A housewifery question re tea towels

Can't believe kittylester puts them in with the floor cloth!

Any coloured wash for me too. I don't worry too much.

Oops! Wrong page, sorry!

Tee hee, Agus, I got a right rollicking for saying I used kitchen roll - so environmentally unfriendly, apparently!

Chuck in with any wash and if you drain dishes that do not go in dishwasher you should not need many anyway.

Annodomini -

Agree with the post about washing powder versus liquid . I stopped using liquid capsules to reduce cost, but also found the mould in the dispenser disappeared . Winner all round going back to measuring out powder !

I don't bother about sorting washing, as long as you can wash it all at the same temperature. Everything is clean at the end anyway. These days too many people worry about bacteria, germs etc. How can you build up immunity to anything if you are too clean. There is a saying I think is very true, "a man has to eat a peck of dirt before he dies".

You can put the tea towels in a boil wash, then hang them out to dry...but couldn't there be bacteria and fungal spores blowing around in the garden?Right then, iron them on the hottest setting, wearing a surgical mask and gloves. Pack them away in zip-lock bags in a sterilised drawer and use them once only before returning them to the washing machine.
Oh stuff it! I hardly ever use them anyway as the dishwasher does all the work and when I do use one, it goes in the normal wash. I have not acquired any life-threatening conditions as a result.

What's this about white vinegar? Does it go in the wash or the rinse cycle?
I must get some- heard its good for cleaning windows too, but not tried that yet, as I just use a squeegie.

I can't understand why, if you've washed the pots thoroughly, the teatowels would become soiled?
If you wash then rinse pots, cutlery etc in very hot water and then put to drain they mostly dry by themselves.
I wash ours once a week at 40°.
Dishcloths are a different matter - they get used for a variety of things so do often contain germs.

Am not a fussy housewife. I remember a nurse friend of mine saying that dust is only dangerous when disturbed BUt I am fussy about drying up cloths. I soak them in a strong solut.ion of bleach(poured liberally) for about 4 days then wash, Problem is that soone ror later they disintegrate but its worth it. I remember being in friends' jhouses when the drying up cloths were grubby looking though clean.
I always buy good quality cotton ones

I only realised this was an old thread when I was wondering who j08 was!!

I am not fussy about washing tea towels except I don't put them in with underwear.

I love a washing line blowing dry. And the delicious smell when you put your head on a pillow case that has been dried in a summer garden.

Tea towels go in on a boil wash with detergent and a capful of bleach. Good for the machine and the tea towels look lovely blowing on the clothes line!
Makes me think of my (long-gone) mother's description of a good 'housewife' - "Ooh, she's a lovely woman, her....! Hangs oot a braw washin'!"
I hasten to add, that I'm very likely not a good housewife in any other way !

I just shove everything in on a 40 degree wash, obviously whites separated from coloureds, and none of us seem to have come to any harm - yet

I'm very surprised my family and I have survived for so long without all that boil-washing!

Perhaps there's a reason why your new washing machine doesn't have a 90 degree cycle, TwiceasNice...

I wash towels and tea towels at 60 degrees also bedding. I think these all need a higher temperature wash. I used to do them at 90 degrees but my new washing machine doesn't go as high.

I wash dishcloths, tea towels, face flannels and towels all in together on a 60deg wash. In between washes I drape dishcloths over the crockery in the dishwasher - that keeps bacteria at bay! If heavily stained (e.g. DH mopping up curry spills ) then they get soaked in bleach and hot water for a couple of hours. If that doesn't do the trick, they get boiled up in an old saucepan on the hob with Oxy - that brings them up spotlessly clean

i like to boil my tea towels usually along with towels and bath mats

MrsSB my views exactly.

Dishcloths are soaked in bleach and boiling water, tea towels go in with hand and bath towels on a bio wash at 40°.
We've survived very nicely for past nearly 39 years so must be ok?

Tea towels go in with towels on a boil wash, dishcloths I soak in bleach and hot water.

In the meantime, dishcloth are put in a Pyrex dish with a little wash liquid or powder and into the microwave for a few mins to sterilise. Perfect.