probably a daft question... but what do you do with dirty dishcloths/tea towels?

moanymoany

Horses for courses. I had a German student and her mum washed all their 'underwear' - meaning pants - at 90 degrees. I do all my wash at 40degrees, it seems to be all right. I don't consider my bodily extrusions to be toxic......


I generally keep towels and other stuff separate. However - this morning I was hanging out my white wash and discovered I had put teatowels and cloths in with undies and shirts. This thread came straight to mind. Oh well, I thought, too bad!!!

beemuzed

Ellidee wrote: »

I've noticed that my next door neighbour always has tea towels on the line with undies so I assume she washes them together. Eueew !

Hope you don't turn out to live next door to me! Just realised my line looks like that today - but actually what's just been put out represents three separate loads - teatowels etc. put on to wash early evening, the undies etc. put on at bedtime, and the dark wash put on at 6.ooam today! All pegged out together tho'! Perhaps your neighbour does something similar?

lizbug

all my washing gets bunged in together, (well, darks and lights separated first) dishcloths just go in each day with whatever else is washing.

daisyroots_2

Justamum wrote: »

I did mine this morning actually! I have a bucket which is tucked away in a corner of my kitchen. I put the towels and cloths in there, then when I've run out I stick them on the hottest wash with some tea tree in the final rinse.

I'd love to put tea tree in the final rinse, it's a brilliant idea - but do you use the actual oil ? I'm not sure my WM would like that much.

maypole

This was not a daft question gemmaj, I suppose we are just reluctant to ask these sort of things because we think we should know what to do, but these questions turn up some useful advice. :beer:

helenhugs

I leave all mine on the side & throw them in on a wash with either bedding or towels we have enough of either with 4 children lol.
Can't see any problem with washing them with undies either personally.
Hugs
Helen

CFC

kethry wrote: »

btw, I'm the wrong person to ask about why its yucky to watch cloths & clothes and knickers and cloths... prompted by Beansprout's blog (she runs monthly challenges and one month a while ago was "cut the disposables challenge") i even asked OH if he would consider not using toilet paper, but using dampened flannels instead, which, after use, could be popped into a soaking bucket like nappies are. His look of horror is unprintable, and his reply was something along the lines of "I love you, and i support the green thing but that's a step too far!". So we're still buying loo roll. I do try not to use other disposable stuff though!



keth
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Now that is the most disgusting thing that I have ever heard...I can't imagine the thinking behind that one! :eek:

You may be interested in looking into the system that Muslims frequently use - a kind of hand held bidet shower type thing. May not be to our English tastes, but it's clean.

Apart from anything else, I think that people get too carried away about landfill. Paper and cloths in landfill will rot down eventually - the stuff that shouldn't be going in there is plastic. Yet the government diverts attention from the fact that they dont' control packaging by pushing the message of 'no landfill' to consumers, instead of attacking the problem at the source, which would in fact be quite simple. But hey, they might not get those large donations (oops I mean, loans that dont' have to be paid back) any more, if they did that, hey?

Clutterfree

dannahaz wrote: »

I have a bucket on top of my WM in the utility room. Like you, I use a clean cloth each day, plus extra for cleaning. I put the used cloth on the side of the bucket, then when its dry (usually when I put the next day's cloth there), I put it inside the bucket.

I do that exact same thing! :T
Don't know why I was pleased someone else did it as well, but then maybe I'm easily pleased.... :rotfl:

Newgirl_2

embb wrote: »

I use a clean micro-fibre dish cloth every two days, in the meantime I soak it in washing up liquid and a little bit of bleach at the end of the day to keep it fresh. If it's a while before they're going to get washed I hang them either over the back of the drainer to dry, or over the radiator in winter when it's on. Tea towels I use a clean one everyday, but they doesn't usually get that wet as I have a dishwasher or leave things to drain dry.

This is my method... I wash out the cloth in soapy water when I've finished using it, then leave in hot water with bleach or zoflora or similar, usually in the 'small' sink. When finished with it/needs washing, leave it to dry before dropping in washbasket, so that it doesn't smell.

Sometimes, I use old cut up towels as dishcloths, so then I can just throw them

Newgirl

kethry

CFC wrote: »

Now that is the most disgusting thing that I have ever heard...I can't imagine the thinking behind that one! :eek:

You may be interested in looking into the system that Muslims frequently use - a kind of hand held bidet shower type thing. May not be to our English tastes, but it's clean.

Apart from anything else, I think that people get too carried away about landfill. Paper and cloths in landfill will rot down eventually - the stuff that shouldn't be going in there is plastic. Yet the government diverts attention from the fact that they dont' control packaging by pushing the message of 'no landfill' to consumers, instead of attacking the problem at the source, which would in fact be quite simple. But hey, they might not get those large donations (oops I mean, loans that dont' have to be paid back) any more, if they did that, hey?

it actually came about cos of a post on Beansprout's Blog - as i said, she sets monthly green challenges, and back in february she ran a "Ditch the Disposables" challenge (and a followup post explaining what's so bad about them). I think it was more geared towards things like those disposable wipes for kitchen/bathroom, sanitary towels, nappies and so on than toilet paper but i got kinda caught up in the whole thing, and in a conversation in the comments section there was a "ditching the loo paper" concept part. the thing you mentioned that's used in warmer countries (the shower attachment thing) was mentioned there as well if i remember rightly.

Anyway, on the programme "Dumped" on C4 the other night, (if you didn't see it, it was an eco reality show where a group of people were dumped in the middle of a dump, and had to build their own shelter and live from the stuff they could scavenge in the dump. The only thing that they didn't have to get from the dump was food, for health and safety reasons, and hot water - again for health and safety reasons) was the removal of the chemical toilets about 1 week into the challenge, and they had to build their own composting toilets (but even then they still had rationed toilet paper!). I have to admit that my mind turned, after the programme, to the whole question of a post apocalyptic world and how mankind would cope - because sooner or later the loo paper would run out! i can't see mankind returning to the kind of unhygenicness that our ancestors lived in, so i guess other methods would be found, and provided there was still access to hot water and soap, then i can see a method like the one i outlined being used along with composting toilets.

its food for thought anyway! oh, and I quite agree about what you said about landfill. Sooner or later we'll get there! (I'm the optimistic kind).

sorry for the rather OT nature of this post!

keth
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