She lived to be 101 and I am still here at 84.

Towel for drying hands. Paper towels for wiping things out before washing in dish washer. Tea cloths to lift things out or drying.

@argymargy, indeed. Waiting for competitive eating chicken threads now…

Joining the apparently unhygienic tribe; I dry my hands on a tea towel, which rarely get used for anything else, and which gets washed whenever I remember. Haven’t poisoned myself or anyone else yet.

Paper towels are a significant contributor to deforestation, as well as having other negative environmental impacts, so I avoid using them as far as possible.