Question from Sicili
Hi Debra,
Will you please tell me what type of towels you use in the kitchen and bathroom? Like for doing dishes, taking baths and drying off. Do you use non organic 100% cotton towels of different colors or do you stick to GOTS certified ? I am just curious because I am trying to figure out what to do as far as my wash cloths and such and I greatly value your opinion. Thank you so much for your time Debra.
Debra’s Answer
If I had all the money needed to buy everything in the world I want, I would choose GOTS certified organic natural fibers for everything.
The reality is that I buy what I can afford, which is 100% natural fibers, without finishes. This type of textile uses chemicals in growing and processing, but there is little, if any, exposure at the user end.
For my dishes, I now use 100% linen towels because they absorb water sooo much better than cotton. Just a wipe and dishes are completely dry. They cost about twice as much as cotton, but they are also more durable. I bought a few at IKEA. They were $3.99. VARDAGEN. They are not sold online but they probably have them at your local IKEA store. I used to use just non-organic cotton towels of various colors.
I also have some linen dish towels on the Kitchen Linens page of Debra’s List.
My bath towels are currently 100% cotton terry cloth that I bought at Bed Bath & Beyond about ten years ago. They are blue. But I have my eye on buying some linen bath towels because, as I said above, they are so absorbent, and get softer and softer with every wash.
I have some linen bath towels on the Bath Linens page of Debra’s List.
Linen towel is extremely absorbent – it absorbs the moisture instantly. I suggest a hand towel such as the Japanese brandMizu hand towel.
I need new hand towels – still have lots of bath towels from LLBean that I bought years ago before they started having their towels saying stain resistant. Blair also just started to say their towels are stain resistant. I am assuming that this means they are treated with a chemical???? I have called Blair and they could not answer my question if they are treated. Still have to call LLBean about this. I just want simple, plain, untreated, cotton hand towels – any suggestions?
Well, apparently this “stain-resistant feature is to prevent staining from acne medications.
Consumer Reports looked into this and found that L.L. Bean towels are “made using a process with vat dyes that are very resistant to bleaching.” Other companies wouldn’t reveal their processing.
I would look for towels in places that are less likely to follow popular trends, such as the towels on Debra’s List at Debra’s List Bath Linen page and Debra’s List Kitchen Linens page.
Also I would chceck a hardware store where they are selling towels for kitchen use and not for personal care.
I just saw that Bed Bath & Beyond is now selling organic bath linens, so they should not be stain-resistant.
Brandless is a new “brand” I recently found that sells GOTs certified large, nice organic cotton kitchen towels for $3 each and matching dish cloths, 2 for $3.
Highly recommended. Just do an internet search for Brandless :-).
Love linen! But for my health-based cleaning service and my body, I mostly use terry towels.
I prefer terrycloth because of its texture. It’s got “teeth”. That means after wetting a surface, I can “scrub it dry”.
Like Debra, I can’t afford to buy organic or GOTS. But I inherit used towels from everyone, so I never have to buy them new at all. That’s the greenest way to go, too.
I recently tried a terry-like towel that’s half-cotton and half-bamboo. It’s even more absorbent than pure cotton.