the humble dishrag...

The concept of the humble dishrag has taken such a beating over the recent past years, along with anything that remotely resembles a sponge. Must not have germs! Must not have germs! And what have we achieved with all our efforts to sanitize every germ from every surface? With our fetish to attack and kill any bacteria, good or bad, coupled with our unnecessary overuse of antibiotics, many people no longer have strong enough immune systems to fight off even a common cold.

The humble dishrag has been vilified the world over for being a nasty, germ-infested home for who knows all what is for certain gonna make you and your family sick. And who are the ones who tell us that the most strongly? All of the myriad big business consumables companies who want to keep us buying nice, fresh, and germ free consumables instead of using items that are washable and reusable, not to mention recyclable. Take a bath towel for example. Long after it is too worn to be used for the bath it can become a hand towel, a dish towel, a dish and wipe-up cloth, and then all the way down to the all-important rag-bag. 

Part of my goal towards more responsible, sustainable living is to get back to the use of dishrags, specifically a clean-up rag, a cloth kept for the express purpose of quick wipe downs of counter and stove services. I have an over abundance of hand towels that don't get used for anything so I'm going to cut them down to at least half size. They will not stay on the sink long enough to get smelly and disgusting but take themselves to the wash, which in our house in about 5 steps away, everyday or at the most two. 

Part of this conscious decision came out of the effort I spent cleaning my stove top last week. I love to cook. I am a good, plain cook. I am a good healthy cook. When my children were growing up they ate my own whole-wheat bread. Vegetables didn't come from a can or the freezer. They came from the garden or from the store in their intact fresh form and were lightly steamed before eating. My favorite things to cook are our own bone broths and stocks of various kinds, along with hearty soups and stews. But...I am also a messy cook! And it was really showing in my cook top. Considering our stove is only a few years old it just looked terrible but I could never seem to get the baked on stuff completely off.

I am normally not a fan of using chemical cleaners in the home. We move farther from them all the time as we add new products to our home, but once in awhile I still feel you can't get away from it, at least initially. Last year I had picked up a new product that I thought I would try on the stove top, and then promptly forgot about it. A week or so ago Jamie was busting me about needing those slide-in trays that you could just throw away when they got to looking...well...like mine! I knew it looked terrible and I decided I couldn't tolerate it any longer. I pulled out this product I had bought a year before and sprayed it on. I was totally shocked to come back a couple hours later to find the crusted burnt on stuff loosening! I still had a lot of scrubbing to do, as well as finely cut and painful fingers for several days after, but at least with this product it was doable! The kids and Gary just about fell over when they saw it for the first time, sparkling clean and beautiful.

Hence, my decision to start keeping a regular wipe-up cloth by the sink at all times now. The wipe-up cloth that is something between a dish towel and a dish rag...the always damp "wipe-up cloth".

I will admit that my interest is more in that fact of what this cloth can do for me rather than saving the environment, but I do believe we all must constantly move towards less consumable living and more self-sustainability. I constantly think in terms of, "How many items in my house can I not buy. What can I use for this job that I already have? A good quality hoe for the garden work is essential, but a clean-up cloth could be made out of something I already have."

The FDA...

Future Dishcloths of America