Hello! I'm looking to start using less paper towels and disinfectant wipes, and want to see what peoples routines are in regards to washing their rags, what they're used for, how you separate them, etc.
I was thinking cotton rags to clean up quick messes on the counters, like food/water spills and to wipe my face/hands while I eat. I also want rags that I can use with disinfectants to clean surfaces, and I'd like to keep these two separate. I was going to color code them, black for chemical rags, and grey for basic food messes and napkins. I am going to rinse them with hot water, ring out, and hang them to dry after use, and then into a bin once they're dry to be machine washed.
Here's where my problem starts, I have shared laundry with my neighbors, and the washer only uses cold water. I don't really mind stopping at the laundromat once every week/other week to use hot water for my rags, as long as I have enough of them to justify paying for a small load.
Should I separate the everyday spill/napkin rags from my clothes, or just the chemical rags? I'd like to keep the chemical rags completely separate from everything else. How do you separate yours?
Do you think cold water would be enough for my grey rags mixed with my clothes, and hot water at the laundromat for the chemical ones? Should I use hot water for both?
I intend to continue to use paper towels for other things like bodily, pet, raw meat, and oil messes.
Any tips are greatly appreciated!
Looking advice for switching to cotton rags, cleaning routine and separation
byu/RennieRoo8 inFrugal
Posted by RennieRoo8
6 Comments
I have a tension bar above my sink for drying rags. Once they’re dry, they get moved to a hamper and washed with everything else.
Personally I use paper towels for anything nasty like chicken juice.
Modern laundry detergents work perfectly fine with cold water. Mine go in with regular laundry. If you’re worried about sanitizing them then you can just boil them in a pot of water and hang dry them. I usually get the cheap bar rags at the restaurant supply store so I don’t really care if they get beat to shit.
If you are concerned with the chemical rag loads being too small, in a pinch you can wash them by hand in your sink. With a washing machine, you supply water and soap and the machine creates agitation. So all you need to do is create some kind of agitation with a large utensil or with your own hands. Then wring out well (or spin in cheap plastic salad spinner) and hang to dry. You would make it part of your nightly kitchen clean up routine. This would NOT work with large loads so you would have to do it every few days, depending on how many cleaning rags you use.
Search the sub, this gets discussed a lot.
I just rinse the chemical rags (like bleach or bathroom cleaner) in the sink after I’m done using them and throw them with the rest. Ikea white with the red stripe towels are really nice and have lasted us years. We recently started getting their napkins in various fun prints.
Just because of tradition and enjoyment, I use linen or cotton napkins as napkins, linen or cotton dish towels/tea towels as towels to dry dishes and hands in the kitchen, and cotton dishcloths to wash dishes and wipe counters. I use somewhat less-nice dish towels as placemats for cat dishes, to wrap produce in the fridge, to wrap or cover foods in the microwave, and various other kitchen jobs. I do not consider any of them to be rags. All get hung up to dry (if they are wet) before going into my general laundry.
I use actual rags, which are old worn-out linen or cotton napkins, dish towels, dish cloths, wash cloths, hand towels and such, to scrub floors, sinks, bathtub, outside of the toilet, litter boxes, and anything else that uses chemicals or is very dirty. I also use rags if I spill a large amount of liquid or food, or to clean up cat barf. I wash the rags along with old bath towels used in the cat carrier and cotton throw rugs I use in the kitchen. Since this is a separate load of laundry, there’s no risk of mixing up rags with my nice kitchen linens. If a rag gets quite a bit of oil on it, its goes in the trash rather than the laundry. It had a good life in its original purpose (tea towel or whatever), then a second life as a scrub rag, so I have no qualms about discarding it and I think oil is a risk in the dryer and might get on other rags in the washer. If a rag gets so worn that it’s more threads than fabric, I chop it up and put it in the compost. They are all natural fibers.
I’m 60 years old and this is just how people ran their houses when I was growing up. Napkins as napkins, dish cloths as dish cloths, etc., then everything becomes a rag when it’s literally too ragged to do its original job.