Could someone tell me about Swedish dish cloths?

[Porridge]

Can you use them in place of a sponge to wash dishes? Or are they meant to serve more like kitchen towel and be used for wiping counters or drying dishes?

Are they durable, or do they need to be replaced over time?

I'm looking for an environmentally friendly and cost effective alternative to the regular scotch sponges.

[prairiewindmomma]

I have and use them. They are best at absorbing spills and wiping countertops. I toss mine in the dishwasher top rack for sterilizing. You can also boil them. They are cellulose, so they will decompose when they need to be replaced. I usually get 4-6 weeks out of each one. They definitely don’t replace 10,000 paper towels according to one ad I saw. They do not scrub well, so they can’t fully replace a scotch sponge. They will wash glasses and such well though. I don’t think you can use them for drying dishes. They are stiff when dry, and not flexible. When slightly damp, they wouldn’t dry an item.

Edited August 14, 2022 by prairiewindmomma

[itsheresomewhere]

I use them.  They are great for cleaning spills and wiping counters.  I do put mine in the washer each week and line dry.  Like the other poster, I get about 4-6 weeks out of them before replacing.  They do not last as long as they claim.  

[KungFuPanda]

3 hours ago, WTM said:

Can you use them in place of a sponge to wash dishes? Or are they meant to serve more like kitchen towel and be used for wiping counters or drying dishes?

Are they durable, or do they need to be replaced over time?

I'm looking for an environmentally friendly and cost effective alternative to the regular scotch sponges.

You could grow luffas and then cut them to a good size for kitchen scrubbing. You can’t get more environmentally friendly than that. 
 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, KungFuPanda said:

You could grow luffas and then cut them to a good size for kitchen scrubbing. You can’t get more environmentally friendly than that. 
 

 

Intriguing! How do you grow loofah? I’m off to google this….

[KungFuPanda]

3 minutes ago, WTM said:

Intriguing! How do you grow loofah? I’m off to google this….

You just plant the seeds and wait. They sprawl out like squash, so trellis them or leave lots of room. You can eat them like zucchini when they’re really small. 

Edited August 15, 2022 by KungFuPanda
To add photos!

[Guest]

Just now, KungFuPanda said:

You just plant the seeds and wait. They sprawl out like squash, so trellis them or leave lots of room. You can eat them like zucchini when they’re really small. 

just googled it. Looks so fun. I’ll have to wait til next spring, but this sounds like a fun project.

[KungFuPanda]

6 minutes ago, WTM said:

just googled it. Looks so fun. I’ll have to wait til next spring, but this sounds like a fun project.

I added photos!  I grew them last year. I plant something for my shade tunnel at my community plot every year.  This year it was pumpkins. 

[Jaybee]

Someone gave me one as a gift. It's fine, but I prefer my sponges overall. They are more versatile.

[Jaybee]

11 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

You just plant the seeds and wait. They sprawl out like squash, so trellis them or leave lots of room. You can eat them like zucchini when they’re really small. 

A friend and her daughter grew these one year, cut them, dried them, and then gave them with a sugar scrub as Christmas gifts to friends. 

[Kareni]

I've been using the ones I bought from Trader Joe's. I use them to wipe counters and also to wash dishes.

I wash them in the washing machine and let them air dry. I have six that I rotate through; mine have been going strong for many months.

Regards,

Kareni

[Guest]

@KungFuPanda Love the photos! I totally want to try a squash tunnel! I kind of have an anti-green thumb, but hope springs eternal in my aspire-to-garden heart.  

Maybe I'll do swedish dish cloths for now, and try my hand at luffa cultivation next spring.

[Clarita]

I love the swedish dishcloth. I like them way more than the regular sponge with the scrubby side. They aren't as scrubby so I still keep the nylon brush for that. They are much more hygienic than the regular sponge. I can stick them in the clothes washer or the dishwasher to sanitize it. I put the dish/kitchen one in the dishwasher 2-3 times a week and the floor/counter ones once a week with the laundry. Heavy use ones last about 1-2 months for me.

The replace the scotch sponge for sure but you would need a luffa or a brush for more scrubby messes. Paper towels will still have their place for messes that well are too gross, but they are absorbent enough to wipe up spills. I don't find them useful to use a spray and wipe down things because they are too absorbent, so rags towel or paper towel would still be good for that.

Now that I use the swedish dishcloth I hate the scotch sponge. The scotch sponge is super gross to me now. 

[MercyA]

Just curious, y'all--why do you use sponges instead of dishcloths for washing? Are they superior in some way? Educate me! 

[fraidycat]

2 minutes ago, MercyA said:

Just curious, y'all--why do you use sponges instead of dishcloths for washing? Are they superior in some way? Educate me! 

This.

I just use dishcloths. Wash in wash machine, dry in the dryer with the towel load. I have had mine for yeeeeeears. Like some are probably from when we got married over 21 years ago. 

[prairiewindmomma]

1 hour ago, MercyA said:

Just curious, y'all--why do you use sponges instead of dishcloths for washing? Are they superior in some way? Educate me! 

Swedish dishcloths dry remarkably quickly—much quicker than traditional sponges or dishcloths. Because they dry quicker, they supposedly have much lower bacterial contents. 
 

I also like that I can just toss it into my dishwasher. When I had cotton dishcloths, they would sometimes get wet again when I laid them on the side of the sink to dry before going into my dish towel basket for washing. (I go through about a dozen towels a week so I have a clean basket and a dirty one.)

I prefer them over scotch sponges because they have 0 plastic (even though the blue scotch sponges are supposedly 100% recycled plastic).

I like the Swedish dishcloths for spill cleanup—a dishrag can’t handle a water glass spill, I don’t want to use paper towels, and my dish towels are slow to dry in winter.

Edited August 15, 2022 by prairiewindmomma

[Guest]

53 minutes ago, MercyA said:

Just curious, y'all--why do you use sponges instead of dishcloths for washing? Are they superior in some way? Educate me! 

But aren’t the discounts too drippy? Too much water?

[Carrie12345]

I don’t use genuine Swedish dishcloths, but I do use basic cotton waffle dishcloths, and they last a REALLY long time.  I like the lightness of the ones from Dollar General better than the weight of the ones I’ve ordered from Amazon, but the thicker ones do last longer.  One per day, then tossed into a wet bag with the rest of the kitchen laundry until its turn to be laundered.

But I still use microfiber cloths for counters, spills, and other cleaning.  I can’t verbalize exactly why I separate the two, but I do.

[Ausmumof3]

Do you guys have chux cloths?

[Pawz4me]

4 hours ago, WTM said:

But aren’t the discounts too drippy? Too much water?

Okay, this is confusing to me. I know you mean dishcloths and not discounts, but . . how can you have too much water when washing dishes? My Hive knowledgeable mind is assuming people must have different dish washing methods? I fill my sink with some soapy water and wash. So it's kinda hard to have too much water or for the cloth to be too drippy. If I'm wiping down the counters I wring the cloth out well and then wipe, so no drips.

I have Swedish dishcloths. I got a pack just to see what they're like. They're just okay IME. A significant improvement over a sponge (which I don't use due to the gross factor), but nowhere near a replacement for a regular cotton dishcloth for me. I have probably at least two dozen inexpensive white cotton dishcloths. They get replaced daily if not multiple times a day. Easy peasy to throw in any load of wash if you want, although my method is to save up my dishcloths and towels and wash them in separate load with bleach.

[MEmama]

I’ve been tempted to buy one because some of the designs are so cute, but I’ve never been able to figure out how they might be better than just using regular dishcloths (which last forever and ever and cost a fraction). I’m glad to read my assumption was correct. 🙂

I guess they might be an environmental improvement over using paper towels, if that’s something a person uses for cleaning. 
 

I sometimes use something similar but is rough, I’m not sure what they are called. They’re terrific for cleaning tough stuff without scratching any surface, but they do get gross after awhile even washing regularly in the dishwasher. They take forever to dry in summer so I inevitably have to throw them out, which I hate to do. Then a few years I’ll later I’ll see them at a kitchen shop, forget why I don’t use them anymore and make the same mistake again. Lol. I imagine Swedish dishcloths would suffer a similar fate in my kitchen. 

[Brittany1116]

I love my Swedish dishcloths and they last a very long time but I only use them to clean sutfaces, not dishes. I also throw them in the dishwasher.

[fairfarmhand]

7 hours ago, fraidycat said:

This.

I just use dishcloths. Wash in wash machine, dry in the dryer with the towel load. I have had mine for yeeeeeears. Like some are probably from when we got married over 21 years ago. 

Me too. I have a stack of 10-12 and replace them a few times a day. I ise tons of dish towels and dish cloths but they clean up well. I don’t scrub much. I let things soak and then if there’s much stuck on I use a nylon pan scraper.

[kbutton]

We use ratty old towels for gross messes and throw them on sanitize (or wash in the utility sink first). If something is so bad that it needs to be thrown, we keep old t-shirts and such cut up for those kinds of messes.   

6 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Do you guys have chux cloths?

Like this? https://www.betterliving.co.nz/product/chux-superwipes

We have something like this--I used them in college to wash dishes, and they lasted a long time. When they got old, I used them for gross messes. I've only in the last couple of years seen them in rolls, and I kept a roll in the car for a while. 

How do you use them?

 

For those who use Swedish sponges, do they feel a little rubbery when wet? We once bought something that looks like what I see when I google Swedish sponge, but ours felt a little rubbery when wet. We did like them to mop up larger amounts of water at a time (like a chamois cloth). They weren't a "use for everything" kind of product in our home. 

 

 

[Pawz4me]

14 minutes ago, kbutton said:

 

 

For those who use Swedish sponges, do they feel a little rubbery when wet? We once bought something that looks like what I see when I google Swedish sponge, but ours felt a little rubbery when wet. We did like them to mop up larger amounts of water at a time (like a chamois cloth). They weren't a "use for everything" kind of product in our home. 

 

 

Yes, they do feel a little rubbery. They remind me very much of an Absorber fake chamois drying towel. I use one of those for sopping up most of the excess water after I bathe a dog, and we have an old one we used back in the day when we actually washed our cars ourselves. You could cut up an Absorber and have pretty much the same thing as a Swedish dish cloth, I think.

[TechWife]

15 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

You just plant the seeds and wait. They sprawl out like squash, so trellis them or leave lots of room. You can eat them like zucchini when they’re really small. 

What? I had no idea! Continuing to learn something new everyday!

[TechWife]

12 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

 

I also like that I can just toss it into my dishwasher. When I had cotton dishcloths, they would sometimes get wet again when I laid them on the side of the sink to dry before going into my dish towel basket for washing. (I go through about a dozen towels a week so I have a clean basket and a dirty one.)

 

I hang my wet dish cloths over the side of my dirty basket to dry. Once they are dry I push them into the basket. My dirty basket is on top of our clothes dryer - the laundry room is off of the kitchen so this works well for us. I use it for dirty dish towels, dish cloths, place mats, napkins, cleaning rags, etc..

[prairiewindmomma]

21 minutes ago, TechWife said:

I hang my wet dish cloths over the side of my dirty basket to dry. Once they are dry I push them into the basket. My dirty basket is on top of our clothes dryer - the laundry room is off of the kitchen so this works well for us. I use it for dirty dish towels, dish cloths, place mats, napkins, cleaning rags, etc..

Yeah, our house layout isn’t great for this. Our laundry is on a different floor than the kitchen, and our kitchen is tiny. 
 

We did cotton washcloths (I crocheted them) for 20 years and for whatever reason they just haven’t gone well here in winter.

[prairiewindmomma]

This is the brand I use, fwiw: https://www.amazon.com/CARE-Natural-Sponge-Cloths-Count/dp/B0078DQXQC/ref=mp_s_a_1_35?crid=6JTN415A1IKY&keywords=cellulose+dish+cloth+germany&qid=1660587461&sprefix=cellulose+dish+cloth+germany%2Caps%2C153&sr=8-35

[Amethyst]

7 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

Okay, this is confusing to me. I know you mean dishcloths and not discounts, but . . how can you have too much water when washing dishes? My Hive knowledgeable mind is assuming people must have different dish washing methods? I fill my sink with some soapy water and wash. So it's kinda hard to have too much water or for the cloth to be too drippy. If I'm wiping down the counters I wring the cloth out well and then wipe, so no drips.

I have Swedish dishcloths. I got a pack just to see what they're like. They're just okay IME. A significant improvement over a sponge (which I don't use due to the gross factor), but nowhere near a replacement for a regular cotton dishcloth for me. I have probably at least two dozen inexpensive white cotton dishcloths. They get replaced daily if not multiple times a day. Easy peasy to throw in any load of wash if you want, although my method is to save up my dishcloths and towels and wash them in separate load with bleach.

I assumed she meant “Isn’t it too drippy after you’re finished with it?”  Or at least that’s my problem with dish cloths. Where am I supposed to hang it so it doesn’t look messy and/or drip on something I don’t want to get wet. I hate the look of hanging a dish cloth over the faucet. 

[Pawz4me]

17 minutes ago, Amethyst said:

I assumed she meant “Isn’t it too drippy after you’re finished with it?”  Or at least that’s my problem with dish cloths. Where am I supposed to hang it so it doesn’t look messy and/or drip on something I don’t want to get wet. I hate the look of hanging a dish cloth over the faucet. 

I have RA and OA and my hands are pretty well wrecked (multiple permanently swollen joints). So when I say I wring something out that means I use both hands to twist the ends in opposite directions, because squeezing isn't something I can do. Once I wring/twist my dishcloths aren't drippy at all. If I'm going to continue to use the dishcloth then I hang it over my sink divider. I've never had a single bowl sink, so I'd have to come up with another plan if I had one of those (which I am considering). When I'm done with a dish cloth it goes into my laundry room. I have one of these hangers over the door facing the inside of the laundry room, and I keep a few clothes hangers on it. Used dishcloths and dishtowels get draped over a hangar until they're dry, then I put them in a decorative storage basket until I have enough for a load. In different houses I've had to come up with different plans, but it's never been a problem to find a convenient place.

Edited August 15, 2022 by Pawz4me

[Clarita]

For me, the Swedish dishcloth is better than a dish towel because it's more absorbent. My spills may be a little bigger than most according to my husband. So with Swedish dishcloth is better at doing my dishes then wipe up my splash zone afterwards. 

[Ausmumof3]

5 hours ago, kbutton said:

We use ratty old towels for gross messes and throw them on sanitize (or wash in the utility sink first). If something is so bad that it needs to be thrown, we keep old t-shirts and such cut up for those kinds of messes.   

Like this? https://www.betterliving.co.nz/product/chux-superwipes

We have something like this--I used them in college to wash dishes, and they lasted a long time. When they got old, I used them for gross messes. I've only in the last couple of years seen them in rolls, and I kept a roll in the car for a while. 

How do you use them?

 

For those who use Swedish sponges, do they feel a little rubbery when wet? We once bought something that looks like what I see when I google Swedish sponge, but ours felt a little rubbery when wet. We did like them to mop up larger amounts of water at a time (like a chamois cloth). They weren't a "use for everything" kind of product in our home. 

 

 

I use them for dishcloths and wiping. If you get the no name brand they fall apart in the wash but the chux ones seem to be able to be washed and reused for a while. 

[kbutton]

Just now, Ausmumof3 said:

I use them for dishcloths and wiping. If you get the no name brand they fall apart in the wash but the chux ones seem to be able to be washed and reused for a while. 

I like the ones I had before. I am not sure if the current roll is as good or not as I haven't used many yet--I don't really know if we have a name brand kind or not in the US. 

[Pawz4me]

36 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

I use them for dishcloths and wiping. If you get the no name brand they fall apart in the wash but the chux ones seem to be able to be washed and reused for a while. 

 

34 minutes ago, kbutton said:

I like the ones I had before. I am not sure if the current roll is as good or not as I haven't used many yet--I don't really know if we have a name brand kind or not in the US. 

Handi Wipes? Or is what you're referring to something different?

[kbutton]

12 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

 

Handi Wipes? Or is what you're referring to something different?

That is one brand--I don't know what kind I had years ago, and the ones I have are some kind of off brand from Menard's. But yes, that's the style I am talking about. 

[Ausmumof3]

21 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

 

Handi Wipes? Or is what you're referring to something different?

Yep pretty much the same.

[Guest]

On 8/15/2022 at 3:37 AM, Pawz4me said:

Okay, this is confusing to me. I know you mean dishcloths and not discounts, but . . how can you have too much water when washing dishes? My Hive knowledgeable mind is assuming people must have different dish washing methods? I fill my sink with some soapy water and wash. So it's kinda hard to have too much water or for the cloth to be too drippy. If I'm wiping down the counters I wring the cloth out well and then wipe, so no drips.

I have Swedish dishcloths. I got a pack just to see what they're like. They're just okay IME. A significant improvement over a sponge (which I don't use due to the gross factor), but nowhere near a replacement for a regular cotton dishcloth for me. I have probably at least two dozen inexpensive white cotton dishcloths. They get replaced daily if not multiple times a day. Easy peasy to throw in any load of wash if you want, although my method is to save up my dishcloths and towels and wash them in separate load with bleach.

I live in CA where we are very water conscious. I never fill  my sink with water to do dishes. We wet  the sponge, wipe down the dishes, then put in the (water efficient) dish washer and run only full loads. 
 

i also  lived in TX for a period of time, where it was so humid that any wet cloth would smell like mildew within 24 hours, even if I had wrung it out. 

[MercyA]

On 8/15/2022 at 2:11 AM, WTM said:

But aren’t the discounts too drippy? Too much water?

 

19 hours ago, Amethyst said:

I assumed she meant “Isn’t it too drippy after you’re finished with it?”  Or at least that’s my problem with dish cloths. Where am I supposed to hang it so it doesn’t look messy and/or drip on something I don’t want to get wet. I hate the look of hanging a dish cloth over the faucet. 

Maybe it's because my dishcloths are all about 10 years old, but they don't take forever to dry. I have a dish drainer in my sink and I lay them over that after I wring them out. I change them out every couple days. 

[fairfarmhand]

1 hour ago, MercyA said:

 

Maybe it's because my dishcloths are all about 10 years old, but they don't take forever to dry. I have a dish drainer in my sink and I lay them over that after I wring them out. I change them out every couple days. 

Yeah, some of this depends on how humid the place is that you live. But I change mine out at least every morning, and sometimes several times a day, depending on what I'm cleaning up. I try to get thinner cloths so they don't get smelly in the summer.