- 1). Hang a towel bar in your kitchen in an area that gets air flow -- wet dish towels need to be exposed to air so they don't acquire mildew. To prevent them from getting used for hand-wiping, sew a small tag on some of them labeled "hands" or "dishes."
- 2). Wash your dirty dish towels in very hot water. Use bleach to brighten and sanitize them. Hang them on a clothes line in the sun for further whitening or put them in the dryer on a hot setting.
- 3). Use them as mop heads if your dish towels get torn or stained and you don't want to reuse them for drying dishes. Or, cut the old dish towels into rags and store them out of sight. Wash dirty mop heads and rags in separate loads and reuse them. Reusing dish towels this way is more economical and environmentally friendly than using disposable paper towels.
- 4). Sew clean, newer dish towels into bags or pillow covers. To make a small laundry, rag or clothespin bag, place two clean dish towels right sides facing each other. Pin along the edges to hold them in placed while you sew a 1/4-inch seam along three sides -- leave one of the short sides open. Stitch a piece of cord or a metal ring on one corner to hang. To sew a pillow cover, sew two dish towels together the same way leaving one side open. Turn them right sides facing out, insert a pillow form, and hand-stitch the open end closed.
- 5). Hang a clean dish towel in the window instead of buying curtains. Tack it to the window frame with small nails or attach clip-on curtain rings to the towel and hang it on a small tension rod wedged in the window.
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