Should I wipe the dishes dry after washing or let them dry on their own?
A familiar scene from a movie: a wife washes the plates under the tap, and then hands them over to her husband to dry them with a towel. The same scene can be seen in a bar. If the bartender is not mixing cocktails, he is wiping the glasses with a towel. What kind of fetish is this and what is the point of it?
Why dry the dishes after washing: opinions “for” and “against”
There are quite a few supporters and opponents of this method of cleaning dishes. They argue, give examples and provide facts, but they can’t come to a common denominator. Housewives agree on only one thing: you need to wash the dishes within the first two hours after they get dirty. You need to use hot running water and dishwashing detergent. And what next? Some say that wiping the dishes dry with a towel is unhygienic. First, it leaves lint, and secondly, it only spreads residual dirt. And you don’t want to wash kitchen textiles every time, Ukr.Media reports.
But there are still more arguments “in favor” and they are more reasonable:
- Dry plates do not increase the humidity in the cabinet. Chipboard shelves do not deform, do not become covered with mold and fungus.
- Dry dishes do not leave puddles on the countertop, which also extends its service life.
- There are no stains, salt from tap water, or detergent residue left on the plates. If you are concerned about lint, just buy a microfiber, linen, or bamboo towel. Excellent antibacterial materials with high absorbency and durable fibers.
- There's no need to use special dish dryers and then clean the stale water from their trays. And again, if you miss, mold will appear in the tray from excess moisture.
The benefits of wiping washed dishes with a towel do not end there. With the help of kitchen textiles, we remove not only the chemical components of the detergent, but also 90% of the bacteria that remain on plates and cups after rinsing. At the same time, kitchen textiles must be washed after each procedure. American scientists found out in the course of another experiment that Escherichia coli lives in kitchen towels. Therefore, daily washing is mandatory. Another argument is that vegetable oils and bacteria are not broken down by dishwashing detergents. They are removed exclusively mechanically.
To summarize: is it necessary to wipe the dishes dry after washing?
If you don’t wipe the plates dry with a microfiber cloth, traces of dried drops and white traces of tap water will remain on the surface. At the very least, it’s not aesthetically pleasing and it’s unsightly to serve such dishes to the table. In restaurants, plates, glasses and cups are wiped with a towel to give them a perfect shine and transparency. In addition, drops of detergent may remain on the kitchen utensils. They dry out and are then served to us with a new dish. Wiping with a towel helps to avoid such a nuisance.
At the same time, if the dishes are not wiped, they will not suffer. What can you say about kitchen furniture, on which wet products are stored. Water seeps into the cracks and contributes to the swelling of the wood. And if you have budget chipboard, then the result from wet plates will not take long to wait.
Besides, the more you rush around with wet kitchen utensils, the more water you spread around the room. And so you innocently create a breeding ground for bacteria. And before you know it, black mold will appear, which is extremely dangerous to human health.
There is only one way out: wipe the dishes after each wash and you will not have health problems, and the plates and bar glass will shine like on the first day of purchase.
Джерело: Source
