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A show tea towel is one which just remain perfectly folded in its place on the oven door. It must not be used for drying dishes, or hands. It just sits there. I am not clear if it is ‘on’ show, because it is such a fine specimen of a tea towel, or perhaps awaiting judgement by the grand jury of tea towel tsars. Or ‘for’ show, so people will think more highly of you.
Anyway, my brother is banned from using the show tea towel. My mum makes a point of using every available tea towel so as to avoid having a show tea towel.
This seems to me to be prime forum territory. Who has a show tea towel, or is having to navigate tea towel policies this Christmas?
I was expecting a stealth ad trying to offload the last of the STW lockdown ones Del Boy style 😁😁😁😁
The older I get, the weirder the world gets. 😀
REALLY, Is that actually a thing? Even my mum who was unbelievable house proud didn't do that.
We have so many tea towels on the go, it's difficult to know which is dirty..
I have a work colleague who admits he has an OCD problem with tea towels and will change them at the drop of a hat (not the worst issue to have).
I like to have a "Special tea towel" to place my pourover jug upon.
It doesn't really matter which tea towel the "Special tea towel" is (we have many tea towels) but it must be clean and unused. And slightly warm from living on its shelf in the boiler House. I fold the chosen "Special tea towel" in to quarters then remove the pourover from the scales, give it a swirl and place the glass jug on the "Special tea towel". I look at what I have created and I am proud.
Later on, I hang the "Special tea towel" on a cupboard knob ready for tomorrow. If I lived alone, then the "Special tea towel" would stay as the "Special tea towel" for many weeks. Months probably. As it is, someone (the wife) always uses the "Special tea towel" for something else... like drying their hands or some pots. This means that the following morning I have to implement a new "Special tea towel" and the pile of "lightly used tea towels" grows ever higher.
At some point, the cat comes in soaking wet and muddy. A "Lightly used tea towel" that was formerly a "Special tea towel" is now used to dry the cat (Named Fred).This tea towel now becomes a "Cat tea towel". Used "Cat tea towels" are thrown on the kitchen floor. When the pile of used "Cat tea towels" is big enough, I go out to the garage and wash them on a hot setting. Once dry they are folded and stored in the Boiler House... all ready to become the next "Special tea towel".
I feel like this will continue for eternity; punctuated only by those days where I beat the system by fuelling on espresso and swerving the pourover. Obviously, the espresso brings a whole new set of "Rules" and "Practices" that need to be followed. If I never made another pourover again, then this system would clearly break. I'm not sure what would happen next.
Maybe give AgaTrackWorld a try?
What on earth is pourover? Lovely soothing story that though I'm not sure about cat tea towels being used in the kitchen even after washing. I had a cat until the Spring and even after many washes there are still cat hairs on clothes and blankets he was in contact with.
I thought the thread about polishing one's toaster - and, yes, I do and posted about it - was peak niche, even for STW.
Show Tea Towel is ultra niche and now takes top spot!
😂 @ Stanley & his trials of life, but good question myti (google says a coffee thingybob-jobby) I was distracted by the muddy cat
I like to have a “Special tea towel” to place my pourover jug upon.
It doesn’t really matter which tea towel the “Special tea towel” is (we have many tea towels) but it must be clean and unused. And slightly warm from living on its shelf in the boiler House. I fold the chosen “Special tea towel” in to quarters then remove the pourover from the scales, give it a swirl and place the glass jug on the “Special tea towel”. I look at what I have created and I am proud.
Pourover?
Pourover jug?
Boiler house?
I'm not even going to mention being proud of a folded tea-towel...
I have/had an old Sammy Smith's bar towel which seems to dry better than anthing else.
The OH left the hob on really low t'other morning, I couldn't see it was on and my prized Sammy Smiths bar towel went up in flames 🙁
for showing guests what sort of a house they are in?
This seems to me to be prime forum territory.
We all need to get out more....
The tea towel on the oven door is not for show. It gets used, and indeed is still damp*.
Because the radiator that would dry it has been taken up by some weird absorbent "Spunji" cloth that is always either ringing wet or dried to a solid cardboard consistency.
Hence the use of other, also now damp tea towels, that are left scrunched up on the worktop, possibly having been used to mop a spill on the floor.
****ing 🤬 tea towels!
I have a favourite cat-design tea towel that my (late) mum bought me. Definitely not a show tea towel though, and it has never gone anywhere near a real cat.
remain perfectly folded in its place on the oven door
We don't have a show tea towel, though I can see what a wondrous thing it must be.
It wouldn't last long round my manor as unfortunately my partner has an unfathomable method of stowing said tea towels on the oven door.
Instead of looping the towel through the handle, pulling it enough so that it's ends fall more or less, equidistantly from the handle, she instead sort of stuffs the width of the towel just behind the width of the handle, but not in any way passing fully past said handle.
This means that should an unknowing butterfly flap it's wings under the shade of a gum tree in Western Australia, despite living on opposite sides of the world, the tea towel almost certainly falls onto the floor.
I won't lie. It irks me somewhat, but hey, it's all part of life's rich tea towel.
Don't get me started on a section of our collection of tea towels which all possess remarkable abilities to repel completely all moisture. 🙄
My wife has a towel washing day, normally after bedding washing day. Normally have two tea towels on the go one of them a fine cotton one used for drying glasses and occasionally my riding Oakleys. But we use the dishwasher for glasses so it never gets used. Still, a new ironed set will be hung on the towel rail, normally for some unfathomable reason on top of one another, so when I grab the hand towel without looking the tea towels fall on the floor. I am then reminded that THEY'RE CLEAN.
Luckily though, we don't appear to have a display towel.
I thought the thread about polishing one’s toaster – and, yes, I do and posted about it – was peak niche, even for STW.
I've never felt more "peak STW" than this moment - guess what I was doing earlier...
No show tea towel though. Mine are either: (1) for general use, or (2) stained with bike stuff.
[s]We[/s] wife has show towels for the bathroom for when we have people visiting.🤷♂️
Still, a new ironed set
On my death bed I won't be be thinking, 'I'm glad of all that time ironing tea towels. Wish I'd had the chance to iron more.'
Wewife has show towels for the bathroom for when we have people visiting.🤷♂️
Is your wife Monica?
/obscureFriendsreference
Not show tea towel, but I have friends who went to eat at Hand of Flowers and got the commemorative oven glove, so fancy!
As for show tea-towels, nope they are all for the using here. This did bring a smile to face though, thanks Hannah.
Show tea towel?? Does the perpetrator also arrange the tins 'just-so'? Are you worried?
After the reaction I got recently from my Who needs a dishwasher posts I can’t think the STW community have anything other than show tea towels 😬
We have one of the Cern Abbas Giant that we like to get out for special occasion.
No but there are certain tea towels I think against using to mop up disasters
A damp teatowel has no place on an oven door. The oven cloth goes there.
The oven cloth looks exactly like a teatowel but it is dry so you don't steam your hand when getting stuff out of the oven.
Also most of our teatowels are nice, souvenirs of where we have been etc.
We’ve got a looking at tea towel hung nonchalantly on a hook but in my defence it has a bicycle on it
We also have joy division oven gloves
We also have joy division oven gloves
😀
Glove Will Tear Us Apart.
"Mr Curtis, we need to plan some merch. What's your opinion on t-shirts? .......No t-shirts, just oven gloves? I'm not sure they'll sell at gigs but who knows."
Many years ago I had a work colleague who kept their downstairs loo in perfect condition in case a visitor needed to use it.
The family were banned from using it and everything was just so all towels were changed every week if unused but changed if someone went in there, indeed using her loo condemned her to several hours of cleaning. Every surface had to be cleaned and loo rolls changed etc.
She would get a fresh loo roll remove a few squares so that it ran smoothly and have the paper over the roll and the end folded to a point.
Nice person just a bit obsessive
Tea towels are just bike rags that are stuck in the kitchen and are yet to be freed to the garage.
Hmm I think if I ever get a show kitchen* I shall specify a show tea towel.
As for Sam Smiths beer towels, such things were de rigeur to stand on at the bottom of a rock climb. I wonder if they still are or if there's an organic cotton one from Patagonia these days.
*The bloke who fitted my kitchen years ago had just done 2 kitchens in a big posh house. One for cooking in and one for show. True dat.
The bloke who fitted my kitchen years ago had just done 2 kitchens in a big posh house. One for cooking in and one for show. True dat.
When we were looking at kitchens we went into a posh shop and they said loads of people do that. There was a marble kitchen island, and I asked why there was a hole in the top. It was a built in wine cooler 😕
Our tea towels are a shocking mess, frayed and discoloured from years of use drying up, mopping up and drying hands (no fancy Dan kitchen hand towel here). Joy Division oven gloves are prominent however. Toasters a shambles.
Mrs went on Tenable. Got a tea towel which sometimes goes on show. And also Tenable is a Show so not only is it a show tea towel it is also a Show tea towel. *EDIT* I like how my body reflected in the oven door looks like a continuation of Warwick Davis' body.
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We do have two tea towns on the oven handle though, a manky one (usually an older, crapper tea towel) for spillages, and a clean one for drying things (rarely, as we have a dishwasher now). The clean one is usually a nicer design. So it's kind of halfway to having a show tea towel?
I have never polished a toaster though!
I don't really polish anything, with the possible exception of my shoes before a funeral or wedding...
Our tea towels are raggy enough for even me to think we need some new ones. They do get washed regularly, but they'd never see an iron! The only ironing that ever gets done here is a shirt if it needs it for an interview or wedding!
No toaster, no dishwasher, no coffee grinder/maker, no air fryer!
We also have joy division oven gloves
Great song, but do they actually exist??? <scurries off to Amazon...>
doris - what do you mean, you've never polished a toaster?
Having seen the pic up there ^^^ a11y for the win!
I wish I had one, I can never find a tea towel that isn't either covered in piss, juice, wrapped round a doll, been used to mop up a muddy floor or on rare occasion bits of bike.
We own all the appropriate equipment for cleaning anything small kids can throw at you, but the tea towel on the oven door is always the first casualty.
My nan had one, she was buried with it
Not a true story
Yes, yes I love my show tea towels (always hanging on the oven door handle with the oven glove). They are mostly a Cath Kidston design or the odd Laura Ashley. However they are washed every week and never ironed, so not perfect. The hand towel does hang on a hook beside the oven with the non show tea towel (which is washed more often than once a week).
The show tea towel never ever gets used for hand drying, but has been known to mop up emergency spills.
My mother has show towels in her downstairs loo, they are of the best quality, plush and thick, but, she never washes them - aarrrgghhh. We are only allowed to dry our hands on the non show towel, which hangs from a ring by the sink.
you could at least bloody iron it,
That would send completely the wrong message!
Bloody hell. The only 'show' tea towel that would make any difference in my house is a huge one to cover up everything including all the mess.
Tea towels in this house are at least 20 years old. Actually nearer 30 none of them are for show!
It’s the one that matches the show oven mitts. Ours is out at the moment. Festive currently but there are others. The bike tea towels live in the garage. Occasionally the bike towels get mixed with the show towels. That’s normally cue for a “noisy event”!
I also have now purchased my own bike tea towels to avoid said noisy events. It normally fails, since a tea towel is a tea towel. I advise caution in mixing the stock solutions.
Was seeing a lady a few years ago who had such a thing. Unknowingly I dried my hands on it. The relationship didn't last very long.
I do sometimes get in trouble for using the clean tea towel to get things out of the oven. But they're just so much better than oven gloves for that purpose. And they're right there on the oven door!
Don’t have one, but I want one now 😂 Will keep an eye out for something worthy
Do people with show tea towels have Mumsnet bedside cleaning beakers?
No show tea towels here, but we do have "special" Christmas ones to go with the plates, mugs, glasses, dishes, tablecloth etc...One of my "favourite" tasks is to lug boxes of the shite (sorry valuable family heirlooms) in and out of the loft each year, bah humbug!
Whoever gives a f&&k in such matters needs to seriously look at themselves and the how others of the world actually live.
But pride in petty things can be sign of needing order in their lives or an ingrained tradition passed from older generations for no apparent benefit.
Great song, but do they actually exist??? <scurries off to Amazon…>
There has to be a market for merchandise with obscure Half Man Half Biscuit lyrics, surely?!
who wee’d in your shoes?! 😂 🙄Whoever gives a f&&k in such matters needs to seriously look at themselves and the how others of the world actually live.
This thread is very funny and tongue in cheek.
However most of you are men and a lot of my female friends like to have a special item (maybe a tea towel or oven glove) in their kitchen which isn't used for oiling the chain, or degreasing the chain, or spreading mucoff.
Was anyone else brought up to never ever dry their hands on any tea towel, only the kitchen hand towel?
Show tea towels are almost as useless at drying stuff as those really fluffy ones that repel water.
The tea towels in my house are basically a more acceptable version of garage rags*. Used for pretty much anything then thrown in the washing pile.
The "posh" one is the semmingly non absorbent one that is regulated to the back of the kitchen draw.
* Old T shirts
This thread is very entertaining. 😃
However most of you are men and a lot of my female friends like to have a special item (maybe a tea towel or oven glove) in their kitchen which isn’t used for oiling the chain, or degreasing the chain, or spreading mucoff.
Ha ha – yes! I don't have a special tea towel, but I'm really very keen on drying my dishes with something clean, rather than something that's been on the floor, or used for wiping anything that doesn't come under the category of dishes. Call me perjinkety if you must. 😃
Was anyone else brought up to never ever dry their hands on any tea towel, only the kitchen hand towel?
Yes! Still feel guilty if I give my hands a quick wipe on the tea towel after drying some item – in my own kitchen!
crazy-legs
Full MemberGreat song, but do they actually exist??? <scurries off to Amazon…>
Joy Division Oven GlovesThere has to be a market for merchandise with obscure Half Man Half Biscuit lyrics, surely?!
We got ours off the back of the song but I do wonder what came first, the song or the gloves
There has to be a market for merchandise with obscure Half Man Half Biscuit lyrics, surely?!
Where would you put the gargoyle, though?
We also have joy division oven gloves
😀
Glove Will Tear Us Apart.
Definitely needed more recognition
This kind of thing gives me the willies. Like a David Lynch movie, the white picket fence that hides a seething underbelly of menacing evil.
We have 5 "amusing" tea towels mounted on wood frames, on the walls in the downstairs lav. Something to read while unloading processed coffee.
I tried to educate the wife by having a kitchen hand towel, but of course it disappeared on washing day, and not replaced. Towels are kept upstairs in the bathroom cupboard, tea towels in the kitchen drawer, so lazeness has won and hands dried on tea towels, which still annoys the inner me.
I used to work with someone who had "winter mugs" and "summer mugs"....at a certain time of year (weirdly not an equinox), she'd proudly announce "time to get the winter/summer mugs out".
Was anyone else brought up to never ever dry their hands on any tea towel, only the kitchen hand towel?
We have a kitchen hand towel, but it's never used, everyone uses the tea towel 😂 And so it just sits there all cost in top of the radiator, while the tea towel hangs on the oven door handle as they do.
Usually I'm lucky if I have 2 on the go in the kitchen, but for a while I did leave the STW tea towel I got as a "Retirement box" of other goodies from STW Towers folded up on view.
It's now in general use 🙂
If it's in the kitchen it's good enough for show.
The ones with so many holes it's impossible to dry anything without snagging get relegated to bike and tractor duties.
Polishing toasters and show tea towels. Am I missing out or am I living a better life by being confused by both concepts?
Was anyone else brought up to never ever dry their hands on any tea towel, only the kitchen hand towel?
Yes, and the guilt lives with me still when I use the tea towel for hands...
I think this thread deserves:
https://www.radicalteatowel.com//blockquote >
We have one of those on our oven handle right now 🙂
I followed the link to the Joy Division oven gloves noticed a three monthly subscription option. Show tea towels is madness but a oven glove subscription is totally off the scale.
The **** am I reading?
@bunnyhop and I have not met, but she’s channeling Mrs TiRed. Anyway, here’s ours and we have the special Christmas crockery and cups to match. Unironed of course.
Why are people hanging tea towels on radiators and oven doors?
Do you not have a cat's arsehole hanger?
This is one of the most random threads eva on STW but @crazylegs gets a special prize for introducing me to the concept of a subscription to oven gloves in memory of Joy Division. Peak STW indeed!
Merry Xmas from a drunk Vlad...
Stopped hanging up any form of teatowel in our kitchen when I spotted one of my dogs licking it
Stopped hanging up any form of teatowel in our kitchen when I spotted one of my dogs licking it
😄😄
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