AIBU to not want people drying their hands on the tea towel?

[HoveringKestrel]

Hi everybody, long time reader first time poster :)

I wanted to ask this question for a while because it's been flipping over in my mind. My hflat mate, and others, dry their hands in the kitchen, when there is a perfectly good, FLUFFIER towel right next to it!

I even move the tea towel further from the sink so its nearer to the dishwasher, but thats only swapping them around in order so hardly a gigantic shift....but I haven't said anything yet.

Am I being ridiculous that tea towels are NOT for hands?

Yanbu I don't tell guests and just quietly twitch...

All towels in our kitchen are for drying hands. The dishwasher dries the dishes and pans are left on the draining rack to dry themselves. In the unlikely event that I need to dry anything I would use a clean piece of kitchen roll so YABU.

I have loads of tea towels... I've never actually known what their official use is.

I use them for all sorts except drying plates...

I've definitely annoyed MIL by drying my hands on her tea towel. We have dozens of tea towels in the cupboard and we go through a few a day so I don't see the problem.

Well, I don't use tea towels to dry dishes or pots. I use it to wipe my hands. One tucked into my apron while cooking and others to wipe my hands after washing them.

Wow.

Life is way too short.

Yabu

Sorry.

Well here's something that will blow your mind... our downstairs toilet sink constantly leaks so we don't use it (can't afford to sort it either) so we all use the toilet and then wash our hands in the kitchen sink .. and dry on a separate tea towel :)

We have done this for 2 years now and all survived and illnesses :)

No illnesses I mean !

I've never got the thing of having a hand towel in the kitchen, it makes me a bit

I just have teatowels. To be used for drying hands, drying plates, wiping wet surfaces, whatever, I have loads of them and they go in the wash as soon as used.

More weird than that, I was at someone's house recently who had a towel in their loo (on a towel rail, not just left there), but no sink. I still don't know what the towel was for...

Like Kirjava TheCat, we use them for everything, like you might use kitchen roll, then bung them in the wash. I do this because it is more eco friendly but, thinking about it, I have no idea if it is, seeing as they go in the wash ...

I've never heard of separate towels for things? Perhaps my friends have been quietly twitching all this time?

Yanbu, though I'm not entirely clear on why.

I think Americans call tea towels 'dish towels,' which is far more descriptive.

Yes, we do, Georgian.

I'm changing my vote, yanbu to nicely ask your flatmates to do things your way because it is a minor thing and you have to live peacefully together, but yabu if you get pushy about it (for same reasons).

I think the majority think it is silly. Its just a small issue I have. I really appreciate the feedback by the way :)

I don't use tea towels for drying plates and cutlery etc - air drying is more hygienic (and less effort!) but they do get used for general other kitchen use, including drying of hands. I have two on the go at one time and they go in the wash every couple of days.

I think the thing is that tea/dish towels don't tend to get dirty as often as a hand towel would. Any germs from hands not properly cleaned would multiply with the water and then get smeared all over clean plates.
Actually most dish sponges/clothes are meant to be a haven for breeding germs anyway, so maybe it is a moot point.

I meant to add, they don't get as dirty and so aren't washed quite as often.

I only have one set of teatowels. Well, I have a pile of about 15 in my cupboard but only have one out. They are never ever used for drying any pots or pans. They are used as an oven glove or for drying hands. I chuck about 2 in the wash every day so are pretty clean. Any drying up of glasses is done with kitchen paper anyway, tea towels (the cotton ones rather than the fluffy type) make things smeary. Yuk.
In short, YAB a bit daft! (in a nice way!)

In the Grand Scheme of Life it's not really very important, no-one ever died from wiping their hands on the wrong type of towel. However it is obviously something that irritates you op which is fine, plenty of things irritate lots of people.

After reading the replies though, hopefully you can see why your housemates aren't taking your hints and using the different towels - they just don't see why it matters. It's not that they're massively unhygienic, you may think they are but it really isn't that big a deal.

same thing here.

solution: leave only fluffy hand towel out for use.

YAB a bit U, yes

It's better for plates etc to air dry anyway - just leave them on the rack and they will dry by magic (or leave the dishwasher for a little bit after it finishes)

We have a dishwasher so don't really dry pots on a tea towel so they are only used for hand drying.

However, I don't understand this issue. Clean pots or clean hands, whats the difference.

YABU, tea towels get rotated every day, so how dirty can they possibly be?

Especially since most dishes air dry...

We use tea towels to dry hands, plates etc dry on the dish rack.

I would prefer they would and then I change the towel frequently because of it. I think that is way more hygienic. Damp dishtowels sitting around getting grubbier and grubbier only being used to dry up. Ew. Use it to dry up, dry your hands on it, wipe up the splash around the sink then finally spritz cleaner on slop dropped down cupboards by clumsy me kids and then into bucket to be washed and a new one out again so they are all rotated fairly quickly.