Tea towels! Help settle a debate between DH and I

[teatoweltroubles]

Lighthearted!

One of us uses tea towels to dry dishes and dry kitchen sides AFTER they have been cleaned.

One of us uses tea towels to soak up spilt drink on the floor, to dry off potatoes after they've been rinsed before making chips or roasties, to wipe sides of spillages before they've been cleaned.

Who is right?

@teatoweltroubles

I have never heard of using a tea towel to wipe up spills off the floor, and drying up spillages on the worktop, and mopping the wet off potatoes. Surely this is what kitchen roll is for?! Tea towels are for drying up dishes surely? I sincerely hope the people who use them a wiping up rag don't then go on to use them to wipe the dishes, because that's quite foul. 🤮

And as a pp said, from what you're saying - the one person is actually wiping spills off the floor - and then wiping potatoes with it! OMFG! 😫

OP you are clearly the first person. Just say so!

I use for both. But different ones obvs

The first person. You use a cloth to wipe surfaces and let them air dry. You use a tea towel to dry dishes if you're not leaving them to air dry. You use a hand towel to dry your hands.

Floor spillages, then to dry up plates,, then in a 30 degree wash with the underwear

Paper towels are for drying fruit and veg or mopping up big spills.

You know MN will perma-ban you, right? Them's fighting words.

Am I to presume that "paper towels" aren't used in the UK? We use "tea towels" (ie dish towels in the US) on dishes.

If they’re used for drying up a spilled drink or something on the floor they go in the wash, I don’t then re use them for drying up the washing/our hands

I use mine for everything you'd use kitchen roll for. I don't buy kitchen roll anymore, I'd rather throw a towel in the wash.

For me it’s drying cleaned dishes etc. oh my I would have a coronary if used in the second scenario. That’s what kitchen towel is for. And
i just realized I’ve turned into my mother 😂

Both wrong. Tea towels are for drying your hands and getting hot things out of the oven. Dishes will dry themselves if given space and time.

@HappiDaze

TEA towels, not MOPPING towels not floor cloths!

@teatoweltroubles

I presume you're the dishes one & he's the manky floor one?!

I don't dry dishes, the air dry! But it's a perfectly fine yse if a fresh tea towel.

i have an old, thin tea towel that's the 'chip' tea towel, but wouldn't object to anyone using a fresh tea towel for drying potatoes, but it gets dried & then put in the basket used for dry dirty tea towels (which the get a soak in Dettol laundry cleanse & washed separately to anything else.

we have a few that might get used for spills on furniture/clothes etc, but they're the only ones & they get washed with hand towels etc.

On food hygiene course someone Once told me that teatowels carry the most bacteria in a kitchen. Ever since I notice that they always stink even after light use, so I air dry.

Yes I'm the one who uses them to dry clean kitchen sides and to dry plates etc if we are washing up a fair bit as not a lot of space.

He has just used one I've used to dry dishes from earlier today to dry potatoes. He then says it's okay to lay it out flat and dry it out to be used again which I find gross.

I use kitchen roll for spillages and for drying rinsed potatoes etc. where as he'll use tea towels for this too.

Everything here, but I go through them quicker than socks. Once it’s been used for something grubby, eg spills, floor or drying the cat it goes straight in the wash.

I have never heard of using a tea towel to wipe up spills off the floor, and drying up spillages on the worktop, and mopping the wet off potatoes. Surely this is what kitchen roll is for?!

Same. I leave my washing up to air dry, occasionally needs a quick wipe with the tea towel. I don't use my tea towel to wipe the sides as I'd rather use kitchen roll and keep my tea towel clean. (The kitchen roll is always slightly grubby no matter how well I scrub the worktops).

All of which makes me sound slightly unhinged now I read it back. I'm basically saving the tea towel to use for nothing whatsoever. But at least it's clean (if pointless)

You're murdering the planet and he's disgusting.

Just have two different coloured tea towel sets. One for dirt and they are washed immediately. And one for clean jobs.

Happy to be use tea towels for cleaning anything but once it's been used for a dirty job it goes right in the wash. We have loads.

I do all the above with my tea towels but strictly once before it goes in the machine. I have literally about 30 tea towels. I refuse to even dry my hands on a tea towel that has performed any of the uses listed. Every washing machine load has on average 3 or 4 tea towels in it. I don't think this is bad for the environment as I'm doing regular washes anyway and what's an extra tea towel or two.

I love my system. I love drying my clean hands on a crisp clean tea towel. I will also dry potatoes with it, even blow my nose on a tea towel, but then it goes immediately into the machine, immediately, and a fresh one supplied from the Tea Towel Drawer.

My DMIL thinks I'm mad but they will let their dogs lick/eat out of their hands then simply wipe the doggy hands on a tea towel and it's the same tea towel that's been hanging up for days, no other option for drying your hands after washing. Yucky yucky yuck.

Nothing quite like a thread like this to highlight your OCD tendencies.
I must be hard to live with.
It's kitchen roll for spills, one tea towel behind the taps to stop flooding that seems to occur when anyone but me uses the tap. One tea towel for the hot trays from oven. Another on the go for hands. Wipe the floor with the hands tea towel and you're dead. Dish washer sorts out the drying of clean plates etc otherwise I'd have a towel for that too 😂
Goes to get coat

I also confess to hiding my nice tea towels if my FIL visits as (gasp) he once used a white one to dry my frying pan.

Omg separate towels please! A thin one for the dishes and thick for the latter, which clearly goes in the washing basket straight after.

I love drying my clean hands on a crisp clean tea towel

What?! You don't have a (matching if possible) hand towel for drying hands?

I've just had a rude awakening as to the ludicrousness of my kitchen habits around all forms of towels.

I have several hand towels but they go in the bathrooms. In my kitchen, you dry your hands on a crisp fresh tea towel. They are effectively single use (between washes). Their average lifetime hanging up is about a couple of hours and then boop! Into the machine and a fresh one brought out. It makes me very happy.