if you use dishrags instead of sponges

[ktgrok]

How do you handle the laundry aspect - or rather, storing the wet/dirty ones until you launder them? I keep ending up musty mildew ones because they sit wet and don't get washed. I don't want to do a load with bleach every darned day to wash dishcloths. And I don't want to throw them in with my clothes to get buried and gross. So??

[Lecka]

I wash mine with clothes.  I usually do a load a day.

However for some messy cleaning I will use a paper towel instead of a dishcloth, so they don’t get the kind of food on them I know might not wash out.  This is not too common though, mainly Velveeta cheese and fried eggs.  

[SKL]

I hang them up to dry after every use so they don't get mildewed.  I re-use the same wash rag until I wash whites, which nowadays is about once a week.

[SKL]

And yes, for some things I use a piece of used paper towel to remove the goop before washing.

[TechWife]

I hang them over the spicket or the edge of the sink until they are dry, then I put them in the laundry basket. 

[Miss Tick]

I have a bin on top of my dryer, in the same room as the furnace (winter) and dehumidifier (summer) and they seem to dry fast enough in there that they don't mildew. If they didn't I would find a place to hang them in there so they would still be close to the washing machine. I rinse them frequently during the day, so maybe that keeps mildew-growing-stuff from taking hold?

[barnwife]

I try to hang them after every use. I hope to train all members of the household in this habit. So far it's a losing battle though. If it smells, it's time for a clean one. I just wash ours with clothes. Given that I usually do at least a load a day, they don't often get buried.

I do the same for sponges.

 

[BarbecueMom]

All our towels, except the old, clean-up-gross-stuff towels, are white: hand towels, bath towels, washclothes, shower curtains, cloth napkins (cheaper washcloths), kitchen hand/dish towels and dish rags.  We usually have enough to do a load every three days or so.  I try to hang them over the support bars under the kitchen island/worktable, or between the sinks, but sometimes they just get tossed in the dirty basket still damp.  I’ve only had two ruined by that, both times when I forgot to rinse them out well, and they sat too long.

I do wash them on a sanitizing cycle w/bleach.  And use a new one for each meal clean-up.

ETA: I used to have double hand towel bars hanging over a hamper in the kitchen, to dry dirty cloths.  Might be an option if you have space on a wall or side of a cabinet.

Edited November 14, 2018 by BarbecueMom

[Moonhawk]

I drape them overnight either on the counter or the windowsill or the sinksill, when dry they go into a plastic bag on the laundry room door. When my stash of clean ones gets low I wash them all at once. If plastic bag is reuseable (usually but sometimes things happen) it gets washed with the rags. Once a week? Every 10 days? I have a lot of rags but sometimes use 2-3 a day. 

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I hang them to dry before putting them in the laundry.  Sometimes, I put hang them over a clothes hanger in my walk-in closet.  Other times, I just hang the over the handle of the dishwasher.  When dry, they go in with the whites until laundry day.  I don't bleach them because of we have a septic system, but they always come out clean and fresh smelling anyway.  

[regentrude]

I hang them to dry after use by draping them over the sink. They dry thoroughly between uses. When it is time for laundry, I simply throw them in.

[Katy]

I gave up the battle to keep them hung over the spigot until they dry in favor of these dish brushes I can run through the sanitize cycle of the dishwasher.  But I recently saw someone on YouTube who hangs command hooks inside the cabinet door of her undersink cabinet to hide the alternating washcloths from family who leaves them in a wet heap in the sink. IDK how well that would work in humid Florida, you might have to hang them on a wall instead.

[LucyStoner]

I hang them until dry or dry-ish.  I have a small bin in the kitchen for kitchen laundry- cloth napkins, dish towels, cleaning rags, dish rags and when it is full, I wash it as a small load.  Sometimes I combine it with the other laundry, especially the junk towels and the cat blanket.  The small bin is just something I got at the dollar store.  It will get full over a week and then overfull when I deep clean the kitchen and bathrooms.  That's the day it gets washed.  

Edited November 14, 2018 by LucyStoner

[Arctic Bunny]

When they’re dry, I toss them under the sink until I have a load...

[happi duck]

I use a new rag and new towel each day.  Damp rags and towels hang to dry and when dry go down to the laundry.  We have a metal door I clip them to in order to dry.  Our washer can do different size loads so I don't mix them with other things.

[lavender's green]

I use one of these octopus drying things. It hangs from the wire shelf in my laundry room, which is just off the kitchen. 

[StephanieZ]

I use a bazillion dish towels on a daily basis, so the damp rags go in the same basket with the pretty-dry dish towels under one of the sinks in the kitchen until the basket is full, then they all get washed together. 

[ktgrok]

I'm definitely thinking that living in Florida may be effecting how quickly things get mildewy or at least stinky.

Also, using one a week? If I'm washing a pan that had chicken gook in it, I'm not reusing that cloth until it has been washed and bleached! 

Hanging to dry makes sense...except doesn't it drip all over your floor then? I'm obviously missing something there, lol.  And no way would it dry hanging in the cabinet, it would get stinky first I'm pretty sure. 

[almondbutterandjelly]

I keep a laundry basket in the back room (next to the kitchen) for used dish towels and dish rags.  If the items are wet when I go to put them back there, I drape them on the edge/lip of the basket where they dry.  They are not soaked when I put them there  -- generally they are at least wrung out so there's not really a drip problem.  That basket does sit on an old chair, and the floor back there is tile, so maybe I wouldn't notice if dripping did occur because it doesn't matter much.

[MerryAtHope]

If I'm not washing towels that day, I hang the wet ones up to dry on the utility sink next to the washer. When I throw in towels, I grab anything that's there & add them in. 

[SKL]

28 minutes ago, Ktgrok said:

Hanging to dry makes sense...except doesn't it drip all over your floor then? I'm obviously missing something there, lol.  And no way would it dry hanging in the cabinet, it would get stinky first I'm pretty sure. 

If you wring it out, it should not drip.

Do you have thin dish rags or thick ones?  I use thin ones so they dry quickly.

[maize]

I just throw mine in with whatever load is going in, I never bleach.

[ktgrok]

1 minute ago, SKL said:

If you wring it out, it should not drip.

Do you have thin dish rags or thick ones?  I use thin ones so they dry quickly.

The kind from walmart that have a scrubby netting side and a cotton side. 

[Pawz4me]

I have a hook on the back of my laundry room door (a basic like this--one of them, not three).

I have three clothes hangers on it. One for a dish rag, one for a dish towel, one for a hand drying towel (I keep one handy while cooking to cut down on paper towel use). After they've dried they go into an old pillow case that's reserved just for kitchen laundry. I keep it in a decorative basket.

When I have enough I wash them in a separate load, with hot water and bleach.

[HomeAgain]

We keep a laundry basket on top of the dryer just for cleaning cloths.  The damp ones hang over the edge to finish drying. The next time I use a cleaning cloth I shove the dried ones into the basket and hang a damp one.  About once a week I'll do the whole basket on a hot wash with Oxyclean - and if they're all white then socks and a bleach pack will probably get thrown in, too.

[laundrycrisis]

Bucket under sink, rags over side to dry, then into the bucket.  Bucket rags get washed with bleach whenever I do a load of whites.  We also have some white bath towels and washcloths for upstairs, so this load happens once or twice a week. 

[Melissa in Australia]

I change the dishcloth daily. I drape the used one over the side of the laundry hamper in the laundry. I do whites or towels every second day so it gets washed then. I don't use mine to clean out the pan of chicken goop. I have a scourer in the sink that I use for that https://www.bunnings.com.au/sabco-professional-non-scratch-scourer-5-pack_p4460723 that lasts for over a month. I only use mine for wiping the table and bench etc. it doesn't get stinky and I don't bleach it.

[Katy]

2 hours ago, LucyStoner said:

I hang them until dry or dry-ish.  I have a small bin in the kitchen for kitchen laundry- cloth napkins, dish towels, cleaning rags, dish rags and when it is full, I wash it as a small load.  Sometimes I combine it with the other laundry, especially the junk towels and the cat blanket.  The small bin is just something I got at the dollar store.  It will get full over a week and then overfull when I deep clean the kitchen and bathrooms.  That's the day it gets washed.  

 

You deep clean your kitchen once a week?  *hangs head in shame* I don't think I've deep cleaned mine in two months.

[edelweiss]

We have a sink in our laundry room.  I put them in there until I am ready to wash them.  

[gardenmom5]

wet rags go in the laundry room, hung to dry - thrown in the towel pile.  pre- washed with oxyclean, then detergent in hot water.  maybe bleach.

[kbutton]

We have tons of dishcloths and swap them regularly. When they are still damp, we wring them out, put them in the microwave until they steam, and then we hang them on the octopus (much like a PP linked) on the back porch until we do a full load of towels. The microwave step cut down tremendously on stinky dishcloths! 

We are in SW Ohio, and we seem to have a lot of mold and mildew in the air. This is the only solution that has worked for us.

[Scarlett]

I have a dedicated hamper for kitchen dish towels and rags.  They get bleached and washed with nothing else. I do at least a load a week.  I think probably 2 loads.  They don’t mildew in  between. If they did I would hang to dry. 

Edited November 15, 2018 by Scarlett

[ktgrok]

ok, I'm thinking I need a little basket to put in the kitchen, maybe on top of the washer (washer and dryer are in a closet type thing in the kitchen, but the doors are usually open). And maybe dry overnight on the edge of the sink before putting them in there. The thing is, I sometimes use several a day depending on how yucky what I'm cleaning is, so then I have multiple wet cloths...but I'll make this work. I perfer to use a cloth I can wash/bleach than a sponge that I keep using all day. 

[Katy]

1 minute ago, Ktgrok said:

ok, I'm thinking I need a little basket to put in the kitchen, maybe on top of the washer (washer and dryer are in a closet type thing in the kitchen, but the doors are usually open). And maybe dry overnight on the edge of the sink before putting them in there. The thing is, I sometimes use several a day depending on how yucky what I'm cleaning is, so then I have multiple wet cloths...but I'll make this work. I perfer to use a cloth I can wash/bleach than a sponge that I keep using all day. 

 

What commercial kitchens do with washcloths to sanitize the kitchen is have a bucket filled with cold water and 10% bleach to soak the rags in. The cold is important because otherwise the bleach will evaporate and irritate your lungs instead of sanitize anything.  So I wonder if one of those plastic mini trash cans would work.  You could put it on the washer, spread it out to dry on the edge if you only have 1-2 for the day, and fill it with bleach solution if you're cooking something germy like raw chicken.  You may need to buy some aprons so you don't get bleach stains on your clothes, but that's probably what I would do in your situation.

[Garga]

23 minutes ago, Ktgrok said:

ok, I'm thinking I need a little basket to put in the kitchen, maybe on top of the washer (washer and dryer are in a closet type thing in the kitchen, but the doors are usually open). And maybe dry overnight on the edge of the sink before putting them in there. The thing is, I sometimes use several a day depending on how yucky what I'm cleaning is, so then I have multiple wet cloths...but I'll make this work. I perfer to use a cloth I can wash/bleach than a sponge that I keep using all day. 

I drape mine over the edge of the sink every time I use it.  Every day I change out the old cloth for a new one.  If the old one isn’t dry, I drape it over the laundry basket.  Is there any reason you can’t drape it over the laundry basket?  Or can you drape it over a clothes hanger somewhere else in the laundry area?  Or if there are a few, clip the to a hangar with clothes pins?  

I wouldn’t buy a basket to put the cloth in.  I’d find a way to dry it with what I already have.  But if a new basket is all that will work for you, go for it—though it might just end up being more clutter to deal with in the long run. 

I use dishrags and sponges. I microwave the wet sponge once a day and replace it every 2 weeks.

Edited November 15, 2018 by Garga

[ktgrok]

2 minutes ago, Garga said:

I drape mine over the edge of the sink every time I use it.  Every day I change out the old cloth for a new one.  If the old one isn’t dry, I drape it over the laundry basket.  Is there any reason you can’t drape it over the laundry basket?  Or can you drape it over a clothes hanger somewhere else in the laundry area?  Or if there are a few, clip the to a hangar with clothes pins?  

I wouldn’t buy a basket to put the cloth in.  I’d find a way to dry it with what I already have.  But if a new basket is all that will work for you, go for it—though it might just end up being more clutter to deal with in the long run. 

I use dishrags and sponges. I microwave the wet sponge once a day and replace it every 2 weeks.

The other hampers are a cloth type material, so the wet rag would be getting whatever onto the fabric of the hamper. Plus, as DH throws stuff in there it would likely get knocked into the basket, then buried.

 

 

[Garga]

7 minutes ago, Ktgrok said:

The other hampers are a cloth type material, so the wet rag would be getting whatever onto the fabric of the hamper. Plus, as DH throws stuff in there it would likely get knocked into the basket, then buried.

 

 

Got it.  Then either some hangers or a little basket sound like the best bet.

[sarahbobeara]

Disclaimer: I didn't read all the tips. I keep a small bottle of plain bleach under my kitchen sink...I grab whatever mostly-clean dirty dish is in the sink and turn it into a bleach bucket. Hot water, a tablespoon +/- of bleach, throw in the musty rag, let it sit for a while (an hour? overnight? all day?) and then ta da, after a thorough rinse, it can go a few more days until I'm ready to wash a load of hot bleachy whites. 

I don't have time to wash bleach white every day either. 

 

[PeterPan]

6 hours ago, Ktgrok said:

How do you handle the laundry aspect - or rather, storing the wet/dirty ones until you launder them? I keep ending up musty mildew ones because they sit wet and don't get washed. I don't want to do a load with bleach every darned day to wash dishcloths. And I don't want to throw them in with my clothes to get buried and gross. So??

Maybe the problem is the material? Have you tried microfiber? Cotton would be more likely to sour.

[Tap]

I have a metal bucket under my sink.  Every morning I collect all hand towels and rags from the kitchen and toss them in the bucket.  They are dry from the night.  If there is a wet one, then I put it over the edge of the bucket until dry.  i do the same with sponges. I machine wash the blue scrubby ones all the time and toss in the clean bin with the other fresh towels. 

[happypamama]

I use dishcloths, no sponges. I change the cloth frequently, but I have a suction cup metal basket holder thingy attached to the inside wall of my sink, and I hang the dishcloth there in between uses, until I’m ready to change it. Then I wring it out and put it in a plastic basket (that sits in a plastic dishpan — the mesh of the basket lets it air a bit but the dishpan means nothing leaks in my cabinet) in the sink cabinet. Once a day, a kiddo takes the plastic basket and empties it into an identical one on top of the dryer. When that basket is full or I’m about out of cloths, about twice a week, I run the load from the top of the dryer, on hot, with maybe a couple of drops of vanilla oil added. 

[Ausmumof3]

8 hours ago, regentrude said:

I hang them to dry after use by draping them over the sink. They dry thoroughly between uses. When it is time for laundry, I simply throw them in.

What kind of dish cloths do you use to dry so quickly?  Mine tend to stay damp.  

Or maybe it’s the kid stage we are in means more spills.

[Ausmumof3]

I’ve had this problem as well.  I’ve had a couple of different solutions - one is to hang them on a laundry Airer to dry in the laundry.  I can’t remember why I stopped, I suspect because the laundry is tiny.  Current solution is a bucket of oxyclean and water that I chuck them in.  This works as long as I wash them twice a week - any longer than that and it goes feral.  

I guess even if you chuck the occasional one that have mildew it’s probably better for the environment and your wallet than using fully disposable stuff.  As long as you don’t put them in the laundry basket with clothes because that can get expensive.  

[Ausmumof3]

This thread reminds me I need new dishcloths soon.  Mine have shrunk and shrunk until they are now super thick and super dense and take forever to dry.  They are so stiff you can’t fold them.

[Liz CA]

I use the Swedish dishcloth, they are like flat sponges. You can run them through the dishwasher or launder them with towels. They don't smell. 

[CAJinBE]

I let mine dry on the side of a special hamper in the garage until dry and then add them to the hamper full of dish clothes and kitchen towels. I do a load when the towel drawer is nearly empty, but I just wash them on hot with normal detergent. And dry on hot in the dryer. I don't think we have had any problems although I wouldn't wipe up raw meat juices with a dish towel. I would use paper towels for that and disinfectant spray. I'm surprised how many people use bleach in their wash. My washer doesn't even have a place to put in bleach and it is a front loader. I occasionally use a homemade spray of diluted bleach to clean counters or sinks, but not for laundry.

[regentrude]

6 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

What kind of dish cloths do you use to dry so quickly?  Mine tend to stay damp.  

I crochet mine from cotton yarn. Before, I used synthetic thin dishcloth that came in a  multi pack.

[73349]

Above the washer, I have a shelf, and on it a transparent rubbermaid-type bin. Wet dishcloths are hung over the edge to dry; cloth napkins and dish towels go inside.

[MEmama]

I use small ones from Target--I think they are the house brand and they come in packs of 6, iirc. They dry fast--like others, I just drape over the sink overnight and toss in the laundry basket. I like them because they aren't bulky.

For years I used baby washcloths. I still have a few that have been in regular use since DS (almost 16) was a baby. Also cheap Target brand. :)

[ktgrok]

1 hour ago, OKBud said:

I wring them out and put them directly into the washing machine. Then they get washed with whatever goes in next. If the washing machine is full I toss it into the hamper. 

I think you're overthinking it. Wring it out and put it with dirty laundry. If it gets musty, it doesn't matter since you're on the verge of washing it. If you cleaned up raw meat, wring it out and set it off to the side either in the sink or in a bowl until you can wash it. Or wash it by hand right on the spot in the sink if you prefer not to leave it.

Either way, don't let literal rags take up one more second of your life ? They don't deserve it. 

ok, confession time....this was what I WAS doing...but figured it was wrong, lol. Like, maybe I shouldn't be washing the dishcloths with the clothes or something. But that IS easiest - to keep the lid of the washing machine open and toss them in during the day, then they get washed with whatever else that day. 

I still will set aside those that are used on raw meat or anything really gross but for most of them, that's the easiest thing.