They can be used and washed hundreds of times. I wash mine in the regular cycle, warm water, strong agitation, regular detergent, Oxi Clean, and extra soak time. I rinse twice and put white vinegar in the softener dispenser, to remove any hard water residue that could stiffen the soft fibers. Wash them separately (no other towels or lint-giving fabrics). I tumble dry low and did not notice any shrinkage with mine. After years of scrubbing, they can become less fluffy as some of the fibers mat down, but they still work great for lots of cleaning. I have different brands, different sizes and textures for different uses. But my main microfiber cloth is the pack of 10 yellow ones in the Costco automotive aisle. I have 30 in active use and 3 more packs stored just in case Costco quits carrying them.

Yes, I use them for everything in our bathroom. We have a very small bathroom that we recently redid with tile and marble countertops and porcelain tub. I'm very wary about using harsh cleaners on these things so I love the Norwex for this use. Because the floor is only about 4 feet by 4 feet, I do use the cloths on it instead of mopping. I've always been a wash by hand rather than mop gal for all our floors, but since I've gone back to work I sometimes use the micro fibre cloth on the end of a mop thing (don't know what that is called?) I'm curious though. I thought Norwex was a Canadian thing. Is it available more widely now? One of my collegues has a cousin who sells it and she uses their dishwasher detergent and some other cleaners too. She loves them, but I've never tried. If you are worried about harsh chemicals, you might want to look into it.

Once you get lint on your microfiber cloths from other clothing from the washer or dryer, it will be difficult to get it out...I recommend starting from scratch with new ones. From the get-go, wash them separately and do not use fabric softeners or dryer sheets. When cleaning your counters with clean microfiber cloths (i.e., no soap or detergent), wet vs dry is not as important as how you wipe down your counters...dry in a circular motion until the counter dries enough so you do not see streaks. Even if your cloth is wet, this will do the trick...it's what I do. By the time I get to the third or so section of counter, my cloth is usually pretty wet, but it works just as well as when it was dry...it just may take a few more circles to dry the counter. I have polished black counters and streaks are very obvious and I have found I get the best results with this. [Generally though, I just wipe my counters down w/a soapy dish cloth and let them dry. Yes, I'll see some streaks, but they don't bother me...as long as I know they're clean. However, I sometimes want them to look "perfect"...when we have company or just b/c I feel like it. In these cases, I follow up the soapy dishcloth with Method granite cleaner/polish and wipe dry as I described above.] [Note: this applies only to counters, not stainless steel. For best results, stainless steel surfaces need to be cleaned by wiping with the "grain"...not against and not in circles.]

They're pretty much wasted when they get wood splinters in them I think - other than for DH to do more of same with them. Once DH wrecks my good ones I try to get him to keep using the same ones for his garage work. I have the yellow automotive ones from Costco for general cleaning. I also got some waffleweave dishtowels from Costco. They are definitely different from the yellow ones. They don't catch on your skin as much and also don't get as linty. The first ones I bought were small blue ones from Walmart automotive - those are the worst in terms of lint and catching on your hands.