The purpose of a kitchen towel

SteelCity44 · October 2011

DH's whole family uses kitchen towels as the coaster of the kitchen.... for ANYthing. He'll put the dirty spatula, his spoon after stirring coffee, or the raw frozen hamburgers he pulled out of the freezer right on my perfectly clean towel. I freak out on him, because to me, kitchen towels are meant for you to have something CLEAN to dry your hands on. When cooking a messy meal, I'll have a "dirty" towel that I'll use to wipe my hands on when they don't need washed for the next step. Right now, all of my kitchen towels are contaminated with random kitchen goo, and we have to use paper towels to dry our hands because I refuse to do a tiny load of laundry just for my kitchen towels.

What belief system do you follow? Coaster of the kitchen? Drying clean hands only?

katieh1017 · October 2011

I am totally with on the drying clean hands only... But DH won't use the kitchen towel for this, he instead takes a paper towel.

sbost0118 · October 2011

In my house, the kitchen towel starts out as a hand-drying towel then after a day or so, it becomes the "dirty" towel and I pull out a new one for the "clean" towel. I also have a dish for holding messy spoons while cooking.

Musiclover2012 · October 2011

Ew!!!!! Drying hands only and for me the occasional pull and place on counter to dry a wet (clean) pot or skillet.

LoveTravel · October 2011

We use kitchen towels for drying clean hands also, sometimes spills (rarely)

ChelseyB5186 · October 2011

Honestly, the purpose of my kitchen towel, is to hang from the stove as decoration...DH uses it when he does dishes sometimes to wipe his hands on, but I absolutely hate using it. I think it's dirty and gross and doesn't get the job done. I know that it's completely wasteful, but I just use paper towels, pretty much for everything. We go through a ton of paper towels (go Costco!) because of this, but I like that I can just use one or two, and throw them away, and not have to look at a dirty rag laying around the kitchen. I feel like everytime DH uses it I have to clean it, and I just don't feel like doing that! But yeah, as a coaster? That's different, LOL. That's what those little spoon holder thingys that you lay on your stove are for!

gisa886 · October 2011

We use a kitche towel to try dishes that cannot go in the dishwasher, drying hands and wiping up water on the counter.

Heddarc · October 2011

The kitchen towel hangs on the stove and is for drying hands or drying clean dishes. DH will go thru 3 or 4 dish towels when he's making dinner and I can't hang them back up because I have no idea what he used them for...Gross!

jkfranklin · October 2011

I'm totally in the drying clean hands only camp. I can't believe he would put raw hamburger on a kitchen towel! I would make him do the laundry.

Leigha12 · October 2011

katieh1017:
I am totally with on the drying clean hands only... But DH won't use the kitchen towel for this, he instead takes a paper towel.

This exactly.

Aprilmomx2 · October 2011

I am with you, drying only! But DH thinks otherwise, he will wipe DS's mouth or hands and then toss the towel back on the rack for drying my hands...it gags me and I usually just find myself getting new towels whenever I am not sure where the other towel has been! LOL

Lina1030 · October 2011

that's just nasty! sorry...the purpose is to wipe your hands.

Monkeybabe · October 2011

My kitchen towels are for drying hands or pulling hot things out of the oven because despite being a food service employee, I don't have hot pads in my house.

mrs_j_may_08 · October 2011

I pretty much toss the towels that DH has used while cooking into the laundry immediately after he is done cooking. You never know if he has wiped raw chicken hands on them... used them to wipe something off the floor, etc. I would prefer if they were only used for clean hand drying! We have a huge stash of rags under the sink that can be used for other stuff! Ugh, oh well...

Moneypenny424 · October 2011

I only use the kitchen towels to dry dishes. To dry my hands, I use paper toweling.

MDmama519 · October 2011

I use a clean kitchen towel for drying hands. DH uses them for what the hell ever he wants, even washing dishes. I can't stand it!

bio-oesch · October 2011

Lol, dh and I discuss this all the time!!

Its suppose to be used for drying hands, or occassionally can dishes/pans. Dh uses it for anything, he even will wipe up a spill on the floor and then pick it up an put it on the counter!! Lol. Then when I use it next he tells me its gross to use that because its not very clean and tells me what nasty thing he just cleaned up... Ugh.

I found it hilarious 2wks ago were staying at a resort with dhs parents. DD spilled something on the floor in the kitchen and my FIL grabbed the kitchen towel, threw it on the floor stepped on it with his shoe to wipe up the mess?!?!

My MIL saw him and flipped out saying thats why she never has nice towels because he ruins them and that was the only kitchen towel we had in our suite, lol.

SteelCity44 · October 2011

bio-oesch:
Lol, dh and I discuss this all the time!!

Its suppose to be used for drying hands, or occassionally can dishes/pans. Dh uses it for anything, he even will wipe up a spill on the floor and then pick it up an put it on the counter!! Lol. Then when I use it next he tells me its gross to use that because its not very clean and tells me what nasty thing he just cleaned up... Ugh.
I found it hilarious 2wks ago were staying at a resort with dhs parents. DD spilled something on the floor in the kitchen and my FIL grabbed the kitchen towel, threw it on the floor stepped on it with his shoe to wipe up the mess?!?!
My MIL saw him and flipped out saying thats why she never has nice towels because he ruins them and that was the only kitchen towel we had in our suite, lol.

I love it! It's sad to see though that this will be a very long battle for many years to come!

mertense · October 2011

Well they are supposed to be for drying hands and I have one for setting clean dishes on. DD thinks they are blankets for her babies so we usually use paper towels!

JFH2010 · October 2011

Drying hands and drying dishes, nothing else. My issue is that DH uses the same sponge to wash the dishes (no dishwasher) and to wipe the counters. Yuck! Those are different tasks!! We both hate wasting paper towels so I bought a bunch of un-paper towels for cleaning surfaces.

TheBuddha · October 2011

DH used to come home from work and rinse his face in the kitchen sink, then mop his sweaty, dirty face up with my kitchen towel. How nasty is that?

And I will never forget the first time he leaned down to clean up a mess on the floor with my dishrag. I don't think he'll ever make that mistake again.

I spend most of the time in the kitchen doing the cooking and cleaning, so I know what has been touching my towels. No children are allowed to wash hands in the kitchen sink, they use the bathroom.

Regardless, I have a huge stash of kitchen towels and dishrags, so I change them out every other day.

April201012 · October 2011

LOL. I thought my husband was the only crazy dish towel guy! He primarily uses them for drying his hands BUT we carries them around with him and I find towels all over the house. I really get irritated when i have wet hands and turn to grab the towel and there is none in the kitchen!! I typically have 2 or 3 laying out because of his habit. Generally, i have to walk around the house everyday before bed and collect the towels from the office and the dining room. I also have a decorative towel hanging from the stove that is not to be used for anything... i yell when I find it has been used. He just doesn't get the decorative thing...

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