Looking for quality linens for multiple uses - if you care about linens, I need help

[momee]

1.  Kitchen

Norwex kitchen washcloths were working well but after a year need to be replaced.  I'd love to find something less expensive.

 

Drying towels, hand towels...I need reasonably long lasting dish drying towels - the ones from Bed Bath and Beyond have loops that pull out and make me crazy and the ones I bought from Williams and Sonoma were so pretty but were white with a colored stripe.  NOT good for getting the whites white and keeping the color stripe from being bleached.  I'm sure that is a laundry washing problem but for me, if a dish towel I'm using for drying is even a little stained I'm all freaked out by using it on clean dishes, kwim?

 

2. Bathroom

WHAT are fingertip towels, anyway?

Love to find some that will last longer with really rough use.  We're a large family and buying a $50 Turkish bath towel just isn't happening.  Keep in mind it has a 1 in 7 chance of being drug across the front porch by a little girl as it hangs from the "bed for my baby" box she found in the garage.

 

3. Cleaning 

WHY is it so difficult to find a cloth to clean a bathroom?  I'm just looking for something that will last and not get holes in it after a few uses.  It would be a bonus if it could gather stray hairs and keep them from spreading all over.

 

4. Bedroom

I am looking for a blanket that is comfortable in a home with an air conditioner.  The ones we have are either too heavy and for winter or...well...that's all I have, lol.

Edited June 30, 2016 by momee

[hornblower]

In the kitchen for drying dishes I use bar mop towels.  They're all white & so can be easily bleached. 

Dishcloths for washing are mostly hand knit ones. Dd & I every once in a while will knit a whole bunch.  I rinse them through out the day before use. At the end of the day they go in the wash. I rinse dirty pans first & use the dish brush to get the worst grime off before washing with the cloth. 

In the bathroom I use Vileda cloths & paper towels. I vacuum first or wipe everything with a slightly damp paper towel first to get the hair & dust. 

 

[prairiewindmomma]

1. I've been happy with my dish towels from IKEA which do not have loops, but are a bit thicker than flour sack towels.  I also like my threshold brand bar mops towels from Target. I've used both sets regularly for a few years now.  I wash them normally with whatever yucky laundry I have; Tide packet, normal cycle. Normal batters come out, but I threw one away with pasta sauce stains. It was cheap enough that I didn't care.

 

2. No luck on towels, except to plan to replace them every 4-5 years. The seamed edge of my ones from Target are coming undone after 5 years. I like the Threshold Performance solid line; they are oeko-tex 100 certified and 100% cotton.

 

3. My yellow microfiber cloths from Sam's club automotive section are still holding up 10 years later.  They gather hairs like crazy, but this actually drives me nuts when I'm pulling hair off them out of the dryer.

 

4. http://www.target.com/p/threshold-ringspun-cotton-blanket-solid/-/A-50332650  It's 100+ outside for the next five months, and my thermostat is set at 80F. We sleep under thin twill cotton blankets.  I like the king sized so it drapes properly on the bed.  Target has 8-10 of them right now. Mine was from the organic threshold line. Check the quality of the yarn and the weave. I bought ultra cheap basic ones a few years ago for the boys, and they snagged and got holes after a couple of years. You want a tight weave. http://www.target.com/p/yarn-dye-stripe-ringspun-cotton-blanket-threshold/-/A-50343159?lnk=rec|pdpipadh1|related_prods_vv|pdpipadh1|50343159|0  http://www.target.com/p/ringspun-cotton-fashion-blanket-threshold/-/A-50343157?lnk=rec|pdpipadh1|related_prods_vv|pdpipadh1|50343157|0 

[momee]

"I vacuum first or wipe everything with a slightly damp paper towel first to get the hair & dust. "

 

The times I've done this it worked well.  Great idea!  We're long thick hair heads over here!!!!!!!!

[momee]

Ohhhhhhhhhh thank you ladies!  See, I knew there would be someone (or 2) who care!

I mean it seems like such a minor thing - buy a rag, but not really!!!!

[regentrude]

I sympathize on the dish towels; I can't stand most of the stuff in stores. I got my grandmother's dish towels from Germany. I would check Ikea.

I found a brush to work better for washing dishes and less gross.

Cleaning: I don't care about holes, because I use rags. Whatever old cotton clothes or towels are not fit to donate get cut into rags. They are used and reused until no longer fit and then discarded. For hair, though, I found dry swifer cloths superior to anything else I tried; it's my environmental vice, I admit.

Edited June 30, 2016 by regentrude

[prairiewindmomma]

My linen closet brings me joy.  I totally get it.  Office supplies are my other household joy.

[Vida Winter]

For kitchen towels I either use flour-sack white dishtowels from WalMart or antique linens (yard sales). You can cut up an old white linen tablecloth into multiple kitchen towels. Not pretty, but it works. I never bother with hemming. For cleaning rags, cut up old bath towels - the ones that are starting to get holes or have other problems. We go through a lot of these.

[Katy]

Our towels are a fancy department store brand bath sheet that I got for 60% off by purchasing them at someplace like Marshalls or TJ Maxx.  Tuesday Morning also has deals like that, but last time I went to one I was under the impression they are more of a true outlet - out of season and seconds, unlike the first two, who buy in-season surplus from the same companies department stores do.

 

I learned on this board that Target towels are better in terms of quality than the fancy kind.

 

I have a family member that has converted all of her sheets and linens to actual linen.  Yes, even the towels. She claims they are much more absorbent, dry faster, and don't need to be put in the dryer.  Also that terrycloth creates most of the lint in the house and when she got rid of it all of her clothing started looking better. Linen is expensive, and I doubt I'd choose to go that way unless I bought it in yardage and sewed the towels myself, but for a true linen connoisseur I think they are probably the very best option.

 

I always buy white towels so they're bleachable, but I usually just use oxyclean instead of bleach for regular washing. I only use bleach-bleach if there is some general nastiness that I think needs the disinfection, like sickness or running out of paper towels to use to bleach the countertops when I'm cutting up meat. We also have a sanitize cycle on our washing machine for stuff like towels.

 

I use dish brushes for dishes too.  I like the ones at Target best.  For some reason the bristles on the ones they carry seem more durable than the ones from other stores. I just add them to the dishwasher every time I run a sanitize cycle.

[QueenCat]

E-cloth is a great brand to replace the Norwex. They are cheaper but not cheap, and work in a similar way to Norwex. No silver but it turns out you really don't need that. They have a variety of options to meet different needs around the house.