A dish cloth is an inexpensive cloth, the size of a washcloth, but thinner and usually made of a more synthetic material, with a waffle texture. It is designed for no purpose other than washing dishes, and often comes with the word dish printed onto it in large writing to make this clear.
I spend a lot of time thinking about dishwashing utensils, not unlike the way other people become fixated on utensils for brewing coffee or shaving. We spend no less time washing dishes than brewing coffee or shaving, and I find it extraordinary that so few others seem to spend as much time thinking about dishcloths.
I had shared apartments and rooms with various friends and acquaintances, sharing responsibilities in various more formal and less formal arrangements before I moved into an apartment in Brooklyn with a contemporary I barely knew. We were very civil to one another.
As we had been accustomed, we both washed dishes putting soap onto a sponge. This went on for many months without conflict, as it had with many roommates before. Our apartment had an extra bedroom and a third roommate moved in. This roommate could not abide the washing of dishes in the manner we had been accustomed. She insisted that we were wasting time, energy, soap, and water, and that we would have to learn to use a dish bucket and dish cloth. She proceeded to teach us and enforce the use of her techniques. We were at first amused if not offended at her insistence, but we learned that among the advantages not mentioned above were the quiet available when most dishwashing time did not involve running water and improved sanitation by way of dishcloths being washable with clothes dozens if not a hundred times.
Now I have caught her obsession. I enjoy washing dishes perhaps more than any other activity when I wash them with her method. When I see someone stand before a sink and put soap on a sponge my stomach turns in knots and I try to contain myself nearly as I do watching a parent hit an infant.
Method for efficient washing of dishes:
1. take all dishes out of the sink.
2. fill either the left or right half of the sink with water, on the hot end of comfortable. use a small bucket, cooking pot, salad bowl, or if you are lucky enough to have a divided sink, thank your stars.
3. mix dish soap into water. turn water off.
4. place utensils, other than sharp knives, into water. on top of them add a few dishes. do something else for 15 seconds.
5. gently wipe dishes, now briefly soaked, with wet cloth and place into empty half of sink. dishes requiring more than a gentle wipe should be placed back in soaking water until they do not.
6. place a few more dishes into watery side
7. turn on water, rinse wiped dishes, turn off water.
8. repeat 5-7 until all dishes done.
9. wipe thoroughly soaked utensils, and wash sharp knives carefully.
10. hang your beloved dishcloth to dry.