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

CFC

I heard about the show but didn't see it. Too much political correctness affects my stomach badly

I could certainly live on the old fashioned kind of dump. I remember going there to play (illegally of course) when I was a kid! I bet there's more than one of us who remembers doing that.

As for the dump where I live now, (the kind you have to take your own stuff to) it always makes me laugh. There's never anything worth having, cos the dump keepers that the council employ stop your car and relieve you of anything that they might be able to sell before you actually get to the dumping bit! I like the way that they always say 'Oh I'll help you with that'....but theyr'e not interested in the rubbishy bits...pity that the council tax isn't reduced by the amount of profit the council makes off that kind of recycling!

Saint_Chris

Right i dont have a dishwasher, so i do my washing in the sink, i rinse everything and leave to drain, so when i come to lay them away there pratically dry. So my tea towel rarely gets used. But when i do wash it, well it just goes into the wash with anything else.

As for my dish cloth every night i put it in a bowl with water in it, then mircrowave it for 2 mins and the water boils in the bowl, and it cleans the dishcloth. And that does it for me.

CFC

I do have a dishwasher. When he doesn't do it right, there's hell to pay!

And he's just learnt to find his way round the washing machine - but he doesn't think that handtowels or teatowels exist, cos they never go in the wash that he does :rolleyes:

Winsome_2

I use handknitted dishcloths mostly (they last so much longer than bought ones.... plus are easy and cheap to knit too!)....... mine all get washed with the towels on a hot wash same with teatowels, then get line dried. as I have a rather large family I find that I am washing a load of towels at least every other day (why won't kids learn to hang towels to dry rather than leaving them in soggy heaps on the floor so they go smelly and nasty?), and as a result I don't need to keep my cloths and towels for very long before theya re washed.........

mind you I know someone who washes her teatowels and dishcloths with her dirty cloth nappies :lipsrseal I never even havea cup of coffee at her house!

Justamum

daisyroots wrote: »

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.

I do use the oil - half a dozen drops from a pipette. It doesn't seem to have affected my wm though.

susank

I have a new washing machine and it does a 30 minute 30 degrees wash - since I bought it I have not used another programme and my washing is fine - why would you want to use the machine to boil anything? It is not really environmentally friendly to do so. I thing if I had to I would boil some things in an old pan instead or microwave them. I am "trying" to be green for a change.

kethry

susank wrote: »

I have a new washing machine and it does a 30 minute 30 degrees wash - since I bought it I have not used another programme and my washing is fine - why would you want to use the machine to boil anything? It is not really environmentally friendly to do so. I thing if I had to I would boil some things in an old pan instead or microwave them. I am "trying" to be green for a change.

susank - it depends on what it is you're washing. While i agree that a 30 degree wash is going to be fine for clothes and stuff, you may, dependent on your life circumstances, feel the need to wash things on a hotter wash to get rid of bacteria that can only really be killed with the application of high heat. I'm thinking now of towels, reuseable nappies, teatowels and dishcloths. I think the term "boil" is a bit of a misnomer as you don't actually boil it in the machine, but it is a hotter wash than the 30*C one. As for the environmental thing, well, its a toss up, between disposable nappies in landfill that take 500 years to decompose or reuseable nappies that require the energy to be washed. *shrug*. if you're interested then studies have been done, but the whole question is somewhat controversial.

HTH

keth
xx

susank

I did use cloth nappies for both my kids when they were young and we did not have all the fancy machines - in fact it was a single tub I had and I used a nappy bucket and most times washed them out by hand after being in the bucket overnight. I remember the dunking in the loo thing with them!!! ugh! I think if a dishcloth is washed every day in a machine in a lower degree wash it should not be full of bacteria. I know if your cat/dog has fleas you should then wash the offending animal bed/blanket in a 60 degree wash to rid it of the eggs which will be on it and any flea which is still there. Anything really bad cloth wise can be done with bleach which is again non environmentally friendly especially if like me you have a septic tank as I live in the country but needs must I think. I know it can open a can of worms to go into this subject and it is a very interesting one and can go on for ever and a day!. I really agree with the nappy mountain though and people should be thinking about this and not using them except for emergencies only - nowadays we have machines to do everything so why should we not use cloth nappies again. I will bow out at this stage I think having said enough!

kethry

susank wrote: »

I did use cloth nappies for both my kids when they were young and we did not have all the fancy machines - in fact it was a single tub I had and I used a nappy bucket and most times washed them out by hand after being in the bucket overnight. I remember the dunking in the loo thing with them!!! ugh! I think if a dishcloth is washed every day in a machine in a lower degree wash it should not be full of bacteria. I know if your cat/dog has fleas you should then wash the offending animal bed/blanket in a 60 degree wash to rid it of the eggs which will be on it and any flea which is still there. Anything really bad cloth wise can be done with bleach which is again non environmentally friendly especially if like me you have a septic tank as I live in the country but needs must I think. I know it can open a can of worms to go into this subject and it is a very interesting one and can go on for ever and a day!. I really agree with the nappy mountain though and people should be thinking about this and not using them except for emergencies only - nowadays we have machines to do everything so why should we not use cloth nappies again. I will bow out at this stage I think having said enough!

it is an interesting discussion.. To be honest i'm not a parent (yet) so i've not looked too deeply into the ins n outs of nappies, although i am determined that i'm going to use some kind of disposable (cos there are many different kinds out there, as i'm sure you know). for a dishcloth, as i've said, they can be microwaved to sterilise them if necessary, but i suppose if you're already doing teatowels/towels/sheets at a higher temp then the temptation is there to chuck the dishcloths in as well.

it is a very emotional subject, i think, that's why i've been careful not to try to tread on people's toes in the thread, but one dear to my heart.

thanks for the reply and clarification!

keth
xx

Agapanthus

At risk of being controversial (!) are you aware that there is some medical research that says that being too clean and germ-free isn't good - particularly for small children? Lack of exposure to bugs and germs in the early years can apparently lead to asthma and other allergies.

Have a look at this:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article405231.ece

Personally, I wash cloths and towels / teatowels (in the washing machine) when they seem to be getting manky or smelly or when I know they've been used to mop up something horrid. And yes, they go in with whatever else is in there at the time. The tumble dryer should be hot enough to sort out most bugs.

However, I use a washing up brush, not a dishcloth - and we dry hands on a separate hand towel, not one of the teatowels. None of my children ever became ill as a result and none has developed asthma. Not a statistically valid sample, I know, but it works for us.