Kitchen Tip: Dishtowel Trap

How many times has your toddler delighted in pulling the dishtowels off of your oven door? How often does your preschooler race through the kitchen, only to knock them from their spot five seconds after you re-hung them? If you're like me, the answer is "about twenty times an hour." I was soooo frustrated, tired of picking them up and re-folding and hanging them, and tired of going through extra towels because the clean one was knocked on the dirty floor. THEN I came up with a brilliant solution! (Okay, brilliant to me.)

I've seen those dishtowels with the crocheted tops that loop around a handle and button securely. I have a couple. But I don't care for the looks of them, and they are too small and get soggy too quickly. I prefer the microfiber towels I get at Walmart. So here is my solution: place the towel in the proper place (for me, the oven door handle), then take a LARGE safety pin, and pin it from behind. It must be from behind or toddlers will be determined to get it off. If you pin it carefully, so that just the smallest bit of pin catches the front layer, then it will not be easily seen. I was amazed that my younger son only tugged once or twice at it, and never tried again. Guess the game got old real quick!

It's not terribly convenient to have to change the towels if you do so more than once a day. I don't usually need to. I keep one towel for hand-drying and one for dish-drying. Why? My mom did it. The dish towel stays cleaner and drier, so I replace the hand towel more frequently. I tend to leave the front part of the towel hanging longer than the back, so I can lift the dish towel up to dry a dish (most of my dishes are done in the dishwasher). The way I tell them apart, in case you are wondering (you're on the edge of your seat now, I just know it) is that the hand towel is always a solid color, and the darker of the two. The dish towel is the lighter one, or has a print on it, and is always on the right-hand side.

One downside to this idea is that if your husband is tall and dislikes bending over to dry his hands, you'll need to put another towel in another location for him. I have dedicated the ugly crochet-top towel for this task, hanging it on a nail from the cupboard side, over the sink. Who does he think he's kidding...I've seen him use a half-dozen paper towels to dry his hands during the course of making a meal! 8-0 But it's his money, and who am I to complain if he's cooking? ;-)

Anyway, I hope this little tip helps. It works for me!