To my horror, I saw a family member knock a kitchen towel off the rack
onto the floor, then pick it back up and place it on the rack.

So now I'm looking for a kitchen towel line that has some kind of tie
or other connector (velcro, maybe) to keep it from falling off the
rack in the first place. Or a rack that has some kind of integrated
clamp to keep towels from falling off. Google searches don't seem to
yield anything, though they tend not to if there is some kind of
industry jargon or term used which I'm not using.

Well, there is a product by Packtowl which is targeted at the camper
and has a snap loop. However, it's made of viscose, a synthetic
fiber, and doesn't seem to fit kitchen aesthetics (I need to sell it
to the family, see?).

Towel Grip is a towel rack replacement which seems to have the same
knock-down issue.

Any ideas for products which would keep my kitchen towels off the
floor?

"John White" wrote in message

To my horror, I saw a family member knock a kitchen towel off the rack
onto the floor, then pick it back up and place it on the rack.

No three-second rule?

"John White" wrote in message
om...
To my horror, I saw a family member knock a kitchen towel off the rack
onto the floor, then pick it back up and place it on the rack.


To be realistic, kitchen towels and sponges are vectors for the spread of
germs in your kitchen. I doubt that the germs on the floor are more
pathogenic than the germs on your counters. That probably seems
counter-intuitive, but I suspect it is true. You hands, sink, and counter
come into contact with contaminated food and the towel just spread the
contamination. The floor isn't as likely to have raw poultry or eggs on it.
I would just get rid of the towel instead of finding a way to keep them
around longer. I use paper towels for most cleaning. When I do use a
kitchen towel, I only use it once.

"Vox Humana" wrote in
:


"John White" wrote in message
om...
To my horror, I saw a family member knock a kitchen towel off the
rack onto the floor, then pick it back up and place it on the rack.


To be realistic, kitchen towels and sponges are vectors for the spread
of germs in your kitchen. I doubt that the germs on the floor are
more pathogenic than the germs on your counters. That probably seems
counter-intuitive, but I suspect it is true. You hands, sink, and
counter come into contact with contaminated food and the towel just
spread the contamination. The floor isn't as likely to have raw
poultry or eggs on it. I would just get rid of the towel instead of
finding a way to keep them around longer. I use paper towels for most
cleaning. When I do use a kitchen towel, I only use it once.




At the risk of controversy, people may be worrying too much about germs.
We don't live in a sterile environment, and never will. Some bacteria
can be very bad and following good procedure is important to minimize
their risk. The "bad" germs are mostly the ones that grow on and in
food, not the ones we associated with dirt or general things in the air.
For example, it makes good sense to keep a separate cutting board for raw
poultry and to thoroughly clean it, knives, your hands after each use.
On the other hand, there are plenty of other germs around, and our bodies
are designed to deal with them. Unless one's immune system is
compromised due to disease or other frailty, they are not a big deal.
That's good, because we can't get rid of them anyway. They are in the
air, on our clothes, on and in our bodies, and on every tool and object
that we use.

Restaurants and other food preparation facilities must take special care
against food-borne diseases and the general issue of avoiding wide-spead
problems due to contaminated food being distributed to a large
population. Remember that at home a lot of food is fresh and prepared
for immediate consumption - this is a lot less problematic than food that
is put up in cans or jars for later use.

(FWIW, if someone in your home is sneezing, no amount of kitchen
cleanliness is going to eliminate your chance of catching his cold.
Besides which, colds are viral and not affected by things that kill
bacteria.)

To put this in perspective, I think about how my cats clean themselves
with their tongues. If my floors were breeding grounds of deadly
bacteria, certainly my cats were be under daily assault. However two are
very happy and healthy at 15 and show no indications of slowing down.
Remember that understanding about germs is a very recent thing in human
history. Until then, humans have had the same biological need to resist
environmental bacteria as my cats. It makes sense to keep things clean,
but we generally don't need a sterile environment to be healthy.

Debbie

--
Anti-spam advisory: The email address used to post this article is a
throw-away address. It will be invalidated and replaced with another if
and when it is found by spammers.

(John White) wrote:

Any ideas for products which would keep my kitchen towels off the
floor?

I'm thinking (since we use dishtowels exclusively, and have children who
run for the dishtowel at the least spill) something like they use in a
dentist's office to keep the bib on the patient. Alligator clips + bead
chain.

I bought at BJ's a paper towel holder that sits on the counter. The paper
towels stand vertically. The stand is heavy and perhaps stainless steel.
It is called Kamenstein Perfect Tear and sells around $14.95. (I got a $5
rebate is one of the reasons I tried it.) d Since I have it, I don't worry
about the whole paper towel roll falling off and onto the floor.

It seems I've seen them elsewhere -- like in Walmart?

Dee




John White" wrote in message
om...
To my horror, I saw a family member knock a kitchen towel off the rack
onto the floor, then pick it back up and place it on the rack.

So now I'm looking for a kitchen towel line that has some kind of tie
or other connector (velcro, maybe) to keep it from falling off the
rack in the first place. Or a rack that has some kind of integrated
clamp to keep towels from falling off. Google searches don't seem to
yield anything, though they tend not to if there is some kind of
industry jargon or term used which I'm not using.

Well, there is a product by Packtowl which is targeted at the camper
and has a snap loop. However, it's made of viscose, a synthetic
fiber, and doesn't seem to fit kitchen aesthetics (I need to sell it
to the family, see?).

Towel Grip is a towel rack replacement which seems to have the same
knock-down issue.

Any ideas for products which would keep my kitchen towels off the
floor?

"Dee Randall" wrote in message
...
I bought at BJ's a paper towel holder that sits on the counter. The paper
towels stand vertically. The stand is heavy and perhaps stainless steel.
It is called Kamenstein Perfect Tear and sells around $14.95. (I got a $5
rebate is one of the reasons I tried it.) d Since I have it, I don't
worry
about the whole paper towel roll falling off and onto the floor.

It seems I've seen them elsewhere -- like in Walmart?

Dee

I have the same thing in white plastic. It works well and doesn't take up
much space.

"Debbie Deutsch" wrote in message
. 97.132...
"Vox Humana" wrote in
:


"John White" wrote in message
om...
To my horror, I saw a family member knock a kitchen towel off the
rack onto the floor, then pick it back up and place it on the rack.


To be realistic, kitchen towels and sponges are vectors for the spread
of germs in your kitchen. I doubt that the germs on the floor are
more pathogenic than the germs on your counters. That probably seems
counter-intuitive, but I suspect it is true. You hands, sink, and
counter come into contact with contaminated food and the towel just
spread the contamination. The floor isn't as likely to have raw
poultry or eggs on it. I would just get rid of the towel instead of
finding a way to keep them around longer. I use paper towels for most
cleaning. When I do use a kitchen towel, I only use it once.




At the risk of controversy, people may be worrying too much about germs.
We don't live in a sterile environment, and never will. Some bacteria
can be very bad and following good procedure is important to minimize
their risk. The "bad" germs are mostly the ones that grow on and in
food, not the ones we associated with dirt or general things in the air.
For example, it makes good sense to keep a separate cutting board for raw
poultry and to thoroughly clean it, knives, your hands after each use.
On the other hand, there are plenty of other germs around, and our bodies
are designed to deal with them. Unless one's immune system is
compromised due to disease or other frailty, they are not a big deal.

That's sort of the point I was making. The germs on the floor probably
aren't the ones that we have to worry about. It's the germs on food like
raw poultry. A kitchen towel that is use to clean up counters and wipe
hands after food preparation is much more likely to spread serious pathogens
than a towel that touched the floor. I still maintain that the longer a
towel remains in the kitchen, the higher the likelihood that it will become
a vector for disease. I would simply get a clean towel to dry dishes or
clean up a mess and then put it in the laundry. Finding ways to prolong the
use of a towel is just asking for trouble in my opinion. It probably won't
land you in the hospital, but who need unnecessary bouts of diarrhea and
malaise that are associated with food born illnesses?

"Vox Humana" wrote in
:


That's sort of the point I was making. The germs on the floor
probably aren't the ones that we have to worry about. It's the germs
on food like raw poultry. A kitchen towel that is use to clean up
counters and wipe hands after food preparation is much more likely to
spread serious pathogens than a towel that touched the floor. I still
maintain that the longer a towel remains in the kitchen, the higher
the likelihood that it will become a vector for disease. I would
simply get a clean towel to dry dishes or clean up a mess and then put
it in the laundry. Finding ways to prolong the use of a towel is just
asking for trouble in my opinion. It probably won't land you in the
hospital, but who need unnecessary bouts of diarrhea and malaise that
are associated with food born illnesses?


Yes, we are pretty much on the same page. I use two towels in my
kitchen. One (terry) is for my hands, the other (lint-free) is for
drying dishes, glassware, and cookware. Since it is only used on things
that have been washed, I am not so worried about it carrying bad germs.
Also, both towels hang on a rod, and are NEVER placed on the counter.
(Can you tell that I am single and the only cook in my kitchen?) For
wiping up I have a big sponge used for sopping up big liquid spills and
use paper towels for everything else. For dish washing I have a separate
scrubby sponge used only for that purpose. I replace it every month, but
still think that it is the one place in my kitchen where "bad" germs may
be an issue. However I can't sanction using a new one every day (too
much cost) and I won't switch over to a brush due to cleaning preference.
(I just like using a sponge with a scrubby side in conjunction with a
good squirt of dish detergent as required.) On the other hand, I do not
obsess over the sterility of my counter or wooden cutting board (no meat
touches it, for that I have polypropelene that can be bleached and/or
washed in hot water) or even things that fall and land briefly on the
floor. Also, I tend to let washed things air dry rather than drying by
hand. The germs in the air are rather benign; also I recall reading that
air drying is a cleaner way of drying than towelling off.

The good news is that white (bleachable!) towels for hand-drying and
dish/glassware drying are pretty inexpensive. You can buy a bunch for a
few dollars, and clean the heck out of them as part of your laundry
routine. They may not be decorator items, but they are a perfect
addition to a practical kitchen - low cost and plenty effective.

Debbie

Debbie
--
Anti-spam advisory: The email address used to post this article is a
throw-away address. It will be invalidated and replaced with another if
and when it is found by spammers.

About 6 years ago, I decided to get out of the paper-towel habit. (I just
recently bought a new paper towel holder as I feel that I had more-or-less
broken the habit of grabbing a paper-towel.

I bought probably 3-4 dozen of the white bar towels at Costco which I use
just as I would a paper towels. I keep a bucket beside my trash-basket
where I throw them in when they are either wet, dirty or totally used.
(Just like us ole folks used to do baby diapers.) When I've got a bunch, I
throw them in the washer with some soap and bleach.
Dee




snip The good news is that white (bleachable!) towels for hand-drying and
dish/glassware drying are pretty inexpensive. You can buy a bunch for a
few dollars, and clean the heck out of them as part of your laundry
routine. They may not be decorator items, but they are a perfect
addition to a practical kitchen - low cost and plenty effective.
"Debbie Deutsch" wrote in message
. 71.230...
"Vox Humana" wrote in
:


That's sort of the point I was making. The germs on the floor
probably aren't the ones that we have to worry about. It's the germs
on food like raw poultry. A kitchen towel that is use to clean up
counters and wipe hands after food preparation is much more likely to
spread serious pathogens than a towel that touched the floor. I still
maintain that the longer a towel remains in the kitchen, the higher
the likelihood that it will become a vector for disease. I would
simply get a clean towel to dry dishes or clean up a mess and then put
it in the laundry. Finding ways to prolong the use of a towel is just
asking for trouble in my opinion. It probably won't land you in the
hospital, but who need unnecessary bouts of diarrhea and malaise that
are associated with food born illnesses?


Yes, we are pretty much on the same page. I use two towels in my
kitchen. One (terry) is for my hands, the other (lint-free) is for
drying dishes, glassware, and cookware. Since it is only used on things
that have been washed, I am not so worried about it carrying bad germs.
Also, both towels hang on a rod, and are NEVER placed on the counter.
(Can you tell that I am single and the only cook in my kitchen?) For
wiping up I have a big sponge used for sopping up big liquid spills and
use paper towels for everything else. For dish washing I have a separate
scrubby sponge used only for that purpose. I replace it every month, but
still think that it is the one place in my kitchen where "bad" germs may
be an issue. However I can't sanction using a new one every day (too
much cost) and I won't switch over to a brush due to cleaning preference.
(I just like using a sponge with a scrubby side in conjunction with a
good squirt of dish detergent as required.) On the other hand, I do not
obsess over the sterility of my counter or wooden cutting board (no meat
touches it, for that I have polypropelene that can be bleached and/or
washed in hot water) or even things that fall and land briefly on the
floor. Also, I tend to let washed things air dry rather than drying by
hand. The germs in the air are rather benign; also I recall reading that
air drying is a cleaner way of drying than towelling off.

The good news is that white (bleachable!) towels for hand-drying and
dish/glassware drying are pretty inexpensive. You can buy a bunch for a
few dollars, and clean the heck out of them as part of your laundry
routine. They may not be decorator items, but they are a perfect
addition to a practical kitchen - low cost and plenty effective.

Debbie

Debbie
--
Anti-spam advisory: The email address used to post this article is a
throw-away address. It will be invalidated and replaced with another if
and when it is found by spammers.

"Debbie Deutsch" wrote in message
. 71.230...
"Vox Humana" wrote in
:


That's sort of the point I was making. The germs on the floor
probably aren't the ones that we have to worry about. It's the germs
on food like raw poultry. A kitchen towel that is use to clean up
counters and wipe hands after food preparation is much more likely to
spread serious pathogens than a towel that touched the floor. I still
maintain that the longer a towel remains in the kitchen, the higher
the likelihood that it will become a vector for disease. I would
simply get a clean towel to dry dishes or clean up a mess and then put
it in the laundry. Finding ways to prolong the use of a towel is just
asking for trouble in my opinion. It probably won't land you in the
hospital, but who need unnecessary bouts of diarrhea and malaise that
are associated with food born illnesses?


Yes, we are pretty much on the same page. I use two towels in my
kitchen. One (terry) is for my hands, the other (lint-free) is for
drying dishes, glassware, and cookware. Since it is only used on things
that have been washed, I am not so worried about it carrying bad germs.
Also, both towels hang on a rod, and are NEVER placed on the counter.
(Can you tell that I am single and the only cook in my kitchen?) For
wiping up I have a big sponge used for sopping up big liquid spills and
use paper towels for everything else. For dish washing I have a separate
scrubby sponge used only for that purpose. I replace it every month, but
still think that it is the one place in my kitchen where "bad" germs may
be an issue. However I can't sanction using a new one every day (too
much cost) and I won't switch over to a brush due to cleaning preference.
(I just like using a sponge with a scrubby side in conjunction with a
good squirt of dish detergent as required.) On the other hand, I do not
obsess over the sterility of my counter or wooden cutting board (no meat
touches it, for that I have polypropelene that can be bleached and/or
washed in hot water) or even things that fall and land briefly on the
floor. Also, I tend to let washed things air dry rather than drying by
hand. The germs in the air are rather benign; also I recall reading that
air drying is a cleaner way of drying than towelling off.

The good news is that white (bleachable!) towels for hand-drying and
dish/glassware drying are pretty inexpensive. You can buy a bunch for a
few dollars, and clean the heck out of them as part of your laundry
routine. They may not be decorator items, but they are a perfect
addition to a practical kitchen - low cost and plenty effective.

You can saturate the sponge with water, put it on a plate, and microwave it
for several minutes. That should all but sterilize it with the exception of
vegetative spores (like from hepatitis B). If you did that each day it
wouldn't cost anything and would limit the spread of pathogens.

"Debbie Deutsch" wrote in message
. 97.132...
"Vox Humana" wrote in
:


"John White" wrote in message
om...
To my horror, I saw a family member knock a kitchen towel off the
rack onto the floor, then pick it back up and place it on the rack.


To be realistic, kitchen towels and sponges are vectors for the spread
of germs in your kitchen. I doubt that the germs on the floor are
more pathogenic than the germs on your counters. That probably seems
counter-intuitive, but I suspect it is true. You hands, sink, and
counter come into contact with contaminated food and the towel just
spread the contamination. The floor isn't as likely to have raw
poultry or eggs on it. I would just get rid of the towel instead of
finding a way to keep them around longer. I use paper towels for most
cleaning. When I do use a kitchen towel, I only use it once.




At the risk of controversy, people may be worrying too much about germs.
We don't live in a sterile environment, and never will. Some bacteria
can be very bad and following good procedure is important to minimize
their risk. The "bad" germs are mostly the ones that grow on and in
food, not the ones we associated with dirt or general things in the air.
For example, it makes good sense to keep a separate cutting board for raw
poultry and to thoroughly clean it, knives, your hands after each use.
On the other hand, there are plenty of other germs around, and our bodies
are designed to deal with them. Unless one's immune system is
compromised due to disease or other frailty, they are not a big deal.
That's good, because we can't get rid of them anyway. They are in the
air, on our clothes, on and in our bodies, and on every tool and object
that we use.

Restaurants and other food preparation facilities must take special care
against food-borne diseases and the general issue of avoiding wide-spead
problems due to contaminated food being distributed to a large
population. Remember that at home a lot of food is fresh and prepared
for immediate consumption - this is a lot less problematic than food that
is put up in cans or jars for later use.

(FWIW, if someone in your home is sneezing, no amount of kitchen
cleanliness is going to eliminate your chance of catching his cold.
Besides which, colds are viral and not affected by things that kill
bacteria.)

To put this in perspective, I think about how my cats clean themselves
with their tongues. If my floors were breeding grounds of deadly
bacteria, certainly my cats were be under daily assault. However two are
very happy and healthy at 15 and show no indications of slowing down.
Remember that understanding about germs is a very recent thing in human
history. Until then, humans have had the same biological need to resist
environmental bacteria as my cats. It makes sense to keep things clean,
but we generally don't need a sterile environment to be healthy.

Debbie

Thanks for the excellent, clear post. As you say, many people are fearful of
"germs" because they are ignorant. I find it useful to buy inexpensive
towels in large quantities - several dozen at a time. Then I can always grab
a clean one when there is any question that the previous one has been
contaminated.


--
Peter Aitken

Remove the crap from my email address before using.

"Dee Randall" wrote in message ...
I bought at BJ's a paper towel holder that sits on the counter. The paper
towels stand vertically.

Sorry if I wasn't clear on this issue: I'm talking about cloth towels which
might be used to dry dishes.

"John Gaquin" wrote in message ...
"John White" wrote in message

To my horror, I saw a family member knock a kitchen towel off the rack
onto the floor, then pick it back up and place it on the rack.

No three-second rule?

It was a dish-towel, not a cookie! :-)

Debbie Deutsch wrote in message .71.230...


Yes, we are pretty much on the same page. I use two towels in my
kitchen. One (terry) is for my hands, the other (lint-free) is for
drying dishes, glassware, and cookware. Since it is only used on things
that have been washed, I am not so worried about it carrying bad germs.
Also, both towels hang on a rod, and are NEVER placed on the counter.

So, I have to say that I'm puzzled about your two responses. I'm looking
for a way to keep my kitchen towels from falling onto the floor. You
post a message about your philosophy of sanitation, don't suggest any
equipment, but in general, imply that towels on the floor ... what ...
aren't a problem?

Then, you follow up with someone who was making the same point, but disclose
that you keep your towels on a rod.

Why don't you keep them on the floor? :-)

Why did you hijack my towel thread to discuss your sanitation philosophy? :-)

-I- have a problem with going through the motions of washing my dishes,
then drying them with towels which have fallen on the floor. Thus, I'm
looking for suggestions from the community on equipment which might keep
that situation from arising. Hence, my post in rec.food.equipment.

If you think that my sanitation ideas are out of line, that's fine. I'm
sure it will make for a lively discussion in rec.food.sanitation.philosophy.
But it's not helping me, the original poster, at all.

Kitchen towels. Equipment to keep them from falling on the floor.
Any ideas?

:-)