Kitchen towels.

Hand towel for hands, tea towel for dishes etc if needed and I still have to nag remind Mr. S. not to use a tea towel for hands.

We have a hand towel and a tea towel for dishes. They get changed as and when we feel we need to.

For 30 years we never used paper towels but for some reason we now use them to mop up fats and oils before washing dishes (air fryer, frying pan, etc) so they don't go down the drain and I can't for the life of me remember what I used to use. Maybe newspaper, back when we had newspaper?

AreWeThereYet

We have a hand towel and a tea towel for dishes. They get changed as and when we feel we need to.

For 30 years we never used paper towels but for some reason we now use them to mop up fats and oils before washing dishes (air fryer, frying pan, etc) so they don't go down the drain and I can't for the life of me remember what I used to use. Maybe newspaper, back when we had newspaper?

We use paper towels here for the same reasons you do, AWTY. They go in the food recycling caddy.

Apologies to gsm, btw. I expressed what I meant badly. My point is that saying kitchen towel is more hygienic than a cloth towel (or vice versa) is a con. It's not what is used that makes a system hygienic but how it is used. Ergo, kitchen paper is not intrinsically more hygienic than a cloth towel (or vice versa).

I have a small collection of gym towels from the days when I forgot to take my sweat towel and had to buy one! These are used for hand drying and tea towels for drying dishes. Simple, you'd think. But in my families' homes I have seen only rather manky tea towels used for both, but have held my tongue so far. No-one seems to have contracted nasty bacteria, so I guess they have all built up immunity.

I put kitchen paper that has only been used for drying hands or mopping up water in the recycling. If it’s been used to mop up food or grease or has cleaning products on it it can’t be recycled so goes in the black bin.

My best friend and I often have this conversation about our respective offspring and their lack of kitchen & tea towels. She and I both get through loads of towels, at least one of each a day and more if it’s a busy time in the kitchen. Our children - not so much. One or two grey offerings is about it.

My friend frequently comes back from caring for her grandchildren with a stomach bug 🤢 - maybe it’s the lack of clean towels? Though my mum used to use a teatowel for everything from wiping the outside of a raw chicken to drying the dishes. Amazing we survived!

I rarely use paper towels on my hands as it makes them sore and red, I prefer a proper towel.

I don't know which is more ecologically friendly either GSM washing towels or using paper. I use hand towels changed daily and teatowels for utensils which don't go in the dish washer.
I do have a horror of cloths being used to wipe up spillages from the floor always paper for that.

I have lots of tea towels - not everything can go in the dishwasher. They’re also useful for mopping up spills on the floor - and straight in the washing machine.

I don’t have an actual towel in the kitchen - I just use a tea towel. ‘ Kitchen’ towel to me means kitchen roll, i.e. paper - we use a lot of that.