Results of an Experiment

More than a year ago, I got into a discussion of whether giving a dishcloth a vinegar bath helped. So, I decided to experiment. I gave the upper right hand corner a bath in hot water with baking soda (a base) and the lower left hand corner a bath in hot water with vinegar (an acid). The diagonal from the upper left hand corner to the lower right hand corner did not get a bath. Here is a pic of the cloth just after blocking. It has faded a lot since then and stretched out a lot sideways.

Bases are used to set the dye for plant-based fibers. Acids are used to set the dye for animal-based fibers. And, of course, cotton is a plant-based fiber. However, a lot of people use vinegar baths for dishcloths. (I found out just recently that some people use a salt water bath.)

Then I waited a while before using the cloth so I would forget which corner was which (to make the experiment double blind).

Well, there isn't much difference in the two corners. To me, it looks as though the vinegar corner held its color a bit better, but not much.

However, I've come to another conclusion. Giving a dishcloth a hot water bath helps. This dishcloth is the hardest one I have to keep clean. In fact, it's the only one with stains. -- And this picture is just after it was washed in the wash machine. It also seems to have stretched out sideways more than any other of my dishcloths.

So, I don't think it makes much of a difference whether ones gives a dishcloth a hot-water bath in vinegar, baking soda, or salt. The important part is giving the cloth a bath before use. I'll continue to give my dishcloths a hot-water vinegar bath for the reasons that acids like vinegar, tea, and lemon juice are often used to rinse out soap and I like the smell (even of vinegar). I may try out a salt water bath, though.