Air Or Towel Dry?

[TastyReuben]

For those dishes you don't put in your dishwasher (if you happen to have one), do you leave them to air dry or do you towel dry them and put them away immediately?

I'm an air dryer. I let Nature handle that task.

 

[Backbay]

Air dry, unless it's a huge pot or bowl, in which case I will towel dry.

 

[Morning Glory]

Do you know, I'm not sure... hmm. I try not to handwash anything if I can help it. I think I hate having items on the draining board so maybe I do towel them dry. Yes, I think I do mostly.

 

[medtran49]

air unless we need something immediately.

 

[rascal]

Dishwasher except a few things wife washes by hand and then towell dries. Crystal bowls etc, crystal glasses my friend and I drink out of. I've put pics up before of crystal.

Russ

 

[rascal]

As a kid three boys used to do week about, hand wash in the sink and another bro dried. We alternated.

Russ

 

[Yorky]

Air dry. We do not have what used to be referred to in Yorkshire as a "tea towels"

As daytime temperatures are between 25 and 40°C generally, air drying does not take long.

 

[rascal]

Air dry. We do not have what used to be referred to in Yorkshire as a "tea towel"

As daytime temperatures are between 25 and 40°C generally, air drying does not take long.

We have a shelf of tea towels, mainly for handling hot plates or bowls. Cleaning up mainly.

Russ

 

[TastyReuben]

What some folks on the forum refer to as tea towels are called dish towels, dish cloths, or (in my family, especially) dish rags.

 

[Saranak]

Ciao,
I do not use towels I dry thing with scotch roll if need some pan or knife most time I let air dry.

Sarana x

 

[Morning Glory]

dish cloths,

Dish cloths means something different in the UK. Much smaller looser knit cloths, which you damp for wiping surfaces or use to actually wash the dishes. People use to knit them from cotton yarn - I think maybe SatNavSaysStraightOn still does.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

People use to knit them from cotton yarn - I think maybe @SatNavSaysStraightOn still does.

Yes, I knit ours. It allows me to play with various stitches but mostly to use up odd balls of cotton that I have left over or have been given. It also means that I have a good supply of dish cloths so they can be frequently washed keeping them clean and more sanitary (hubby has a tendency to leave them wet and in a clump rather than wrung out and hanging to dry)

Tea towels also get used for many things in this household but dishes are generally allowed to air dry first before they are sometimes dried by hand using a tea towel if needed (usually just the bit still in contact with the drying rack or draining board).

 

[TastyReuben]

Dish cloths means something different in the UK. Much smaller looser knit cloths, which you damp for wiping surfaces or use to actually wash the dishes. People use to knit them from cotton yarn - I think maybe SatNavSaysStraightOn still does.

I have about four of the knitted dish rags for doing the washing - MrsTasty's grandmother made them for us, so they're going on 30 years old! They're great as a gentle scrubber.

"Dish rag" here would be interchangeable; either the cloth you use to wash/scrub the dishes or the towel you'd use to dry them. "Dish cloth" and "dish towel" would specifically mean the drying towel.

 

[Morning Glory]

"Dish rag" here would be interchangeable; either the cloth you use to wash/scrub the dishes or the towel you'd use to dry them. "Dish cloth" and "dish towel" would specifically mean the drying towel.

Ah..the subtle nuances of our different yet shared language!

 

[TastyReuben]

Ah..the subtle nuances of our different yet shared language!

Honest to god, I think when English-speaking Europeans first came to North America, after building a lean-to out of sticks and finding some water, they said, "Right. That's sorted. Let's start changing all the meanings of words, with extra emphasis on using similar words to mean slightly different things. Who'd like to start?"