Finding Sanity – Laundry part 5 – Bleaching

Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 7:34 am

if you missed the beginning of this series,
read all previous entries in order here

Recently we switched to all white dish cloths; white wash cloths for dish cleaning, and larger white utility cloths my husband picked up for me at the auto store, for drying dishes and counters. The reason we thought to toss the old rags for an all white option is two-fold.

First, the smell that permeates the kitchen rags in our house is horrible. Washing them does help, of course, but I can always smell a musty odor in them, even right out of the dryer. Having all white towels means I can bleach them when I need to - keeping them looking and smelling quite clean.
Second, I like to have seperate towels for hand drying. Those are colored and my kids know they are not for cleaning or wiping counters.

While I don’t bleach my dish towels every time I wash them, I do like to give them a good bleaching once or twice a month. When I do this I gather every last one of them, even the cloths still clean in the drawer, and do one load. This way not one towel gets missed and I can easily see what my stash looks like and decide if I need to put new towels on the shopping list. I try to do the bleach load right after the kitchen has been cleaned so there won’t be need of a cloth while they are in the washer.

For some reason, I enjoy taking the time to wash, dry, and fold my freshly bleached kitchen cloths. They are white, smell fresh, fold and stack neatly, and create such an organized looking space in our dish cloth drawer.

It’s so pleasant and has brought an unexpected simplicity and freshness to my laundry routine.

Do you have a secret for keeping stink out of your dish cloths? Please share.