{"id":59,"date":"2012-04-19T06:01:50","date_gmt":"2012-04-19T04:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.radioislam.org.za\/wordpress\/2012\/04\/19\/tips-to-keep-your-dishcloths-clean\/"},"modified":"2012-04-19T06:01:50","modified_gmt":"2012-04-19T04:01:50","slug":"tips-to-keep-your-dishcloths-clean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/tips-to-keep-your-dishcloths-clean\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips to keep your dishcloths clean"},"content":{"rendered":"
Here are some few suggestions to keep your dish cloths from accumulating nasty bacteria.<\/p>\n

1. Rinse your dishcloth regularly in hot soapy water.
2. Use separate dish cloths for specific duties. For example, one for rying, wiping down the counters, and washing the dishes.
3. Don’t use the same dishcloth for the whole week. Change it for a ew one in the middle week<\/p>\n

• Soak your dishcloths in a mixture of bleach and soap powder overnight or for a couple of hours in water. Then rinse and hang out
to dry.<\/p>\n

• I just invested in one of those cheap packs of 10 or so washcloths. This means I have about 20 dishcloths now, so I can change them whenever I want to. I change them after working with raw meat, after accidentally leaving it balled up, after getting it really dirty . . . just get a lot, they don't take up much room in the wash. Definitely worth it! I wash them in hot water with plenty of detergent and bleach. The colored ones have discolored, but I'd rather have them clean than pretty. I'm buying only white from now on.<\/p>\n

• I go through a few dishrags a day. I use them to wipe up spills and messes all day long, so I'm constantly tossing one in the hamper and grabbing another. I use some bleach every time I wash my kitchen towels. Every other time I soak the load for a couple hours before washing. I've used vinegar too, and it works almost as well as bleach.<\/p>\n

• I will be the first to admit that I change dishcloths often, usually using 2 dishcloths per day.  I can’t bear to wash a sink of supper dishes with the same cloth I used to wash breakfast dishes the same morning.  The dishcloth has had all day to sit and grow all kinds of gross bacteria and other germs.  Food-borne illness can make you really sick and I’d like to avoid it at all costs.  So I avoid it by washing a million kitchen towels and dishcloths each week.<\/p>\n

• Dishcloth Do’s
• Rinse dishcloths frequently in hot water.<\/p>\n

Rinse your dishcloths often under hot water, especially when you’re wiping down kitchen surfaces. Rinse after you wipe off the table and then again after you wipe off the stove and then again after you wipe off the counter.  It’s even better if you can swish it around in a sink full of soapy, hot water and then wring out before you use it. You really can’t rinse a dishcloth too often, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

• Use a dishcloth only for washing dishes. If you’re using a dishcloth for dishes, make sure that is the only thing you use it for.  Don’t wipe the baby’s face with it or her high chair tray.  That type of washing deserves its own cloth or paper
towel.  And by all means, do not wipe anything off of the floor with your dish cloth and then use it again to wash dishes.  The thought of that makes my skin crawl.  So don’t do it.<\/p>\n

• Use more than one dishcloth, if needed. Don’t be afraid to use more than one dishcloth per day.  If you’ve washed two sinks full of dishes, you probably need a new cloth.  I think most of us believe we’re allowed a maximum of only one dishcloth
per day, but I promise you can use two.<\/p>\n

• Always lay dishcloths flat to dry between each use throughout the day.
• Dishcloth Don’ts
• Don’t use the same dishcloth for the whole week. Even if you only wash 1 or 2 dishes a day, you just can’t use the same cloth that many days in a row.  By the end of the week, the dishcloth has gotten wet multiple times and that by itself is enough to let bacteria grow.  Add in the washing off of food particles and you’ve got a gross piece of laundry there. Don’t leave your dishcloth wadded up in a ball. If you must use the same dishcloth all day, make sure you lay it out flat to dry between uses.  It’s even better if you can hang it up to air dry before you use it again.  Warm, balled up, wet dishcloths are great little breeding grounds for mold and mildew.  Avoid it at all costs.<\/p>\n

•Don’t be afraid to use paper towels.If you’re wiping up a huge puddle of spilled milk, go ahead and just use paper towels.  Soured milk in a dishcloth is one of the worst smells ever and you’ll probably end up throwing the dishcloth away because of it.  Or for wiping a countertop contaminated with raw chicken, just use paper towels instead of a dishcloth.<\/p>\n

• In all likelihood, you won’t be able to wash those horribly germ-y dishcloths immediately and they’ll sit somewhere until wash day.  You don’t want them sitting somewhere, covered in salmonella.  Trust me. I know it’s not the eco-friendly thing to do, but use paper towels for the really gross stuff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are some few suggestions to keep your dish cloths from accumulating nasty bacteria. 1. Rinse your dishcloth regularly in hot soapy water.2. Use separate dish cloths for specific duties. For example, one for rying, wiping down the counters, and washing the dishes.3. Don’t use the same dishcloth for the whole week. Change it for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[252,253,302],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-household","tag-handy-hints","tag-household","tag-tips-to-keep-your-dishcloths-clean"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-X","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 14:57:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}