Stay Organized with a Rag Bin
The home cleaning industry often highlights and advocates for the use of eco friendly cleaning supplies. However, there’s not enough talk about the importance of reusable cleaning towels vs. paper towels. I highly recommend reusable cleaning towels for home cleaning. ALSO, it’s less expensive AND more effective. I keep a drawer full of fresh clean towels at home in both my kitchen and my bathroom.
That said, let’s talk about dirty towel management. I think this is one aspect that might deter people from reusable towels vs. paper towels.
I keep a dirty towel system in place that’s easily accessible, hidden, and doesn’t get smelly. The solution: a small trash bin without a lid underneath my kitchen sink. This allows enough air flow to happen so it doesn't block moisture and prevents mold growth from occurring. Because some dirty towels are wet when discarded, it’s important to keep an open air environment for rags to dry. A wet + enclosed area = mold growth.
I find that keeping the dirty towel bin inside of a cupboard minimizes dirty rag smells from permeating across the house. If you’re concerned about smell, you can keep an open container of baking soda nearby to help deodorize.
I recommend you keep one central dirty rag bin at home, plus, smaller bins in high traffic spaces where rags are discarded. The goal is to streamline your cleaning practice and have a routine that works best for you. The cupboard under the kitchen sink is a great option because the kitchen is a high traffic usage space, when it comes to rag usage. Try keeping the bin towards the front of the cupboard, for easy access.
On laundry day these rags can get washed separately or you can throw them in with your other laundry. Suggested areas you can store your dirty towel bin:
Under the kitchen sink
Corner of a walk in pantry
Utility closet
Garage with easy access
Airtight Dirty Rag Bin
A bucket with an airtight lid is a great option for a dirty rag system on the go (such as a cleaning service). If you’re keeping dirty rags in your car and they’ll sit anywhere between 1-3 days, this dirty rag bin is a GREAT option to keep odors at bay. This isn’t recommended as a long term storage solution, however, as an airtight container with moisture can promote mold growth.
Open Air Dirty Rag Bin with Handles
If you use cleaning towels on a regular basis at home, but don’t wash these towels SUPER often, you’ll want to try an open air solution so dirty towels can air out while in the laundry queue. A larger bin such as this can be stored in the garage or basement if the odor becomes an issue. This can also serve as a “main hub” bin where you have smaller dirty towel bins in other areas of the house. Smaller bins can be dumped into this larger bin until you have enough for a full load of laundry.
Hidden Over-The-Cupboard Bin
This is great as the lid can hang out on the side, for an open air design. This allows any wet rags to air out (for mold prevention), but still keeps this bin out of the way, as it’s mountable. You can also make this a mobile friendly container — have it sit on the countertop or floor, instead of mounting it.
Only 2.4 gallons, this small container is ideal for a small dirty rag bin station for the bathroom or kitchen. As this fills up, rags can get dropped off into a larger dirty rag bin in the house, for a full load of laundry.
Open Air Over-The-Cupboard Bin
Similar in design to the open air ‘main hub’ bin and the over the counter bin, this gives you the best of both worlds. A design where you can keep your dirty rag bin hidden, up and off of the floor, and a way to keep things mold-free by airing out wet + dirty rags.
