We spent three days testing Swedish dishcloths. We doused seven Swedish dishcloths in ketchup in order to evaluate their stain resistance. (Spoiler: All of the cloths we tested emerged from this test spotless, once we washed the ketchup off.) We poured water on them, tablespoon by tablespoon, to test absorbency. And we washed them repeatedly to confirm that they could withstand the wear and tear.
We read two life-cycle analyses of paper towels and several Swedish dishcloth patents in order to understand the material we were looking at. We also spoke to Seung-Jin Lee, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Washington Tacoma, about a Bounty paper towel report that he helped write, and we spoke to Jenna Davis, director of brand marketing for If You Care.
Associate staff writer Ellen Airhart has covered cleaning products for Wirecutter since .
There is no perfect paper towel replacement. Every contender has to last a certain number of cleaning sessions before it’s less resource intensive than a paper towel. That number differs based on the product, and how you define “sustainable.” For example, in the Bounty life-cycle analysis mentioned above, the researchers found that the most detrimental environmental effect of the creation of the paper towels was the fossil-fuel depletion necessary for the processing of the paper.
The manufacturing of Swedish dishcloths also requires energy, although the cloths are more durable. Traditionally, they’re made of a combination of cellulose—the cell wall of plants, including trees—and cotton, according to Jenna Davis, director of brand marketing for If You Care. They’re about half the size of a paper towel sheet, and they initially feel soft and squishy, like a sponge. Once washed, they stiffen up a bit but remain flexible. Each one is about as thick as a loose stack of six paper towels and has ridged patterns embedded in the material for scrubbing power. This kind of cloth was invented by Swedish engineer Curt Lindquist in , which is how they came to be known as Swedish dishcloths, according to Wettex.
As of now, we don’t know how many times you have to use a Swedish dishcloth before it’s more sustainable than a roll of paper towels, because we haven’t seen a publicly available life-cycle assessment for these cloths as we have for paper towels. And according to Lee, it’s impossible to fully quantify the true environmental impact of a supply chain for either paper towels or Swedish dishcloths. But many brands estimate that each dishcloth can replace 15 rolls of paper towels, according to The Guardian. Davis told us that the number could be as high as 18 rolls if the If You Care cloths are cared for properly, and claimed that the cloths can withstand about 300 washes.
Swedish dishcloths have a few downsides. After one use, their texture is forever altered: Even if you dry them on a flat surface, they transform from soft and bouncy to flat and hard, similar to how a sponge flattens and stiffens with use. Swedish dishcloths also take longer to dry than microfiber cloths, another paper towel alternative we like; we found that the cloths we tested, across brands, were still slightly damp in the middle after six hours of drying time. In What about microfiber cloths? you can read more about how Swedish dishcloths compare to microfiber cloths.
We started by scouring the first page of Amazon search results, as well as roundups from Serious Eats and The Strategist. We didn’t order options that had low or suspicious ratings (as determined by Fakespot). We also bypassed cloths that cost more than $4 each.
We measured the amount of water each towel could soak up. Proverbially, spilled milk is nothing to cry about. But when a puddle comes seeping toward you, it’s best to have a plan. We wanted to confirm whether the dishcloths we tested were up to the task, so we decided to measure the amount of liquid each cloth could soak up. First, to make the contest fair, we cut down the edges of each cloth to make them roughly the same size. Then, we dropped tablespoons of liquid on each contender to see which brand’s cloth could take in the most water. We found that the most successful Swedish dishcloth held 36 tablespoons of water, whereas one Bounty paper towel sheet soaked up less than 3 tablespoons.
We marinated the cloths in ketchup. Stains age dishcloths quickly and make them look ugly on your kitchen counter. To evaluate whether the cloths would return to their original color after cleaning up a mess, we put all the cloths in a big metal bowl and sprayed them with ketchup. We rubbed in the ketchup as if we were marinating a piece of meat, and then we let the cloths sit for several hours. We then ran the cloths through a washing machine to see whether the stains would come out. Spoiler alert: All the cloths we tested came out looking squeaky-clean.
We washed them over and over again. If You Care’s Jenna Davis said that the company’s dishcloths should be able to withstand more than 300 washes. Although we didn’t have the time to put our cloths through the washing machine hundreds of times, we wanted to check their immediate durability. So we ran the cloths through the washing machine on high heat four times and then checked for any fraying or thin spots in the fabric.
We looked at the environmental certifications. There’s only so much that we can test at home and in our office, and we wanted more information on where Swedish dishcloth manufacturers got their materials. Luckily, many of the brands whose cloths we tested operate in Europe as well as the US, so we checked standards and certifications from both continents.
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Top pick
Of the seven Swedish dishcloths we tested, this cloth tied as the most absorbent, and only one other option was cheaper.
If You Care’s Sponge Cloths are the most absorbent cloths and are available for nearly the least amount of cash. These cloths soaked up 36 tablespoons of water, tying with the Skoy Cloth for the most water absorbed. But while the Skoy dishcloths cost $2 per cloth, the If You Care cloths cost $1.20 each—they’re cheaper than most of the others we tested for this guide, and they’re even more affordable in comparison with paper towels. Two rolls of Bounty paper towels cost about $5.50 at this writing, and since Swedish dishcloths can replace about 15 paper towel rolls each, that’s more than $40 saved per dishcloth.
Their packaging is sustainable. Davis told us that If You Care’s packaging used to be made of bioplastics, but once the company realized that no one was recycling this material, it switched over to a thin cardboard that can be composted or recycled with paper products. All inks and dyes that the company uses are vegetable-based.
They are compostable. These dishcloths are certified commercially compostable by the North American standards organization BPI, as well as by European Bioplastics (PDF). They’re certified home compostable by the accreditation company TÜV Austria. To pass the testing, these cloths had to break down in both a garden and a municipal compost pile, according to Davis. Composting assists with soil nutrition and prevents carbon from waste products from coming out as the greenhouse gas methane in a landfill. Of course, to take advantage of this environmental benefit, you must have access to some kind of composting method that accommodates Swedish dishcloths.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
They have a funky texture after drying. Like many products, these cloths don’t stay in the condition they arrive in. After you get them wet, they become stiff and dry in the shape of whatever they’re sitting on. If you stick them in square door handles near your washer to dry, as I do, they don’t rest flat afterward, which makes them difficult to store and stack.
They can’t replace paper towels entirely. Sometimes, a mess is gross enough that you need to throw away anything that has touched it (think biohazards, such as raw meat, feces, or vomit).
Microfiber cloths are fabric made from plastic, which ultimately means that they’re derived from fossil fuels. They’re a viable paper towel replacement, and they’re less expensive than Swedish dishcloths, but they have major environmental disadvantages.
They’re cheaper. Our microfiber cloth pick comes in at around 60¢ per cloth. One If You Care cloth is double that price.
Microfiber can catch microbes. Researchers have demonstrated that microfiber cloths are significantly more effective at removing disease-causing bacteria than cotton cloths, partly because of their static attraction and partly because the edges of the tiny fibers act “like a carpenter’s plane, peeling off deposits,” according to another study. One research group tested microfiber cloths from different brands and found that all nine reusable cloths performed similarly well at removing microbes, no matter their price. Just be sure to wash yours afterward.
They last about the same amount of time. Both microfiber cloth manufacturers and the company behind our Swedish dishcloth pick estimate that their cloths last about 300 washes. A healthcare hygiene study (PDF) out of the UK found that the performance of the microfiber cloths the researchers tested actually improved over time, up to a point: “After repeated washing, re-usable cloth performance improved at 75 washes, and reduced after 150 washes, although, in most instances, performance after 150 washes was better than at first wash.”
Microfiber absorbs less water. Microfiber cloths are slightly less absorbent than Swedish dishcloths: Our microfiber cloth pick absorbed 31 tablespoons of water, in contrast to the If You Care dishcloth’s 36 tablespoons. They also dry much more quickly—in our experience, microfiber cloths didn’t take longer than two hours to dry, whereas the Swedish dishcloths were still partially wet after six hours.
Microfiber sheds microplastics. “No bones about it—microfiber cloths are made from plastic, and they definitely shed microplastics,” said Katie Okamoto, Wirecutter’s editor of sustainability coverage, when I asked about any potential environmental damage these cleaning tools may cause. Our Swedish dishcloth pick does not contain plastics, micro or otherwise. If You Care uses the substance mirabilite for absorbency, according to Davis. Mirabilite is a crystal that forms naturally in saline lakes.
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