What About Those Dish Cloths?

[Chef - Montana]

Do you every wonder or think about how much you use and depend on your dish cloth? I am lost with out mine and can't function in the kitchen without one. Do you use it all day and save it for the next day, waiting for it to turn sour to signal that is time to send it to the laundry? Do you ever wonder if it could be the cause of "food poisoning" or "just another round of the stomach flu"? That could very well be the case. You wouldn't think of eating food that had been setting on the counter for hours or even days! Food particles that are collected in your dish cloths are living in a warm, humid environment that is perfect for breeding germs, mold and other unhealthy and undesirable creatures. Every time you wipe your counter or table tops, you are spreading those unwanted germs around even more. Changing your dish cloths often during your canning process is also very important.

After thinking about this I decided that a good rule of thumb would be to change "dish cloths" or "dish rags" with every meal if it has had a lot of use. Using a piece of paper towel to clean up milk, eggs, meat and other traces of food that can cause serious problems will help. I like to keep a spray bottle of vinegar or diluted chlorine bleach on hand to spray the counter top, cutting board, or table top during the clean-up process. Vinegar does a great job and won't cause a bleaching problem.

I have had a hard time finding just the right dish cloth that is easy to use and will wring out easily so that you don't leave behind a wet counter or table top. I prefer to use cotton wash cloths - the kind that is intended for facial use or bathing. You can purchase a bundle of inexpensive ones for around 4 - 5 dollars. Usually there are about 12 to a package. These are thinner and will be just the right size. If you get white ones it will be easier to remove the stains without having to worry about fading the colors. For those of you that don't like to use harsh chemicals, vinegar will keep them germ free. I like to soak my cloths in either chlorine bleach or vinegar in a small amount of water in my sink to kill any germs or other undesirables before I launder them. This soaking process will also help to clean your drain plug/sieve. When I pull the plug in the sink I wait for a little while before I run any water to allow the cleaning water to remove the trapped germs and grease in the p-trap in the drain. There is a lot of "Yuck" down there too!

Hope this helps,

Diane,
Chef - Montana

 

[jusnikki]

I use my dishcloth solely for washing dishes. I change it every few days. When I wipe the counter it's with paper towel. Same with drying my hands I don't like to reuse the same towel to dry my hands. So we go through rolls and rolls of papertowels. That's what I can't function in my kitchen without, lol.

 

[pacanis]

I don't even use a dishcloth anymore. I've got a sponge scrubby thing, but whenever I use it I'm putting dishsoap on it, so hopefully the "kills 99.9% of bacteria" holds reasonably true.

 

[babetoo]

I use my dishcloth solely for washing dishes. I change it every few days. When I wipe the counter it's with paper towel. Same with drying my hands I don't like to reuse the same towel to dry my hands. So we go through rolls and rolls of papertowels. That's what I can't function in my kitchen without, lol.

me too! lots of paper towels. i even have a roll in the bathroom. can't bare to think how yucky a cloth towel would be , with different people using the towel.

 

[bakechef]

I use paper towels mostly for wiping down the counters. I will use the dishcloth to wipe down the glass stove top. I soak the dishcloth in a bleach solution when I am done with it, to help keep it from getting gross.

I have a towel that we use to wipe our hands on, but it isn't used to dry dishes. Most stuff goes through the dishwasher anyway, so I don't need to hand dry stuff.

 

[Zhizara]

I buy washcloths by the bundle and keep one on each counter, replacing it when it is dirty. I have enough of them that I can easily make it to laundry day.

If I've gotten one wet wiping up a spill, I rinse it out and spread it on the floor for a quickie foot mop, then kick it in the corner to dry and put in the dirty laundry.

 

[JMediger]

A couple years ago I had a similar thought so I knitted myself 7 cloths and found 7 matching towels. Each evening, after the kitchen is wiped down, they both go to the laundry basket and get washed on the hot, bleach cycle. There are times they stay for 2 days but that is typically when we aren't cooking. I have a nylon scrubby thing that goes into the dishwasher and then into the microwave at least 2x per week.

 

[bakechef]

A couple years ago I had a similar thought so I knitted myself 7 cloths and found 7 matching towels. Each evening, after the kitchen is wiped down, they both go to the laundry basket and get washed on the hot, bleach cycle. There are times they stay for 2 days but that is typically when we aren't cooking. I have a nylon scrubby thing that goes into the dishwasher and then into the microwave at least 2x per week.

I'm visiting my mom and she has some knit dish cloths, I had forgotten how much I like them!

 

[spork]

A couple years ago I had a similar thought so I knitted myself 7 cloths and found 7 matching towels. Each evening, after the kitchen is wiped down, they both go to the laundry basket and get washed on the hot, bleach cycle. There are times they stay for 2 days but that is typically when we aren't cooking. I have a nylon scrubby thing that goes into the dishwasher and then into the microwave at least 2x per week.

Disinfection by microwave? That sounds promising, I'd like to know more! My first thought was, "wouldn't nylon melt?" How about my sponges? They are grosser than dishcloths. Why not your towels too in the microwave? hmmm... my t-shirts should probably be nuked, too...

 

[Dawgluver]

A friend and my MIL regularly knit me dishcloths. I can clean them in the dishwasher. I also like the nylon mesh bags that onions and shallots come in, they work as well as the purchased nylon scrubbers. I run them through the DW too.

 

[chopper]

I nuke my sponges. Seems to kill the germs. I just throw the dish "rag" in the hamper each night and get a new one in the morning.

 

[Chef - Montana]

Thanks for the reply. Great idea about the microwave.
Diane
Chef - Montan

 

[TATTRAT]

I use the same side towels at home, as I do in the workplace.

Great for their intended use, durable(kind of, lol), make great oven mitts, and nothing I would ever have a problem with throwing out/retiring when the time comes.

They serve a single purpose, and when dirty, they get washed and replaced. I don't even use the same ones through a whole entire day. If they get grungy, they get replaced. I am not eating side towels, nor are they coming in direst contact with the food I put out, so I don't worry about cross contamination.

If I use a towel to wipe a board/counter/knife/anything, I have just processed a protein on, it goes in the laundry. Plain and simple. Towels are made to get dirty, treated rough, and come back for more. If in doubt, get rid of it/launder it.

All in all though, a kitchen without towels, is like a kitchen without knives. They are part of the daily kitchen routine.

 

[TATTRAT]

I nuke my sponges. Seems to kill the germs. I just throw the dish "rag" in the hamper each night and get a new one in the morning.

"Seems to" and knowing are two different things. . . sponges harbor a lot of nasties, and are more easily replaced, then really sanitizing and hanging onto, imo.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

If I'm in the kitchen all day I set up a disinfecting pail with bleach water. My rinsed dishrags hit that when I am done with them for the moment. When I am done in the kitchen the sink gets a scrub with my bleach water and the rag laid out to dry, then the laundry in the AM. I will replace the bleach water if it gets icky.

 

[DaveSoMD]

If I'm in the kitchen all day I set up a disinfecting pail with bleach water. My rinsed dishrags hit that when I am done with them for the moment. When I am done in the kitchen the sink gets a scrub with my bleach water and the rag laid out to dry, then the laundry in the AM. I will replace the bleach water if it gets icky.

They recommended something similar on How Clean is Your House. Keep a dishpan with bleach water in the sink after your done washing up the dishes and leave your dishcloth / sponge/ dishmop in there until you are ready to use it again.

 

[CWS4322]

My mother is a retired R.N. The "rule" was always one dish cloth for "meat" wipe ups, the other for veggies and wash your hands between every prep and cooking step. My DH is always complaining about how much bleach and soap I use in the kitchen. After the dishes were done each night, the dish cloths were put in the sink with straight bleach, rinsed in the morning and put in the wash. I still do that--two dish cloths each day, bleach at night and in the wash (now mind you, I often don't "use" the kitchen during the day, so my evening effort is the only cooking I do). And, the other rule always was "don't cut veggies on the meat cutting board." And those were also bleached every evening. She didn't send us to school wearing masks or latex gloves, but darned close <g>. I still follow those "rules."

 

[Claire]

I, too, buy "wash cloths" by the bundle at Wally World, which I bleach once a week. I used to buy dish towels by the bundle in their automotive section, but someone must have gotten the word because I can't find them there any more. If I have a particularly nasty job, I feel free to just toss the dish-rag into the trash, no great loss. Otherwise, I wash them regularly, and bleach once a week or so.

 

[Andy M.]

It's comforting for me to see others even more obsessive/compulsive about using bleach in the kitchen.

I also buy kitchen towels and dish cloths in quantity. I use the cloths to clean the counters and wipe up spills. The towels dry hand-washed stuff. Kitchen towels, cloths, cutting board pads and pot holders go into a separate bin and get washed separately in the washer with a stiff addition of bleach. I shut off the machine and let it soak for an hour mid-cycle to give the bleach time to work.

I also keep a spray bottle of dilute bleach for disinfecting surfaces.

 

[Timothy]

Disinfection by microwave? That sounds promising, I'd like to know more! My first thought was, "wouldn't nylon melt?" How about my sponges? They are grosser than dishcloths. Why not your towels too in the microwave? hmmm... my t-shirts should probably be nuked, too...

If you nuke them wet and adjust the time, it would work. Here's some information about it:

----

Microwave Sterilizes Sponges

In the study, published in the Journal of Environmental Health, researchers evaluated the effects of zapping sponges and plastic scrubbing pads in the microwave on bacteria and viruses.

The sponges and scrubbing pads were soaked in waste-water containing a dangerous mix of fecal bacteria, E. coli, and bacterial spores. Bacterial spores are more difficult to kill.

The results showed that two minutes in the microwave at full power killed or inactivated more than 99% of all the living germs and the bacterial spores in the sponges and pads, including E. coli.

After an additional two minutes -- a total of four -- none of the bacterial spores survived.

Before you zap your sponges in the microwave, researchers offer the following advice:

Microwave only sponges or plastic scrubbers that do not contain steel or other metals.

Make sure the sponge or scrubber is wet, not dry.

Two minutes should be enough to kill most disease-causing germs.

Be careful in removing the sponge from the microwave because it will be hot and should not be handled immediately after zapping.