Separate dishtowels?

Posted: Tue, Jan 27 2009, 5:45 am Post subject: separate dishtowels?

Do you use separate dishtowels for meat/milk/pareve? I grew up doing so, but have been at many people who don't bother. They say that they only wipe clean dishes, so what for? What do you say? Is it raelly neccesary or just a "mishugas"?

Posted: Tue, Jan 27 2009, 5:49 am Post subject:

I do. HOWEVER, if the towel is clean, it's not a big deal if someone messes up. I can re-wash it. Sometimes, though, someone's wiped hands on the towel, or the plate wasn't well washed, and that's why I try to keep them separate.
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Posted: Tue, Jan 27 2009, 5:59 am Post subject:

When they come out of the washing maching (according to my LOR) they are parve. Once I use them though I keep seperate for milk / meat / parve.
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Posted: Tue, Jan 27 2009, 6:04 am Post subject:

rachel my husband who is a rav says the same thing. they go in and out the wash and are clean so u dont technically need seperate ones, my mother comes to my house and is always like where is ur meaty towels and im also like just take a clean one from the cupboard

Gold Member Joined: Nov 28 2007 Posts: 1492

Posted: Tue, Jan 27 2009, 6:43 am Post subject: re: separate dishtowels?

dh insists on separate towels (that's what his mother always had). in my parent's house when the towel was clean, you could take it and use it for milchig or fleishig. so I have separate towels but if someone uses one for the wrong thing, I just throw it in the wash and then put in back in the correct drawer.

Posted: Tue, Jan 27 2009, 6:47 am Post subject:

Platinum Member Joined: Jan 01 2006 Posts: 48224

I grew up with it but don't do it.

For the record, if yu DO have sep towels, do you wash them togther ?

Moderator Joined: Dec 26 2005 Age: 33 Posts: 11430

Nope, don't use separate towels. Wash them together.

Posted: Tue, Jan 27 2009, 12:33 pm Post subject: re: separate dishtowels?

I use separate towels. Wash them together as per my Rav who is my father (when it comes to basar and chalav). He laughed when I asked if I have to wash them separately.

Posted: Tue, Jan 27 2009, 12:37 pm Post subject: re: separate dishtowels?

I dont have separate towels. But I dont hand-dry my dishes either, I leave them in their separate racks to dry...the only time I do dry them is Erev Shabbos and then I have been cooking only fleishigs all day anyways, and after drying them the towel in question gets thrown into the wash with all the other erev Shabbos towels. I think its definitely a chumra that I don't intend to take upon myself, but I understand the point of view of people who do...

reminds me a few weeks ago we had a college student who is BT over for a seuda and she asked me why we dont have separate toothbrushes...I told her I don't know but ask a Rav, he would know. Later I asked my dh (he wasn't there when she asked) and he told me some people DO have separate toothbrushes for meat and dairy and some people even have separate refrigerators! Now the refridgerator part is difficult for me to imagine.

Diamond Member Joined: May 09 2008 Posts: 2635

I have diff color towels for meat and dairy but some I mix up (ex blue is dairy, green meat and tan I end up using for both, I never remember what I designated it for) so I am glad to hear that once they are washed they are considered pareve till they are used.

Does that rule apply to tablecloths as well?

Platinum Member Joined: Jan 01 2006 Posts: 48224

Posted: Wed, Jan 28 2009, 5:52 am Post subject:

How about using the same towels without washing them in between? After all, it's just water - clean, hopefully- that is being soaked up.

Diamond Member Joined: Sep 16 2007 Posts: 4185

I think people that have separate refrigerators are those that have enormous kitchens and they do it for convenience sake. (That's one way of avoiding your milk dripping onto anything fliesh you may have in the fridge, after all.)
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Posted: Wed, Jan 28 2009, 9:45 am Post subject: re: separate dishtowels?

I don't have separate dishtowels. But I'm makpid about people putting down plates of milchig food on fleishig or even parve surfaces, and vice versa, even if the food is cold. (It's okay if a towel or napkins is underneath.)

I know a woman who would not allow anything fleishig out in the kitchen until all the milchig food and plates were washed and put away, and vice versa.

DH says we should be more makpid about the computer table; as things stand we perch both milchig and fleishig plates of food there, sometimes without a napkin underneath, and that isn't so great.

We use our microwave only for milchig. If no kids are around to observe, occasionally I'll use it for double-wrapped fleishig, but I'm really careful and alert.

We don't have a separate egg pot. We don't have separate saltshakers. I know a woman who isn't frum, but she uses separate saltshakers - she thinks it's quite necessary for kashrus.

Onions have to be cut on a parve surface with a parve knife to remain parve; kids sometimes have trouble remembering that.

When we find a glass or spoon in the wrong place in the kitchen, it gets kashered.
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Active Poster Joined: Jan 23 2009 Posts: 61

[quote="octopus"]I use separate towels. Wash them together as per my Rav who is my father (when it comes to basar and chalav). He laughed when I asked if I have to wash them separately.[/quote]

I've heard something though about adding detergent to machine before putting in milchig and fleishig dishtowels - if using hot water.

Silver Member Joined: Dec 28 2007 Posts: 746