I find drying to be the bit I really don’t like - something about handling soggy tea towels is just unpleasant. The washing bit is not too bad when there is plenty of room for everything to drain and air dry.
Washing up is mostly just tedious, especially when you are doing a lot of cooking and are doing load after load of it. Being able to do the bulk of it in the dishwasher and just hand wash the few bits that need it is definitely my preference.
I don’t have room to leave everything to dry when I’m doing a lot of cooking. The washed dishes tend to overflow the draining board, plus I use that space for other things while I cook.
Drying sucks because most teatowels suck. Some actually dry the dishes but quickly become a sopping wad of uselessness. Most just smear water about unhelpfully and distribute tiny material fibres in the process. Especially with glasses.
Yep. Good quality LINEN teatowels are the best I’ve found yet. And they are immortal. I’m still using the ones I bought 20 plus years ago. And they get better and more absorbent with age.
Hate to say this, but the ALDI teatowels are crap, and the less said about Kmart ones the better. I have been gifted these, but had to toss them out after less than a year. Get the ones marked ‘glass cloth’, toss in the wash after each washup session and put out a new one. Linen teatowels also work well as oven mitts (don’t get me started on these).
It can be hard to find linen teatowels, they are almost always cotton. Teatowels are one thing that improves with age, they seem to need a few washes to work well. Even the cheap ones benefit from a few washes. I have a couple of cheap awful ones from work that were useless new but have become ok after multiple washes.
Myer used to stock good linen ones and may still do so, but try Hotel Agencies in Fitzroy. Most homewares shops have pretty coloured crap. I really like the ones the professionals use. More costly, but as mentioned before - functionally immortal. I have a stock of about 20 and that’s a good number to have on hand, being two weeks worth of usage plus some spares. I do chuck them in the wash before they get too soggy though so a single day of intense cooking can use a few. Also check the shop rag market - this is where the linen from failed restaurants often ends up. You purchase by the kilo - some will be stained or require a bit of mending but this can often be fixed with a napisan soak and a bit of hand sewing. For the price, definitely worth it if you are looking for good quality kitchen linens at a bargain basement price or lower.
I find drying to be the bit I really don’t like - something about handling soggy tea towels is just unpleasant. The washing bit is not too bad when there is plenty of room for everything to drain and air dry.
Washing up is mostly just tedious, especially when you are doing a lot of cooking and are doing load after load of it. Being able to do the bulk of it in the dishwasher and just hand wash the few bits that need it is definitely my preference.
Have I been doing it all wrong all these years? I just put them in a drying rack and pack it up later.
I don’t have room to leave everything to dry when I’m doing a lot of cooking. The washed dishes tend to overflow the draining board, plus I use that space for other things while I cook.
Drying sucks because most teatowels suck. Some actually dry the dishes but quickly become a sopping wad of uselessness. Most just smear water about unhelpfully and distribute tiny material fibres in the process. Especially with glasses.
Yep. Good quality LINEN teatowels are the best I’ve found yet. And they are immortal. I’m still using the ones I bought 20 plus years ago. And they get better and more absorbent with age.
Hate to say this, but the ALDI teatowels are crap, and the less said about Kmart ones the better. I have been gifted these, but had to toss them out after less than a year. Get the ones marked ‘glass cloth’, toss in the wash after each washup session and put out a new one. Linen teatowels also work well as oven mitts (don’t get me started on these).
It can be hard to find linen teatowels, they are almost always cotton. Teatowels are one thing that improves with age, they seem to need a few washes to work well. Even the cheap ones benefit from a few washes. I have a couple of cheap awful ones from work that were useless new but have become ok after multiple washes.
Myer used to stock good linen ones and may still do so, but try Hotel Agencies in Fitzroy. Most homewares shops have pretty coloured crap. I really like the ones the professionals use. More costly, but as mentioned before - functionally immortal. I have a stock of about 20 and that’s a good number to have on hand, being two weeks worth of usage plus some spares. I do chuck them in the wash before they get too soggy though so a single day of intense cooking can use a few. Also check the shop rag market - this is where the linen from failed restaurants often ends up. You purchase by the kilo - some will be stained or require a bit of mending but this can often be fixed with a napisan soak and a bit of hand sewing. For the price, definitely worth it if you are looking for good quality kitchen linens at a bargain basement price or lower.