Tea Towels and Hand Towels in the Kitchen

[Diane Lane]

I hand wash dishes, so one half of my double sink is always filled with the dish drainer, and they air dry. I use pot holders for a couple of weeks, then wash, since they only touch handles, and occasionally the counter. I keep about 3 hand towels on the go, and sometimes wipe down the faucet and counter with them, since my hands and counters have already been cleaned before I touch them. My sinks are fairly shallow, and there's always water to be mopped up, so I just grab a dry one when one is wet. I also go through a lot of paper towels, since I use them for everything from napkins to cleaning up spots on the floor or appliances. I love dish towels, and try to use matching ones, or at least pretty ones, to brighten up the kitchen.

 

[Rosyrain]

I use paper towels like they are out of style. I often comment that we waste them around here. I use a hand on the odd occasion. Someone here spoke of reusable towels but I am yet to see those.

I believe it is the Dawn company that now has a paper towel that is infused with dish soap, so you just wet the towel and clean up your mess. These paper towels are very expensive and I see them as just a fad that will be pulled from the market within a year or so. I prefer just normal paper towels or cloth hand towels.

 

[Diane Lane]

I believe it is the Dawn company that now has a paper towel that is infused with dish soap, so you just wet the towel and clean up your mess. These paper towels are very expensive and I see them as just a fad that will be pulled from the market within a year or so. I prefer just normal paper towels or cloth hand towels.

Ewww, I don't like the idea of that. I often wipe down my face, or sometimes the cats' paws with them, and I certainly wouldn't want to grab the wrong one and get a mouthful of soap. I often use vinegar, instead of soap when cleaning, anyway, so wouldn't need those. I guess they must have done some market research ahead of creating them, though, so perhaps there is a need?

 

[Morning Glory]

Even a lot of domestic kitchens have a double sink , do one to wash up in and one to wash food in,I try to use the down stairs toilet to wash my hands

Oh dear, I fear this discussion is getting a bit too detailed! I've only got one sink in the kitchen as do many people. But surely even with a double sink the taps usually swivel and therefore the same taps are being handled. I've got a downstairs bathroom with a sink where I could wash my hands after handling food - but then I'd be in danger of contaminating that sink and taps (and people use that sink when cleaning their teeth). Also, if I handle chicken, for example, and then was my hands in the kitchen sink then surely I run into the problem of contaminating that tap and sink, which I also use to wash up pans and wash veg. I purposely had the sort of tap that you don't have to twist on, installed in the kitchen, so that I can nudge them on with the part of my hand that hasn't touched the meat. Even so, inevitably, the taps get messy - so I have to wash those too, not just the sink. The more I think about this, the worse it gets!!!!

 

[Berties]

Oh dear, I fear this discussion is getting a bit too detailed! I've only got one sink in the kitchen as do many people. But surely even with a double sink the taps usually swivel and therefore the same taps are being handled. I've got a downstairs bathroom with a sink where I could wash my hands after handling food - but then I'd be in danger of contaminating that sink and taps (and people use that sink when cleaning their teeth). Also, if I handle chicken, for example, and then was my hands in the kitchen sink then surely I run into the problem of contaminating that tap and sink, which I also use to wash up pans and wash veg. I purposely had the sort of tap that you don't have to twist on, installed in the kitchen, so that I can nudge them on with the part of my hand that hasn't touched the meat. Even so, inevitably, the taps get messy - so I have to wash those too, not just the sink. The more I think about this, the worse it gets!!!!

not at all,all i hope for is to make people think about the way they buy,prepare,handle and store food,i have had to do live case studies for my advanced food hygiene ,when a food allegation is made to look at where it might have originated,its easy to blame a restaurant ,but poor hygiene can often start at home
read any of my food hygiene replies and they will hopefully make you more aware of the risks ,
i hate toilet taps and we have covered this topic before,even the handle of a toilet door can contaminate your hands,i try to use disposable hand towel to turn off taps and open doors ,but where do you stop?,
hand rails on stairs or escalators ,wow !what a breading ground for bacteria,i know they say a little bacteria is good for your immune system ,but I'm not over keen on some one else bacteria!

 

[Morning Glory]

not at all,all i hope for is to make people think about the way they buy,prepare,handle and store food,i have had to do live case studies for my advanced food hygiene ,when a food allegation is made to look at where it might have originated,its easy to blame a restaurant ,but poor hygiene can often start at home
read any of my food hygiene replies and they will hopefully make you more aware of the risks ,
i hate toilet taps and we have covered this topic before,even the handle of a toilet door can contaminate your hands,i try to use disposable hand towel to turn off taps and open doors ,but where do you stop?,
hand rails on stairs or escalators ,wow !what a breading ground for bacteria,i know they say a little bacteria is good for your immune system ,but I'm not over keen on some one else bacteria!

Well yes. If I started thinking too much about it I'd get OCD! Its funny really. There's this thing about using different chopping boards (covered in previous threads) for meat, fish, veg. That is mainly accepted as good practice in domestic kitchens as well as professional. Yet thirty years ago, you'd be hard pushed to find a domestic kitchen that used this system, perhaps with the exception of Kosher families. My parents would have thought it completely bonkers! If you start thinking about it too much, then using tea towels at all, more than once, might be hazardous. As you say 'where do you stop?' I think that's why I don't worry.

Here's a case in point: If you drop a clean tea towel on a clean (but walked on) floor, do you then have to put it in the laundry?
And another: Would you allow cats to walk on kitchen surfaces? I wouldn't, but I know people who do. I actually do find this horrible. The cat has been scratching in a cat tray or roaming outside. After all, we wouldn't walk in our shoes across a kitchen surface!

 

[Berties]

Well yes. If I started thinking too much about it I'd get OCD! Its funny really. There's this thing about using different chopping boards (covered in previous threads) for meat, fish, veg. That is mainly accepted as good practice in domestic kitchens as well as professional. Yet thirty years ago, you'd be hard pushed to find a domestic kitchen that used this system, perhaps with the exception of Kosher families. My parents would have thought it completely bonkers! If you start thinking about it too much, then using tea towels at all, more than once, might be hazardous. As you say 'where do you stop?' I think that's why I don't worry.

Here's a case in point: If you drop a clean tea towel on a clean (but walked on) floor, do you then have to put it in the laundry?
And another: Would you allow cats to walk on kitchen surfaces? I wouldn't, but I know people who do. I actually do find this horrible. The cat has been scratching in a cat tray or roaming outside. After all, we wouldn't walk in our shoes across a kitchen surface!

i try to avoid my dog entering the kitchen at home and cats make me cringe ,the transfer of bacteria is to much ,with towels hanging in the kitchen and pets brushing by them is just dirty, as you say cats by their nature scratch and dig
a cloth on the floor is chucked straight in the wash pile ,for a boil wash,and even if i see a member of my team throw a cloth to their shoulder it is a no no and gets changed ,as it could have brushed their hair so a risk of physical and bacterial contamination,again i looked at a case lately that involved a un covered light out side and the risk it cause if the glass were broken and walked in to a food production area ,even getting through a decontamination area ,changing foot wear is some times not enough

 

[Morning Glory]

i try to avoid my dog entering the kitchen at home and cats make me cringe ,the transfer of bacteria is to much ,with towels hanging in the kitchen and pets brushing by them is just dirty, as you say cats by their nature scratch and dig
a cloth on the floor is chucked straight in the wash pile ,for a boil wash,and even if i see a member of my team throw a cloth to their shoulder it is a no no and gets changed ,as it could have brushed their hair so a risk of physical and bacterial contamination,again i looked at a case lately that involved a un covered light out side and the risk it cause if the glass were broken and walked in to a food production area ,even getting through a decontamination area ,changing foot wear is some times not enough

This is serious stuff. But hey, do you apply all the rules at home too (for example, if someone in your family put a cloth over their shoulder)? I can completely understand the point about the uncovered light. I, too, have had extensive Health and Safety training (and certificates to prove it!), although not in food hygiene. I was Head of a College of Art and, as you can imagine, there are many hazards in that environment.

I wasn't entirely joking about OCD. When I was younger I had all kinds of phobias about contamination (including obsessive hand-washing). I managed too kick that and I think the reason I'm now a bit relaxed regarding domestic food hygiene is that I fear I might end up back in that place if I started to take it too seriously. I do respect your POV, though, especially in a professional environment.

 

[Berties]

This is serious stuff. But hey, do you apply all the rules at home too (for example, if someone in your family put a cloth over their shoulder)? I can completely understand the point about the uncovered light. I, too, have had extensive Health and Safety training (and certificates to prove it!), although not in food hygiene. I was Head of a College of Art and, as you can imagine, there are many hazards in that environment.

I wasn't entirely joking about OCD. When I was younger I had all kinds of phobias about contamination (including obsessive hand-washing). I managed too kick that and I think the reason I'm now a bit relaxed regarding domestic food hygiene is that I fear I might end up back in that place if I started to take it too seriously. I do respect your POV, though, especially in a professional environment.

i think the big phrase is due diligence ,i can't make any one do any thing they don't want to do ,i can show I've noted the risk and done my best to eliminate it ,training and recording,I've even had to do risk assessments for my kids rugby tours ,a few years ago and its a total minefield,
yes my hygiene is more relaxed at home but i don't want to be a carrier of any form of bacteria!
i have a customer who is a chemist and the risk assessments they do for world wide companies makes my toes curl,i.e. transport of chemicals or build up of flour in a production unit which can cause a explosion ,to name a few,its unbelievable what they do,and who uses there services

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I'm sure glad that none of you will ever get to come to eat at my home.
We have one door which opens into a tiny kitchen. Everyone walks in through there including a huge dog we house sit for, an Irish Wolf hound. We live rurally, so there is a footwear off at the door rule but due to the size of the kitchen it is applied in the next room. The kitchen door opens into a courtyard of a small holding which means mud and all sorts is and can be walked in.
We have 1 sink downstairs and that is the kitchen sink which is now brand new but a single with a drainer board. It's also a mixer tap which I hate, but it was not our choice because we are tenants. There is soap for hand washing at that drink along with a nail brush and a hand towel plus the usual dishwashing stuff and a tea towel. Some items we don't have enough of or the space to have more than one of do they have to be hand dried.
There is no downstairs toilet, so all washing of everything is done in the kitchen sink.
And there are no prizes for guessing exactly where the kitchen sink is! Along side the front door, in fact you can't open the for if there is something at the sink!
I'm not a fan of paper tissues, so j cloths or cotton cloths are used depending on what is being cleaned. I ensure that j cloths are hung up to dry out and are frequently washed with the towels, tea towels and other cleaning cloths. I'll put bleach through on that wash.

 

[Morning Glory]

I'm sure glad that none of you will ever get to come to eat at my home.
We have one door which opens into a tiny kitchen. Everyone walks in through there including a huge dog we house sit for, an Irish Wolf hound. We live rurally, so there is a footwear off at the door rule but due to the size of the kitchen it is applied in the next room. The kitchen door opens into a courtyard of a small holding which means mud and all sorts is and can be walked in.

Well, I, for one, wouldn't have any qualms about eating at your place! I've lived in similar (and possibly even more cramped) places in the past. My kitchen now is really quite small and people walk through it to get to adjacent downstairs bathroom. I once lived in a shared flat where mice used to run over kitchen surfaces at night (I didn't much like that but I never got food poisoning). The only thing which really puts me off is the cat on the kitchen surface (my sister lets that happen!). I just can't get the image of the cat paws scratching around in a litter tray and its contents, out of my head. Dogs certainly don't worry me, unless they've got fleas!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Well, I, for one, wouldn't have any qualms about eating at your place! I've lived in similar (and possibly even more cramped) places in the past. My kitchen now is really quite small and people walk through it to get to adjacent downstairs bathroom. I once lived in a shared flat where mice used to run over kitchen surfaces at night (I didn't much like that but I never got food poisoning). The only thing which really puts me off is the cat on the kitchen surface (my sister lets that happen!). I just can't get the image of the cat paws scratching around in a litter tray and its contents, out of my head. Dogs certainly don't worry me, unless they've got fleas!

He hasn't got fleas. But he is tall enough to see what is on the kitchen work surfaces which can be a touch daunting for people not used to large dogs!
We too have lived in places with issues with mice, some of the protected by law because they were a rare species! Another place we lived in briefly had issues with slugs in the kitchen and everything has to go into hard containers or jars! They rather like the sugar as we found out!

 

[Morning Glory]

He hasn't got fleas. But he is tall enough to see what is on the kitchen work surfaces which can be a touch daunting for people not used to large dogs!
We too have lived in places with issues with mice, some of the protected by law because they were a rare species! Another place we lived in briefly had issues with slugs in the kitchen and everything has to go into hard containers or jars! They rather like the sugar as we found out!

Well, re your Wolfhound, I had a friend who had one and I once looked after it for the night (co-incidentally in the same flat which had the mice). He was the most soppy, lazy creature and no trouble at all. Also co-incidentally, I was down in Portsmouth on Sunday for my Mum's (98th!) birthday and there was an Irish Wolfhound sprawled out on the floor of the 'dog friendly' pub where we were eating. It took me right back to the night I spent with the Irish Wolfhound in the mouse-ridden flat. How weird! Haven't thought of that flat or the dog in decades.

Re the slugs. We get that here. They are the the Houdini's of the animal world and can get through the merest crack. Its horrible. No real solution, I fear. It only tends to happen at certain times of year, though.

 

[Amanda]

We use a lot of towels. Probably go through at least 10 a week! I had to put my paper towels under the sink so my 13 year old would stop using them for everything. We were wasting so many paper towels - she would use 3-4 just to wipe up a little water on the counter. It was costing me a fortune!

 

[cupcakechef]

I usually wash mine every couple of days. I choose printed towels for the kitchen because they do seem to hide spills and stains better than straight up white - I used to find white towels would still not get back to their original bright white even with the help of bleach.