Every kitchen needs good kitchen towels. Without them, you’ll be in trouble pretty fast. You need them to clean up, do dishes, dry your hands, and more.
In this article, we’ll go over a brief history of kitchen towels, their different uses, and different kitchen towel materials.
Let’s get started!
History of kitchen towels
Kitchen towels originated in 18th-century England. Back then, women started embroidering towels for their kitchens, and the kitchen towel quickly became a creative outlet for them.
Later, during the Great Depression, American women started turning cotton sacks into sack towels to be more resourceful. This led to cotton sack manufacturers including patterns on their sack cloths to encourage more women to buy them.
Today, kitchen towels come in all shapes and sizes. You can find them at any home goods store or even Walmart or Target. So what are they used for?
Kitchen towel uses
These days, kitchen towels are used for many things. Let’s go over a few:
- Clean up spills. Anytime you bake or cook in the kitchen, you’re bound to make a spill on the counter at some point. A kitchen towel helps clean it up.
- Clean and dry dishes. Whether you wash your dishes by hand or with a dishwasher, kitchen towels can help you dry wet dishes and rub clean dirty ones. This includes plates, bowls, pots, pans, silverware, knives, cutting boards … you name it!
- Clean and dry hands. Your hands tend to get wet and dirty in the kitchen. Use a kitchen towel to wipe them clean and dry them again.
- Dry vegetables and herbs. Many recipes call for vegetables and herbs that need to be washed first. After washing them, roll or dab them with a kitchen towel to soak up all the moisture.
- Use as potholders or oven mittens. If you ever run out of potholders or oven mittens (or if you don’t own any), thick kitchen towels make a good substitute, and you get to kill two birds with one stone!
- Use as decor. Some kitchen towels make for great decorative elements. Lay them on a nice morning breakfast table or tea table.
Kitchen towel materials
A kitchen towel’s material can have a big impact on how much you like it. For example, cotton kitchen towels retain a lot of water, which is a huge plus.
Linen kitchen towels are great for cleaning fine china without damaging it because linen has fine strands, but it also leaves more lint.
Microfiber kitchen towels are good at wiping away tough stains on the counter without needing chemical spray (i.e.you, you only need water), but they are also less durable.
Finally, terry cloth kitchen towels are made of a spongy cotton material covered with raised uncut loops of thread. They’re stretchy and environmentally friendly, but they’re also prone to fraying.
Buying your next kitchen towels
Before you buy your next kitchen towel, make sure it suits you and your needs. Consider how you’ll use it and the different materials you have to choose from.
Aim for kitchen towels that are durable (you want them to last a long time), bleach resistant (you don’t want them to get ruined), a good size (you want them to be big enough that you can fold them a few times), dense (thick towels can absorb more water), and a style and color you like (they should be aesthetically pleasing).
If a set of kitchen towels checks all of those boxes, you’ve found a good one!