I use lots of dish towels in the kitchen, and when they get soiled with food-related messes, I’m never quite sure what to do with them. I can’t leave them on the counter because they are too dirty for people to have to see or touch. I can’t put them in my regular clothes laundry basket because I don’t want those nasty foodstuffs touching my clothes and stinking up my closet.
I also can’t just wash each dish towel as it gets dirty, because that would be a tremendous waste of resources.
Finally I came up with a solution. I took an old wastepaper basket and stuck it under my kitchen sink. It now serves as a dedicated dish towel laundry basket. I toss my dirty towels in there and when it’s full, there are enough to do a small load in the washer. I love it!





3 comments so far:
I really like this idea. We did something similar in the kitchen when my daughter was an infant - we kept the bottles to be washed in a bucket under the sink so we didn’t have to look at them until we were ready to wash them. I also use microfiber cleaning towels now for general cleaning, and I keep a container in my laundry room for the dirty ones.
I do this too! I also keep a bowl with my used coffee grinds down there. I take it out to the compost every couple of days. It keeps the cabinet from getting musty from the towels.
Great idea, Rachel. Coffee sure smells WAY better than dirty towels and cleaning supplies!