Cleaning the Floor with the Dishes Towel, Is It Ok?

I would use it again after I washed it in the laundry. Once you wash it.... it's clean.
I wouldn't re-use it on anything after using it on the floor until it was washed.

Yes, I would use it again. I have spilled water on the floor and used a dish towel to wipe it up and then washed it. As long as it's washed first before using it on dishes again, I dont see the big deal.

I would use it for dishes after I washed it.... but I also bleach all my dishtowels every wash so I don't thing much yucky stuff is still in there... if any...

Another vote for using it again, but only after it's washed.

i would, once i washed it.

I have a couple of the synthetic super absorbant towels from the dollar store that are kept in the kitchen and those are for floor spills. Sometimes I use an old sponge and then toss it out. My kids are 5 and 2 so we have a lot of spills. I never feel like the floor is all that clean (I struggle to keep up with the housekeeping anyway).

If the towel is washed in hot water it probably okay to use again. But my preference is to keep things that go on the floor separate. My house isn't extra clean but I do like to keep separate categories like bath and kitchen towels.

Nope, once used on the floor it goes in my laundry basket to be cleaned.

Okay, I am a total neat freak. I like my house to be spotless.

I do wash the socks separately from everything else, but that's just a thing.

If I spill a bunch of water on the kitchen floor, I grab the dishtowel and mop it up (yes, with my foot) and then I throw it to be washed.

However, I wash all the towels separate from everything else.

I guess I understand...everyone kind've has their own things that bug them when it comes to cleanliness. Really, we're probably all wrong, and that's why we all get sick so much. Better to live with a little dirt, I understand. Oh well.

But yes...I would use it again for dishes...of COURSE after I washed it! Honestly, who would wipe a floor and then dry a dish with the same towel? Now that's disgusting...but after I washed it, it's as good as clean to me. Believe me, stuff off your floor does end up other places than your floor. Don't ever watch Dr. Phil or whatever show when they do one on germs...you'll die. :)

i would reuse after a wash. its not like you were wiping cat pee or poop then i would throw it away. sometimes a quick response to a clean up or spill is a dish towel. throw it away, burn it, bury it, its up to you.

How can so many people, presumably with children, be grossed out by this? With all the peeing, puking, booger-eating, drink spilling, filthy fingernails of childhood...the use of a dishtowel on the floor of a first-world home to clean up water is "gross"? wash the damn thing! I can assure you the floor cooties will spare your life and the lives of those lil poop factories we dote on so....

I'd use it after it was washed. And I'm pretty much a neat freak.

I always wash dishtowels with bleach so I would use it again. But i agree that it's gross to use them for the floor. I have never thought of washing socks separate from the rest of clothes... good thing none of us have stinky feet lol.

Yeah, I'd use it. I use the same things to clean most things in my house and only throw them away if they are not really washable. I've used dish towels for everything at one time or another, including tossing under my kiddos for a diaper change (and we all know what kinds of things happen on the changing cloth!).

:)

Once the towel has been in the washer and dryer, there's no reason not to use it again.
It's cleaner than the mop you use and consider your floor clean afterwards.

If you don't want to use the towel again to dry dishes...keep it handy for wiping up spills. I have a whole stack of cleaning towels in my kitchen. I'm not afraid to use them to dry dishes, but I don't keep them out when company is around because they're no longer, umm.....pretty and decorative.
Pretty and decorative doesn't stay pretty and decorative long even if the only thing they ever touch is a clean dish.

The towel being used on the floor hasn't defiled it for life.
Just my opinion.

After it was washed, yes, I would.

I totally agree with you not to use the dish towel again. Your MIL sounds like mine. Mine acts like she's careful about other things like getting rid of one of my bath towels, because my sister dried her hands on it, and she had cancer. (MIL thinks cancer is contageous.) Yet, she will cut her meats on the floor! Back to the dish towel. There is so much bacteria on the floor, so it's better to be safe than sorry. Maybe you can have a special clean up rag handy for your MIL to use when she spills on the floor again.

As long as you've laundered it, it's fine!

This made me laugh. I had a roomate in college who did this then used them on the dishes and i flipped. I think it is so gross! We got in a huge fight and didnt speak for 2 weeks. She has been my best friend for 11 years now. I'd just wash the towel though.

Once it's washed, it's clean.

Of course! I use cloth diapers -- a good wash gets them totally clean from poop, so it would certainly get whatever dirt happened to get on the rag off.

Also, do you have kids? You realize they crawl around on that floor and then put their hands in their mouths, right? They're fine!

Ewwwww... no.

It drives me *insane* when dish or body towels get used for general household cleanup. The oils and greases and dirts *do not* totally wash out, even if you boil them and use bleach not all of them come out. The same is true of body oils and body fluids. It's why sterile areas in hospitals don't use linens OR the linens are tossed after surgery. One can boil and boil and boil... but the fibers become impregnated with cells one cannot remove.

((Anyone feel like using their underwear to dry dishes with and eat off of them? I dare you. Dry the dishes with a clean pair of old underwear and then smell the dishes. Laundry detergent and... something else. Or to avoid that experiment... stick your head in your underwear drawer and breathe deep. Then your husband's and breath deep. Then your children's. All 3 SHOULD smell the same if washing actually gets them 100% clean. They don't smell the same, do they?))

Now... don't get me wrong, I'm not actually a neat freak (to my husband's lament). I'll even drink out of a hose/ eat food with unwashed hands. HOWEVER I don't cross contaminate unless absolutely unavoidable. Body things stay with body things, dish drying towels only touch dishes, food cleanup (brushes etc) only do food cleanup (not teeth or toilets or cars)... to each "unit" (body, food, cleanup for certain areas; car, toilet, sinks, floors, dishes, etc.) stays discreetly *separate*.

If I do wipe something off the floor because the dish towel was the nearest to my grasp at the time of the spill, No.. I do not use it again.
I toss it in the hamper.
Not using it for the dishes.

But my kitchen floors are always clean.
And we do not wear shoes in our house, as do many folks here in Hawaii.
So, the floors are 'clean.'
I clean them everyday.
And we do not have pets, in the house.

I use dishtowels to wipe up spills on the floor, and wipe sticky faces and hands of kids, wipe gunk off the fridge handle, scrub spots off the carpet, wash windows, and dust furniture. But not all at the same time. Once I do one of these things with a towel, it gets tossed into the laundry basket for dishtowels. I wash them alone with hot water and Amway laundry soap. I dont want all the food grease on clothing and I dont like to use a fabric softener because it stops them from being as absorbant. But I will use them over and over again after they are washed. And as someone already said, how clean is the mop you use on the floor? What I cant understand and it grosses me out is people who use the same bath towel after showing, for several days. Why would you dry your behind off one day, and dry your face with that same towel the next? I understand you just showered or bathed, but you cant be sure your so clean you wouldnt mind sticking that part of the towel in your face next. We use bath towels once, and they go in the wash. Sure it creates more laundry, but otherwise I would gag.

I launder all my towels in hot water. I think it will be fine to use it again once it is washed. Also, for future large spills, have a sham-wow type of absorbent cloth in the kitchen, they really work the best for stuff like that. Either way, towel that is thoroughly washed afterwards or sham-wow, either is better than going through a whole roll of paper towels for a big spill, some trees will thank you :)

After laundering, it should be fine. (I won't use my kitchen towels to mop the floor, though.) But only clean, laundered towels get used for dish drying or food preparation. If I would be unwilling to kneel and lick the floor, I'd be unwilling to "lick" it with a towel I use around food and dishware.

I'm not a germ-o-phobe at all. But, shoes have probably walked outside and encountered anything from good clean dirt to bird or dog droppings. Or walked inside, where tiny droplets from toilet flushings have settled. Even if I were barefoot, I would have walked through areas where shoes have brought all sorts of nasties along for the ride.

I have rag towels for that kind of thing. I know it gets washed. I just like to keep the dish towels for the dishes and bath towels for bath... just me :)

Of course I'd use it again. You're putting it through the wash. There's only regular, normal old dirt on the floor. It's not like she used the towel for gasoline or motor oil. Your mother in law did the right thing - she grabbed the nearest thing to clean up the mess. Try to relax about the towel!

Don't be ridiculous. Of course you can use it on dishes after you wash it. I agree with Elizabeth... much grosser things happen with kids around!

Decidedly yes. I am of the mindset that when it comes to laundry- it goes in dirty and comes out clean. No special extra loads in our household.