to not understand how people use a dish towel and dish cloth interchangeably?

[MolyHolyGuacamole]

(light-hearted...somewhat) Help me settle this 'debate' with a friend: dish towel/dish cloth. So, you have you dish towels, cotton and sometimes patterened, usually found hanging on the oven handle next to your oven mitts. Then you have your dish cloth (also known as a j cloth). Can range anywhere from cheap and disposable to micro fibre and washable. WHAT do you use each for? I use the dish cloth for cleaning up any spills/messes, wiping down counter tops etc. dish cloth for drying hands and dishes. But numerous people have come to my house, made a spill (most memorable was red wine) and before I could do anything they quickly dash up and grab my beautiful dish towel to clean up the mess. So now, not only does it have to go in the wash, but it's stained I've also witnessed people use it to mop up spills by the sink or sauce (with a dish cloth being within reach) then hang it back all damp and yucky like that's the norm so...is it?? Am I just abnormal? Surely as soon as you use it to clean up a mess it can't be used again, as it's now dirty? I only have a couple, so it's not like I run the machine the whole time

[Owlish]

We have a dishcloth for washing up, a cloth for wiping the benches and mopping up spills etc, a tea towel for dish drying and a hand towel for, well, hands. (As an aside, that's probably the most boring thing I've ever typed on MN )

[MolyHolyGuacamole]

Candlestickchick no i use a sponge to wash dishes. dish cloth to wipe us messes. dish towel (tea towel?) for drying.

[crispysausagerolls]

1. should be a separate towel for drying hands 2) should be one cloth or sponge whatever for food related items like bowls and plates and a separate one for surfaces. People who mix the two make me 🤮

[MolyHolyGuacamole]

Chouetted I think it's a regional thing I'm not originally from the UK. Perhaps I'm using the wrong word but I mean the cloth you would use to clean surfaces/wipe up messes

[Betsy86]

Not to derail the thread but ummm does nobody use kitchen roll? I normally use that for a wipe down of surfaces and cupboard doors or the quick spillage issues. Cloths when doin a big clean down....

[Betsy86]

In line with the thread tea towel is for hands sponge for washing up which I probably change far to often...

[MolyHolyGuacamole]

brokenharbour haha sorry for the confusion, we don't use 'tea towel' across the Atlantic!

[Catmatrat]

For a big spill I’d grab a tea towel

[MolyHolyGuacamole]

viques i agree with everything you said

[MolyHolyGuacamole]

Betsy86 oh yes I do as well. I guess the main point of my post is, whatever you use to clean up a mess, I just don't think it should ever be a dish/tea towel

[DolorestheNewt]

Betsy86 re the kitchen roll, I will use that if I'm literally wiping up a spill without any spray cleaner, because then I can throw the paper in the food waste bin (we have food waste collections here so we have a composting caddy going). If I'm using spray cleaner, then I prefer to use a cloth because the paper won't be compostable any more.

[DolorestheNewt]

whatever you use to clean up a mess, I just don't think it should ever be a dish/tea towel Totally agree!

[MaHeidsGouping]

Dish cloth for wiping surfaces, tea towel for drying hands and usually if a DC spills their drink on the floor then I tell them to grab a tea towel to wipe it....mines aren't fancy tea towels tho.

[GiraffeObsessedBaby]

Cloth for washing pots/wiping up dirty messes.
Tea towel for mopping up clean water (ie spill from kettle), drying dishes or drying hands.

Honestly never heard of people having hand towels in kitchens... what's wrong with drying clean hands on a towel that you use on clean pots?

[Betsy86]

doloresthenewt ah ok yes that makes sense i didnt even think of the composting side of it will aim to do that more now! I often do a final quick surface wipe down at the end of the day with cleaner and kitchen roll but i will use a cloth nore often now :) x

[Allineedyoutodois]

Monsters. They’re monsters. I doubt that they use book marks either. Just turn down the corner of the page.’

[hazell42]

You have beautiful dish towels? Why?

[MolyHolyGuacamole]

hazell42 because they look nice? I also have festive ones for Christmas 🤷🏽‍♀️

They're not expensive or anything it's just that when you wipe up drink to sauce it's stains and I don't see why you can't just use the paper towels or dish cloths that I also have available in plain sight

[PorkFlute]

I will sometimes use a tea towel to soak up spilled juice or something but it goes straight in the wash not hung back up 🤮 In someone else’s house I’d ask what cloth to use.

[Dontsweatthelittlestuff]

Most of my t towels are festive as they tend to be sold off cheap after Christmas and why would I want to waste money if I can buy decent quality cheap just because it has snow flakes on it?

[PestymcPestFace]

Most paper kitchen towels are not made of paper any more, just like tea bags, they don't compost. If you can wring it out, it is not paper.

[MarianneAgain]

I use tea towels and sponges, and a hand towel for hands. @GiraffeObsessedBaby Honestly never heard of people having hand towels in kitchens... what's wrong with drying clean hands on a towel that you use on clean pots? You have obviously never seen my DH in action. It's not the contamination of hands by clean pots that worries me but the reverse. There is no way it would be hygenic to wipe anything I was going to eat with or from with a towel that my belovèd had wiped his not very clean hands on. But my Mum and my sister both also have hand towels and tea towels, although Mum also has a dish cloth which she boils regularly. i just put the sponge in the microwaveon high every morning for 30 seconds while the kettle boils.

[SayNoToCarrots]

Tea towels in my house are for holding hot things and drying hands. Sponge for the dishes and paper towels for spills, wiping surfaces and drying.

[Ljlsmum]

Dish cloth for cleaning countertops, I use a scrubby sponge for washing pots but wouldn’t be fussed to use a dish cloth for both jobs interchangeably. Tea towels for hands- would be hand towels but we have so many tea towels that’s their job in the kitchen and I let my washing up drip dry or use kitchen roll to dry something I need straight away. Tea towels I actually find rank for drying dishes. Ive seen people use the tea towels to mop up spills on my carpet or floors and it makes me 😲. I have designated scruff cloths for floor spills.

[Ljlsmum]

I also hate seeing a tea towel on someone’s shoulder 🤢