ISO towels for drying dishes

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kitchengoddess8

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I've been going through a ton of paper towels when drying utensils and other kitchen items after washing them by hand. Does anyone have a recommendation for reasonably priced dish towels? I saw these microfiber cloths at Bed Bath and the salesperson told me they could be used either for cleaning or drying dishes.

Schroeder & Tremayne The Original Microfiber 10-Pack Cleaning Cloths - BedBathandBeyond.com

Does anyone have these? Are there others that would be a better choice?
 
The dollar store is your friend KG. There's no need to spend more than you need to for drying dishes. They have those microfiber towels 4 for a dollar.
 
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The dollar store is your friend KG. There's no need to spend more than you need to for drying dishes. They have those microfiber towels 4 for a dollar.


Thanks Kayelle! Those seemed a little pricey, and there were others on Amazon that cost even more!


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ATK doesn't recommend microfiber. It is not very absorbent and too thick to get into small places like the inside of a glass.

I bought a couple of years ago some very large flour sacks for a craft project. I had one left over and cut it up into three dish towels. I will never go back to commercial ones. They are not real thick, but they sure are soft and are easy to use. They absorb water very well. I could have gotten four towels from that one large one. But I wanted them to be thicker than a single layer would be. So there was justenough to make sew them into double layers. I cut strips of cloth just a tad smaller than the towel was going to be. That way the middle of the towel could absorb water from large items, yet the edges were thin enough to fit into glasses.

BTW, single layer diapers also make great absorbent (cloths) towels. :angel:
 
ATK doesn't recommend microfiber. It is not very absorbent and too thick to get into small places like the inside of a glass.



I bought a couple of years ago some very large flour sacks for a craft project. I had one left over and cut it up into three dish towels. I will never go back to commercial ones. They are not real thick, but they sure are soft and are easy to use. They absorb water very well. I could have gotten four towels from that one large one. But I wanted them to be thicker than a single layer would be. So there was justenough to make sew them into double layers. I cut strips of cloth just a tad smaller than the towel was going to be. That way the middle of the towel could absorb water from large items, yet the edges were thin enough to fit into glasses.



BTW, single layer diapers also make great absorbent (cloths) towels. :angel:


I actually found some flour sack towels in a storage bin. They seem
a bit too big for drying towels.


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Costco has excellent set of dish towels. And very reasonable. I bought 3 or 4 to replace our old towels. Love it.


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I have made dish towels from regular towels. I also inherited a ton of dish towels.
Just get the dollar tree cheapies. Much cheaper than paper towels. Oh and a small plastic laundry basket for the dirty kitchen towels and dish cloths.
 
Lucky for me, my laundry area is next to the kitchen, so I can put dirty kitchen linens in a wicker basket there.

I have wicker for everything but my kitchen stuff.
I have seen too many moldy wicker baskets to ever want to put something damp in them.
Note: I also do not have a dishwasher.
 
Folks should remember manmade materials such as microfiber do not absorb water like pure cotton does. I know pure cotton is more expensive, but so worth the expense.

I have a skin allergy and all my clothing is pure 100% cotton. And so is any cloth item I handle on a daily basis. I wash all my towels separately. No fabric softener. It put a waxy coat, that builds up, preventing it from absorbing water. Instead I give them a second rinse. They all come out soft. And they don't go into the dryer. I have a very large drying rack and hang about 90% of my wet laundry on it to air dry. I find that the dryer shrinks materials. Specially cotton. :angel:
 
Does anyone know why microfiber is not recommended for drying dishes? Many of the online articles recommend 100% cotton.


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Does anyone know why microfiber is not recommended for drying dishes? Many of the online articles recommend 100% cotton.


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Microfiber is a manmade fabric. Manmade fabrics are notorious for not being water absorbent. Water just beads up on them. Whereas materials from plant materials such as cotton and flax for linen absorb twice the amount of moisture than manmade fibers. When you dry dishes with manmade fiber material, all you are doing is pushing the moisture around. :angel:
 
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