Kitchen towels.

Mine are very handy, they're on the floor mopping up a glass of water I knocked over 🙂
At least it was only water this time.

I have always had kitchen towels to dry wet hands in the kitchen and wash them when they need it.

Argymargy: Oh Yes!!!

We use 8-10 kitchen towels a day.

Small stack of 12x12" white (so we know when they are stain-free enough for use) cotton, absorbent towels that get used for hands, coffee making, worktop spills.

Then into disinfectant soaking bucket in laundry room sink.

Paranoia? I didn’t wash or isolate shopping etc either but I always wash my hands with soap and water before handling food and make no apology for using a sheet of kitchen roll to dry them.

I am slightly horrified at the almost paranoi surrounding hygiene in these threads. As for the over-use of those paper kitchen towels, do people not realise how damagingtheya re for the environmnet as they ALLhave plasic in them?

When I still lived at home, my Dad would get really angry whenI tried to explain (use as an excuse), why I left the coffee cups from having friends in, left draining by the sink, in terms of being healthier!!!! I was told, in noi uncertain terms, to use the tea towel immediately,

I find it amazing how I have managed to survive for nearly 82 years with my dreadful unhygenic lifestyle. I did NOT wash or isolate my shopping/parcels, pandemic.etc at any point during the pandemic. Keep a towel in my kitchen for up to a week at a time for drying my hands when they are wet. Use cotton tea towels also, usually one every other day as they are also used like a bib for me as I eat my meals on a tray on my lap Do rinse my hands before preparing food, in the kitchen sink, but no soap used.

Do wish that people would think about effect on environmnt every time they take a sheet of that paper towel.

I use kitchen roll to dry my hands. May not be environmentally friendly (though neither is washing multiple towels) but it’s hygienic. Tea towels for drying dishes if not put in the dishwasher or left to drain.

Two clean tea towels and dishcloth daily. Used for drying up the odd cup, plate etc. Hands washed at kitchen sink, dried with either kitchen paper or tea towel whichever is nearest.
I wouldn’t dream of going from kitchen to bathroom to wash my hands, I’m forever washing them when working in kitchen.
Don’t know how I’ve survived 70 + years with my hygiene standards 😳

I came to Gransnet and was so pleased to leave behind all the competitive hygiene threads. 😔

Same as most of you, paper towels for hand washing and tea towel changed every other day, because it’s only used for wiping things off that come out of the dishwasher.
I don’t like the idea of a towel in the kitchen.
I have an enormous stack of tea towels, because there were six of us living here over lockdown, and the dishwasher packed up.
I remember saying to a friend one day, that I had just hung thirty tea towels on the line.

I have a pile of face flannels which I use in the kitchen for drying hands etc. I can get through several in a day and just chuck them into the washer to wait for the next load. I started to do this during lockdown, as it seemed more hygienic than re-using the same towel. I don't have a dish washer but drain my washing up, again more hygieni.

I have a hand towel and tea towel always in the kitchen, laundered frequently, plus oven gloves. Nonsense to say you shouldn’t wash your hands in the sink! Why ever not?

When DH was at work, he would come in with dirty hands and give them a thorough wash at the sink. Would certainly have not expected him to go through to the bathroom to do it.

We both wash our hands frequently as we are preparing food or after touching things.

DIL has a couple of towels hanging up, never know which is which, they always look a bit in need of a wash, suspect they are interchangeable.

Also not a fan of ‘air drying’ crockery. I like to dry stuff and put it away. Don’t possess a dishwasher. Should add as far as I am aware, my household has never succumbed to food poisoning or similar, unlike so many nowadays, probably caused by insufficient hand washing before food prep.

I have small kitchen towels for drying hands and plenty of clean ironed tea towels - all of which go through regular hottest washes (and the ironing is a cleaning act too).- used to be a boil wash years ago. I also use a dishcloth for wiping surfaces etc. all frequently hot washed. I use the dishwasher most evenings for that days dishes. At times I boil the dishcloths in a saucepan on the stove. I have clean hot washed aprons too.
Young mothers are very fond of wet wipes - the scourge of the drainage/sewer systems - what is wrong with a pile of clean folded flannels? For years I never left the house without a clean wet flannel in a plastic bag in my handbag - great for sticky faces and hands.
Sheets and towels are also items I put through the hottest of washes. Hopefully doing all that kills many of the bugs around.

Speaking of hand washing and food preparation I’m shocked at the hygiene standards of some well known tv chefs. On Saturday Kitchen Live I often see Matt Tebutt handling raw meat then make a point of saying “I’ll just wash my hands” His hand washing consists of a couple of seconds under running water, no soap and hands dried in the tea towel. Then he goes back to preparing and serving up food with his bare hands.

Also his method of separating egg whites and yolks. He cracks the egg open onto his hand and holds the yolk and lets the white filter through his fingers 🤢

I have always had towels in my kitchen, and always will. A hand towel, a tea towel for drying dishes and a thicker one for lifting hot trays etc. from the oven. Changed as needed.

If you don’t wash your hands with soap or have towels in your kitchen what happens when you’re preparing food, chicken, vegetables etc. Do you drip through to the bathroom? I suppose you could always wipe them on your clothes!
I wash my hands at the sink more than once when preparing food.
My friend made some half-size towels with loops for use in the kitchen and it gets changed frequently.
I don't use a tea towel to dry my hands, in fact I don't use a tea towel.

I couldn’t imagine not having a towel, I always have a towel that fixes on my range for hands and an old fashioned torchon and a couple of linen tea towels, I have a huge drawer in my linen press full of these.
I love to pull them out all beautifully ironed.
The torchons I bought in France many years ago, they get better and better with every wash.
My little dog used to pull all the tea towels off the radiator when they were warm and put them in her bed!

I've been in kitchens were there is no towel and it bothers me. How do they dry their hands? I always have them in my kitchen plus tea cloths for dishes . Call me old fashioned maybe.

toscalily

I have tea towels & hand towels, both changed frequently plus a dishwasher. Hetty58 How on earth do you prepare food if you don't allow hand washing? I wash my hands frequently while cooking and certainly could not be going out of the kitchen to the cloakroom to do so as this would entail touching the door handles, light switches or whatever which I would consider very unhygienic.

This.
I have at least one clean hand towel and tea towel every day. I always wash my hands before food preparation. If I touch raw meat then I need to wash my hands thoroughly before touching any surface or other food. How does that fit with no hand washing in the kitchen?
I agree commercial kitchens don't allow for hand washing at the same sink as food preparation, insisting on a separate dedicated hand washing sink, but not many domestic kitchens adhere to the strict rules of commercial kitchens in all other areas.

My DS doesn’t have a towel in the kitchen either and my SIL has a towel in her kitchen that’s been there, same one, for as long as I can remember.
I have at least 2 a day, towels and tea towels.

If you don’t wash your hands with soap or have towels in your kitchen what happens when you’re preparing food, chicken, vegetables etc. Do you drip through to the bathroom? I suppose you could always wipe them on your clothes!

I have tea towels & hand towels, both changed frequently plus a dishwasher. Hetty58 How on earth do you prepare food if you don't allow hand washing? I wash my hands frequently while cooking and certainly could not be going out of the kitchen to the cloakroom to do so as this would entail touching the door handles, light switches or whatever which I would consider very unhygienic.

I don't like people washing their hands in the sink. It's unhygienic - and not allowed in commercial kitchens. Use a wash hand basin - please. Therefore, I don't provide towels in the kitchen. Wet hands from using taps can be dried on kitchen roll.

I have a towel and a teatowel and change them frequently. Teatowel daily, towel once or twice a week.

DS1 and 2 have teatowels and DS1 has a separate towel, but I don't think they're changed often nor do they look terribly clean and are usually damp. No one seems to have come from any harm from it, though.

*dishwasher not dish washing.

I’ve never had a towel in the kitchen and don’t know anyone who does. I dry my hands on kitchen paper - far more hygienic than a damp towel being reused.
Linen tea towel only used to dry ‘good’ glasses on special occasions, everything else goes into the dishwasher.
Draining and air drying dishes is more hygienic than tea towels, but dishwashing is best.

I am always wary of a kitchen without a hand towel, it says to me that hands are not washed.

Kitchen towel only works if it is the thick expensive one which I would consider a waste, environmentally and financially.