Dish Cloth?

November 26, 2011 10:43 PM

looking for a great Kitchen dish cloth: anyone have something they really like? Mostly for wiping up....
posted by dougiedd to Home & Garden (17 answers total)

Ikea's dishtowel, terry cloth, white with blue stripe. I think its also called a bar mop but I've tried others and Ikea are the ones I like. Easy to bleach, just the right size, very absorbant, comes in a bundle of three?six? for cheap.
posted by tipsyBumblebee at 11:15 PM on November 26, 2011

The Ikea ones are good; Walmart also has bundles of 100% cotton bar mops that work great.
posted by Forktine at 11:18 PM on November 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

For wiping up a counter I find that microfiber cloths work far better than anything else I've used.
posted by XMLicious at 11:22 PM on November 26, 2011

Floursack are my favorite. They are big, absorbent and come in lots of colors.
posted by Swisstine at 12:28 AM on November 27, 2011 [3 favorites]

I use micro fibre cloths, they just get washed in hot wash when they get grubby.
posted by koahiatamadl at 4:14 AM on November 27, 2011

I got two packs of about 15 or more microfiber cloths from Costco a few years ago. Just last night I was gloating to my mom that they'd saved me hundreds of dollars in paper towels. We used to go through several rolls of paper towels a week. Now it's less than one roll a month. Well worth it!
posted by instamatic at 4:36 AM on November 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Are you at all crafty? Mrs. jq has been knitting dishcloths lately out of cotton yarn and they work pretty darn well around the kitchen. Plus she can knock one out in just a couple of sessions, so there's a quick return on the effort. Patterns online are legion.
posted by jquinby at 8:19 AM on November 27, 2011

Floursack for drying dishes, microfiber for wiping counters.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 8:31 AM on November 27, 2011

I like these Skoy cloths for wiping counters and the stove. They are sturdy, absorbent, and reusable. For drying dishes and hands, definitely flour sack.
posted by TrarNoir at 9:08 AM on November 27, 2011

For drying dishes, you could do worse than look at the selection at To Dry For [British site].
posted by MuffinMan at 9:42 AM on November 27, 2011

For wiping counters I like plain soft cotton waffle-weave rags (usually they're white with some sort of sparse blue plaid on them, and they need to be washed a few times before the weave tightens up.) Most recently I found a 12-pack at Walgreens. Cotton seems to absorb and clean in a more satisfying way than microfiber does when it comes to wiping up something that's sort of dirty and not just dusty or just wet.
posted by needs more cowbell at 9:54 AM on November 27, 2011

I don't find that I care much about the type of rag, as much as quantity. I bit the bullet and bought, like, 20 cheap cotton dishrags at the discount store, and put a laundry hamper adjacent to the kitchen, and it is awesome.

Has the hubby left the rag used on yesterday's dishes in a heap at the bottom of the sink and it's now nasty and stinky, which could have been prevented if he'd just draped it over the faucet to dry instead? No reason to get irritated; get out a clean rag, drop dirty rag into laundry hamper.

Dribbled spaghetti sauce across the kitchen floor? Moisten rag, wipe up, drop dirty rag into laundry hamper.

Need to season the cast-iron skillet? Use a clean rag to dip some coconut oil or bacon grease out of the jar, slather onto skillet, drop greasy rag into laundry hamper.

Buying the same quantity of cheap flour-sack dish towels has had a similar salutary effect.
posted by BrashTech at 10:30 AM on November 27, 2011 [2 favorites]

Quantity is also the way I've gone after buying all sorts of fancier cloths (microfiber, etc) that I was never quite happy with. I've bought about 50 of these (they used to be 2/$1):


We use them to wipe hands/counters/dishes/spills and also use them as napkins. They are constantly cycling though laundry and when they get holes or terrible stains, they get repurposed as housecleaning rags.

There are few things that make me happier in the kitchen than having stack upon stack of these at the ready in a cupboard. They're inexpensive enough to feel comfortable abusing them, and I've found that they hold up very well.
posted by quince at 12:47 PM on November 27, 2011

tried to do a fancy link and failed, so here's a non-fancy one:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10100909/
posted by quince at 12:49 PM on November 27, 2011

Know anyone who works at a hospital? Surgical towels are perfect for the kitchen.
posted by toddst at 3:26 PM on November 27, 2011

I really like the Twist Euro Sponge Cloth. They absorb a lot of water, so they are great for spills. They also last a good amount of time, even with scrubbing. I use them for cleaning the counters, kitchen sink, tub, etc.
posted by evening at 5:26 PM on November 27, 2011

I love the Ikea ones that quince linked to- we have about 10 of those, along with a few absorbent bathroom-style hand towels for larger spills. We also have some waffle-knit cloths for particularly stubborn dishes. Since buying a bunch of the ikea towels, we've gone from a roll of paper towels a week to using 2 rolls in the past 3 months.
posted by kro at 10:37 PM on November 27, 2011