Choose DARK kitchen linens - easy kitchen hack to reduce water use and harmful detergents
Kitchens are super fun … and messy. Like sometimes really messy! When reading most laundry stain spray labels, the most common items listed originate in the kitchen (tomato sauce, red wine, mustard, …).
So why, I ask, do we typically use WHITE linens in our kitchens? I get that you can’t hide stains on a white towel but stains and germs are completely different things. Stains are visible, germs are typically not.
You can control how often your own kitchen towels are washed and so there’s no need to seek out white linens to “prove” they’re clean.
A little research on the science of fabric cleaning shows that as long as you wash linens in warm water with regular laundry detergent and dry it in a dryer, there will be no germs left on your linens. But there may still be some stubborn stains.
Over time, our white linens get dingy looking and we toss them out (or degrade them to “rags”) and buy new ones. This is an endless cycle of consumerism which we can make MUCH better by purchasing colors that won’t show stains to start with.
About 3 years ago, I purchased a stack of high quality black 100% cotton kitchen towels. I am still using them today and they look fantastic. There will be no need to replace these for YEARS. Before this stack of towels, I purchased the same quality white and orange striped towels and within 2 years, they had to be moved out of my kitchen because they looked terrible. Now I know I could have soaked them in certain chemical concoctions to keep them looking nicer but….
Who has the time to do this on a regular basis AND
These chemicals enter our water ways and have harmful environmental impacts.
Remember they are only necessary to get out the harmless stains, not the harmful germs!
Germs are easy to wash away, stains are not. Germs are potentially dangerous, stains are not.
So – next time you’re ready to update your kitchen towels, washcloths, cloth napkins or table cloths, go for the beautiful DARK colors. They’ll save you a lot of cleaning effort, save the environment from a lot of chemicals AND save you from having to replace them so soon.
Purchasing items with LONGEVITY is one of our easiest ways to improve the sustainability of our kitchen!
