We keep ours hanging below the sink on the cabinet door.

Our kitchen has a small/short towel rack mounted to the wall next to the sink. I agree about wanting the towel near the sink, but I think Rita's solution is one that would result in both of you getting what you want, everyone happy and the household remaining harmonious. ;-)

OMG!! Do NOT get me started on this topic. I have one hanging on the oven door and one hanging near the sink. They get returned there when I'm done with them. When my DH uses them, who knows where BOTH will end up!!! Sometimes on a counter, sometimes on a chair back or even in the living room. Never in the laundry basket or their proper hanging places.

You need one of those half towels with the crocheted top to hang your sink towel on the cabinet handle closest to the sink. My mom used to make those and I have one left that I'm hanging on to for sentimental reasons.

I have the tea towel, the hand towel and the dishcloth all hanging on the oven handle. They're squished :-). Opening the oven door results in the towels laying on the floor though, unless I remember to take them off. Same as doing any frying, they immediately get taken off the handle so that they don't get spattered.

Mom always had her hand towel over the cupboard under the sin, but the dampness wore the varnish/stain off the oak.

3 towels in the kitchen work area. The one for drying dishes hangs on the oven door handle on the side farthest from the sink. Next to it, a hand drying towel with the crocheted top that secures it to the oven door handle. The oven is to the left of the sink. To the right of the sink another hand towel with crocheted top is looped over the pull handle of a utensil drawer. The hand towels stay put.

There are two towels in my kitchen. One is only for drying dishes and the other is to dry hands. God help you if you dry your hands on my dish towel, LOL. The dish towel hangs on the side of the fridge with a self adhesive "thingy", which puts it about 18 inches from the dish drainer. We do not have a dishwasher, so this makes sense to me.

Jasdip, just so you know. My mom and my grandmother always said that when a kitchen towel lands on the floor it means company is coming. It's uncanny how often that proves to be true around here.

dees, we have a similar issue except the towel always manages to stay in the kitchen. It just ends up big, damp bunched up thing sitting on the kitchen counter until I come along and either hang it up where it belongs or toss it into the laundry.

I agree with Donna. One towel for hands and one for dishes and do not mix them up. My dish towel is rarely used...only for delicate items. My hand towel is on the handle of the upper of two ovens. Changed daily.

If I'm working in the kitchen which I usually am I have an apron on with a flour sack towel hanging out of the pocket to dry my hands. No other hand towel in the kitchen...because no one else is in this room when I'm cooking. When the apron comes off the towel goes into a wicker basket in the laundry room which is off the kitchen. I keep a drain board up because there's no sense in hiding it away when I have a DH (the dear is debateable at times) and kids. I keep the dish drying towel on top of the drainboard over top whatever dishes are in it. I don't hang towels anywhere in the kitchen which is probably why I have a full load to wash weekly.

Oh my goodness y'all should look up the towel pig posts on GW! I think they originally were on the kitchen forum but have migrated to others. They are very funny. There was one original towel pig. Every one wanted a towel pig but no one could find the elusive towel pig lol. I have an alternative towel pig not the original. But now that so many of the photobucket pictures have disappeared many of the original pictures are gone.

I have a handle on the dishwasher and oven so usually there's one on each. I also have one of the metal racks that hook over the cabinet door for the door under the sink.

My towel pig!

Links to the many towel pig discussions! Enjoy!

http://www.gardenweb.com/gardenweb/query/Towel-pig/topic=kitchbath

I placed decorative hooks on either side of the window (above the sink) for towels. One is for hand drying; the other for dish drying.

I can't trust that DH isn't using the dish towel for hands so I just pull out a fresh one to dry dishes and then downgrade it to hand towel. We generate way too much towel laundry around here for 2 people.

Those that use the same towel inadvertently or not, for drying dishes and your hands, isn't there a difference in the towels?

Our tea towels (dish towels as you call them) are linen, flour sack or some other lightweight towel. The hand towels are terry cloth.

We don't have a dishwasher, so they both get used a lot! Hubby knows exactly where they all go too, on the stove/oven handle.

Darn a piece of yarn in and out through the end of some towels ...

... red is for "Stop: This is for dishes" and

... green is for "O.K., for hands".

You'll need several in order to provide service between washings.

ole joyful

As for generating tea towel laundry..lol. I have tons of flour sack towels that we use as washable paper towels, except for raw meat. So pretty much anything a paper towel is used for in the kitchen or dining area are washable. I have a 4.5cf front loader and do a full load weekly on the sanitize cycle. This has saved a lot of money as with kids I used to use a ton of paper towels.

Mamapinky, I just learned about flour sack towels from the group here, a few months ago. It turns out our local Walmart sells them for about $7 for a pack of 5, so I bought a package. They are nice!

I use Gillette's bar mop towels for wiping up spills etc. I still keep paper towels on hand for cat-yak.

I have an excess amount of kitchen towels. One hangs from the refrigerator door, it's a full size (smallish) bath towel, one right behind the sink on my island bar and two on my stove door handle. They all have there separate chores to handle. HAHA!

I have a few hanging on the oven handles, a basket in the window sill above the sink full of towels.

How have I lived over 30 years with DH and still haven't trained him to hang up a dish towel. Guess that's my project for the next 30 years....

Haha funny how so many husbands won't cooperate with the dish towel.

Dish towel....try bath towel in my house. My H insists on hanging his bath towel in his room on a hook on the outside of his closet. I have a rule in my house a bath towel and face cloth is only used once...Hubs says its clean since it was used to dry a clean body...I have explained that a bath towel is like a exfoliateing cloth..when drying off its removing dead skin..I even had the dermatologist explain this to him, but he insists on using the same towel, but he will continue using it forever..lol. I sneak it out of his room and hang a clean one and he's never known. I have no problem with him and kitchen towels, but the bath towel is enough. Lol

I have many chicken towels. I did my kitchen in a chickens and rooster theme. I have two that hang out of drawers that are decorative. The one I use sometimes ends up on the refrigerator door handle

cobelli's ideas · More Info

I have a hook inside the cupboard under the sink where the dishcloth gets hung up. I have another hook inside the next cupboard for the dish tower. But oh! I love the get "special" towels to hang on the oven door for looks, nice clean ironed ones with flowers or dogs or something on them. Helps a fairly plain kitchen look homey!

I have 2 little grippers inside the sink cabinet for terry dish towels. But always kept a decorative hand towel on the back of a chair opposite the sink. Easy to reach and out of the way. I recently decided draping it over the sink cabinet door would work nicely, and it does, but I'm still turning around to whip it off the chair. Wondering how long the change will take to get used to.

My dishwasher is to the right of the sink...to the left is a robe hook with my towel.

Think I am in the minority in that I really dislike dish towels hanging from my oven or dishwasher--both appearance, and the ol' open door and towel on the floor trick. I used an idea from someone in the kitchens forum and bought a magnetic towel bar. It is on the side of the fridge, not easily visible if you aren't in the main part of the kitchen, but easy access when needed.

The handle on my Magic Chef oven door is solid and you cannot hang a towel on it. I sure do miss that. I put a suction hook on the side of the refrigerator.

I have a lot of kitchen towels and change them often. It's a good idea to do that. Like a previous poster, fresh towels are used to dry dishes, then they become hand towels or some other use, then back to the wash.

For drying of the hands, I have 3 towels at least hanging in the kitchen from my cabinet handles. For dish drying I use feed sack towels, the hand towels are Terry Cloth. So the more the better if you are in your kitchen a lot.

Sue

@PKponder, ha. You and I have very similar households. I cant trust that DH won't come in & dry grimy hands in my pretty towels, despite there being a gigantic roll of paper towels nearby.

i have towels hanging on oven handle AWA on D/W handle. They get replaced twice weekly or sooner if I suspect he's even looked at them.

What the heck is with men wanting to wash their grubby hands in the kitchen? We have bathroom sinks for that or if it is really awful, a laundry tub sink.

I specifically bought a range and dishwasher for the open handles to hang towels. I'd rather have towels elsewhere but it is what it is. One cabinet had a towel rack installed inside but that seems idiotic to me, how can they dry in a closed cabinet? The frig is at one end of the kitchen, not walking over with dripping hands, also idiotic. They are changed daily if not more often and while they should be fine since they are used for just a day the dishwasher one is to drain hand washed stuff and the other is for hand drying. Before they go in the laundry basket they dry off the freshly scrubbed counter and sink area. I won't allow towels to hang over chair backs or stay crumpled on the counter but would be fine if another spot was needed for a towel.

I rarely dry dishes, but have dish towels good for that in a cupboard.

Cotton hand towels lie folded beside the main sink and the bar sink (could be a prep sink if I ever actually cooked). When towels are wet but not soiled, I lay them flat on the granite countertops to dry.

ElizabethA -- I have a DH like yours. There's a half bath off our back hall, between the garage and the kitchen. It has a Very Nice Sink -- with soap -- and towels on a bar. There's a laundry sink in the back hall, too. DH uses the half bath and walks into the kitchen to wash his hands in the bar sink. It's like they get only half of the message about hand-washing!

just put up another hook and be done with it.

Sounds like a PPP* to me. No matter where you keep a towel you have to reach for it, I haven't found any that hop into your hand when you call them. When I'm standing in front of my sink, I can reach the stove, refrigerator and silverware drawer by turning so it's not an issue. I have a magnetic towel bar on the frig, used to keep one hanging on the oven and I have a hook type towel bar that goes over the cabinet drawer. You need more than one towel in my kitchen and they're changed often.

Now on to something IMPORTANT. Like solving the problem of those disgusting people who put the toilet paper on the roll the wrong way.

*Pretty Petty Problem

I would love to put it over the handle of the oven but I have a very anal retentive husband who can't stand clutter. Even the Kleenex box has to be in a drawer out of sight.

It's funny that you mention the direction of the TP.....when my DH and I were first dating he made a joke out of which direction TP and PT went and, since we agreed, that we were therefore perfectly compatible! Crisis averted!

@instructorvossy (feeling it a bit indelicate to refer to you as "bossy", even if self-described as such)

" They get replaced twice weekly or sooner if I suspect he's even looked at them."

That'd have to be a dirty look, I guess, wouldn't it?

Do they happen often?

Is he good at handing them out?

@louiseab,

With such an anal-rentive (supposed to be "retentive") husband to deal with ...

... if a facial tissue box has to stored out of sight in a drawer ... where is he willing to store the TP?

o j