Pre-treat stains with a stain remover or rub detergent into the marked area. In some cases, the stains will be too bad and will require bleaching.

tea towels? - Good Housekeeping How often should you wash your tea towels? - Good Housekeeping

Tea towels get wet, are used to mop up food waste, become riddled with liquids and grease, and because they’re usually damp, they can encourage mould growth. In turn, the tea towels turn into a circus for bacteria and become super unsanitary.

The simplest way to clean tea towels is to throw them into a washing machine and to run a washing cycle. You can, however, wash them by hand. Find out what you need to do below. And you can also add vinegar or bicarbonate of soda into the machine during the rinse cycle to remove any stinky smells from the tea towels. So, it’s absolutely vital that these multipurpose towels get some TLC at the end of a busy day! How do you do this? Easy… Wash your tea towels. Store clean tea towels folded in the kitchen. The best place is near the sink, so you can easily grab a fresh one in a hurry. When a tea towel is in use, always hang it to allow it to dry; never leave it crumpled on the worktop. And while it’s tempting to hide tea towels away by hanging them on a hidden hook inside a cupboard – this is also a no-no. With little air circulation, damp tea towels won’t dry and will become a potential breeding ground for bacteria. How do you know when a tea towel is too old to use? If your tea towel smells, swap it for a fresh one immediately. Likewise, if it’s soaking wet, it’s time to get a clean, dry one out. If you’ve used it to mop up spills or there’s visible food on it, throw it in the washing machine and get a replacement. Should you wash tea towels separately?

KitchenAid Kitchen Towels, 6 Pack in 2 Colours | Costco UK KitchenAid Kitchen Towels, 6 Pack in 2 Colours | Costco UK

Simply pre-treat stains first, then fill a tub/sink with warm water, pop the tea towels in (make sure you keep similar colours together), add a biological detergent to the water and wait an hour or so. You can then start agitating the tea towels in the water to clean them. Make sure you’ve got lots of tea towels at home, so you can continuously swap and wash your tea towels. Wash used tea towels every day. And clean tea towels immediately if you’ve used them to clean up a spillage. Just remember that bleach may discolour your tea towels, and you need to wear rubber gloves when handling bleach. Disinfecting tea towels To disinfect your tea towels either clean them according to the steps above, use a bleach-based cleaning agent to clean them (may discolour coloured tea towels, so buy a colour-safe bleach), add an antibacterial laundry sanitiser to your washes, or clean the tea towels on a hot cycle. Drying tea towelsIn turn, the bath towels would end up feeling and smelling a little greasy. And drying yourself with these bath towels would be a little unpleasant. Hand-washing tea towels is also an option. All you need to do is apply the steps above, but instead of using a machine, you clean the tea towels in a tub or sink.