The Best Dish Cloths to Keep Your Dishes Sparkling

Best Dish Cloths Buyer’s Guide

To keep your kitchenware dry, you’ll need a proper dish cloth. This buyer’s guide has all the information you need to know about when shopping for simple yet helpful dish cloths.

What Is a Dish Cloth Used For?

A dish cloth or dish rag is a type of cloth that is used to clean and dry dishes after they’ve been washed. Dish cloths are most commonly found in the kitchen. Many people keep dish cloths by the sink, making it easy to wipe the dishes as soon as you take them out of the dishwasher or finish handwashing them.

Should I Dry My Dishes Using a Dish Cloth?

These days, there’s more than one way to dry your dishes. You can use a dish cloth, of course, or you could place the dishes in a drying rack. Another option is to dry them in the dishwasher. There are merits to each of these three methods, but today, we’re here to emphasize why dish cloths are the best of the three drying options.

Drying racks

Before we talk about dish cloths, let’s explore the alternatives. Dish drying racks are a popular choice because they’re easy to use, and you don’t need to put in any effort whatsoever to dry the dishes with a dish drying rack. All you have to do is wait, and eventually, the dishes will air-dry themselves. But therein lies the problem: you have to wait for your dishes to dry. Since you’re basically at the mercy of time, you can’t use those dishes until they are ready.

Dishwashers

Many dishwashers these days come with a drying feature that dries dishes right after being washed. In a way, you can use dishwashers as a type of drying rack. Simply place the dishes in the dishwasher and wait for them to dry.

However, dishwashers are much faster when it comes to drying dishes. That way, you can clean and dry your dishes in a matter of minutes whereas you’d have to wait hours if you opted for a traditional drying rack.

But dishwashers aren’t cheap. In fact, many households don’t have a dishwasher because it’s a significant monetary investment. And even if you do have a dishwasher, every time you use a dishwasher, it requires electricity, which results in a higher utility bill.

For More: The Best Dishwasher Pods

Dish cloths

Now, let’s focus on dish cloths. This option is simple in the sense that dish cloths don’t require you to know how to operate a machine, like a dishwasher. Also, dish cloths are the fastest way to dry a single piece of kitchenware since you just need to wipe the kitchenware for a few seconds.

Dish cloths do have clear downsides, though. Unlike drying racks, you can’t just leave the dishes alone. Instead, you need to actively wipe them yourself in order to dry them. Another thing to keep in mind is that, unlike dishwashers, the more dishes you have to wipe, the longer the whole process takes when using a dish cloth.

However, because dish cloths allow you to dry dishes whenever you want without any additional electricity costs or time requirements, dish cloths are the best way to dry dishes. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have access to two if not all three of these options, but just know that dish cloths are the most versatile.

Tips for Using Dish Cloths

Don’t press too hard on the kitchenware

Wiping glasses and plates dry is fairly straightforward, and you don’t even need to put in a lot of effort to do it, but some people still put too much force when using dish cloths. By “using too much force,” we mean pressing too hard on the surface of the utensil or kitchenware with the dish cloth.

This doesn’t make the cloth dry the dish faster, and it only causes more problems.

For one, you can still scratch your kitchenware with dish cloths. It’s not very common, but even if a small speck of debris gets into the dish cloth and rubs along with the kitchenware, it can cause scratches. Aside from this, you also put the kitchenware at risk of breaking, which can cause injury, and will obviously also render it unusable.

Wash the dish cloths regularly

Just because dish cloths are used to clean things doesn’t mean they’re clean themselves. In fact, dishcloths can get pretty dirty over time. Even if you’re wiping relatively clean kitchenware, the dust and debris in the kitchen can settle on the damp dishcloth over time.

To make sure you aren’t just transferring dirt from your dish cloth to the plate, make sure you wash it regularly.

If you have multiple dish cloths, consider using them in circulation. Use one for a week or so, then replace it with another, then another. You can wash the other dish cloths while using the current one. This way, your current dish cloth will always be at least somewhat clean.

How Large Should My Dish Cloth Be?

Dish cloths can vary in size. Some measure around a foot in length on either side, while other dish cloths can reach 26 inches or more in length. So, how do you choose the right length for your dish cloth? The answer is pretty simple – any size that you’re comfortable with.

Since even the smallest of dish cloths are large enough to wipe most dishes, you can pick any size you want and you’ll be fine. Just be sure it’s not too large or heavy that it makes wiping the dishes more inconvenient than before.